Petolo's first Pico

[petolo]

I think I've been putting my filter floss in wrong for 2 months... did a big WC earlier in the week and rinsed the filter, when putting it in I noticed that there was a gap between the overflow and the filter, moved the filter forward and it fit much tighter, strange that it didn't come from factory like that.

 

NOTE to anyone buying this tank, put the filter as close to the false wall as possible!

[petolo]

So I finally got fed up with the tank not being entirely level on the kitchen ledge, so I bought some construction type wood shims and pretty much leveled this puppy out. looks better to my OCD, but a little ugly if you look at the shims (can't win apparently).

 

Also does anyone have any experience with GSPs dissolving?? I'll try to post some pics later but it looks like a good chunk of my GSPs are basically gone... I did drop a little of the crushed coral on them during a siphon but I can't imagine they would be completely intolerant of that. Any info would be awesome.

[petolo]

Pics of the GSP, also looks like I'm going to get to fight bubble algae, and look! baby GSPs popping up around my candycane... not sure how that happened.

[BuddhaReef]

Pics of the GSP, also looks like I'm going to get to fight bubble algae, and look! baby GSPs popping up around my candycane... not sure how that happened.

Was the crushed coral heavy that you have dropped on the GSP? I've crushed it under rocks, tore matts off of plugs and pitted it against an RFA and it still seems to be fine. Also is it even remotely near something more aggressive? It has no physical or chemical defense but rather relies on fast propagation. As far as the babies, maybe whatever happend to the main frag, a bit was blown around and settled there?

 

I'd suggest an emerald crab for battling bubbles, and it will eat other algeas as well after.

[petolo]

I was thinking the emerald crab, and I didn't think it was too heavy but it was a bad day doing water changes so maybe something happened, as long as it keeps growing I'll be good. Nothing aggressive nearby, will be moving my zoas to a new spot soon

[BuddhaReef]

Ahh, yeah those days when everything that should go smooth doesn't. And call me crazy but my big colony of zoas had a sweeper tentacle that bothered my goni nearby, but that is not common.

[petolo]

This started up before the GSP and zoas became neighbors (moved it yesterday), but I've been wanting to move the zoas for a while now.

[petolo]

Will manual removal of the bubble algae help at all? Or will that just help it spread?

 

On a side note can anyone name some macroalgae that I could put in the tank to kind of cover the heater that wont throw everything in chaos every time the lights switch on or off? not worried about it being the best looking macro out there, just trying to help with a little nutrient uptake in between WC's

[brandon429]

prepare for possible tank loss if the bubble algae isn't attacked

 

see our peroxide threads for one way, but don't delay for sure, its in top three tank wreckers. It got into your tank via no quarantine, most nano reefers do not.

 

Your tank is at the exact stage Roland's pico was at in the earlier pages. the way he stopped algae cannot be beaten, its a 100% for sure fix while all other methods of leaving it in the tank constitute 100% of the problem tanks on our peroxide threads.

even if your first test wasn't valonia, its the same even if just basic green hair algae. there is no permissible stage for any of it in the bulletproof reef tank. in the risk taking reef tank, there surely is room for all algae and possible fixes that focus on nutrients alone.

[petolo]

So if I was to go peroxide, but there is algae on some of the things I can't take out, could I attack in the tank? Do a WC after hitting it? Emerald crab doesn't seem to have any interest in the bubble.

 

I have maybe 2 or 3 things I can take out and dip, but the rest is all pretty much attached

[brandon429]

you would do a tank drain to access it out of the water, but that's only my way. have to research the many ways it was applied and ran before attempting, and per the threads you do only a test rock first not the whole tank, all covered in the most recent posts in the peroxide threads

 

we did my tanks valonia with pics too

 

 

im always taking what we had to do in the wrecked tanks, and applying it as first go offer for all pre invasion tanks. I assure you my way is debatable, 99% want to leave it in the system. its either a tank access issue, or waiting for a chem or a plant to remove enough nutrients out of the water, but in the simplest form its merely leaving it in the tank on purpose not knowing what can become of it

 

 

 

everything we have is removable in nanos, only by preference is it not. I just endured a mass mushroom invasion last year that wiped out 3/4 of my corals, it was the inaccessibility angle that got me. I literally sat there and watched one become 200 and did nothing until was forced to. Imagine if #3 would have just been scraped out

[petolo]

I is not happy haha, why couldn't you give me better news Brandon?! Now I have to do work!

 

Seriously though, I'm going to try to do a thorough removal on anything that would be difficult to remove, and if it doesn't work do a peroxide dip

[brandon429]

agreed

 

I had one poster who accessed the valonia, poured liquid kalk paste on the area, let sit for five mins out of water and burned that valonia clean...same ends different chem burn. the attack was the key factor not the item used in the attack~ thousands of tanks beat valonia with no chems. its hard to recommend these actions with so many one off examples floating around of lesser actions fixing the issue... but one thing is certain...invite a valonia wrecked poster today to follow any other type of method vs direct attack and see how hard that thread is to control, darn hard~valonia is top 3 tank invaders causing loss

 

dinos is the other

 

then standard green hair algae or bryopsis mixes

[petolo]

So far just trying to do the manual removal of any bubbles I see, so far they haven't seemed to spread too much.

 

On a positive note, I think my acan is starting to bud, it was retracted for a bit yesterday and I saw what looked like 5 little teeny acan mouths/feeding bits ringing the big one I've got. fingers crossed I'm right, this would be awesome

 

One new question has come up though, on my base rock, there were what looked like mussels or some other bivalve, but looked like part of the rock, I just figured they were there and dead, but lately I've seen them opening up and what looks like some tubes coming out from them. Is it possible that these guys are alive and filter feeding out of the water? Should I do anything nice for them? I'll get some pics up tonight for reference.

[Belmore]

You're tank is looking great!! I finally got mine up and running, but haven't started a build thread yet. Are you still running the stock return pump on yours, or have you upgraded?

[petolo]

Thanks Belmore! Still running the stock pump at around half power. Took it out Sunday night and cleaned it out of any gunk, but so far no issues.

 

I have been thinking about putting a small powerhead in, but the way everything moves around I'm worried it might be overkill...

[brandon429]

I once had a little clam hitchhiker, the boring kind of normal clam not the cool ones, and he stayed alive for 4 yrs just on normal tank feedings and the small food webs that develop in time...enjoy those neat hitchhikers while they are there!

[Belmore]

I installed a Aquatop NP-302 pump yesterday to replace the stock one, but only time will tell how it works out. I can say that it definitely made an immediate impact on stirring up the detritus since it doubled the water flow and passed it through the filtration. I'm also no longer using the stock filters either, I've switched to cut to fit filter floss and Chemipure blue nano. Time will tell though.

[petolo]

Sweet Belmore, you'll have to let me know how it works. So far everything is stock except the light, and things are growing well.

 

I'm torn between the old don't fix it if it ain't broke method, or the sail boat racing adage that if it hasn't broken yet it's too heavy... I'm thinking I'll hold to the former for now

[Belmore]

I typically subscribe to the former as well, but decided to give the new pump a try. Worst case scenario, I'm out $10 or have to turn the flow way back on it. Time will tell.

[petolo]

Updated the FTS on the first post and below are some new close up shots from last night.

[Belmore]

How many snails do you have and what kind? I think I'm to the point I need a CUC, but I'm not real sure on what to start with.

[petolo]

I have a CUC that i got from John at reef cleaners, it is a no hermit crab pack, but a few of those have kicked the bucket. And recently got my hands on some of those nano conchs and those have by far been the best. I have about 7 of those at the moment, but they have been laying eggs so potentially more to come...

 

This guy was selling some of the conch's but looks like he has a huge waiting list: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/370681-fs-nano-conchs-aka-strombus-maculatus-dove-columbellid-etc-snails/