F1 Racer's Picotope

[f1_racer]

Ok so it really doesn't have racing stripes... yet

 

I have always admired saltwater tanks so I decide to get one of my own. I started doing a lot of research both on and offline to ensure that I knew what I was getting into ahead of time. I settled on a smaller tank which would require lots of work to maintain but that will build my skill and not ruin my personal finances at the same time.

 

Here are the details of my tank so far:

1. JBJ Picotope
   
2. AC 50 Filter with media removed, a few pieces of live rock and a bag of Chemi Pure
   
3. Hydor 50W heater
   
4. Current USA 2x18W Satellite Fixture
   
5. Approx. 4 lbs of Live Sand
   
6. Approx. 4 lbs of Live Rock
   

Inhabitants:

• Three Astrea snails
  
• Three Nassarius snails
  
• Two Mushrooms
  
• One Ricordea
  

I initially started with an AGA 2.5 gallon tank but after I added the rock and water to start my cycling I noticed that it was leaking at the rim of the tank.

 

Old and Busted:

I then went out shopping and picked up a Picotope which looked much more sturdy and had the sexy rounded corners. I came home transferred my rock and water turned off the lights and went away to Florida for the weekend. At the same time I purchased my light online which would arrive when I was back from vacation.

 

Since my rock was cured and I had brought it home in water and used new water to fill the tank I hand a very short cycle. But I still waited a week and half before I added the snails and my first ever corals.

 

To Do List:

1. Add Chaeto
   
2. Tank Cleaning
   
3. Fix my broken stand and move the tank to its final spot.
   
4. Put my lights on a timer to be more automatic than me and my watch!
   
5. Most Importantly: Find Striped Mushrooms.
   

Below are a few pictures that I took of where I currently am with my tank. I have probably the worst camera in the world, so please excuse the picture quality.

 

New Hotness:

 

... and from the side:

 

Ricky, Ricky Ricardo:

 

Dr. Evil and Mini Me:

 

Finally... FULL FRONTAL TANKERY:

Thank you for stopping by and looking at my tank. This is becoming has become and obsession. I am a noob so any comments that you think will be helpful or experience you would like to share please feel free to leave them below.

[Weetabix7]

Looks nice so far, that's a nice looking ricordea.

What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and PH readings as of today?

(Make sure to take the PH reading after the light has been on for a couple of hrs.)

[abe]

that ricordea DOES look nice. and the rockscape is very nice too. weetie is right, and you should wait a few hours after lights on to check pH to get a correct reading, because pH drops during the night.

[dtfleming]

Looks good, keep up on weekly water changes and daily topoff of freshwater. Take your time stocking a tank that small. I had a 2.5 gal up for over a year and never had a problem with it.

 

Striped shrooms shouldn't be too hard to find. Also look at some zoas to add also.

[f1_racer]

Thanks for the comments guy. I didn't know about taking the pH readings and the light.

 

I used an API test kit and my current readings are:

 

PH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0.25

Nirtite: 0.25

Nitrates: 5

 

Also there is some algae so I am going to scrub up the tank in a little while and do a water change as I fed some mysis shrimp to the nass snails last night.

 

Can anyone tell me what red slime algae looks (maybe a link?) and what are some of the effect ways of getting rid of it?

[Lalani]

Looks good! Will look better with sexy shrimp.

[el fabuloso]

I LOVE those Ricordeas! Great job on setting up the tank, I really like what you did with the rock work, you left a lot of room for corals and that is good. You shouldn't have a problem finding striped mushrooms, they're everywhere! The tank will definitely look super sexy once you get your sexy shrimps.

 

p.s. take off the Picotope label on the glass and your tank will look even hotter.

[f1_racer]

Thanks for all the compliments but most importantly thank you for the little tid bits of knowledge you are sharing. This stuff is really exciting to do and I am really nervous of about my water quality and have started to track it in a spreadsheet and do graphs and what not (that's the engineer in me coming out).

 

Fab and Lalani,

 

I am definitely getting sexy shrimp, but it won't be for a while until I know for certain I am doing things right. Please make sure there is room for me in the sexy club, if not I will sneak in the back way.

 

I do want to put some zoas in, but I am going to be rather picky about the colors. For instance I want to get some red and yellow ones (for the Ferrari colors), some cool green ones for Lotus and Jaguar. My favorite race team is McLaren-Mercedes but their colors are going to be difficult to find. I am also going to get orange and blue rics, shrooms and zoas. Those are my company colors so I would like to have them in there also.

 

If you guys know where I can get some decent frags please let me know.

[fishybadmike]

Nice to see another F1 fan on here. Are you into American Le Mans as well?

[f1_racer]

Nice to see another F1 fan on here. Are you into American Le Mans as well?

 

To put it mildly, HELL YEAH! But I have missed the entire season for F1 and ALM so far, have them sitting on my DVR to watch (in my copious amounts of spare time).

[fishybadmike]

To put it mildly, HELL YEAH! But I have missed the entire season for F1 and ALM so far, have them sitting on my DVR to watch (in my copious amounts of spare time).

 

LOL. That's too bad you've missed the races so far. The TiVo records them both for me too - so far there have been some pretty good races. You'll have to catch up. To avoid getting off topic I'm sending you a private message with a link I think you'll appreciate.

 

BTW, your tank looks like it's off to a good start.

[f1_racer]

Hi Everyone,

 

It's been a long time since I have updated my thread. There has been a lot going on for me personally, professionally and with my tank. So let me start by boring you with my personal life.... Ha! Got you.

 

In the past few weeks I found that my tank was running at around 80 degrees, even going as high as 82 one day when it was really hot. So I started to dial back my heater ever so slowly and over a period of about 6 days or so the tank is now hovering around 78 degrees which I think makes all of the inhabitants a little more comfortable.

 

I have also been working out my evaporation which was around 8 or so ounces per day so I have been diligently adding 4 ounces of fresh water in the morning and evening and have been able to maintain 1.025 for my specific gravity. I pushed away my old swing arm hydrometer and started using a refractometer instead. Calibrating it was a throw back to my lab days at college.

 

I have also been testing my water parameters regularly (every two days) so that I can gauge how feeding and my noob-ness are affecting the tank. Since I do not have any other filtration besides my rock and a bag of Chemi-Pure I have been very sensitive about my Nitrates. I did have a diatom bloom just after my cycle ended and promptly siphoned up most of it. However, during the past three weeks I have been traveling a lot and have only been able to perform my tests weekly but everything has been stable. There is still some algae growing but nothing that is not controllable.

 

Ammonia: 0.25 ppm (my kit always seems to read 0.25, it's an API kit)

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 5 ppm

PH: 8.2

Alk: 8

Calcium: >520 (the max the test will go to is 520, and mine seems to be above that)

Phosphate: 0 ppm

Specific Gravity: 1.025

Temperature: 78 degrees

 

For my weekly maintenance I start my siphoning out about a gallon of water, then scraping the sides of any algae that has grown and using a turkey baster to suck up any uneaten food that I couldn't get to before. Then I vacuum the sand bed and any free floating particles which takes out about another half a gallon or so. I then give the Chemi-Pure bag a quick rinse in some of the old tank water to get rid of any detritus that it might have collected. Once complete I slowly refill with new water that I left mixing overnight. I ensure that they are the same temp and slowly add the water back in. Since I do not have a skimmer and am relying on just my rock and Chemi-Pure for my filtration I have found that this larger volume water change helps to keep my parameters more stable and my tank inhabitants seem to be happy also.

 

For mixing my water I have been using either Reverse Osmosis or Distilled depending on what is available and Oceanic salt mix. I have heard that this salt mix can be inconsistent but so far it has worked for me. As always if anyone has any comments or questions about my water parameters please let me know I always like hearing about ways I can improve what I am doing to keep my tank happy.

 

Over the past few weeks I have added a few new inhabitants to my tank. The first is a Skunk Cleaner shrimp, the second is an Emerald Crab, third is a Yuma and fourth and finally a Plate Coral (freebie). The Skunk Cleaner has been shy since being added to the tank and hides behind the rock work most of the time. He is however a typical Skunk Cleaner and gets very social whenever food is being added to the tank.

 

The Emerald Crab has been doing well since he has been added. He eats non-stop and can often be seen picking away at something. Since it is a small tank there have been more than normal opportunities to see it out and about although it can be shy.

 

The Yuma is simply gorgeous, in fact so absolutely stunning that I have find myself talking to that one a lot more than I normally would. I need to find a better place to put her though as I have read that they like less light.

 

My final new addition occurred on Sunday. A friend of mine was over and we were looking at the tank and he said, you know I have a small plate coral that would look great in there. While he was out picking it up I looked around, made a few calls, and posted a topic here asking about it and everyone seemed to agree that my light would be sufficient and that I just need to ensure that the Plate has enough room to move about if it chooses. None of my rock work touches the glass and there should be ample room for the Plate to move about although it may be a little tighter in the back. So far since being placed in the spot on Sunday evening it has stayed put and seems to be doing well. If there is any sign of discomfort the Plate will be immediately moved back to the tank from which it came which is not too far away.

 

Now here are some updated pictures. I would like to apologize now for the lack of quality but as soon as my traveling is cut back I will have the time to pick up a new camera.

 

Mushroom (which turns out does have strips, but not as clear as would be needed for racing stripes).

 

 

Ricordea who seems to have settled down permanently in this spot.

 

 

Emerald Crab

 

 

Skunk Cleaner

 

 

Plate Coral

 

 

Yuma

 

 

Tank Shot

 

 

Full Tank Shot

 

 

Finally here is a brief movie

 

 

Thank you for taking time out to read my thread. Please feel free to leave a note.

[kthehun89]

awesome looking tank!

[CarterNichols]

I like it! i was looking at these little things the last time i was at the LFS, almost bought one.

[f1_racer]

Guys,

 

Thanks for the compliments on my little tank so far.

 

Update:

 

I have noticed a worm of some kind living the hole under my Florida Ric. I have only seen it dive in there very quickly one morning at 3am when I turned the room light on so I have no idea of what type it may be. It seems to only come out when it is completely dark as I did not have the lunar light on at the time.

 

Secondly, last night as I was checking on the tank I noticed that on the front glass of the tank what seems to be the tiniest snail I have ever seen. I have tried to take some pictures which haven't turned out well but I will post them later tonight. I would like to see that little guy survive but I have no clue how to do that, so I have left it up to natural selection, in that if it survives in the tank then great.

 

Currently my top items on my to do list regarding the tank are setting up my lights on a timer, adding Chaeto and getting a stand and putting it in it's rightful place.

 

Questions for everyone:

 

Lighting:

 

I have read many varying opinions regarding a photo period.

1. What are some suggestions and experiences with the dawn/dusk effect such as Actinic light should be on for a minimum of 1 hour before daylights, etc.?
   
2. Is 12 hours too much if the tank will be in an area where it gets some sunlight?
   
3. Should I run the lunar light every night or should the tank be left completely dark sometimes?
   

Mystery Worm:

 

Short of camping out in front of my tank with a flashlight, does anyone have any ideas of how I lure the worm out? I just want to figure out what type of worm it is and whether it can be left alone or needs to be caught and taken out.

 

Chaeto:

 

I had combed my local fish stores and they do not have Chaeto so I am going to order some online.

1. When I add this to my AC50 should I run it on a reverse light schedule?
   
2. How much light would Chaeto need? Would a 1W LED like the Coralife be enough?
   

Thanks in advance,

 

F1

[f1_racer]

All,

 

It has been almost three full months since my last update and a couple have things have changed since then. I have been completely tied up with work and traveling for work but it is beginning to wind down. As I have some spare time I have decided that it is time to update my thread.

 

I will start with some of the bad news. The first is that my emerald crab seemed to be doing well in the tank for a while and even molted twice. Then I started to notice it pick on some corals and it would fight with my shrimp whenever I was trying to feed it a pellet. Eventually I decided that it was time for him to go and I took him out of the tank and placed him in some water to be returned to my LFS. Unfortunately he died the very next day and I am not sure why and since I am debating whether or not I should get another.

 

Secondly (and this was the saddest one) my skunk cleaner shrimp pulled a disappearing act. He vanished without a trace. My tank is open top so I suspect that there was an altercation between him and something else in the tank he jumped and then our Shih Tzu decided to have sushi, I know it cause she had that guilty look on her face.

 

A third issue was a massive algae outbreak in my tank. There was brown gunk everywhere and it just kept growing. Some of it grew in long filaments and I was beginning to think that it was dinoflagellate. I did a few water and Chemi-Pure changes and added a couple of hermit crabs to the tank. In about a week my tank had returned to it's normal state and no sign of the algae has been seen since.

 

Additionally my Yuma which was slightly bleached to begin with is not doing really well. The emerald crab picked on that coral a lot and it has since moved under a rock and is not completely hidden. I will have to basically dismantle the entire tank to pull it out as I suspect it will be die.

 

I had come across some Aiptasia growing in my tank which was easily disposed of using Joe's Juice. I have been looking over the entire tank since then and have not seen any more but will have to remain vigilant.

 

A few of the other changes have been made to the tank. I have moved it from my kitchen counter and put in its final position in the living room where it can be most easily viewed. One of the hold ups in moving the tank was that we had to find the perfect stand as it needed to fit with the decor. My girlfriend is rather picky about this (which is not a bad thing) and wanted to find a stand that was more "Shabby Chic" in style. On the Saturday before Mother's Day we went into one of her favorite furniture stores by chance and found a rather good looking and functional stand. Here it is:

 

 

I also went out and got a timer for my lights which are now automated and I never have to worry about them being turned on or off at the right time. Before I would just turn them on and off manually and would often forget. So I just made up my mind to go at lunch time to get a timer and now it's much easier.

 

The AC50 filter that I was running has been decommissioned in favor of an AC70 which with the help of numerous individuals and post on this website I have converted to a fuge. I have put in it a bag of Chemi-Pure Elite and Chaeto. I have also installed the original Picotope light on a reverse schedule for for the Chaeto and it seems to be working well. I usually put some filter floss in after a water change for a few hours to trap some of the floating debris. A piece of rock was also added to to the tank to help with my filtration and to fill in a lot of the empty space. After reworking the aquascape I now have more room to place corals.

 

I now feed the corals some phytofeast the day before a water change and this seems to have made everyone more a little happier in the tank. My mushroom as split for a third time along with my Rics and my little patch of GSP has started to thicken. Below is a picture of the Rics.

 

My plate coral is also doing well and moves about very little. My girlfriend and I love to see this coral eat.

 

I have also added a Hammer coral which seems to be doing well.

 

Here are a few more additions:

 

These were from phishyaly:

 

Here is a picture of the unknown worm. It doesn't seem to bother anything. Does anyone know what it is?

 

More pictures showing GSP and some Polyps:

 

The newest addition to the tank is a green banded goby. To us this is an amazing little fish. It has really nice color, is shy but given the size of our tank is seen quite often. Our nieces (who are both 9 years old) have decided to name the fish Toby as in "Toby the Goby" which is his stage name. He is also often referred to as Toblerone after one of our favorite candy bars. Have you ever seen the episode of Friends where Joey states that Toblerone from the airport tastes better than ones from the store? Well I agree with this and have a theory as to why. I think that the turn over rate for the Toblerone candy bars in the airport is much greater than in the stores so they are "fresher" hence the better taste... Anyone agree?

 

Toby:

 

Overall I believe that my tank is doing well and its inhabitants seem happy. Coraline algae is really starting to take a hold and there are lots of bugs and feather dusters on my rocks. My tank parameters have been stable which tells me that my maintenance schedule is good enough for the moment.

 

Right Side:

 

Left Side:

 

Close Up:

 

FTS:

 

The next challenge that I am working on is an ATO system as right now I am manually topping off and on very hot days the salinity can go as high as 1.027 if I am not careful.

 

As always if anyone has any questions, comments or any piece of advice I am always open to hearing them. Thanks for taking the time out to view my thread.

[el fabuloso]

Welcome back! I was beginning to wonder what had happened to this tank. Everything is looking great, sorry about your losses though.

 

I like the new rock work, it definitely opened up a lot of room for more corals. What else do you plan on adding to this tank? The goby is awesome! I was thinking about getting one of those but I could never find one at any of the LFS.

 

Good move on the AC70 fuge mod but I notice you still have your heater in the display tank. Do you not have room for it in the fuge? You could free up even more room by moving it to the fuge. And I see you're still playing with a Mag-Float. I have two words for you: Nimble Nano. You're welcome.

 

Lastly I totally agree with your Toblerone theory. In fact the best ones can be found at the airport in Atlanta.

[RickM61]

great little pico you have there F1..i used to have one of them tanks before i got into saltwater and sold it to a freshwater planted friend of mine..wish i would have kept it now..lol, looks like everything is happy so you seem to be doing everything right..a word of caution though..bad things can happen to a little tank very quickly.but seems like your on top of your game with this one..i have a 3 gallon pico..checked out my thread on page 2 or 3..i work on that thing every day..and i think its just as stable as my 60 gal disply..

 

Rick

[f1_racer]

Fab,

 

What's up buddy? I see that your tank is doing really well too and I am glad that your crab is behaving as opposed to mine that turned out to be a terrorist.

 

My plans are to add more mushrooms, rics and more of the "exotic" zoas. I am going to do another tank, probably a BC29 and will try to keep some of the more difficult corals in that one. But I am curious about your experiment with the Monti cap. How is it doing? I see that RickM61 has a sun coral in his and I am going to try to keep some of those if I can find them.

 

I happen to be partial to the toblerone at the Atlanta airport, but my fav is JFK New York, NY followed by Newark Liberty International Newark, NJ. Nothing says welcome home more than a Toblerone from either of those two airports.

[Bonsai]

Beautiful Picotope!

 

I think I'm going to have to pull my Sexy Shrimp out of mine ... my coral, especially my Zoas, never fully open. It's unfortunate, because they're such awesome little shrimp.

 

Jason

[f1_racer]

Jason,

 

Thanks for the compliments. I hope that my tank turns out to be go as good as yours and Fab's.

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I was out yesterday at the DMV to get my driver's license un-suspended (which in the great state of New Jersey is quite an adventure). See my H1B working visa expired on July 30, 2008 so the DMV sends me a letter saying that my license is suspended on June 30, 2008 until I bring them my H1B extension. Lots of legal paperwork but at least it wasn't as bad as some of the other people that were there.

 

Anyway after the DMV my girlfriend and I went over to see her parents for a late Saturday lunch after which they all wanted to come with me to the LFS to pick out corals and I wanted to "browse".

 

While we were there we picked out two sets of corals. The first is are some yellow polyps.

 

The second set are Rics on a rock. They are not exotically colored but I like the colors and the way they are growing together.

 

Here they are again from a different angle.

 

And finally here is an updated FTS. Please bear with the condition of the tank as everyone was fed last night and we are about to be cleaned and undergo a water change.

 

This is all for now. If anyone has any questions or comments please let me know.

[el fabuloso]

Fab,

 

What's up buddy? I see that your tank is doing really well too and I am glad that your crab is behaving as opposed to mine that turned out to be a terrorist.

 

My plans are to add more mushrooms, rics and more of the "exotic" zoas. I am going to do another tank, probably a BC29 and will try to keep some of the more difficult corals in that one. But I am curious about your experiment with the Monti cap. How is it doing? I see that RickM61 has a sun coral in his and I am going to try to keep some of those if I can find them.

 

I happen to be partial to the toblerone at the Atlanta airport, but my fav is JFK New York, NY followed by Newark Liberty International Newark, NJ. Nothing says welcome home more than a Toblerone from either of those two airports.

Actually, I haven't seen my crab in a while and my rocks have been left intact so he may not even be around anymore. lol

 

Sounds to me like you've got a good plan. Those new polyps you got look amazing, for a minute I thought it was a Goniopora! As for the rics, those are yumas to be more specific and some really good-looking ones. I love yumas and I'd like to get more but seems like they're harder to find than Florida rics. If you want to see them grow and thrive, I suggest spot feeding them with mysis shrimp or silversides.

 

I really like how your tank is coming together. I'm kind of in a stand still at the moment as far as stocking my tank since I'm moving next month which I'm totally not looking forward to.

 

PS: I've never tried the Toblerone at Newark but that's probably because I'm only there long enough to chase down another plane.

[f1_racer]

Fab,

 

Are you sure that they are Yumas? I thought they were but the guy at the LFS argued with me which I didn't mind as I got a great deal on them. Also I am going to be placing an order for my nimble nano today.

[el fabuloso]

Bumps on the mouth are a dead giveaway. Definitely yumas.

[spanko]

Yup a Yuma mouth in circles