They look good brotha, the tank is coming along very nicely.

I ordered a Coralife Dual Timer on eBay for $31 + $7 shipping. I don't think I could've found it anywhere else for much less.

Despite everyone bad mouthing Coralife products... it's pretty cool. Here's the way I have it set-up right now:

My heater remains plugged into the standard wall outlet so it is always on.
The Coralife Dual Timer is plugged into the second outlet in the wall.

There is one "CONSTANT ON" outlet on the Coralife Dual Timer and my AC70 is plugged into that.

My stock picotope light and Rio50 powerhead come on at 10 a.m. and turn off at 8 p.m.

Then my submersible in-tank chaeto lights come on at 8 p.m. and turn off at 10 a.m.

-----------

I would really like to find a way to obtain another timer of sorts that will allow my powerhead to turn on and off intermittently. The Coralife Dual Timer has this capability with an "optional wavemaker"... but it obviously utilizes one of the timers. I think I may just remove the submersible in-tank chaeto lights... and just manually plug them in at night. That way, I can use the second timer just for my power head.

With the powerhead constantly on full blast... do you guys think it might be beneficial to have it turn on/off at 15 min. intervals?? Or is it just a novelty? My zoas seem to like the added flow... but the two mushrooms in my tank aren't really fans. I suppose I could try moving the mushroom on the bottom. He seems to be the most grumpy after 8 hours of constant powerhead blast. It's amazing even the amount of flow in the bottom right hand corner of the tank.

Bleh. ...just thinkin' out loud. I'll figure something out.

Is that a common thing? to have your powerhead turn on/off during the day (ie: not have it running 24/7)
what is the benefit from that?

It would supposedly simulate a more wave/tidal action in your pico tank... rather than blasting your corals non-stop with water flow from the same exact direction 24/7.

My zoas don't seem to mind... but the one bright, green striped mushy on the bottom right looks like it's a bit much for him by the time I get home from work. He's still full and open... but due to the way the water flows in my pico from my powerhead... the left side of him is always folded over a little.

My powerhead is in the same cycle as my daylight so it comes on at 12 p.m. and is off at 10 p.m. I feel that this gives the tank a little bit of variety and allows stuff to rest at night. I've thought about plugging it into a timer to have it work at 15-minute intervals but it was too much work so I abandoned the idea. lol In a tank full of softies it's just a novelty but now that I have a bunch of SPS in my tank I might pick up this idea again since flow greatly affects SPS corals in terms of growth and whatnot. If only the Vortech MP10 wasn't so bloody expensive.

Played around with different camera settings tonight...





** FTS **

Nice.

Thanks, man...
It's coming along.

I'm so scurred. I couldn't get a good shot yesterday evening. But my blue cloves are growing. EEK!!

I think you're new camera settings are working for ya, looks really good!

looking nice, watch that shroom though they multiply like crazy!

Thanks...




I know. I won't mind so much if the 'shrooms start growing a bit. They seem to be a little more manageable than say... a plague of blue cloves. Haha.

In other news... no real plans for my pico this weekend. I'm just going to do my weekly water change tomorrow morning and other tank maintenance. And it's supposed to be 72 degrees outside tomorrow. *yay!*

The hobby really takes off when you get involved with a local club eh?! You have a great little tank going, goochsters are some of my favorite zoas

I completely agree.

It's a fantastic way to meet a very diverse group of individuals who probably wouldn't otherwise come together... except for the fact that everyone owns a reef tank.

There are very few other events/hobbies that allow such diversity and passion about one thing.

Obviously, the other cool part is seeing everyone's reef aquarium and of course, buying, selling and trading frags. If anyone reading this isn't already involved in a local reef aquarium club, I'd definitely suggest seeking one out and joining.

Hot Damn! That's a nice looking tank ya got there.

My blue cloves are really takeing off as well. The frag plug looks all most covered and I've only had them for about a week . Still, they look cool enough for me not to mind. I've got them on a rock with some GSP. Let the battle begin.

Hey - thanks for checking in. How's your tank doing??





Sounds awesome. I still may get a small frag of GSP and keep it isolated on my sand bed away from the rest of my reef. I do love the looks of it and how it sways in the current... but I'm paranoid about it catching onto the rest of my rock and becoming a "GSP only" tank.

My blue cloves are crazy. There's nothing else in my tank that seems to grow by leaps and bounds like that stuff.

[quote name='PSYS' date='Apr 19 2009, 06:34 AM' post='2207586']
Hey - thanks for checking in. How's your tank doing??

My fish passed away from ich, but the corals and inverts are doing great. I plan on breaking the tank down after I finish remodling my basement. I bought a 24 Gallon Aquapod HQI so I will re-use the live rock from the pico after the new tank is done cycling. It 'll be a few months before it's up and running.. I want to make sure the ich is gone from the tank completely. I'm going to use the pico for another quarantine tank or a tank for raisinf fry if I get a pair of breeding clowns.

** UPDATE!! **

Had a pretty low key weekend. No new frags. I did do my weekly tank maintenance yesterday. Water change. Cleaning. Reorganized some of the frags on my substrate... and ended up mounting my Goochster zoas up on my live rock where the others are. They seem to be a lot happier now that they're stuck in place. I'm hoping they really expand out because they're some of my favorites as far as coloring goes...

My green striped mushroom has gone insane today... I swear, it has ballooned in size more than double. It is HUGE!!! Photos do it no justice whatsoever. I don't know if it was the water change... perhaps some zooplankton got kicked up during the cleaning yesterday... maybe the added trace elements from the water change helped? ...I've no idea. But check out the pics I just took a few moments ago.

** yummy orange zoas **



** green palythoas **



** tiny bluish/gray zoas on the upper left... and my green bay packer zoas **



** my green-striped mushroom on steroids **



** this is insane. **



** my happy blue sapphire damsel amongst the zoa frags **




** weird angle shot **

I'm gettin' Joker palythoas this weekend...

Nice zoa variation, as always! I still <3 those orange ones!!!! My lfs has some on a cool rock, but it's $50!! and i'd rather get the tiny, oops it fell off the main colony $2.99 frag and watch it grow; then sell it later! also have a powerhead in my pico now.. though I keep it on (lowest setting too) 24/7. None of my corals seem to mind, though my large hot pink shroom doesn't look so good lately... maybe I should turn it off at night. I don't think it's getting too much flow though, where it's positioned. It started going downhill after my goby died (the goby used to perch in it nonstop). Maybe it misses the fish?

YAY for new palys!

** UPDATE **

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I've not posted much here on the forum for a few days either. I've been really preoccupied with work... I'm now officially doing twice as much work volume as I was at this time last year without much added compensation. I think I'm just worn down and worn out.

I took a vacation day today because my girlfriend, Chrissy, also has the day off work. I got up at the sametime I normally do every morning only because my body seems to have its own permanent built-in alarm clock... which is fairly annoying, even for days when I'm allowed to sleep in.

I grabbed my rod and reel and headed down to a park which is a mile from our apartment on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh. I didn't get any fish except for a couple of Crappie which I wasn't even intentionally fishing for... nonetheless, I got to take an hour and a half for myself and watch the sunrise over the lake. It's nice to take some deep, slow breaths and relax for a change. Birds chirping... and the only other sound of line flying off my reel as I'm making cast after cast into the lake. *sigh*







On to the reef stuff...

I came home from work yesterday and it marked the second day in a row my pink zoas on my substrate have been closed up tight. It's a little disheartening because everything else in my tank looks great. I normally do my water changes and tank maintenance on Saturday mornings... but I did it all last night instead.

I did a freshwater dip on the pink zoas first and swished them around really good for a few seconds in some fresh RO/DI water and placed them back in my tank. Initially, I didn't think they were getting enough flow because I had them tucked to the side of my live rock... but now I moved them and I'm positive they're getting adequate flow. As I mentioned, everything else in the tank continues to look great.

When I took the frag out of my tank, I carefully looked for any weird zoa mites or other weird things I've read about here on the forum. Zoa pox, zoa mites, zoa creepy crawlies... but nothing caught my eye. They don't appear to be melting... or otherwise, unhappy... this is simply now the third day in a row where they have remained closed up tight. I don't have any Lugol's Iodine solution... but I know the last time I saw it at my LFS, they want $22 for a tiny bottle. And considering the frag cost me $5... it's not an added cost I'm willing to cough up at this time.

Here is the culprit: ...any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.





In other news...

These pinkies are doing very well. I looked under the polyps last night and they're beginning to grow off the frag plug and onto the live rock!!




Something else that caught my eye last night while doing my tank maintenance, I saw a tiny little piece of bubble algae on my yellow polyps. The bubble had wedged itself in between two of the polyps on the frag plug. I grabbed my tweezers and carefully plucked the bubble off the plug. I didn't pop the bubble but it was very tiny, as well. This concerns because I've seen the plague that bubble algae can cause in tanks. So I'm going to be carefully looking at my pico the next few days. In the photo below, in the upper left just behind my Goochster zoas... those are the yellow polyps I am referring to. Aside from that little piece of bubble algae, they are doing well... they're small, but they add a nice brilliant color to my pico and they seem to be healthy.






The lights have only been on for a few minutes... but the orange zoas are slowly opening to say good morning...



I hope everyone is having a good Friday and have a great weekend!!

Sorry to hear about your zoa's

p.s. I'm super jealous of those lake-shot photos while I'm stuck here at work have fun!

I don't know what to tell ya about those zoas maybe they just need a little time. I just got a new colony of purple zoas in my 3g on tuesday or so, and they are just now starting to open. Only half were open yesterday, and the other half are still being shy. Lucky they were only $5 though if there is something wrong with them. They'll probably open up with time.

Sorry to hear about your workload at work.

As for the zoas, they can be unpredictable like that for no reason whatsoever. As long as you don't see any pests on them I would just give them some time and let them go through their mood swings.

Cool lake pics. The pico is coming along great...

Where did you disappear to? We need an update!

^^
+1!

Yeah um , I am gonna agree last update was april 24th and we just ended May. Everything good in your world PSYS?
Maybe , while he was cleaning ,he fell in his PICO and and he cant get out, someone should stop by and check up on him...

nice box-o-rocks

Maybe the damsel ate him.

PSYS I love this thread !!!

Anyone have his email or other contact info? I hope he didn't forget about us I want to know how that tank was doing. It was one of the biggest inspirations I had for setting up my tank.

HOW BOUT SOME PIX OF YOUR DUB?

what kind of light are you using on your tank?

update?

Miss me...?

I don't even know where to begin. I feel horrible because I completely abandoned this place after all of you helped me so much!

I lost my pictope about a year and a half ago. I was too embarassed at the time to log on and share the story with all of you. Anywho, if you guys (and girls) recall - I had my pictope sitting on our kitchen counter in our tiny studio apt. at the time. Got home from work one night and started unloading our dishwasher. (I hate that job, don't you?) The picotope sat under one of the kitchen cabinets that holds our soup bowls, dinner plates, etc, etc.

So while unloading the dishwasher one night, I was putting a couple of bowls back up in the cupboard and one of them slipped out of my hand. See where I'm going with this? It was inevitable. The bowl smacked the front edge of the picotope square. The bowl shattered and the glass on the picotope cracked from edge to edge. I quickly got ahold of one of the guys in my local reef club and he bought my livestock to prevent it from dying... been a while since I've talked to him, but last I saw in an e-mail he sent me - everything is still doing well except my packer zoas.

Anyway, I logged back on because my wife (got married in August) and I are going to be moving in March 2012 and I'm thinking about starting another nano when we get to our new place.

hit me up here on NR or e-mail me! sorry I neglected to keep in touch, everyone.

Man that would suck. That should be reason enough not to have to do the dishes ever again. It would bring back way too many bad memories. Sorry to hear about the tank, can't wait to see what you set up next. Welcome back.

cool to have you back. cant wait to see what you build!!

Thanks, guys... to make matters worse, I changed my e-mail address somewhere along the way. This prevented me from getting any PM's or notifications from the forum, but I've got everything updated now.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season!

Sad story, but I'm glad you shared it. We're all learning here. Good luck with your future nano and congratulations on the marriage!

I think that's awesome that this thread has been in active for years and people still remember it. it's like me with that mangrove bonsai tank. I'll never forget it.