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3gallon Pico ----> 20H Mixed Reef


brosegge

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Hi everonye. I have been reefing for about 6 months now and this post is an attempt to chronicle my progression. In January I purchased the JBJ Picotope and decided to give my first shot at reefing. I'm kinda new to forum posting so I havent quite figured out how to imbed images into the post. Help on anything would be appreciated.

 

Initial Tank Specs

-3 Gallon JBJ Picotope Bowfront

-HOB Skimmer

-3 lbs Live Sand

-3 lbs Live Rock

-Cleaner Shrimp (Added After Cycle)

-Ocellaris (Added After Cycle)

-Green/Pink Frogspawn

-Red Mushroom

-2 Zoa Colonies

-Snails

-Hermits

-Emerald Crab

 

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Humble beginnings with my stock setup

 

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Green/Pink Frogspawn

 

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FTS with Frogspawn and cleaner shrimp

 

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Another FTS

 

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Frogspawn Closeup

 

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About 2 months in I bought a 65w PC fixture from a friend. There is a little overlap but I'm not concerned because at this point I have already decided that 3 gallons isn't enough. Also added a powerhead.

 

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Zoanthid colony given to me by a friend

 

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Managed to get through my first 3 months of reefing with only one casualty. The cleaner shrimp died and I found my emerald crab chomping on him. Corals are doing great and so is my clown.

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I decided to move up to a bigger tank so I settled on a 20H with a stand I had laying around. I started with 15 pounds of live rock and 20 pounds of sand. The 15 pounds I purchased were only 2 pieces and they almost fit together like a jigsaw puzzle making a nice cave. I purchased an AquaClear HOB filter which I plan on using as a refugium with the 9w JBJ Pico Light. After cycling I added my livestock from the Pico and also changed the filter over, figuring that it probably had some beneficial bacterias.

 

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20H FTS

 

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Clown pictures

 

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Frogspawn is doing well, right head is splitting

 

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Zoa colony is also doing well in the new tank

 

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Red Mushroom

 

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Frogspawn is getting HUGE, my clown still won't host it though

 

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Most current FTS with added LR

 

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Frogspawsn flowing

 

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Emerald Crab

 

As of May 25th, these are my current tank specifications:

-Heater

-Powerhead

-2 Filters designated for Surface Flow

-1 Filter designated as a Refugium with LR rubble, chaeto, and 9w PC

-False Perc

-Yellow Watchman Goby (no pictures, he's shy)

-Green/Pink Frogspawn

-Zoa Colony

-Red Mushroom

-Tiny Green Ricordea (no pic yet)

-Added more LR as seen in photos

-Turbo and Nassarius Snails

-Blue and Zebra Leg Hermits

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Your emerald crab is nicely green. Wish mine was, it blends into the rock work so much I can't find it sometimes until it moves.

 

Oh and the desire to go bigger bites hard, I know. I'm in the process of moving from an AquaPod 24 to a 42 Gallon.

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Thanks Rocket, my emerald does a nice job of hiding too... sometimes I don't see him for days. Hopefully this 20H can keep me occupied for a while.

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sunshine&bigfoot

Tank looks nice. I would suggest adding some LR and messing with the aquascape. It seems to be doing good though, but once you add some more cured LR you should think about another fish too.

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Tank looks nice. I would suggest adding some LR and messing with the aquascape. It seems to be doing good though, but once you add some more cured LR you should think about another fish too.

 

Believe it or not, I actually have 15 pounds of LR that I have been adding gradually. Sorry that you're not happy with my Aquascaping, I am actually pretty fond of the cave I created... so is my Yellow Watchman. He went and hid in the cave immediately and has claimed it as his "spot." I don't think I could bring myself to tear apart his home. I have seen a few bristle worms at night so I was thinking about adding a Sixline Wrasse. Once I get my anemone I also plan to add some sexy shrimp. Thanks for the comment!

 

Whats your lighting on this?

 

My lighting is a Coralife 65w PC fixture but I have future plans to upgrade to a 150w Sunpod.

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  • 1 month later...

Added a Green Clown Goby from the LFS today, sorry no pics yet. I am worried because I didn't see him eat any when I fed tonight. Also, he was just darting back and forth across the glass. Is this normal during their acclimation period or did I buy a retarded clown goby?

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small gobies like to hide and sometimes won't come out for days. i "lost" mine for over half a year in a small 16g tank. just found it recently. lol

 

give it time and it'll come out. it's still acclimatizing to it's new home. and remember that it has a brain of it's own. you can't force it to come out if it doesn't want to.

 

Tim

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  • 3 months later...

Okay everyone, it has been a while but unfortunately I only have 2 new livestock additions to the tank. I added some live rock to fill it out and modded an AquaClear for a refugium. While on vacation I had a friend stopping by to top off the tank, yet he never told me that I got a red slime bloom and that it had overtaken both of my Zoa colonies :o Quite a few of them died off but they are starting to bounce back. The camera I am using does not have capabilities to do macro shots so please bear with me. :D

 

Here is an updated FTS.

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The damage on the Zoas was pretty bad, that was my biggest colony which had about 20 polyps.

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If you look closely, you can see some unidentified hitchers I got on my new LR. They started as just one or two but now there are at least five.

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Here is one of my new additions, another clown. I really like the contrasting colors! If you look closely at the mouth of the cave you can see my yellow watchman peeking out.

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Nestled between the rocks is my other new addition, a green clown goby. He perches out on the rocks most of the day but he is eating well!

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Here are my clowns swimming together. On that red rock to the left you can see one of my baby mushrooms.

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Clowns swimming by the frogspawn, I am still waiting for them to dive into it but I have accepted that they probably never will. An anemone is definitely next.

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Shot from the side.

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  • 3 months later...

UPDATE: Moved the tank to my new apartment, here is a video.

 

Sorry, cant figure out how to embed the video.... here is a link.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Tank looks great man, mine went completely to ###### and I just did a major overhaul this weekend, lost a couple corals but the fish and a few pieces pulled though... crazy barry moved his shop out near the Ale House, i checked out his new place yesterday, and he's....well....still ####ing nuts.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Nice tank ! The aquascape is great . How's your goby doing?

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Thanks! The green clown goby bit the bullet :( I had him in the tank for over 6 months with no problems but he stopped eating one day.

 

On a separate note, I realized that the overall growth of my corals was slowing. Along with that a red algae was forming. I realized that my 65w PC fixture had a bulb in it that was over a year old!!! Replaced the bulb and noticed an immediate improvement.

 

 

I also added a 10g refugium and I couldn't be happier with the results. I noticed an immediate improvement in water clarity. Here are a few recent shots (sorry for the sh*tty pics from my Macbook camera).

 

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Water flows into the fuge on the right side of the picture (compartment with floss and bioballs). The middle of the fuge has sand, rubble, chaeto, and other macros. The next small compartment has bags of activated carbon and that ammonia remover stuff. The far left of the picture is the return. (Once again, really sorry for the bad pics :))

 

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  • 4 months later...

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