Friar's Pico

[Wendy]

OMGosh! That ric looks so huge! I hope it's okay from the fall.

I think your little duncan is just the cutest thing!

[Mr. Microscope]

It's funny, I find myself staring at the tank with a Magnifying glass! How weird is that?

 

Looking at things with a magnifying lens? Weird??? Why, I've never heard of such a silly thing!

[badfish816]

now using a microscope...thats wierd..lol

[Mr. Microscope]

[c_k_kuehne]

now using a microscope...thats wierd..lol

 

Hey there is a lot of kewl stuff in our tanks that can only be viewed under a microscope. Don't diss the magnifying lens or microscope. They give you a view that can't be otherwise be seen with the naked eye.

[Mr. Microscope]

ahem...Mr. Microscope..

[friar1]

 

Left my house for 6 days. Everyone still alive and growning. WC tomorrow. So it will go a week without a WC or Top Off.

 

For cooling, we are in a dry part of CA. So we use swamp coolers. It just so happens one of our coolers is in a window across the room pointed at the tank. So cooling no problem. Temps stay around 77 to 78 F

 

Friar

[c_k_kuehne]

Friar mine went 8 days with no worries. I worried less about the pico then I have in the past leaving a big "more stable" tank alone.

 

Another interesting thing I have done. I have a 500 mm 5.6 telephoto spotting scope. I put that on a tripod about 10' away from the tank and use different lens to get a really incredible view. It's like a super sized magnifying glass. I can make one little pore in the LR fill the eyepiece it gets so closeup. I only wish I had a proper camera to hook to it so I could post pictures of that view.

[friar1]

Friar mine went 8 days with no worries. I worried less about the pico then I have in the past leaving a big "more stable" tank alone.

 

Another interesting thing I have done. I have a 500 mm 5.6 telephoto spotting scope. I put that on a tripod about 10' away from the tank and use different lens to get a really incredible view. It's like a super sized magnifying glass. I can make one little pore in the LR fill the eyepiece it gets so closeup. I only wish I had a proper camera to hook to it so I could post pictures of that view.

 

 

Now that's what I call a Magnifying Glass!

[.Newman.]

I'm going to be leaving my pico alone for more than a month at the end of this summer...I wonder how that will go =S

I have top-off and feeding taken care of by automated systems but i'm iffy about not doing a weekly water change for more than a month >_<

 

You think a pico can take it Friar/c_k_k? just looking for an opinion lol. I doubt any of you guys would ever do that haha...

[friar1]

Newman,

I would think that if you had proper Live Rock/Live Sand/Fuge filtration, you could probably go a month without a WC. I can't remember, you got a fish in there? Inverts? If you had fish bio load, I would be concerned about leaving it that long, but if not, you might get away with it. But what do I know? I am still a complete newbie.

 

I do know that after seven days in this 1.5 gallon tank, the water appears to be as good as it was when I left. IN fact, the corals have definitely grown. and right before I left I had that ric involved in a rock fall, tore him away from it's rock, it went wild on the chem warfare and damaged the zoa above it. The big ric, the zoa above it and the other ric are still doing fine and bigger, so go figure.

 

Still don't know about the Duncan. I am going to wait him out.

 

Friar

[c_k_kuehne]

I'm going to be leaving my pico alone for more than a month at the end of this summer...I wonder how that will go =S

I have top-off and feeding taken care of by automated systems but i'm iffy about not doing a weekly water change for more than a month >_<

 

You think a pico can take it Friar/c_k_k? just looking for an opinion lol. I doubt any of you guys would ever do that haha...

 

I think it could go a month -- I know Hawke's Pico Lamp could. The ATO should take care of the top off situation.

 

If it was me I wouldn't feed anything for the month. Feeding is what makes WC's critical in a pico. Without feeding your water quality will stay higher since you can't facilitate a WC. Everything should survive just fine for a month without feeding. Growth may slow down but it will kick back up once you get back.

 

Do a large feeding for 2 or 3 days in a row. The do a massive WC for 2 days in a row to remove all the excess nutrients from the massive feedings. Get all this accomplished right before you leave.

 

When you come back do a large WC and then a massive feeding followed by another large WC.

 

Lately I have been doing about 80% WC's once a week. Corals love it.

 

Anyway that's how I would facilitate a month away from the tank.

[.Newman.]

thats cool but i dont really feed the corals, its the peppermint shrimp i worry about lol.

[c_k_kuehne]

thats cool but i dont really feed the corals, its the peppermint shrimp i worry about lol.

 

The peppermint shrimp will last --- if you can get someone to feed him every week or two while you are gone everything will be good. Major worry is that he starts eating things you don't want him to eat if left alone for a month.

 

I would put food in 1 week dose's in small cup's so that who ever is going to feed him can just empty a cup once per week so that they have no chance of over feeding the tank.

 

HIDE ALL THE REST OF THE FOOD.

 

I have experienced people who couldn't follow directions and over fed the tank because "but it looked hungry" -- quickest way to a crash a tank while you are gone.

 

What ever you have for an auto-feeder just make sure it feeds the minimum amount so it minimizes how much it trashes your water quality while you are gone.

[.Newman.]

good call, I shall do the cup thing cuz a feeder will hurt my wallet even more haha.

thats what i was worried about, that my pep shrimp will get so hungry that it will eat all the pods that live in my tank and w/e he cant catch he will take out of my zoas or palys (meaning he will eat the coral itself, tho i have never seen him do any damage to date hes a really nice shrimp cuz i feed him every other day lol)

[c_k_kuehne]

I think you are on the right track. Just make it a no brainer for whoever is going to feed the tank otherwise they will over feed the tank and you will come home to a disaster.

 

A little less food is better then a little extra food.

[friar1]

Hey, I found a bristle worm in the tank today, good thing I had that Magnifying Glass heheheh!

 

Newman, good luck on your being gone a month. Your tank is really nice, hope it stays that way.

 

Friar

[brandon429]

what c_k_ wrote about the water preparations before leaving is just about perfect if you are going to push the month thing, that's what Id do.

 

I think if your pico is relatively new it will take it ok. if it were a couple years old no way, Id recommend you put some kind of absorption pad in the display area just to soak up whatever it could grab passively...

 

friar the pico is looking great still and people are really interested in your approach, 4k+ views is niiiiiiiiice man!

 

feel free to snap a cell phone or any other pic of your magnifications, I put a cheapie 2mp cell phone spaced 1/4 inch away from a 1950s microscope and got this pic which I have emailed around to various people to help me identify it, we still don't know what it is just showing that you can post for us what you see with your magnification approaches~

B

[friar1]

Yeah well, not much yet to see in the tank. I did find what I think is an isopod. I hope it is not predatory, It isn't one of those pill bug looking things, but so small I can only see it with a magnifying glass. It has a symmetrical body, longer than it is wide, legs appear to be about the same size, brown/translucent in color, very small. Thought it was a shrimp when I first saw it, it does not curve towards its underside either in the middle or end of its body.

 

Hoping it will run into the Duncan's mouth and get eaten.

 

A number of tube worms have appeared in the sand bed, and I did see a bristle worm when I fed the tank.

 

Did Water change yesterday 95% and Dosing C-Balance today.

 

Speaking of feeding the tank, had a bloom of GHA, and feeding the tank is very messy, So I will leave off doing that so much. Will try to spot feed the Duncan occasionally, but beyond that, I am not sure about feeding the whole tank. The Hermit now has plenty to eat HAHA!

 

Took the shade off the Duncan, it is still opening. Though not very much. Think it was damaged when the Hermit crab pushed it over right after it was added to the tank.

 

Friar

[.Newman.]

hope your duncan gets better.

[friar1]

Here's some pictures:

 

Crab...

 

FTS...

 

 

FTS....

 

[friar1]

Pods!

 

I have pods!

 

 

[.Newman.]

lol congrads?

[friar1]

:lol:

[friar1]

By the way, I am no longer using filter floss to catch bubble splatter from the in-tank filter that I am using for aeration. I use filter floss in that now only when the sand bed is stirred up because of a WC or if there are detritus problems. The bubble splatter is not an issue, i left it that way for seven days, no problem.