Matt's 29g Custom LED

Matt
That little one I had took forever to attach too. If you have a spot you really want it to stay in try putting something around it so it can't push itself off of where you want it. These clams are raised in excellent conditions and no matter where you put it, its not gonna like it at first but placing rubble around it for a while will intice it to attach.

That's actually what made me decide to quit taking it out of the tank and stop messing with the plug. He was almost attached the first day in my tank. Before I started feeding him and such. Then I took him out and have been feeding him and he hasn't been trying to attach since. I'm going to leave him be on the original place I put him in my tank... shut down all my pumps and spot feed him some phyto every other day or so... and hope for the best. We'll see where this gets me. :-)

Since I decided to leave my clam alone he has started looking better. This morning he wasn't opened up yet cause the lights weren't on so didn't really see him then, but I just got home for lunch and it looks like he got cut by something on his mantle. He isn't extending the one that looks cut either. Coral banded shrimp give him a taste you think? I'm not too worried. He looks better being left alone than he did when I was taking him out to fed him.

Wow never fed my clam I just left him alone . Been in there for about3 mths

Here's my new ricordia. Glad I went with the orange tri color. He looks cool under the 14k's, but when the white's go out at night and he's just under blue he glows bright orange! Impossible to take a pic of though...

Update on SPS... everything is doing well. Sour Apple Birdsnest and Pink Birdsnest are both living up to their reputation of growing very quickly. Red Monti Caps are growing very quickly as well. Other SPS are showing signs of growth for sure.... but nothing noticeable after only a week and a half.

I like the ric, I just wish I had somewhere to put them. I'll bet it looks great under your leds.

I saw a great idea at a fish store in Dallas. They had a plastic container with rocks piled around it (with a little more effort you could completely hide that there's a container there), then they had live rock rubble inside of the container with all sorts of stuff on top of the rock rubble. That could go right on your sand bed if you have room. I'm definitely going to do that in my first big tank!

Was pretty nice Did you get pics of it? Post some of that BIG tank.... another thread if you like.

Here's the thread of all the other tanks pics. It was really nice. Far better than my pictures portrayed.

https://etak.forumotion.com/t277-dallas-lfs#3362

I'm thinking of ideas for the container. You could take rock rubble and run it across a table saw to create a groove down the middle of the rock. Then you could slide that rock down over the edge of the container and superglue it there. The entire edge would be rock rubble at the top. Then glue of some kind rubbed on the sides and then fill it with sand. The sand would stick everywhere with glue so the whole container would look like rock rubble and sand before you ever will it with anything. I might actually go ahead and do one of those in my little 29g after seeing the pics and thinking about it. lol.

I passed up an orange linkia star tonight. They are so tempting! Just too small of a system.

Where did you see it Matt, I think Gabe wants one? Mine is doing great man, he is all over the tank, stops and eats every now and then, how big was it?

I'm going to guess 2.5 inch. 25 bucks at petland.

Why didn't you get it, it would be ok in your system, its as big as mine and I've had mine for what over two months now I think and its doing great. They eat film like algae film, bacteria, you got lots of glass, mine works the glass too.

Finally worked out a pic of the ric under the blue LEDs. I knew I had to figure something out before I got these corals in tomorrow. Looks amazing.



I found out this camera has a color temperature white balance on it. The highest color temp it would go was 10k (you likely have this option if your cameras white balance has a "K" setting). So I turned it all the way up and took some pics. So, 20k white balance would cause my blue lights to look perfectly white, so with this setting I still get blue... but not as blue as it looks in my tank. It did bring out the best orange though. It looks like I will have to get a few filters for the greens, reds and pinks in my tank.

Also... a funny little story. Tony (Grimreefer) gave me a tiny piece of rock rubble that had 3 super tiny zoa heads on the tip of it. I left those things in my tank for almost two weeks and they never opened up... so I tried moving them up in my tank to a high flow area to see if they would open up there. Well... they got blown off of the rock! I was pretty upset... assuming my little zoas would inevitably end up in my filtering. There were three little heads. Not sure where the other two are, but one of them has attached to my clam's shell! I was pretty pumped. Can't wait for my clam to have zoas down the side. :-)

That ric looks great under your leds. Is your camera a DSLR? I've been thinking about getting one but I know ZERO about cameras but I keep reading on RC that I need a DSLR camera to get good pics of the tank.

Yes it is. Canon 30d. My wife is the photographer. I just get lucky that she has all this nice equipment. Lol.

If you have any questions when you are looking for what to purchase feel free to ask and I'll get her opinion.

Not sure where the other two are, but one of them has attached to my clam's shell! I was pretty pumped. Can't wait for my clam to have zoas down the side. :-)

Matt
Probably not a good idea, the Zoe on the clam shell will eventually irritate the clam to death. Zoe's can and do sting and will sting the mantle on your clam, I have winessed this first hand.

I'll let it grow out and get a few more polyps and then I'll frag them off of the clam. Too bad they can't stay, but it's still cool that I didn't lose them all. It's opened up and I can see the tiny little mouth and everything.

i was at critter co and they had a tiny orange linkia for 14 bucks

Here's the picture roll. All taken tonight. You can really see some serious growth on a few of the SPS. The montipora digitata is growing like a maniac. The birdsnests have new branches coming out all over and the green one I can see is encrusted almost all the way to the rock. Green slimer seems to only be getting wider, but looks healthy. The zoas, the acan and the meteor shower just came in today. So they are not all the way opened up and will still be getting used to the new lighting and all for a bit.

Maxima Clam. He's usually not opened up like this. I moved him today (he still does not seem interested in attaching).


Yellow Zoas with Red Skirts - This was a freebie that Mike threw in.


Pink Birdsnest


Green Slimer


Meteor Shower


Montipora Digitata


Sour Apple Birdsnest


War Coral


LE Goblin Fire Zoas (Not opened all the way, they will have another ring of light purple inside of the skirts when they're open)


Candy Apples - Not open all the way and not colored up all the way


Duncan


Toxic Favia


Ya' Mon' Reverse Rastas - Not opened fully but still look amazing! Camera can't pick it up.


Keds Reds Zoas - Look RIDICULOUS under blues but camera can't catch the color.


Freebie Zoas under Blue LEDs


Green Slimer under Blues


Duncan under Blues


War Coral under Blues


Full Tank Shot under Blues


Full Tank Shot


Dendro


Saving the best for last...
This SICK Acan

Now thats pichers Nice corals dude, I'm jealous

where did you get the rastas ? I have really been wanting some, and cant find any

Mike at www.buildmytank.com

Check out the pic of the mother colony to make sure it's what you're looking for. It's not the tyree rasta. I actually like these better though. :-)

muchos garcia

Nice frags Matt.