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Memoirs Of A Pico


badfish816

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Well i just wanted to introduce myself. I have been hovering for a while, trying to soak up all the knowledge that i can. i'm kind of a research freak before starting anything. I bought a jbj 3 gal pico. i am in love with everybodies setups. :happy: I already had my AC70 on a trade before i even had the pico.

 

I started modifying the fuge. I will upload pics as soon as i can find my camera cable. It's been painted to block light. I just finished that. Now i am getting ready to mod the lid for my light. Also i am goin to tint the glass on the tank instead of paint. I want more of a smoked look rather than a solid. Plus it's easier to change if i want to down the road. Thanks everybody. I look forward to your constructive critizism and praise.

 

 

Nathanael

Edited by badfish816
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here are some pics from my blackberry. sorry. i can't seem to find that stupid camera cable anywhere. :angry:

 

paint and the mod.

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Edited by badfish816
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well live rock will be here on wed.

 

:lol:

 

i had a question though. is miracle mud (or similar products) beneficial to pico fuges or should i not even bother? i am planning on having chaeto in the fuge and opted not to use lr in there. or should i?

thanks

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well live rock will be here on wed.

 

:lol:

 

i had a question though. is miracle mud (or similar products) beneficial to pico fuges or should i not even bother? i am planning on having chaeto in the fuge and opted not to use lr in there. or should i?

thanks

 

 

All I can say on the topic is that I've seen awesome picos with no mud. Whether or not it's worth doing..I can't say.

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  • 3 weeks later...

ok... finally got my pics off my camera and onto the computer (had to buy a new cable.) any here is some updating.

 

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i need legs for my light. fuge works awesome. can't even hear it most of the time. i have chemi-pure in there and will be picking up some chaeto from lfs soon. it's free there and that is ok in my book. :P

i am going to be modding the lid on the fuge to fit just the pico bulb. when i get motivated though.

 

 

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finally stettled on an scape for now. we'll see if it stays.

 

 

potential live stock:

mostly coral for now

lots of zoas and palys

ricordia/yuma

neon candy cane (4 heads sitting in my buddies tank for now)

hammer

 

although i do have my eyes set on sexies and a possible flaming prawn B)

Edited by badfish816
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well my tank has been cycling now for 3 weeks. i used an api test kit and all my levels are at zero. all exept for the nitrate is reading 20 ppm.....ugh! my salinity is reading 1.019 on the hygrometer. i really dont trust those though. but it will have to do until i can get a refractometer. i am going to start adding purple up as well now.

 

 

i do however have a film of white floaties in my fuge on both sides of the baffle. my chemi-pure is next to the intake and i am putting cheato in the other side. there is also white floaties on the surface of the tank side as well. the ac70 agitates the water enough. does anyone know what this is? is it from the chemi-pure?

Edited by badfish816
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I love your scape! white floaties? like surface film? You may be getting a protein skimmer action going on in your tank, i would skim it out by hand and discard. It could just be dust from your sand either way try removing it manually until it subsides.

 

Also which Hydrometer are you using? The instant ocean one is VERY accurate, I've tested mine against a refractometer and it was dead on(in multiple cases), i am however not sure about all the other hydrometers such as deep six etc.. Whatever you use make sure you get the salinity up to 1.024 - 1.026 prefferably the latter as the ocean is fairly consistent at 1.026.

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thanks. i was trying to make the scape look like the rock creature the from neverending story. lol.

 

it is a deep six. i thought it might be dust or something. thanks for the advice.

 

my nitrates were low due to the fact that i did a water change yesterday. so i picked up two astrea snails today for a buck a piece and a gob of cheato for free. i some how managed to get what looks like a mantis shrimp. either he was already in the tank from the live rock or he came with the cheato. he is burrowing a whole in front of my live rock. pretty cool for now but will eventually go into my 10 gallon frag tank (once it is setup.) i don't need him eating my future sexies. ;) also the cheato brought in a ton of pods some astrina stars and bristle worms. there is a ton of things going on now.

Edited by badfish816
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well. here is an update. i had some what of an diatom outbreak. weird since all my params dropped to 0. oh well my snails on working on it. sorry...... snail. one evidentally fell of the rock while i was at work and wedged himself upside down between two rocks. :angry: he hasn't moved in a couple hours. he is presumed dead.

 

on a good note i have two new additions

 

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under actinics

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the candy had three heads when i picked it up but since it's been sitting in my buddies tank while mine was cycling. now one is getting ready to split.

 

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i picked up 3 ricordea today from a local reefer for $10 each. not bad. he had one of the sweetest bow fronts i have ever seen. half of it was a ricordea garden. he had all kinds of stuff for sale.

 

one i got is whitish with an orange mouth and edge. one purple and blue, and one green yellow and purple.

 

i also picked of a head of branching hammer for $10 also. i will post pics when they settle in. i dont like the way he glued them though. one is half hanging off. it has two mouths so i might split it later down the road if it doesn't drop itself.

 

the hammer has two dead heads on it and i am afraid to cut the good head off because it is so close to the others. i'll let you guys see what i am talking about tomorrow.

 

forgot to mention, i picked up 2 nass snails yesterday and hand fed them today. these guys have so much character. also the guy at the lfs threw in 3 stomatellas for me. i love my lfs. free cheato and stomatellas.

Edited by badfish816
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the new pics i promised. i'm working with a kodak 8.2mp so bare with me

i adjusted the saturation a little. the blurriness was taking out the color.

 

3 ricordea

 

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hammer

 

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Edited by badfish816
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well. thank goodness i was still up. my ac70 started growling and gurgling. then stopped. i removed my chemipure to see hundreds of little gold balls everywhere. i wondered what they were. then i look in the tank and what do i see. my nass snail wiggling it's butt directly under the intake tube. so i am assuming that they were eggs and it decided to rebel and shoot them directly ( and i mean directly - less then a cm) under the tube. wow!!! what a night.

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are nass snails asexual? there are a ton of eggs in my fuge and was wondering the surival rate. i really dont need 10 - 15 nass snails in my pico. looks like early christmas presents. lol

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are nass snails asexual? there are a ton of eggs in my fuge and was wondering the surival rate. i really dont need 10 - 15 nass snails in my pico. looks like early christmas presents. lol

your new mantis will enjoy them :P id let them grow a little and then put them in your 10 when you get it going

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well i don't know what these little orange balls are. i thought they were from my nass snail since it was directly under the intake tube. but i read that they lay their eggs on the glass. any ideas what they might be? they are all over in my fuge and chemi-pure bag. i don't know if i can get a pic because they are too small. but i will try.

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some awesome updates. it seems those are eggs. beings i found a baby nass today on my glass. man is he tiny. :P it's also a good thing i didn't cut off the stalk of dead heads of hammer for 2 reasons

number one there is a micro brittle star in the biggest one. and second there is a tiny head of hammer growing on the stalk. awesome. not only is the one i paid for splitting but know i have one growing. also i have tiny tubes with long hair-like tentacles coming out.

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