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Mr. Microscope's JBJ Picotope


Mr. Microscope

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Mr. Microscope
WOW how much was that toadstool frag! ive been looking for one forever

 

I got it in a trade. The first coral I bought was a green budding goniopora. Dumb noob mistake. I realized it about 2 minutes after I got it into my tank. So, I put up an ad right away in my local reefer forum and got the toadstool, neon green zoas, and rock with brown mushrooms for it. I paid 40 for the goniopora. So, I think I got a pretty good deal. I was happy with it either way. The brown mushroom rock is just caked with purple coralline and came with a bunch of brittlestar HHs. Bonus!

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Mr. Microscope

Woohoo! The change to the new reef salt Instant Ocean Reef Crystals Reef Salt seems to be working. After my weekly change of 4L, water parameters are where they should be. Alk 10.6, Ca 445, Mg 1245. Maybe Mg is a little low but way better than it was in the 11s. The only thing I added this week was some bicarbonate (baking soda) for Alk. I think I'm starting to find a good flow.

I just hope that I'm not missing too much of the other minerals provided by the salt I was using before, Tropic Marin.

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Toby Flenderson

I used to use tropic Marin and had great results but could not justifiy the cost and switched to reef crystals and it's great. I really like the 5 gallon pail with the sealed spin off top.

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Mr. Microscope

New Frags!

 

newfrags.jpg

 

Yesterday, I bought a couple new frags from a local reefer. The one on the left was just called Pink and Gold Polys. You can see how they look in my tank. The pic in the bottom corner is how they looked in the seller's tank. This is how they will look when I get the new light. I can't wait. They are HUGE! In addition, while I was there, I bought a single head of a Magician. This is also a very large polyp. You can see that one on the right. I also got a free single head of Papaya Clove as a bonus.

 

I think I've got a pretty good pallet going. I just want to get some Tubb's Blue or some other type of blue zoa and I will be done with zoas for a while. After everything has grown out a little, I will start to frag stuff onto my rocks and really get a more natural look going.

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Mr. Microscope
whoa :o !nice new addition.sellers pics is awesome!

i have tubbs blue. ;)

 

:lol:

Haha! Nice one m'akoy! Thanks again. You can see that the Magician opened well.

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yo!

how are things going with the zoas on the shells? are they taking over the smooth surface or are they just stitting there?

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Mr. Microscope
yo!

how are things going with the zoas on the shells? are they taking over the smooth surface or are they just stitting there?

They're spreading quite well. Both have doubled since fragging. Though whether or not they're spreading faster than they would on a plug is yet to be determined. I'm more excited about my GSP spreading on a shell. I'd like to have a nice patch of it and it's been growing very slow on my porous LR.

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nice! I placed most of my zoa frags on shell fragments in hopes of the zoas eventually growing over the shell ;)

I hope your method works (even if the zoas are not initially glued to the surface, they should still spread because they are in contact with it right?)

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man i have been searching for an easy cheap diy ato system on the site all morning, and didnt realize that you had exactly what i was looking for! im only looking for something that will last two or three days. how do you like the system you have and if you would do anything different to it what would it be? the new frags are looking sweet too! i think i have exhausted my zoa collection as well (i know i did some of them are starting to take over places i didnt intend.ha!) keep up the good reefin man.

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Mr. Microscope

Hello jdl,

 

Advantages:

Easy to build and maintain

Cheap

Reliable

 

Disadvantages:

Only 1L H2O (only lasts 2-3 days)

If I go on vacation I have to find someone to fill it up every two days or so.

Dosing ATO may lead to increase in tank SG due to osmotic pressures

Needs to be mounted higher than tank (Not very aesthetically pleasing from a design sense)

 

If I had any larger of a tank (20G for example) I don't think this option would be very good. The float switch method would certainly be my preference, but I don't really want to spend the time/money to build it.

 

Here are a couple of old pictures from a thread talking about it.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...st&id=69335

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...st&id=69336

 

Here is a link to the thread talking about making it.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=219136&hl=

 

 

Thanks for the compliment on the zoas. My aquarium is starting to look like a frag tank now. Haha. I'm starting to see the advantages of a frag rack and plugs. I guess the idea is that you grow them out on it and then attach them to your rocks. More things to change/build/have fun with!

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Mr. Microscope

FTS 2010.03.19

FTS_20100319.jpg

Here's a small update. I found a couple of aiptasia the other day. One was in the far back of my tank and there was no way I was going to be able to get back there without moving stuff around. So, I gingerly moved all of my corals out of the way, moved some rocks, and zapped 'em with some boiling water. Now I couldn't get things back to the way they were, so, VOILA! New rock scape! Now, none of my frags are sitting on the substrate with the exception of my GSP. I took that little button polyp that I found growing in my substrate out of it's little plastic box. It's sitting with the big boys now. My papaya clove is starting to do something. No clove part yet, but it's a lot a fun to watch. It's growing fast. The zoas are showing better color. Check out the pinks and golds coming out of my Pink and Golds. Also, my Magician is starting to bud another head, and the AOGs have made two new ones.

powertrio.jpg

Also, I started using my camera instead of my phone. I used the camera for the FTS, but the poly pic was taken with my phone. I'm going to try to start getting better pics.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and finally..

 

EDIT:

[There used to be a ticker here counting the days I was waiting for my PAR38.]

Total wait: 1 month, 3 weeks, 4 days.

 

still no sign of it.

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Mr. Microscope
rofl, I hope it wasn't lost in transit :0

 

Haven't gotten the email saying it's been shipped yet.

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What kind of optics did you get for the PAR38?

I am also deciding to pull the trigger on the PAR38 so I sent out some emails to nanotuners about 3 days ago with some questions regarding the backorder and here is what they responded with:

 

Mar 17, 2010

"We expect more lamps in stock in about a week. 60* optics are 1-2 weeks out."

 

 

So if you ordered with 60deg optics, expect to wait at least a couple weeks before it ships.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Awesome tank by the way!, my pico will be turning 1 week old tonight =)

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Mr. Microscope

I ordered the 80 degree optics and a set of 60 lenses in case I want to change them. Thanks for the inside scoop. I sincerely appreciate it! I'll let you know how it works out.

 

Good luck with your tank Nimavafi and congratulations! Do you have a tank thread? Throw me a link if you do. :)

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Gahhh I'm so jealous of your little green zoa colony right in the middle. I have a frag of what I believe is the same species and I am so impatient waiting for it to grow out into more of a dome shape like yours. Unfortunately mine seems to be taking FOREVER to grow.

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Mr. Microscope

Thanks! Those were the first zoas I acquired in my trade for my goniopora. I used to not really care for them, but they are slowly becomming some of my favorites. The pics don't do them justice. The green in the middle is quite irridescent and has gotten brighter since I got them. The dot in the center is purple. I have them in a spot with lots of flow, making the skirts extra long. I'm not really sure how fast they grow. They are on a rock and cover all of it. I think it's gotten fuller since I got it, but it hard to say.

 

Here they are:

http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=171

 

 

I'm jealous of your blue ricordia and purple zoas. Those are awesome! Do you know what kind of zoas they are?

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