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Innovative Marine Aquariums

El Fab's Pico Reef: 2007–2010


el fabuloso

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sweet! always liked your tank and the coloration/layout. glad to hear it survived the move (almost perfectly :( ). you can't stop carpet surfing.

 

imo, that mystery algae looks bryopsis-like. <_<

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imo, that mystery algae looks bryopsis-like. <_<

Yikes! It does look a great deal like byropsis. :o

 

I removed it just to be on the safe side. Thanks! :)

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Glad to see everything survived your move el fab ! :D I lost my starry blenny to tile surfing a month or so back. I had him for 6 months. I still haven't replaced him. Everyone always asks me , what a fish tank with no fish? :mellow: I guess the corals are a second thought to some. Where as to me the fish is. :o

Edited by SmittyCoco
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Glad to see everything survived your move el fab ! :D I lost my starry blenny to tile surfing a month or so back. I had him for 6 months. I still haven't replaced him. Everyone always asks me , what a fish tank with no fish? :mellow: I guess the corals are a second thought to some. Where as to me the fish is. :o

I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes the fish takes away from the experience as it's expected. I don't think I'm going to add any fish in my tank, especially since it's doing so great as it is. The addition of the peppermint shrimp and emerald crab has made my tank pretty entertaining to watch especially the way they interact with each other during feeding time. I'm thinking of going the crustacean route and try to keep as much variety of shrimps and crabs as I can.

 

Pepe the peppermint shrimp:

CIMG5881.jpg

 

Klauss the emerald crab hiding under my orange yuma:

CIMG5893.jpg

 

 

I also found a nice addition to my tank over the weekend. I went to another LFS that I hardly go to and found a nice size rock covered with blue cloves. The rock itself was too big for my tank so I fragged some pieces off of it and put the larger piece in the 9g.

 

CIMG5897.jpg

 

CIMG5898.jpg

 

I placed them on the sand for the time being but eventually I will be gluing them next to the Xenias. They actually didn't look as blue at the LFS under halides but have colored up nicely in my tank. :happydance:

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Thanks Weetie! It feels good to be back. :happy:

 

Can you make Diane come back? It's totally not the same without her. :(

Edited by el fabuloso
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been lurking here for about a week since I started a Pico for my gf a couple weeks ago. Just letting you know that your tank is amazing, like everyone else has said, and I will be borrowing plenty of your ideas :)

 

Keep it up, can't wait to see the big one.

 

 

O i'll be joining the sexy club soon, we bought one cuz of the craze here :P

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Thanks! I've had great success with my setup so I highly recommend it all: the tank, the light, the AC70 fuge mod, etc. I wish I could take credit for some of the things I've done to my tank but I borrowed them myself from other people so I guess you could say they're tried and true.

 

Sexy shrimps are awesome, you won't be disappointed. It's amazing to see lots of attitude and personality from such a tiny little creature. Be sure to start a tank thread so we can all check out your tank! :)

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Those cloves are sweet. I know I have some nerve asking since I have no pictures but here goes. How about a new FTS.

I miss Diane too!

The nerve! :P

 

I'm due for a monthly FTS so I'll post one real soon. We all miss Diane. :(

 

Love your GSP!!!

Thanks! They really grow like wildfire it's crazy. I have some polyps in the back of my tank that are buried under GSP.

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Hey there El Fab...love your picotope. Long story short, your thread has interested my girlfriend into wanting a pico (for me) to take care of. How critical would you say the lighting upgrade was in the long-run? I can say there will be no SPS attempts in the pico, really only some shrimp and softies. Mushrooms, rics, zoas, and the like. I like the look of your fixture, but I'm looking to cut costs as much as possible....if there is such a thing in our hobby....

 

Thanks, keep up the awesome work!

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Thanks for the compliments! :blush:

 

I would have to say that the lighting upgrade was definitely key to the success of my pico. Not only did it allow me to keep a wide variety corals but it also made my corals happier.

 

I completely understand where you're coming from. If you go back far enough in my thread you can see where I was reluctant to make any big upgrades and it took me quite some time to open up to the idea. I know you want to keep costs down as much as possible but to be honest, that's very hard to do if you want to stay in this hobby. :happy:

Edited by el fabuloso
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Very true! I mean, my aquapod started out completely stock with the "I'll just keep it stock...I don't want any difficult corals..." approach....now with a HOB fuge, sunpod, and smattering of SPS, the costs are through the roof! But I see this tank as going into a work location, so really to impress it just needs to be basic with a few eye catchers. Back to the drawing board I guess! Thanks for your help!

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I went to a LFS yesterday and they had a Yuma for $40. I'm not ready to fork that out until my system is completely stable and modded. The guy said that even with the 36 watts it wouldn't be enough for it and they should only be kept under MHs. So, your Yuma looks fantastic and i'm wondering if the MH thing is really true. Did you notice any change in it's color when you put it in your pico and do you think the growth would have been more significant with a MH?

 

Also, I got my AC 70 modded and my Sunpaq is on it's way. My GF picked out a couple of cheap frags so hopefully I can get a thread up sometime this weekend :)

 

Thanks again.

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My orange yuma is one of my most favorite and most prolific pieces in my tank. I added my yuma about six weeks after my tank was up and I was wary about it, especially since I only had 9 watts of PC at that time and the piece was coming from a shallow display tank with MH.

 

The color changed a little but not too much. When I upgraded my light to 36W was when I finally saw it take off. Over ten months my single orange yuma has grown into five. IME, feeding them regularly is more important than lighting. My yumas are greedy feeders and I feed them silversides every week.

 

Always take your LFS's advice with a grain of salt. The first time I walked into my LFS and told the guy the size of my tank and what I was doing, he laughed at me and was convinced that I was setting myself up for failure. Now he keeps a picture of my tank behind his counter and shows it off to people.

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I'm glad I could help! I can't believe this tank is about to be a year old. It doesn't feel like it's been that long at all. Time flies when you're having fun! :happy:

Edited by el fabuloso
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We gotta love your tank... it's ''sexy''....

Thanks! I'm glad you think it's sexy, that's exactly what I was aiming for. ;)

 

Tank looks amazing. So which upgraded light did you go with and recommend?

Do you have a chiller? How do you keep temps down?

Thank you. I went with the 36W Current Dual Satellite and I highly recommend it. It's a good light for this type of setup and you can keep just about anything under it. It doesn't get too hot so there's no need for a chiller. During the summer when room temperature gets up to the 80's I use a fan to keep the temp down. To minimize evaporation, I don't have the fan blowing directly at the tank.

Edited by el fabuloso
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