Aquariums

Since Tom and Kevin posted pics of their aquariums, I thought I'd share my pics of what I think will be a very nice project. I have a 5 month old 16 gallon Innovative Marine reef tank and I just started a 3 gallon JBJ picotope which I hope to make into a very nice reef.
In the 16 gallon I have 20 lbs of live sand with quite a bit of live rock. The tank only has 9 gallons of water in total. For livestock I have 1 gold stripe maroon clownfish, 1 pygmy angelfish (less than an inch long), 1 six line wrasse, 1 yellow watchman goby, 1 canary blenny, 1 blood shrimp, and 2 PJ cardinals. I also have 1 flowerpot coral, some mushrooms, one xenia colony, 1 torch coral which has three different heads, 1 hammer coral (I believe, though I am not really sure), and my pride and joy, the brain coral as the aquarium's centerpiece.

In the 3 gallon picotope I have 4 lbs of live rock, about a pound of live sand, 1 canary blenny and 1 cleaner shrimp. I just added some small mushrooms from the ones in the 16 gallon tank, and some ricordea.

16 Gallon
Torch Coral


Hammer Coral Eating

My favorite, the Brain Coral

eating:

Some actinic lighting

Nice pic with the 6 line wrasse and the pygmy angel in the back ("You caught me!"

Close up


Gold Stripe Maroon

Diamond Watchman (escaped and became catfood, sadly)


Picotope

Shrimp


Video
Crappy but you get the picture. Still need more corals, but waiting until I move and get settled in.
[YOUTUBE]r7vcwNBm31I&feature[/YOUTUBE]

And something I want to have one day:

Very nice! I like the rimless look. What kind of pygmy angel do you have? You are lucky it isn't going after your open brain. I had a flame that suddenly took a liking for acans and trachyphyllia.

It is a Cherub Angel.. He is beautiful! He has this electric blue line on his dorsal fin that just glows with my actinic light..plus he has a really cute face lol

I like the toarch coral vary cool.and the angle fish. Really nice set up you got there. Good job. And i also like the rim less tank makes the hole tank just look nicer

Nice, cherub angels are cool looking. They can be rather aggressive and tend to eat large-polyped stony corals and clam mantles. It seems the coral beauties are the safest pygmy angels for a reef tank. However, all them have the potential to eat coral. I have been lucky with a flame angel and a coral beauty in the same tank w/o them fighting or eating coral. My other tank had a flame angel that was perfect for 2 years then suddenly decided to eat coral. I had to put the fish trap in the tank to catch it and then sell it.

I want to get a JBJ rimless, but my wife is complaining about all supplements, chemi pure elite, buckets of salt, frag tanks, hospital tanks, and the list goes on and on.

tkilgour said:

Nice, cherub angels are cool looking. They can be rather aggressive and tend to eat large-polyped stony corals and clam mantles. It seems the coral beauties are the safest pygmy angels for a reef tank. However, all them have the potential to eat coral. I have been lucky with a flame angel and a coral beauty in the same tank w/o them fighting or eating coral. My other tank had a flame angel that was perfect for 2 years then suddenly decided to eat coral. I had to put the fish trap in the tank to catch it and then sell it.

I want to get a JBJ rimless, but my wife is complaining about all my tanks, buckets of salt, frag tanks, hospital tanks, and the list goes on and on.

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The picotope is awesome because it is just so small. I have it next to my desk and it occupies no room.
The angelfish just picks at the live rock; its got some algae on it so I'm guessing that's why it likes it. I havent seen him one take a nip at one of my LPS. Hopefully it stays that way! lol If not, I'll have to trade him for some other reef-friendly fish.

tony19 said:

I like the toarch coral vary cool.and the angle fish. Really nice set up you got there. Good job. And i also like the rim less tank makes the hole tank just look nicer

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Thank you! I really like the rimless look to the tank, but I have a cat who takes a liking to all my pets, so the aquarium is no exception. I'm going to cut out a piece of acrylic and use it as a lid.. there is enough gas exchange from the 2 filters I have, plus there will be a pump to create movement at the surface and a hole at the back of the lid for air.

You also have to watch for jumpers with a rimless. Some types of fish are notorious for jumping out. I had a purple psuedochromis that managed to jump out of a 1/4" gap. I found it dead on the floor.

tkilgour said:

You also have to watch for jumpers with a rimless. Some types of fish are notorious for jumping out. I had a purple psuedochromis that managed to jump out of a 1/4" gap. I found it dead on the floor.

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The same thing happened to me with a diamond goby.. jumped through the 1/2" hole on the lid of the nuvo.. the goby was almost 3" long

Wow these are stunning.

I wish I had the patience to make one

djfishygillz said:

Wow these are stunning.

I wish I had the patience to make one

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Thanks! Its a lot of work to keep everything looking good, but definitely worth it.. I love my aquariums

VeiledChams said:

Thank you! I really like the rimless look to the tank, but I have a cat who takes a liking to all my pets, so the aquarium is no exception. I'm going to cut out a piece of acrylic and use it as a lid.. there is enough gas exchange from the 2 filters I have, plus there will be a pump to create movement at the surface and a hole at the back of the lid for air.

Click to expand...

That's a good I idea especially with an adventures cAt