Parrothead's 55 gallon Reef

[Parrothead]

Good Idea, What I think I will do is move the mushroom slab to the left side, Got that Darn anenome that the wife just had to have on the left, I don't think they would bother each other, and move the Colt a little farther over to the right, He would have almost that whole side of the tank to grow in and with the rock that the slab is propped up on I can use else where in the tank, will play with it today and see what I can come up with, If I can come up with something really cool, there will be more pics later today or in the morning of the new aquascape, if not it'll be a few days in the making

Tanks
Robert

[charlie]

Well, this old boy ain't goin nowhere, unless he get's overtaken by gravity and checks the insides of his eyelids for leaks, so have at it.

[Parrothead]

It will definitely be later today, just had a buddy drop his car off for a quick detail, gotta do that before I can go scuba diving in the tank, check back later. Gotta go wax on, wax off.

Work the curse of the drinking class and reefers.

Tanks,
Robert

[Parrothead]

As fate would have it, as it usually does, the tank once again got reaquascaped. Actually I'm glad I did it, with the new scape I have plenty of little notches available for future additons, and I got the best sides of the rock out in front. In addition, the colt coral now has a 12" x 12" piece of real estate in which to grow and establish itself, the pom-pom xenia is still up top, but now sits on a nice piece of rock that allows for expansion, same with the zoo's and the gsp which has been stretching it's mat out looking for another piece of land to grow on, now the piece of mat that was growing off the colony has a decent size piece of rock to attach to, so all in all it was well worth the effort, did have to explain to the wife why the colt coral is all by itself on the right side of the tank. She thought I was crazy for doing it that way till I showed her some pics of how big they can and do get, Thank God for Google. Below is some pics of the new scape, I know if I don't post the pics I'll never hear the end of it.. Pic 1 - full tank, Pic 2 - left side, Pic 3 - right side.

Tanks,
Robert

P.S. Charlie, no go on the hammer frags, he says it's a show quality piece, and he is scared of damaging it, and it more than likely is a show piece, I've never seen one this nice and full before, and no I did not ask him how much for the whole piece, I scared to know.

[charlie]

Robert, I have a hammer frag that I would be willing to send, but the shipping would kill both of us. It has been in my fuge for about a year.

[Parrothead]

My friend, I seriously appreciate the offer, but the shipping would kill us, esp. fed-x o/n priority, Thank You so much for the offer, I think I might get a couple more frags, he's got some favia, and ricordea I liked, but then I believe I will concentrate on my lighting upgrade before I add anything else besides the above mentioned 2. What do you think about the new aquascape, I kinda like it. And the wife is coming around to like it too, so that helps.

Tanks
Robert

[charlie]

I like it!!! When the colt grows up, you could always throw a bunch of rubble around the bottom and create a zoanthid garden.
Good thing the wife likes it, you gotta live with her.;);););)

[Parrothead]

And get some little snails with hoes to keep the weeds out of said garden, by the time it gets that "Big", I would like to be well on my way to a min. 110 - 180 gal. by then, but to do that got to have a more secure floor than what this trailer has to offer, I believe the colt will make a nice right side center piece in the 55, and if it gets to big, I can always frag it, thats how I got him.

Tanks

Robert

[Poseidon]

Your new pieces look good Robert. If I may offer some advice on the GSP, DON'T let it attach to another rock! I would move the GSP so that it has its own space as well, green star polyps, or green star PLAGUE... They spread EVERYWHERE fast!

The colt coral is much slower growing then the GSP, but be prepared to see it popping up all over the tank if it is happy. Colt coral drops branches to reproduce, I had that stuff all over the 135.

Keep at it though, I have seen some very nice softie tanks up here. There is actually a 210 ALL SOFTIES for sale up near me right now, to bad too, because it was gorgeous.

[Parrothead]

Charlie and Mike,

You both have told me about the marvels of T5 Ho lighting, what about a 4 bulb VHO setup(110 watts each), would that allow for a larger range of life forms(e.g. Clams, LPS and SPS). Just let me know, thinking out load here.

Tanks,
Robert

[Parrothead]

Had meant to get this update up on Sunday, but some work got in the waydid get the work done before race time, and what a race it was, but here is some updated pics of my babies, as you can see we have excellent growth in all three, they are doing awesome.

Tanks,
Robert


P.S. Couldn't resist throwing that last one in there, if the wife finds outI might not be around for awhile

[charlie]

Charlie and Mike,

You both have told me about the marvels of T5 Ho lighting, what about a 4 bulb VHO setup(110 watts each), would that allow for a larger range of life forms(e.g. Clams, LPS and SPS). Just let me know, thinking out load here.

Tanks,
Robert

You are really going to have to get in touch with Mike on the color bulbs. I have not even looked into the replacement of the bulbs on my fixture yet. I know when I do, I will be chatting with Mike.

Good pics man!!!!

[Parrothead]

Thanks Charlie,

I kinda partial to the last one, like I said, I'll be laid up somewhere healing if she finds out I posted it here. I'll wait and see if Mike chimes in and go from there, he tipped me on another site that will remain un-named and there is some good deals there on the Icecap 660 ballast with endcaps that will push the 4 bulb vho with out any issues, back when I had fish only tanks I looked into it but a job transfer made me sell my 90 that I was going to put them over, I was just curious about what I could keep under that type of set-up.

Tanks,

Robert

[charlie]

I tell ya, when I replaced the halide fixture on the 80 with the Nova extreme fixture, nothing skipped a beat. I have a RBTA in there, and it never even noticed. With the correct combination of lites, believe me, I think you can get just about anything to grow. It may depend alot on placement, but I am pretty impressed with that particular fixture. The bulbs are the ones that came from the factory.

[zhenya]

Hi Robert,

With the 4 110w VHO bulbs you can pretty much keep anything you want in your 55g. I used to have the same set up over my 75g tank and had clams and hard corals in there. No acroporas to speak of but other hard corals did just fine. Heat could be an issue but it is fixable with the clip on fans and such. I have an extra chiller if you want it, maybe leter on this year on my way to Florida I could drop it of for you.

[Parrothead]

Thanks Gene,

How many boat drinks is the chiller gonna cost me, if you're not using it I'd love to have it. And I do look forward to meeting you when you come through Jax. Good to hear from you.

Tanks
Robert

[zhenya]

Thanks Gene,

How many boat drinks is the chiller gonna cost me, if you're not using it I'd love to have it. And I do look forward to meeting you when you come through Jax. Good to hear from you.

Tanks
Robert

Robert,

I am not using it and it just sits in my garage collecting dust...
We usually going to Florida around Christmas time (that's when my granddaughter is off from school, abviously ), so I'll drop you a line before that and hopefully we can meet somewhere so I can give it to you.
There's no charge. ;)

[Parrothead]

Gene,

You have got to at the very least let me buy you and wife dinner. Or, since you guys don't get to do this kinda thing at the end of December, I can throw some ribeyes and all the fixings on the grill and I do make a mean ribeyeif I do say so myself.

Tanks,
Robert

[zhenya]

Robert,

I think this year it will be just me driving, wife and granddaughter will be flying and I will be trying to catch up to the plane in Orlando...so I'll be driving fast...
I will probably leave a day earlier and maybe stop by you and drop this bad boy off and then take off. It;s long way away so lets talk about it later on.

[Parrothead]

You got it, catch up with you later, it stopped raining for the moment so I've got to get back outside and finish detailing a clients Mini-Van, be good.

Tanks,
Robert