Aquascaping and acclimatisation
I spent a night aquascaping and acclimatising stock from my nano.
Aquascaping
Because the tank is viewable from 3 side (each pane about the same size) i felt it necessary to aquascape in 3 dimensions (i.e. not just thinking about what it would look like from the front). I've always had the idea of a central island look, but the details i was unsure about. I've looked for naturally occuring reef mound pictures and thought about copying that, but i have been influenced by Takeshi Amano who tends to aquascape to recreate things of beauty above water (i.e. a lush green field). I decided to try and aquascape a secluded bay, with rocky overhangs, and surrounding beach, i'm not sure if i have achieved it or not, or whether it will stay that shape, but it will do me for now. I also created a raised platform with the rock and filled it with sand (doesn't blow about in the flow!) - this was a functional thing to act as maybe a 'clam stage' or some where to embedd LPS who prefer to be in the sand, but also need lots of light (torch coral is in there at the moment)
Some pics of Zakynthos (Greece) that made a lasting impression from when i visited in 1999
Keri
Navagio wreck - Smugglers cove
It was rather strange, although i had an idea of what i wanted the aquascape to look like, i was bound by live rock shape and size. As it turned out, the 2nd hand rock i picked up, almost fell into place, creating a scape better than i had planned for!
Acclimatising
I needed to shift the stock from my nano tank into the cube. This was a sloooowww, drawn out, but necessary process, i dripped the water out of the cube into acclimatising buckets for 60-90mins depending on what i was acclimatising.
I started with the more hardy corals, adding Xenia and some zoanthids and monitoring their response to the new conditions. Once they appeared to be happy, i started moving clean up crew and monitoring their response. Later i acclimatised the more potent corals such as the plate and torch. Finally I acclimatised my fish. For those of you who know nothing about my nano ....... meet Puff and Krusty! - Puff (the magic dragonnette) is a scooter blenny with attitude and Krusty (the clownfish) is a special little false perc, who was chosen because he looked little different from the rest of is clown buddies on purchase.
Whilst transferring stock, random frags of live rock were added to the system, either to the aquascape, to the fuge or to the cryptic area. I also took this opportunity to transfer my live sand bed to the cube and the fuge.
My corals don't like me anymore, they were looking as good as they ever have in the nano, but after shifting them they are all closed and spewing mucus out.
Aquascaping
Because the tank is viewable from 3 side (each pane about the same size) i felt it necessary to aquascape in 3 dimensions (i.e. not just thinking about what it would look like from the front). I've always had the idea of a central island look, but the details i was unsure about. I've looked for naturally occuring reef mound pictures and thought about copying that, but i have been influenced by Takeshi Amano who tends to aquascape to recreate things of beauty above water (i.e. a lush green field). I decided to try and aquascape a secluded bay, with rocky overhangs, and surrounding beach, i'm not sure if i have achieved it or not, or whether it will stay that shape, but it will do me for now. I also created a raised platform with the rock and filled it with sand (doesn't blow about in the flow!) - this was a functional thing to act as maybe a 'clam stage' or some where to embedd LPS who prefer to be in the sand, but also need lots of light (torch coral is in there at the moment)
Some pics of Zakynthos (Greece) that made a lasting impression from when i visited in 1999
Keri
Navagio wreck - Smugglers cove
It was rather strange, although i had an idea of what i wanted the aquascape to look like, i was bound by live rock shape and size. As it turned out, the 2nd hand rock i picked up, almost fell into place, creating a scape better than i had planned for!
Acclimatising
I needed to shift the stock from my nano tank into the cube. This was a sloooowww, drawn out, but necessary process, i dripped the water out of the cube into acclimatising buckets for 60-90mins depending on what i was acclimatising.
I started with the more hardy corals, adding Xenia and some zoanthids and monitoring their response to the new conditions. Once they appeared to be happy, i started moving clean up crew and monitoring their response. Later i acclimatised the more potent corals such as the plate and torch. Finally I acclimatised my fish. For those of you who know nothing about my nano ....... meet Puff and Krusty! - Puff (the magic dragonnette) is a scooter blenny with attitude and Krusty (the clownfish) is a special little false perc, who was chosen because he looked little different from the rest of is clown buddies on purchase.
Whilst transferring stock, random frags of live rock were added to the system, either to the aquascape, to the fuge or to the cryptic area. I also took this opportunity to transfer my live sand bed to the cube and the fuge.
My corals don't like me anymore, they were looking as good as they ever have in the nano, but after shifting them they are all closed and spewing mucus out.
posted by Paul at 12:27 PM
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