# growth shots



## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

this was purchased 2/10/07









and 10 months later


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Hell of alot of grow man....Looks alot better after being awhile in your care....Congrats


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

this is a shorter time period, not quite the same angle for the picture

3/7








and 5 minutes ago 4/1


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

and now this









and this top center is the monti from the first picture, i have had this coral for a bit over a year.









this one have been encrusting nicely, was this on 3/7









and this was 4/2


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Nice work, Nis..

I appreciate a killer saltwater tank, and that would be a good way to describe yours!!

ty fer sharing


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

How is it to set up a tank like that and maintain? How about the water quality? How is it maintained?

Looking Great buddy!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

notaverage said:


> How is it to set up a tank like that and maintain? How about the water quality? How is it maintained?
> 
> Looking Great buddy!


it takes quite a bit to get it set up and to learn what it is that your system requires (everytank is a bit different) every time you add a fish or a coral it slightly changes teh tanks requirements and as thinks grow the needs change gradually over time so it does need littel adjustments but for the most part once things are running and stable as long as you can get the right equiptment and dial it in it shouldnt take much to keep it running. i clean the skimmer every 2-3 months, i drain the sump and clean it about every 4 months if it needs it, the plumbing gets cleaned ever 4- 6. weekly i keep the top off filled and monitor the rate that it drips to regulate the water level in the sump. once i get things dialed in i dont test too often. i could just ignore it for a couple days before it requires attention but for the most part i check it in the morning and at night to make sure everything is good, i feed teh fish every day sometimes every other day since there is alot life in the tank that they can feed off of..


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## pcrose (Mar 9, 2003)

It's cool to watch things grow.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

this is about 2 months unfortunately its not in the same spot as the first pics so its from a different angle


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

So is that white at the base a marine epoxy? Do you place the guy in the tank until you find the right spot and then glue him in....or how you find your placement?

Looks great as usual ND


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Grosse Gurke said:


> So is that white at the base a marine epoxy? Do you place the guy in the tank until you find the right spot and then glue him in....or how you find your placement?
> 
> Looks great as usual ND


correct white base is a waterproof epoxy putty, aquamend, at home depot for about 1/3 - 1/4 of the cost of the stuff sold at the coral websites or LFS. i usually move the frag up in the tank until it seems to aclimate to the lighting and flow. im sure some things might be better inthe same spot that i have already put somethign else but alot of it is getting encrusted so moving would not be a good option.

at this point im running out of spots so i really just place them so they get enough light and arent in contact with anything else. im also choosing what i add based on what type of growth they usually have and hopefully leaving enough room to grow out with out immediately growing into something else.

a few things are starting to grow close so i might move a few pieces or frag off parts to make space. some corals can grow around each other with out too much damage so i may just let that happen, its kind of a wait and see how it goes thing..

my biggest concern at this point is what i will be doing when my lease is up next year. by then this thing is going to be very established with lots of encrusted growth. im not looking forward to when i need to start breaking apart growth to transport the colonies and rocks.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Thanks for explaining ND.

I have a question for you...if some of these hard corals will encrust the epoxy...if they have bare spots on them...will they heal over? I have one that was in too much flow so it has a bare spot...will that ever repair itself?


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Grosse Gurke said:


> Thanks for explaining ND.
> 
> I have a question for you...if some of these hard corals will encrust the epoxy...if they have bare spots on them...will they heal over? I have one that was in too much flow so it has a bare spot...will that ever repair itself?


its been hit or miss in my experiance, some corals will grow back over dead spots some wont. sometimes they seem to have excellerated growth in different areas, for example one of my milliporas was accidentally fragged (i broke off a few branchs) then it stopped growing on that side and shot out a new branch and all teh growth as been from that new growth area.

sometimes breaking off a dead area encourages the growth over that area.. its really hard to say pretty much anything can happen. the worst case scenario is if algae grows on the dead spot..


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Thanks!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

this was may 2nd 









this is today..









its a mess.. the coral is growing and looking great but so is the damn cauliperpa. uuurrrrggggggg super annoying. i have to start running GFO again and probable empty the algea out of my fuge.. i realy havent been paying much attention tothe tank or doing much other then keeping it topped off and feeding the fish. about every other week i pull a hand full of cauliperpa out.. i would like ot just remove all the coral and cook the rock at this point but alot of the coral has created quite an encrusted base so for now im just slowly loosing the battle against this stuff.. i should also take some time to scrap some coraline off the glass its getting out of control.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Damn....

What is cauliperpa? Is that just a kind of algae? Isnt there some kind of crab that will eat the stuff?


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Grosse Gurke said:


> Damn....
> 
> What is cauliperpa? Is that just a kind of algae? Isnt there some kind of crab that will eat the stuff?


its the green macro algea that grows in multiple forms but most commonly forms chains of grapes. some people use it in their fuge, i perfer not to but there was a little bit int eh ball of cheato i started with, then some of that broke loose and made its way into the display and slowly over the last 5 months it has grown and spread and spread. nothing eats it..

really the only way to get rid of it is to starve it to do that i need to reduce the nutrients. and to target whats in the display i think i need to eliminate teh fuge or atleast remove all the macro algea so teh only algea i starve of nutrients is the stuff in the display. this is not quite so simple because this will also reduce teh nutrients of teh corals and can lead to bleaching at a worst case scenario, so the reduction needs to be slow over time. and ultimately means i have to pay more attention to the set up.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

updated

since my last post i showed that i was being overgrown by caluperpa..this stuff is a royal pain, a constant worry and yet so good at keeping my nutrients low..

i finally found a natural solution, the rabbit fish, many have seen or head of the foxface rabbit fish, they are nice but i didnt want another yellow fish so i got a rebbait fish, this guy has been going to town on the all you can eat salad bar that my tank had become. after a week with mr rabbit fish he has been living up to his reputation and been really mowing down the grape caulperpa, its not entirely gone but it is definately been drastically reduced.

enough blabber heres a few shots.

first with the 250w 14k 








second with the 150w 14k


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## sapir (Jun 20, 2008)

nismo driver said:


> updated
> 
> since my last post i showed that i was being overgrown by caluperpa..this stuff is a royal pain, a constant worry and yet so good at keeping my nutrients low..
> 
> ...


thats amazing


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

i was bored so i just took a few more shots.

AK as you can see i let my tank get "dirty" but i kind of like the "my tank looks like a window into the bottom of the ocean look" as opposed to the "these fish and coral live inside a glass box" look. last week the coraline was covering about 30 - 40 percent of all the glass, the g/f didnt like it so i scrapped most of it off. the rabbitfish has been mowing through the caulperpa.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

i have had these mushrooms since feb. 2004...









they went from the 5.5 gallon tank to my buddies 10 gallon tank in feb. 2005 where they split a few times but as you can see the tank was terribly neglected.









that tank eventually cracked and even the algea was struggling to live, these were the only three shrooms left by feb 2007 and they were pitiful.









and here they are today!!!


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## l2ob (May 22, 2004)

nice nismo. My brother is getting ready to set up his 90g sw tank. He has a 30g running with all the live rock etc and some smushy stuff here and there, i have no clue what you guys do with sw but it sure is nice! cant wait for future updates


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