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Mr. Microscope's JBJ Picotope


Mr. Microscope

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Mr. Microscope

I've decided to add a post to my thread whenever I add a topic or post a question to the nano-reef world. I think this will be beneficial to both myself as an easy to find record of events, and perhaps to any fellow noob out there that might experience a problem similar to me. Enjoy!

 

Today's post (to the General Discussion forum):

What's more important with water parameters for coral growth? Stability VS. High Numbers (Alk, Mg, and Ca)

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Mr. Microscope

Here are the rest of my thread questions or topics to date:

Warning: They probably get more noobish (embarrassingly so), the further back you go.

 

2010.05.30 to the Invert forum

Does anyone keep barnacles?

Probably not a good idea.

 

2010.05.20 to the Disease and Pest Treatment forum

Zoa pox, do i got 'em?

Maybe

 

2010.05.13 to the Invert forum

How long should it take to molt?, Porcelain crab upside-down since yesterday.

Died..

 

2010.05.15 to the ID forum

Green Lanterns?

No answers, but I'm pretty sure they are.

 

2010.05.05 to the Lighting forum

2010.05.04 to the Nano Customs forum

2010.05.03 to the Lighting forum

Nano Customs 12 inch T5 actinic, Single ballast.

I want to do a singe 12 inch T5 actinic., Are there any single lights out there?

Adding actinic to 20KK PAR38, Suplimental lighting options?

Not yet, something new to come from NanoCustoms/Tuners along these lines. ETA unknown.

@microscope guy - hold tight. We may have just the ticket coming sometime soon.

Chris

 

2010.05.02 to the Coral forum

Anybody got $1500?, Check this baby out!

Crazy cool, but insanely expensive scoly.

 

2010.04.26 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Removing established live rock, Dangers?

Watch it there cowboy..

 

2010.04.25 to the Coral forum

PE Catalogue, For all you people eaters out there!

 

2010.04.20 to the Site Feedback & Questions forum

Embedding YouTube videos, How's it done here? I swear I've seen it

Short answer..It can't.

 

2010.04.19 to the Fish forum

Fish Vs. Porcelain Crab, Any problems?

Goby safer than Damsel

 

2010.04.18 to the Coral forum

Octopus Ink Hetroxenia, Has anyone ever seen/owned this?

Possibly disappointing

 

2010.04.16 to the Coral forum

Saddest Palys Ever!, LFS Stock

Sad..and hilarious!

 

2010.04.15 to the Coral forum

Favorite zoas you don't own?

 

2010.04.15 to the Coral forum

Are my AOG's actually AOG's or something else?, One more image for further analysis...post 15

Possibly not, possibly the same thing.

 

2010.04.07 to the Pico Reefs forum

Pico Pumps/Powerheads, What are you using?

I ended up with the Koralia Nano.

 

2010.04.03 to the Lighting forum

Water temp. Changing from PC to PAR38 LEDs, Adjusting heater.

No change.

 

2010.03.30 to the DIY forum

Chromed Egg Crate for Frag Rack?, Is it safe to stick in the tank?

Don't do it! There's copper in them thar egg crates!

 

2010.03.25 to the Coral forum

Magician Dilemma, Poly not looking so good

Issue resolved its self. Just let it be.

 

2010.03.12 to the General Discussion forum

Tanks breaking on camera! Hilarious., No worries..it's just a FW. heehee

 

2010.02.19 to the Invert forum

Porcelain Crab Molted, ...I think...?

 

2010.02.15 to the Livestock Classifieds forum

Let's trade in NYC, Zoa frags for zoa frags or whatever

My first fragging attempt. Awe..

 

2010.02.15 to the Lighting forum

Safe Transition from 18W PC to PAR38, I don't want to shock anything.

Lesson learned the hard way. I should have used screens and been more patient.

 

2010.02.14 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Water Changes, How much is too much?

Let 'er Rip!

 

2010.02.14 to the Pico Reefs forum

AC70 HOB and tank water level, Do you need a waterfall?

Fill it to the top with the AC70 off. You're good to go!

 

2010.02.10 to the Coral forum

Toadstool sloughing, How long should it take?

 

2010.02.08 to the ID forum

It's a new baby..something, zoa?, paly? popped up from the substrate

I still have this and have no idea what it is. It is the same size it was four months ago.

 

2010.02.05 to the Coral forum (Probably should have gone in the General Discussion forum though)

Bioluminescence in corals/sea life?, Any swimming fireflies out there?

Flashlight Fish..nothing else really

 

2010.01.31 to the Lighting forum

PAR38: 12,00K VS. 20,000K, 40, 60, or 80 degree, 3 Gallon JBJ Picotope users

I ended up with the 20KK/80 degree optics.

 

2010.01.28 to the Lighting forum

Any good places online to get CREE's?, I've been hunting.

 

2010.01.28 to the Lighting forum

Lighting for chaeto in fuge., Cheap options?

 

2010.01.22 to the Water Chemistry forum

Dosing the water change., Freshly made mineral and carbonate deficient water.

I ended up switching to a reef salt (from Tropic Marin to IO Reef Salt).

 

2010.01.21 to the General Discussion forum

Who lives in the NYC area?, 'Always fun to meet new people.

 

2010.01.13 to the Pico Reefs forum

Best reef safe pico pets other than gobies?, What do you have in your pico? What about Blennies?

:lol: I'm so lame. I have a Yellow Clown Goby now!

 

2010.01.13 to the ID forum

trasparent pink mushroom?, HH with Brown mushrooms

Nope. Just a brown one that wasn't getting enough light till it grew bigger.

 

2010.01.12 to the Invert forum

Snails are weird

..but I love 'em.

 

2010.01.08 to the Coral forum

GSP not happy with Green Budding Goniopora

 

2010.01.04 to the ID forum

Purple Sponges?

I still have these. They're surprisingly resilient. They're even doing well under my LEDs. I've set stuff on top of them for weeks and they still look great. These prevented my from ditching the piece of rock that they're on.

 

2009.12.22 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Missing Cerith?, dead in the sand somewhere?

Found it that day. :lol:

 

2009.12.09 to the ID forum (should have been to the Beginners Discussion forum)

Is this LR bleaching?

Now it starts getting embarrassing..

 

2009.12.01 to the ID forum

pink shelving?, associated with red coralline/algae?

 

2009.11.30 to the ID forum

hydrozoans?

Yup.

 

2009.11.17 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Aiptasia rock

I haven't seen any in a long time.

 

2009.11.17 to the ID forum

Unknown Worm

Cool video. Haven't seen it since.

 

2009.11.09 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Algea growth, no cycle, 9 days, CUC?

Water changes and manual removal. Gone.

 

2009.11.08 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Nassarius but no fish?, any advantage?

Not unless you're feeding corals.

 

2009.11.04 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Low SG

 

2009.11.03 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Saving Water, does it go bad?

Supposedly yes, but I always make it fresh.

 

2009.11.03 to the ID forum

What kind of macro algae is this?

Some sort of flame macro algae. I still have it, but my chaeto is slowly starving it. I think this really helped my cycle and to keep my tank clean in the beginning though.

 

2009.11.02 to the ID forum

Aiptasia?

Nope. GSP HH!

 

2009.11.01 to the Beginners Discussion forum

Why not just DI water?

It's all good.

 

2009.10.31 to the Beginners Discussion forum

No water changes during cycle?

 

2009.10.31 to the Beginners Discussion forum

High pH after mixing salt?

 

2009.10.27 to the Pico Reefs forum

JBJ Picotope filter with AC70 fuge mod?

This is still not a bad idea. I'm thinking about adding it now for some additional filtering.

 

 

 

......whew..

Wow, that took a bit longer than anticipated..

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meganistkrieg

Glad the flatworm extermination went well! Love the picture of the goby, too. They seem like really fun little fish. I was considering getting one but I think my clownfish would tear it apart. They're rough enough just with each other. :D I gotta come by and see your tank sometime!

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Mr. Microscope

 

Solution:

 

The general agreement was that specific high numbers are not as important as condition ranges and consistency with those ranges. Dosing should probably be done extremely gradually. Frequent water changes are probably the best way to maintain stable number ranges.

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Mr. Microscope

sigh...

 

I still have a few flatworms hanging about. Gonna to another treatment this week.

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Hi there do you have pics of your flatworms? also hope the zoa gets better mate. Also if you get five mins jump over to my tank post give me some advice if you can thx!

 

Thx for your advice hope you post a pic of your flatworms aint got any but also aint got a clue what they look like .

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Mr. Microscope
Hi there do you have pics of your flatworms? also hope the zoa gets better mate. Also if you get five mins jump over to my tank post give me some advice if you can thx!

 

Thx for your advice hope you post a pic of your flatworms aint got any but also aint got a clue what they look like .

 

I haven't taken any pics of the flatworms, but they're the little red guys. I really don't have that bad of an infestation. I only see maybe one or tow a day, but being a microscopist I focus in on every little tiny bit of movement in those three big gallons.

 

I moved the zoas down towards the bottom of the tank. I think it's a lighting issue. There's probably not much difference in par between those few inches, but it's worth a shot.

 

Anytime on the advice. Sometimes I skim over threads and miss stuff. So, feel free to ask again if I don't chime in on something you're stumped about.

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Mr. Microscope
Tank looks great! I really like your Goby.

 

Good luck with the flatworms also.

 

Thanks! The FTS is almost up to date. I have since been given some GSP and moved a few frags around the racks, but there haven't been enough changes to take a new FTS. Though, my next major change that I have planned is to start my zoa garden towards the bottom of the tank nestled on the left side. I plan to get some rubble and attach most of my zoa frags to them. I'm hoping to get some nice round looking colonies going. Other plans down the road are to start some LPS. I met a guy in my institute who is into the hobby, he said that we could trade frags. He might give me some acans or a white bubble coral. I figure I might as well give it a shot since I'm starting to feed my tank now.

 

Also, the flatworms will be toast very soon. The last dose took care of most of them. There's just a few stragglers sticking about. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

Finally, Gobiodon says Hi!

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Mr. Microscope
2010.06.09 to the Coral forum

Zoas half open all the time

 

Answer pending..

 

This post has been a reaffirmation of the awesomeness of the nano-reef community. Inside of a few hours I had a couple different opinions and ideas on about how to deal with this issue.

 

I posted the same question on the zoa forums on both reef2reef.com and reefcentral.com at the same time. On reefcentral, I had one reply asking me to give more information on my tank parameters (fair enough, I forgot to add any :huh: ), and one more suggesting a dip. On reef2reef, I haven't had ANY replies yet.

 

My solution for today came from Gerber77 and organism. These are new zoas and my lights are probably stronger than the ones at the LFS. I had them towards the top because they are yellow and I thought they could take it, but I moved them down towards the bottom of the tank. Hopefully they will be opening better soon. They've been my best producer lately, pumping out at least two new heads since getting them.

 

I will also be following up with a dip of some sort (lugols, coral revive, etc.) when I get some. I've decided that this should be my next purchase.

 

...also on my list for next purchase..

nano-reef.com premium membership!

I don't really need the extra space for PMs or gallery images. I just want to support this awesome site and community! Plus the cool badge is a fun bonus.

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been thinkin about the membership to for the same reasons. sorry i haven't gotten a fts yet. i did some fragging today on my spartans to trade with someone on here. it was my first time. lol. so i will definately keep an eye on them to see if the heal. i will get a fts here in the next couple of days. good luck on the zoas.

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Mr. Microscope

Updates 2010.06.11

 

To start with, here's the latest FTS:

FTS20100611.jpg

 

Top Down FTS

TopFTS20100611.jpg

 

You can see that I rescaped slightly; moving my branch rock around, my GSP to the top, and a couple small ones to the bottom for the zoa garden.

 

I finally started my zoa garden after attempting to grow out for several months. I'm hoping this takes off.

zoagarden20100611.jpg

 

I also added some GSP (Yes, it's THAT bright!). Here you can see both varieties:

NewGSP.jpg

 

The racks were moved to the right side of the tank. The zoas were getting too much flow on the left.

Top (Gobiodon saying, "FEED MEE!!"):

topracks20100611.jpg

 

Bottom:

bottomracks20100611.jpg

 

Finally, to help add a little flare, I decided to start a colony of horizons on my branch looking rock in the center. It's hard to see, but there's a brittle star below the horizons on the right.

 

If you look to the right, you'll see my feather duster that I've had since the beginning. He's grown a lot and worked his way around the rock. You can see his little tube that he made going horizontally, then turning up ninety degrees to where the head is today. When I first set up the LR, he was at the beginning of it. That white growth that branches upward is all new growth in the last couple months. This is the best shot I've ever been able to get of it.

featherdusterandhorizons.jpg

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Mr. Microscope
:lol: That's actually a small blue mushroom that I recently acquired. It doesn't like my LEDs. So, I keep it in the shade.
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oooooo now I do see a shroom xD

sorry it looked VERY weird at first glance.

tank looks kewl btw. that goby is so darn small still! must be a young one.

your tank looks so dang purple lol. at least it looks very clean from algae (unlike mine -_-)

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Mr. Microscope

Thanks. Yeah, it's an interesting mushroom.

 

Yup..tiny goby :)

 

I spend time about once or twice a week cleaning the front panel of glass. This week, I did a little more and got both sides. Luckily, no algae on the rocks either.

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yeah I mean algae on the rocks, you have none. Mine's really annoying with bryopsis and cyano lurking about -_-

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Mr. Microscope
yeah I mean algae on the rocks, you have none. Mine's really annoying with bryopsis and cyano lurking about -_-

 

Minimize feeding and keep up with your water changes. Good luck man!

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meganistkrieg

Tank is looking great!! Gobiodon is adorable - kind of makes me wish I had gone with a goby instead of a second clown. :lol: And yeah, that GSP is insane-o bright, especially under actinics only! How's the flatworm battle going?

 

I'll be posting some pics on mine later, though those neon green zoas you traded me last time are still adjusting to the light, it seems. They were closed for the first day or two but now they're starting to shape up. What is the name of the one you traded me BEFORE that? With the orange center and sort of dark outer circle, yellow skirt? It might be my favorite after the WW's at this point. :happy:

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Mr. Microscope

I did one more treatment for the flatworms today before my WC. I saw a few float around but hardly even enough to suck up, even manually with a pipette. Plus, I used 4 drops this time instead of 3. I'd be really surprised if I saw anymore after that.

 

Yeah, I forgot that those zoas are sensative. When I first got them it took about two weeks for the whole colony to open up. They seem to spread pretty fast though. I hope they work out well for you.

 

I'm not sure about the ID on those darker ones. My best guess is something close to a Green Bay Packer. They are coloring up really wierd for me. The ones I have on the rock they came on are rather dull. They lost an orange dot that they used to have and are just sort of dark all over. They were also blue in the spot where they are now dark. The ones that I fragged have neon orange mouths, and fluorescent green skirts (and yellow skirts for you, huh?). They've been getting about the same amount of light, but look completely different. It's like the stress of fragging caused them to get colors. This has been consistent with three different frags. I'm considering fragging the rest of the colony for that very reason. They've definitely been some of my more entertaining zoas.

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Mr. Microscope

Thanks Friar!

 

I'll be away from my tank until Wednesday. I can't wait to see if I've had any growth.

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