Top-down shots

I was doing some maintenance on the lighting hood. It looked like BBQ ashes were collecting in the LED cooling fans and heat sink fins, so I had to blow them out with a can of air.

Anyhow, since the top was off, I turned off the pumps and tried to take some top-down pictures of the corals. It's difficult without an acrylic box to minimize surface water interference. I had to crop out the flask and camera's reflection.

Red Planet (oooh, ya, my favorite SPS)

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea.
The polyps aren't as wide open as I see on others' pictures.

There's a whole mess of these yellow zoanthids. There might be a little zoa pox going on, but I wouldn't mind if there was something to control their growth.

Orange Zoanthids

I moved some corals to the Nano tank from my refugium frag rack. The Aquaillumination LED unit went into moonlight mode and these orange zoanthids became highly fluorescent. The lighting unit was a little too bright during moonlight mode, so I decreased its output to 0% white and 1% blue.

The Nano build has become a little bit of a headache. The AI LED unit's mounting kit does not fit properly on the 10 X 20" frame of the tank. Luckily for me, Reefgeek's AI LED package had already discounted the price of the mounting kit without my knowledge. I'll have to build a canopy since I can't go with the suspension kit. Then, the AquaClear 110 Power Filter arrived with a crack in its return area. I can't have this breaking apart on me in the future. So, I'll have to exchange the defective merchandise.

But, on the bright side, one of the main reasons I've wanted a glass Nano tank is so that I could take crisp macro photographs of the creatures in residence. I'm getting a little better, I think. I had to adjust the images to reproduce the fluorescence I was seeing with my eyes.

Zoanthid Surprise

I was checking up on some neglected corals in my main tank when I noticed this surprising zoanthid. It's now got a nice red ring pattern around the mouth! It was difficult to take a decent picture because of the angle of the shot. Once I get this colony situated higher up on the rock work, I'll be sure to get some high quality images.

Coral Shopping Spree

Living on the West Coast has its benefits...

Yesterday, I was able to pick out some corals at AquaSD. It really was like being in a candy shop. The variety of colors and shapes dazzled my eyes and piqued the right side of my brain. And, I nearly drained my wallet to the chagrin of the other side of my brain. I at least had enough money left over to purchase food for the new animals!

I was in a rush to acclimate the corals because I had a class to attend within an hour. So, I equilibrated them to the temperature of the tank by floating the bags for 10 minutes. Then, I added some corals to the main tank and some to the refugium.

This is just an example of the corals I purchased: War Coral, Japanese Blue Snowflakes, Red Goniopora, and a Montiopora/palythoa combo (correction: Porites/palythoa combo).

Here are some of the zoanthids and palythoas. Some of them aren't so colorful, but when the numbers increase, they can create an interesting pattern. The SPS frag may take several weeks before it reveals any colors in my tank.