# 16Gal Starfire Tank Journal



## manmadecorals

Yesterday one of my closest and dearest friends dropped off an early birthday gift for me. 

This beautiful 16 gallon Starfire tank from AquaInspiration. 

Here is what i have in mind for it.

Tank:16 Gallon Starfire Tank (W50×D35×H35CM)
Stand: Ikea Hemnes Chest w/ 2 Drawers
Filter: Eheim 2213 with Lily Pipes
Light: 20" 36W T5HO Aquatic Life light fixture or 20" Odyssea 72W T5HO Light Fixture
Substrate: Netlea Shrimp Substrate

In terms of scaping... I'm leaning towards using driftwood as I've already done rock in my other 10gal starfire tank.

I will keep you guys posted as i continue to work on my new acquisition


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## brapbrapboom

Lucky you and advance happy bday! 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Jiinx

*happy birthday! *

Happy birthday!

An empty starphire tank. It's gorgeous. I can't wait for you to fill it with beautiful plants and wood.


sarah


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## Yann

Happy Birthday!

Coincidentally I just picked up the identical set up to you as my belated birthday gift to myself ^_^ (different filter though). 

Looking forward to seeing your creation take shape so keep us posted


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## manmadecorals

Thanks for the bday wish guys! And I promise to keep you updated the moment i have something to update you on


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## Fish on the Mind

That is one sweet birthday present!


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## Kooka

Happy B-day man, I think this one will be the best yet. Are you planning on doing a carpeting plant foreground?


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## greg

So many possibilities...looking forward to seeing it come to life.

Happy Birthday!

Greg


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## manmadecorals

Kooka said:


> Happy B-day man, I think this one will be the best yet. Are you planning on doing a carpeting plant foreground?


Thanks Phil! I do, i'll probably be doing DHG emersed at first, but i'm somewhat in a rush to move my fauna over from my 10gal to my 16 gal. I'm having some issues with the 10gal tank and want to just tear it down and start from scratch.


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## manmadecorals

*March 6 2013*

So another of my dearest and closest friends got me an amazing birthday gift  a 9lb Netlea Shrimp substrate bag along with a few other aquarium stuff, Thanks Jaysan 

I added my 20" Aquatic Life light fixture on it temporarily until sold that is and hooked up the Eheim 2213 that i had on my 10 gal with the Glass lily pipes. Filled the water all the way to the substrate lvl and left it sitting that way... I'm waiting to pick up the Driftwood from Bigbutt this weekend, so i'll update you guys with pics as soon as it is set up


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## Jaysan

manhtu said:


> So another of my dearest and closest friends got me an amazing birthday gift  a 9lb Netlea Shrimp substrate bag along with a few other aquarium stuff, Thanks Jaysan
> 
> I added my 20" Aquatic Life light fixture on it temporarily until sold that is and hooked up the Eheim 2213 that i had on my 10 gal with the Glass lily pipes. Filled the water all the way to the substrate lvl and left it sitting that way... I'm waiting to pick up the Driftwood from Bigbutt this weekend, so i'll update you guys with pics as soon as it is set up


Cant wait to see it all finished up


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## Jiinx

Ooh the suspense, mt! 

Looks nice with the soil..are you creating a pathway? River?


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## manmadecorals

Thanks Jay~! 

Thanks Sarah, I'm hoping to give you guys another this weekend  That is just a pathway...I always wanted to make one  I tried early on in my 6gal fluval edge but failed miserably


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## Jaysan

manhtu said:


> Thanks Jay~!
> 
> Thanks Sarah, I'm hoping to give you guys another this weekend  That is just a pathway...I always wanted to make one  I tried early on in my 6gal fluval edge but failed miserably


speaking of pathways...and that video.........I might redo one of my tanks  LOL


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## manmadecorals

*March 18 2013*

I finally met up with Bigbutt to pick up a beautiful piece of Manzanita Driftwood. Unfortunately, the piece was slightly too big and i had to cut some of it's branches off. I then followed to drill a slate onto the piece of wood to make it sink. I heard you could just let it sit in water and it'll sink on its own, but i didn't have the time nor patience for it lol. I took some fissiden and attached it to the branches. I then planted Dwarf Hairgrass all over the bottom of the tank. I carefully placed a few stones and voila. Everything is hooked up except for some CO2. Now i'm on the look out for a CO2 tank.

Sorry for the cloudy picture. I dropped the 4 little bottle into the tank as i was trying to fill it up with water. You can imagine the mess it created inside the tank...I had to redo everything from scratch because of that accident. Anyways...i know it looks a bit...empty but once the carpet spreads out and the tree fills in. It'll look amazing


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## Jiinx

well worth the staying up and effort! It'll look really nice


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## xriddler

DAMN thats the type of driftwood im looking for LOL hatechu!


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## brapbrapboom

xriddler said:


> DAMN thats the type of driftwood im looking for LOL hatechu!


We should gang up Manthu, you take the DW i take the rest! Jk, but seriously im looking forward on this tank to mature as well!

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2


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## manmadecorals

Hey Xriddler  Bigbutt had this piece posted for quite awhile now lol You can find this type of driftwood easily but not locally. It's called Manzanita Driftwoord. I did find a guy on Kijiji selling them from Ajax or check with Bigbutt's FS thread and see if he has anymore like it.

LOL! Karl... I warn you though... I won a gold medal for best Ninja of the year 2012 and 2013...just saying


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## Bigbutt

Looks good so far. Can't wait to see how it looks in a few weeks. BTW The wood looks good. Did you have to cut it much?


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## xriddler

i am just curious where do people acquire this wood if not locally? besides from other hobbyist that is where did they acquire this retail wise, USA?


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## Bigbutt

xriddler said:


> i am just curious where do people acquire this wood if not locally? besides from other hobbyist that is where did they acquire this retail wise, USA?


Pm'd you........


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## manmadecorals

xriddler said:


> i am just curious where do people acquire this wood if not locally? besides from other hobbyist that is where did they acquire this retail wise, USA?


You can also find some locally. Check Kijiji, i found a guy selling them in Ajax. You can also find some on Aquabid although shipping will be very expensive.


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## manmadecorals

Bigbutt said:


> Looks good so far. Can't wait to see how it looks in a few weeks. BTW The wood looks good. Did you have to cut it much?


Unfortunately i did... it was a sad day indeed


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## manmadecorals

*March 26th 2013*

I've retied the moss and rearranged the driftwood to make it look a bit more presentable from the front view of the tank. After all the dust settled i also threw in some assassin snails and a Erio Shiga.


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## manmadecorals

*May 12 2013*

I believe it's about time for an update on this tank...

Plants added: 
1) Mini Pellia attached to small driftwood branches - My idea here was to create a barrier for the sand and gravel from mixing. Although laying out some rocks is a fairly simple idea, it made it look too "Man Made" in my opinions So I attached some MP to driftwood braches to make them look like small bushes along the path

2) Floating Riccia - In my attempt to recreate a natural landscape in my Iwagumi Tank, I wanted to create cloud like shaded areas on the ground and the floating Riccia is doing exactly that. My only problem at the moment is due to the pressure of the ouflow pipe, it continuously pushes my Riccia to the front of the tank.

Livestock Added:
15 Boraras Brigittae (aka Chili Rasboras)- Seeing them swim around at the top of my tank reminds me of a flock of birds flying together in the air through the clouds 

5 Boraras urophthalmoides (aka Least Rasboras)

4 Cherry Shrimps - Originally, I wasn't planning on adding any shrimps in this tank since they do not fit my scaping vision, but since Jaysan was generous enough to give me a few of his collection to be added into this tank, I simply couldn't refuse. After adding them, i just started to love them and can't imagine not having them and so they will remain 

2 Fire Reds

L10A - Red Dragon - I first saw this guy at Aqua Inspiration. My first thought of this fish was... Holy Crap! It's an aquatic dragon...and if you know me well... you'll know i am an addict on anything related to dragons and dragons themselves. The fact that i see it twirl around my tree is already pretty freaking awesome. Thanks again Matt for this lovely addition 

Unfortunately the colors aren't as vibrant due to the tanning of my water from the Manzanita Driftwood leaching color in the water... it becomes dark after a few days and only gets slightly better after a water change.

Anyways...no post is complete without pictures... so here they are. One is with flash while the other is without. A few pictures of my livestock and an overall shot of my tank  I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.


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## Jaysan

The fissidens are growing in very nicely! 
The colour is so dark green 
I hope mine will get like that soon as I add in the co2 to my shrimp tank.


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## manmadecorals

That's funny that you say that cause i wish mine would be more vivid green like yours LMAO!!


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## xriddler

is your tannins leeching from the driftwood or the soil mantu? does Netlea leech tannins too? or are you using ada soil?


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## Jaysan

xriddler said:


> is your tannins leeching from the driftwood or the soil mantu? does Netlea leech tannins too? or are you using ada soil?


I've never heard of Netlea leechin tannis...usually its the wood.


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## manmadecorals

xriddler said:


> is your tannins leeching from the driftwood or the soil mantu? does Netlea leech tannins too? or are you using ada soil?


It's definitely from the wood. In this tank i am using Netlea and i've never had netlea leech in my water in any of my tanks before.


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## xriddler

thank you for the clarification


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## Jiinx

you've been busy! Love it. You could use purigen if the tannins bother you. 

Looks really good. Looking forward to the plants filling in.

GREAT update!


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## manmadecorals

purigen? Is that fish safe?


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## Fishfur

I would be astonished if Purigen were not safe, considering it's designed to use in filters for fish tanks . Though it's always better to be safe than sorry, so asking is a good idea ! Actually, from what I've heard about it, it's quite good at what it does.


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## Bigbutt

The leaching of tannins will eventually stop. Weekly water changes help. The manzanita I have in my discus tank no longer leach any tannins.... I have 6 large pieces.

Manhtu, can't wait to see how the tank looks when the plants grow in.


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## xriddler

purigen on initial use is safe. its when you recycle it lol i dont know if i recycled it right so i never did toss it back into my filters XD


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## bluberrymuffin

Love the whole "path" effect! What kind of sand are you using?


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## manmadecorals

Fishfur said:


> I would be astonished if Purigen were not safe, considering it's designed to use in filters for fish tanks . Though it's always better to be safe than sorry, so asking is a good idea ! Actually, from what I've heard about it, it's quite good at what it does.





xriddler said:


> purigen on initial use is safe. its when you recycle it lol i dont know if i recycled it right so i never did toss it back into my filters XD


Might have to look into it  Thanks!!



Bigbutt said:


> The leaching of tannins will eventually stop. Weekly water changes help. The manzanita I have in my discus tank no longer leach any tannins.... I have 6 large pieces.
> 
> Manhtu, can't wait to see how the tank looks when the plants grow in.


How long did it take you before it stop leaching? I've been doing about a 10% water change twice a week for the last 2 months i believe...


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## manmadecorals

bluberrymuffin said:


> Love the whole "path" effect! What kind of sand are you using?


Thanks!!  I'm just using normal yellow sand that i bought off another member here on GTAA... It's a LOT of work to maintain it though lol!!


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## bluberrymuffin

Haha yeah alot of background work must go into keeping it so pristine, I would probably be OCD enough to get annoyed looking at stray netlea pieces that rolled on it somehow lol


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## manmadecorals

*June 11th 2013*

Time for a new update!

*Hardware: *
2213 Eheim Filter
Aquatic Life Light Fixture
200W Hydor Inline Heater
Glass Intake Lily Pipe
Mesh Filter Guard
Hang On The Glass Drop Checker

*Livestock: *
1 Red Lizard Pleco
5 Least Rasboras
15 Chili Rasboras
100 Painted Fire Red Shrimps (Probably about 60 now that some have died and been eaten)

*Water Parameters*
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Between 5PPM - 10PPM
Ph: 7.0
TDS: 250

I've added Purigen to it that same night, so let's see how it looks after a day. I heard it takes a day for the Purigen to work.


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## Jiinx

I really love the contrasting red and green, Manh Tu. The tree is stunning.


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## manmadecorals

Thanks Sarah! If only the water wasn't so tanned though. I finally got some Purigen and added double the recommended dosage into my filter and still nothing. Water still looks tanned


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## manmadecorals

*June 24th 2013*

I finally found some time to clean up my aquascape over the weekend. Here are some of the pics of my nicest PFR and my scape. Hope you enjoy


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## Jaysan

Where the pics at? o.0 haha


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## manmadecorals

Jaysan said:


> Where the pics at? o.0 haha


Super slow upload this morning


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## manmadecorals

*August 14 2013*

New picture update! Not much has changed but the green is filling in


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## Sameer

Let that moss grow and pretty soon you will have a tree!!! The shrimps can be the apple on the tree


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## 10G

Shrimps are lookin dope freshh


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## Reckon

Any update?


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## manmadecorals

*01/01/14*

Here is an update of my 16gal tank. After closing down my 10gal tank, i wanted to figure out a way i could intergrate both tank into one. It was time to fix up my 16gal tank anyways as it suffered the most damage during the move. The sand path was completely destroyed, some of the Dwarf Hairgrass got uprooted, and a lot of substrate was shifted to one side of the tank.

I started by siphoning the sand out of the tank, removed some substrate in the process and a huge chunk of DHG. Add back the substrate and the new rock formation i came up with, with the old Ohko stones from the 10gal tank. Replant some DHG, throw in my marimo moss balls and VOILA! My new 16gal tank 

And since i was already re-doing the whole tank, i took that opportunity to clean out my filter, change the filter floss, add new purigen, and clean the media a little.

Let me know what you guys think of the new look. Any comment is appreciated whether it is good or bad.

Thanks!


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## Jiinx

*rescaping must be in the air *

Rescaping must be contagious!  Yours looks really nice. I love the "cave" look you have on the right side of the tank. And the tree is lovely.

Is the tank yellow-y because of the camera flash?


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## NovaRaven

I have the same 16G starfire tank from Aqua Inspirations. My tank is here:

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72545

Awesome tank you got here. Reminds me of my freshwater days and my annoyances with driftwood and tannins! I could never get the tannins under control. But awesome tank!


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## manmadecorals

lol i have the same issue with Tanning... I'm really excited to turn this tank into my next project


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## manmadecorals

*Good Bye Iwagumi, Hello SW!*

It's was an interesting journey with my Nano Iwagumi setup, but it was time for change. Something New. Something Different... Something my GF won't give me crap about on a daily basis because she thought it was soooooooo ugly lol!

So I finally shut down this setup and slowly turned it into this...


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## manmadecorals

Here is my current collection zoas. If you guys can help me identify some of these. It would be greatly appreciated. I believe the first one (top left) is called Eagle Eye, green bay packers, Mean Green, Watermelon, Radio Active Dragon Eye, Flaming Fireflies, and Fire and Ice zoas.

please correct me if i'm wrong.

Thank you!


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## manmadecorals

*A Few More Pic Updates *

Green with purple tip Frogspawn from Cronix67
Green Hammer Torch from Jaysan 
Cleaner Shrimp from SUM


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## manmadecorals

*Zoa Collection Update (04/23/14)*

from left to right:

African Blue Steel Zoa

Blue Hornet

Red Hornet


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## Jiinx

nice looking zoas


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## manmadecorals

*Zoa Collection Update (5/8/14)*

Going from left to right than top to bottom 

*African Blue Steel Hornet*

*Armageddon*

*Blood Orange*

*Blue Hornet*

*Eagle Eye*

*False Red Hornet* (Easily mistaken for True Red Hornet but lacks the alternating coloration of Red and Blue on its skirt. Also the red ring around the eye seems less defined and slightly thicker than the True Red Hornet)

*Fire and Ice & Alien Eye*

*Green Bay Packer*

*Unknow (ID PLEASE)*

*Radioactive Dragon Eye*


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## manmadecorals

*Zoa Collection Update (5/8/14)*

Going from left to right, top to bottom 

*Mystic Blue* (Cannot ID this one and no one seems to know what they are called so i named it "Mystic Blue"... seems appropriate  )

*Orange Bam Bam*

*Pink Lemonade*

*Purple Puddles*

*True Red Hornet*

*Red People Eater*

*Spiderman* (Once known as "Superman" but the name "Superman" zoas had already been taken. It has since been renamed as "Spiderman" Zoa)

*Ultra Fire and Ice* (A.K.A "Flaming Firefly" or "Dragonfire" but commonly known as "Ultra Fire and Ice")

*Watermelons*

*Unknow (ID PLEASE) *


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## Jaysan

wow..zoa and paly whore...LOL 
Nice collection


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## Jiinx

Great photos! How many different zoas do you own now?


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## manmadecorals

Jiinx said:


> Great photos! How many different zoas do you own now?


Hey Sarah!! I honestly do not know... But my collection continues to grow weekly  I am starting to run out of place on my Zoa Shelf... Might start to sell some of my personal collection to make more space ...


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## manmadecorals

*Zoa Collection Update (5/20/14)*

Going from left to right, top to bottom 

*Gold/Orange Darth Maul*

*Stardust People Eater*

*People Eater on Acid*

*Charmers Palys *(Although the gold speckles are not as present)

*Rose Nebulas* (These guys are by far my favorite in my entire collection. I loved them so much I glued them directly to the rock in my main DT)

*Tyree Space Monsters*


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## Marz

Hey if you are selling any if that awesome personal collection....lol  they looked even better in person.


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## Jaysan

manhtu said:


> Hey Sarah!! I honestly do not know... But my collection continues to grow weekly  I am starting to run out of place on my Zoa Shelf... Might start to sell some of my personal collection to make more space ...


or..you could just put them into your display,


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## manmadecorals

Marz said:


> Hey if you are selling any if that awesome personal collection....lol  they looked even better in person.


Thanks Marz  Wait until you see the Rose Nebula in person next week... It will blow your mind LOL!



Jaysan said:


> or..you could just put them into your display,


I have to meet certain criterias for them to be displayed into my main DT or they won't make the cut.

Qualifications are as followed:

Color
Cut
Clarity
Carat

J/K


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## Jiinx

lol. zoas are like the diamond equivalent for men


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## explor3r

Nice collection would be nice to see them turn into colonies 
I love the yellow micro zoas


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## manmadecorals

explor3r said:


> Nice collection would be nice to see them turn into colonies
> I love the yellow micro zoas


Thanks Alex!! And thanks for the quick chat over the weekend! Would love to drop by again whenever you're free


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## CatfishSoupFTW

Jiinx said:


> lol. zoas are like the diamond equivalent for men


+1. hahahah couldnt agree more.


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## manmadecorals

*Update 06/04/14*

Added a mandarin goby and a white banded possum wrasse to help keep the copepod population low... was having issues with them continuously bothering my zoas... needed them gone!

Need to get sell of lots of frags as i have a project i want to do with this tank and having too many frags in the way to start it up.

Anyways here are some updated pics 

*FTS (Front View)*



*FTS (Angled Down View)*



*Some SPS frags i have for sale starting from the left*



*Some SPS frags i have for sale middle of the rack*



*Some SPS frags i have for sale ending at the right of the rack*



*Some zoa frags i have for sale*


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## Kooka

Lookin' good! What's that big rock of zoas/palys at the very back?


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## manmadecorals

Kooka said:


> Lookin' good! What's that big rock of zoas/palys at the very back?


Which one Phil? I have 3 zoa rocks at the very back


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