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Mr. Microscope's JBJ Picotope


Mr. Microscope

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Mr. Microscope

I've been away from my pico for two weeks for the holidays. I did a 30% water change before I left and had a friend maintain the ATO while I was away. All of the parameters checked out fine today! Alk was a little low, but I am fixing that today with a little Kent Superbuffer-dKH.

The only problem that I noticed is that I now have some flatworms (the little brown ones). I sucked out the two that I saw on the glass, but perhaps there are more. Also, there is a tiny bit of algae, perhaps from the excess nutrients in the water. I will do another 10-20% WC tomorrow after making the water today. Hopefully that will take care of it.

 

All and all, good news! No crash.

 

FTS 2010.01.04

post-47492-1262616108_thumb.jpg

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Mr. Microscope

So I bought my first coral today. I thought that I was purchasing a softy, but I came home with an LPS!! The LFS sold me a Green Budding Goniopora. I told the guy that I wanted to stick with softies and photosynthetics! Grrr. I guess it was my fault for not realizing what it was too. I've been reading about all the different kinds of corals for the last four months. I should have stuck with my gut and not purchased it, but my eyes were bigger than my brain here. I'll be purchasing some Coral Frenzy for it and try to keep this thing alive. One concern that I have is that my GSP is now only partially out and the tentacles look skinnier than they used to. I think they are not happy.

 

Feel free to wave your finger and give me criticism. I feel like I purchased a Yellow Tang here. D'OH!

 

 

GreenBuddingGoniopora.jpg

 

Here's the FTS from today. As you can see I've rearranged the rock scape slightly since the last FTS.

 

FTS_20100108.jpg

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Mr. Microscope

No apology necessary. 'My bad. Hopefully it will take to feeding well.

 

If there is anyone in NYC that wants to trade for it, I'm interested in softies and frags. :)

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Mr. Microscope

Good News!

 

I traded the flowerpot. Thanks YOUNG REEF at manhattanreefs.com! YOUNG has a 90 gallon and has some sun corals, so he is used to hand feeding. I think it will be in much better hands with him.

 

In return, I got a really cool shaped rock covered in purple coralline and about half a dozen brown mushrooms, a small frag of green/brown skirt zoas, and a frag of leather toadstool. I am very happy with the trade. I think that these corals are more my speed.

 

It was night time in my tank for accclimation, so I'll post pics tomorrow when the lights are on.

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Mr. Microscope

The lights are on and the corals are beautiful. Here's what I got:

 

Awesome shaped rock with tons of purple coralline and about a half dozen nice brown mushrooms:

brownmushrooms.jpg

Some pretty green zoas with purple eye and brown skirt (neon greens?), also in the background as a bonus, I got a tiny red mushroom:

zoas.jpg

A brown toadstool leather frag:

toadstool.jpg

 

I'm planning to mount the green zoas and red mushroom somewhere so they propagate on a rock. I'm not sure what to do with the toadstool. Perhaps I can get it off of the frag rock and onto some LR. Another awesome bonus is that I think there was a pretty orange bristle worm that came on one of the rocks. I haven't had any until now and I know what a good addition they can make to a CUC. On the brown mushroom rock, there are also a few feather dusters and a small transparent calm thing (I know I've seen it on here before, but the name eludes me).

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Good move Mr. Microscope. Not too many would have traded so fast. First coral and some would have thought they were going to do what few others have done.

you got a good trade. pretty stuff.

Maybe one day you can revisit Goni's. Ideas on what keeps them alive is getting more focussed all the time. Red ones are easier, iron and manganese supplements can help. Turbid water (lots of stuff floating around) is where they most often occur.

By the way, what are your objectives? 10X, 20X? Do you have oil immersion? Dark Field? Phase contrast? :D:D

Cool username

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Mr. Microscope

Thanks for the encouragement! It was tough, but I figured it was for the best and I couldn't be happier with what I got. Plus, I'm sure the goni is in better hands now.

 

By the way, what are your objectives? 10X, 20X? Do you have oil immersion? Dark Field? Phase contrast? :D:D

Cool username

 

Actually, my objectives are electromagnetic. I use Electron Microscopes as a profession. My tank is in my office in the lab (access to super pure RO/DI!). I figure I will perhaps one day put something in the EM from my tank, just for fun. I'll post the pics when I do. :)

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is the mushroom brown - it looks reddish orange to me. But I agree with everybody else, gonis are not a good beginner coral, especially green ones, I read that red/pinks ones are easier to keep, indeed I have a pink one.

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Actually, my objectives are electromagnetic. I use Electron Microscopes as a profession. My tank is in my office in the lab (access to super pure RO/DI!). I figure I will perhaps one day put something in the EM from my tank, just for fun. I'll post the pics when I do. :)

 

Cool! Scanning? I've always wanted to see a copepod or rotifer in 3D!

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Mr. Microscope
Cool! Scanning? I've always wanted to see a copepod or rotifer in 3D!

I do mostly Transmission, but I have access to an SEM sometimes. I did some diatoms in an SEM back in school. I'll post those images later.

 

FTS 2010.01.14

FTS_20100114.jpg

 

I addition to my brown mushrooms, it turns out that I scored an awesome HH. There is a small transparent pink mushroom growing with the bunch. I think it might turn out to be a pretty iridescent one when it grows up.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=221741

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Mr. Microscope

New Updates 2010.01.25!

 

This weekend, I met with a new friend from the local reefing community and got some corals from him. He had an 120 gallon complete with an amazing DIY LED setup. It made the corals loom incredible! The water was pristine and everything looked very healthy. He sold me three different zoa frags and even gave me a small cutting of SPS just to see if it would work with my lighting (Thanks Manny!). It's interesting to see the difference between my lighting system and his. The SPS is sort of a yellow-brown and the polyps are purple. Under his LED you could clearly see the purple. They look brown under my lights. Maybe they'll brighten up soon. The zoas. however, look awesome! I got 5 polyps of Wham'n Watermellon, 3 AOGs, and 2 Radioactive Dragon Eyes. I'm really excited to watch these prosper. I haven't decided exactly where I want to put them permanently, but they were on my sand bed before. Raising them up made them look a bit better. So, I guess wherever I decide to put them it should be in the top half of the tank.

newzoas.jpg

SPS.jpg

Here's a FTS from today.

FTS_20100125.jpg

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Mr. Microscope

Got to my tank yesterday and saw one of my mushrooms unattached to a rock and dancing around in the current. I think it's getting crowded on that rock and he must have decided to detach and find a new home on another one of my rocks. I attempted to glue it to a small piece of rubble but it didn't hold. After some consideration, I decided to discard it. I hope the mushrooms gods forgive me. Actually, I'm thinking about ditching the brown mushrooms all together. I want the pretty pink ones to take over and right now it's all brown in there. My goal over the next few months is to really pick up the color.

 

Also, I'm thinking that next time I remove one of the mushrooms that I will process it for electron microscopy. I'll post the pics when I get 'em.

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I'm wondering if with an 18W light you're getting the true colors of your corals. Those mushrooms might be blue or some other color under brighter light.

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I'm wondering if with an 18W light you're getting the true colors of your corals. Those mushrooms might be blue or some other color under brighter light.

I think they might be red.I also think you should send them to me and I can check for you. B)

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Mr. Microscope
I think they might be red.I also think you should send them to me and I can check for you. B)

Hee hee,

No, I have a tiny red one in there too, so I'm pretty sure they are brown. They were given to me as, "brown mushrooms". But, yes, I have been thinking that perhaps it would be a good idea to upgrade to an LED system. I've been doing some research for a week or two about them. Plus, I got to see them in action at the guys house that I got the new zoas from. He had one of the lights that the jbj comes with with only 4 LEDs in it and it threw out WAY more light than my 18W. I'm trying to find a good place online to order some CREEs.

 

Those zoas look pretty delicious

Thanks! I'm very happy with them. The AOGs were really glowing today. Way more than in the pic. I think I found a good spot for them too. I think the watermellons are in place too. I just need to find a good spot for the RDEs.

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Mr. Microscope

I added a purple porcelain crab today. I finally have something moving in there aside from the snails. Here're the pics.:

 

I put her and she's showing me how tough she is.

Pcrab.jpg

Then, she got scared and moved by a rock:

pcrab2.jpg

 

Now she is hiding in the back of my tank, but feeding already. So, that is a good sign. As soon as I can see her out in the open feeding, I'll try to take a video. I think it's really fun to watch them with their feeding fans.

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