I just realized I unintentionally copied your thread title for my Pico: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...40&start=40
Sry!

PICASSO IS OUT FOR DELIVERY!

Weets, no worries on the name. That's a sexy little pico you got there.

HE'S HERE!

UPS just dropped him on my front step, hit the doorbell and ran. This is with the box saying "FRAGILE - LIVE FISH" on every single side.

So how is the clown?

d ^_^ b

So... I heard somethin' 'bout butts 'round hurr?

I got cut on again, hence the delay in replies (plus I'm a tard and forgot to check lol). Baby Picasso is doing good, but he's so tiny I think I'm going to set my 9g back up just for him to have a growout tank. He's currently in my 20H QT and doing fine, but I'd like to have the tank open for other fish.

Sadly I've lost more fish out of my 75g. My orange-spotted blenny just up and died for no apparent reason at all, and my beloved female McCosker's jumped the day I got cut on I had the top on the tank, but there is about 1/2 of an inch in between the top and the glass center brace, and somehow she managed to land onto the glass bar. I don't know why I'm having so many issues with this tank. It's like it is cursed.

I'm still fighting algae issues. I ordered replacement filters for my mightymite from AWI yesterday, but they won't be here till next Monday according to UPS. I'm thinking about ordering some GFO to run in my HOB filter. I'd been doing weekly 10-12g waterchanges, along with manual macro removal and changing the carbon every other WC. It's still not cutting it.



Wut wut in da butt?

Finally ordered some PhosBan and a few other things for the tank this morning. AWI filter refills should be here today, so I'm planning on switching the filters and then running about 20g worth of water for a WC tomorrow.

Also, the 9g has sw in it again. I need to throw some sand and some rock in there today.

More tanks!

I think you might be trying to add too many fish too quickly JMHO.

I think I figured out at least part of the problem with the tank. The heater was putting off stray voltage. I've unplugged the heater for now, but I don't know what brand of heater would be best to replace it with. I've always used Stealth heaters in the past, but since this one is only about 3 years old and is already causing a problem I'm not sure I want another one. Also, grounding probe yes/no?

3 years is an average lifespan for a Stealth. It's worth it to me to avoid the explosion risk with the all plastic heater. If you order them from the Drs they're pretty cheap, so that's not too bad every few years.

Hi sdunkin
I use a ground probe in my sump. Don't know if it helps or not
But it can't hurt. The last Ebo Jager heater I got is fully submersible.
That's new for the company, and they last longer than a bit-o-honey
candy bar too. Good move on ordering the PhosBan. I use it in a
chemical chamber, tested 0 ppm last night even though it's been over a month
since last change. That's pushing the limit though...light bio-load.

I think I'm going to ordering an Eheim Jager heater. My Stealth worked fine, but considering how much livestock I've lost that I think can be attributed to it, I'm going to stay away from them for now. Saving $10 on a heater doesn't really matter when you consider how much livestock I lost due to it. I'm positive at least 5 fish were killed directly due to the stray voltage, as they would act perfectly fine and then be dead. My bicolor angel was happy and eating 10 minutes prior to his death (I walked into the room and fed, then walked out to take care of the darts and when I came back in it was dead).

I'm planning on doing another large water change tonight, which will make roughly 40g of water changed out in the last week or so with the new ro/di filters. I'm also switching to Reef Crystals salt for a while, mainly just because my LFS is closed now and I didn't want to drive an hour to get Oceanic. I ordered all my other stuff from petstore.com and they don't carry Oceanic. I've never tried Reef Crystals before, hopefully it will be decent. I'll also be adding in the phosban and some new carbon. Hopefully it will start getting stuff cleared up so I can take some pictures.

Oh. I see. The only fish deaths I've ever attributed to a malfunctioning heater were cheap glass heaters that exploded. My stealths that have gotten old have just stopped working, so nothing worse than a little room temperature water.

I understand the switch now.

I still haven't ordered a new heater. So far my temps are staying rather steady at 76-78º so I may wait to buy a new one for a while. I just did a 15g water change, added phosban and fresh carbon, and did some manual removal of the algae. I think I'm having either bacterial blooms or something is spawning in my tank as I've had it randomly turn milky looking a few times in the last couple weeks.

+1 on the spawning, Had milky water once or twice a month and could not figure it out. One night came home late found this:

Yeah I'm assuming its spawning. Usually it does it in the early morning while the lights are off and then it clears off before lights come back on, but once it was cloudy during the day too. The latter might of been due to my watchmans digging though.

Right now the tank is on day 1 of a 3 day lights-out in an attempt to help with the algae. I my temps have been staying pretty steady without a heater, so even though I know I'll need to get one soon for now it is a bit lower on my priority list. I'm still planning on getting a grounding probe due to my "it wouldn't hurt" way of thinking with it lol.

I'm planning on turning tank lights back on on Thursday after I do another large (15g) water change. I've also been told to go get a Foxface rabbitfish, as it will help eat the algae. I'm still slightly on the fence about them, and it will probably come down to my ability to find one locally because its been too hot here for me to want to risk shipping.

fox face might be hard on any soft corals you want to keep. My yellow tang keeps any algae at bay. Even the few macro ones I HAD growing on the rocks. Grr...

I might try a yellow tang instead of a foxface, just with my luck with fish lately I'm kinda scared to spend the money lol. I definitely don't want anything that will be nipping on my coral. I'm pretty sure my issues of stray voltage are resolved, but I'm not positive. I ordered a grounding probe which should hopefully be here soon, then I'll be able to feel a bit more at ease about it.

The lights are still out on the tank, but I'm running water for a water change right now. Planning on doing a 20g water change and a lot of manual removal (going to break out a toothbrush and try to scrub some of the algae off). I just hope it works.

Do you know what kind of algae it is?

My best guess is some sort of caulerpa. It looks a lot like caulerpa prolifera, but the leaves don't get as long as some of the pics of it I've seen.

I guess I should proly update this, even though there isn't much new to say. The tank is still there, so is the algae. Haven't been able to afford any new fish, although I did buy a sea hare today. Hopefully it will eat my algae, but if not, I'll find him a home with another local reefer. I might be getting either a foxface or a tang soon, as I found out my LFS is willing to trade me my old sump from my 40b for one (I've had no luck selling it). Still need to order a heater and get my hands on some more salt this week, but that will all depend on fundage. Local job market has sucked as of late (a big warehouse here closed a while back, so the area is flooded with people fighting for the few jobs that post every week), so I still haven't been able to get anything there, hence why my tank has really been at a standstill.

The tank still has only 7 small fish in it, as far as I can tell they are doing good. Caught my Pyle's Fairy wrasse jump out of the tank a while back (he somehow made it through a gap in the eggcrate), but thankfully I was right there and got him right back into the tank. My baby picasso in my 9g is also doing very well, as his his baby rbta tankmate. Once they get a big bigger, they will be moved over to the 75g.

Oh, I figured I'd add that a not very local, but very very nice reef store is having a big sale in a couple weeks. All of their livestock will be 50% off. I'm hoping to pick up a mandarin there, but unless I see something I really love that isn't too horribly pricey, I think I'm pretty much done for stocking. I might add a small angel, but I'm not sure yet.

Traded off my old sump for a Foxface tonight. Also ended up picking up a small target mandarin. I really shouldn't of spent the $, but my LFS lady does a great job of fattening them up prior to selling them.

I also found this bleeding next to the road:

Congrats on the new fish. Sometimes its hard to resist temptation when you're standing in the fish store looking at a cool fish.


Good luck finding the dog's owners.

Oh man, she had a beautiful female Bellus Angel, a Lamarck's Angel, and a Swallowtail Angel that I was drooling all over. Sadly the funds just aren't here at the moment.

I did find doggies owner, she was absolutely elated to have him back.

Man that would be tough to pass up. My LFS has a couple of Cherub angels right now. It kills me everytime I see them.

Good news!

If I would of had the cash, I would of came home with at least one of them lol. Probably either the Bellus or the Lamark's, as they are my favorites. She also had a bunch of nice little yellow tangs and a nice little yellow eye kole. Plus a bunch of nice corals. I could of easily dropped $250+ in there if I had the spare cash lol.

Sounds like my LFS. We've never really had a decent fish store until this one opened last winter. Now I can't go in there without at least buying a frag or some snails or something. There are always cool fish, but I don't have that kind of money and my 180 is almost full. There is a BEAUTIFUL full grown desjardini sailfin right now. They want $150 for him but man is it pretty. Good thing I don't have $150 for one fish.

lol

My LFS lady has very reasonable prices, she just had a bunch of nice pieces of coral and nice fish that I wanted. I've had great luck in the past with my previous mandarin from her (he died during the stray voltage fiasco), she fattens them up before they go which makes it so much easier to transition them over to prepared foods. She always QTs her new fish, and then fattens them all up before they go. She had a very very nice red and green open brain, a big colony of duncans, and a beautiful purple/green hammer that I wanted so bad.

Their prices are hit and miss. Their large fish are all expensive. Their common, staples of the hobby fish are kinda expensive (occy clowns, chromis, damsels), but the middle ground stuff is "reasonable" for an in-person, obviously healthy fish purchase. Their coral prices vary too. Cheap frags on up to expensive frags and decent sized colonies. It's a pretty good store, compared to what we've always had I've got no complaints.

Cool. My lady usually charges right around LiveAquaria prices for fish, unless its something very rare or something that she has a high death rate on before she has them ready to sell. I paid $18 for my target mandarin, but she'd already had him for quite a while and he's a fat little booger lol. Her coral prices are a bit higher, but she usually sells colonies, not frags. To be honest, I've never spent much there on coral, just because I'm more fond of fish than coral for the most part lol.

Me neither, until now. I still am more interested in fish, but I'm about out of room for fish so I've shifted to coral. I go straight to the $5 frags bin when I go to the LFS now. They had some even smaller frags last time 3 for $10. I bought 6.

sweet!

I need to frag my huge green polyped toadie and then get a few more corals once the cash flow increases.

My algae is over half gone! And my Foxface is getting really fat lol. I'm hoping within the next couple weeks that the algae will be gone. Also, I'm planning on removing the seahair this weekend and will most likely be going to an open house thingy at a not so local LFS this Saturday.

Yay!!! Its nice when you've got a tank big enough to just have a fish take care of an algae problem, isn't it? My dwarf angels and tangs are algae eating machines. I've had friends loan me rocks before so my fish could get rid of their algae.

New LFS' are always fun.

YAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy with my foxface for eating my algae that its almost pathetic lol.

I was really excited and hoping to go to the reef thingy this weekend, but now it looks like I won't be able to go. My car is at the dealership with what I'm hoping is just a bad power steering pump, which should be an easy fix and will hopefully correct the issues its been having. It just means I'm without a car this weekend, and if I take the truck I'm going to have to spend all my reef monies on gas just to get there and back .

Ended up going to the reef thingy, even tho I spent almost as much in gas to get there as I did at the store lol. Came home with 3 red firefish and 1 yellow tang, all for $30 They had tailspot blennies for $12, but they had sold out before I was able to get there. They also had a teeny tiny little potter's angel that I wanted so so so bad. I'd never seen one that small, but the $50 price tag was a bit more than I can spend at the moment.

I added more stuff to the tank today. Finally.

I have this week off, so I hope online and go to the Facebook, only to see that the one store that sells saltwater within 30 miles of me just got in a bunch of new shipments. I was bored so I decided to go check it out, and ended up coming home with an adult coloration Atlantic Blue Tang and a Fiji Blue Damsel (which will be going in the 9g). The guy working there even gave me a discount on them. They had a BEAUTIFUL Lamark's angel that I wanted badly, but it cost too much.

Also, the babby picasso from the 9g is finally moving to the 75g. He's acclimating over right now. I think I'm going to put him in a breeder net for a couple nights just to make sure my other clown doesn't go after him, but so far she seems curious to him acclimating in the bag.