andrewkw Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Some more pictures taken a few hours later : Just in one spot I have an algae problem, but its not too bad however there are a couple of really nice RED feather dusters growing out of it It kinda sucks these red mushrooms are no longer visible from the front, they've slowly moved to the back but babies are popping up and one fair sized one is in the front. the lone yellow polyp Love this sponge and the way it's grown Link to comment
andrewkw Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 I fed a small amount of brine to my thin goby and sexy shrimp then did a 1/2 to 3/4 gallon water change waited till morning and phosphates are STILL at 0.33!!! I'm going to do another water change today and see where I am at. I really need a mini media reactor, or mini mini hob filter I can put media in. Do they make anything about that's about 2" across lol That's about all the space I have... Link to comment
andrewkw Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 After 2 water changes I've got the phosphates down to 0.25 but of course I need to feed the goby if not tonight then tomorrow. I am trying to construct the smallest phosphate reactor with a plastic toothpick holder. I just need to find some sponge. It's not completely water tight but I think I can fit it in my back chamber I hope.. Link to comment
brandolando4 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 hey, so i was reading through your thread because i have a 2 gallon as well, and i see that you mentioned putting a royal gramma in there... i like those fish alot, are all royal gramma perch fish? because you mentioned that yours just sits on his perch and chills. lol Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 andrew didnt say ALL of them are. I'd expect there to always be exceptions. so if you want to try one out in a tank (2 gallon is too small for anything other than maybe a clown or trimma/eviota goby. but really no fish should be in a tank that small) then do a tank thats 3 gals or preferably more, and if the fish paces around the tank/the glass continuously then you know that it wont work out well w/o stressing your fish. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Let me say this. I've never kept anything other then clown gobies in my pico, but I personally would certainly be willing to try. Royal Gramma's do eventually get big but you can get them pretty small. Like I said mine did not leave his hole in the rock other then to eat, this includes tearing the tank down. He stayed in the rock until I noticed him fall out when when I picked up the rock. I also have several other tanks I could move him to if it didn't work out. If you only have a pico and don't consider yourself an expect I wouldn't try it. There probably is a reason why no "respectable" person is trying anything more in these tanks, but without trying it's hard to say it would or wouldn't work out. Poor damsels still get used for cycling tanks. IMO they'd be better off in smaller prestine waters, but that is just my opinion. I cannot back it with anything nor have I personally tried it. Back to my pico. Phosphates are back down to 0.23 On the weekend I'm going to pick up a sponge and try and cram the worlds smallest phosphate reactor into the back chamber. Of course I celebrated the low phosphates with a dosing of cyclopeeze so its no doubt back on it's way up. Link to comment
brandolando4 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Cool, I knew one wasn't going to fit, just curious as to your oppinion!!! Thanks Link to comment
brandolando4 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 hey, im sure it says in here somewhere but how much water changes you do weekly?? i was planning on like 3/4 gallon every week.. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 About 1/2 to 1 gallon. Usually around 3/4. I can't do an entire gallon change at once due to the fact my sponges would be exposed to air. I still have to dose alkalinity a couple of times a week and occasionally magnesium, but with coralife salt my calcium never drops below 500ppm. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 Took a video of my female sexy shrimp carrying eggs. I think you can see the eyes. It was really hard to focus this close. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 COuld you take a close up of that asteria star you have from the top side of it so i can see what kind it is. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 COuld you take a close up of that asteria star you have from the top side of it so i can see what kind it is. There is probably at least 20 maybe more in the tank, and several do look different. Since this one has been eating some zoos or possibly algae attached to them for a day or 2 I removed it to photograph for you. Unlike regular starfish it was fine out of the water for a minute or so. I'll try and remember to photograph some of the other ones at a later time. I'm very disappointed to see my phosphates have risen to 0.52! this is the highest reading I've ever gotten and today is water change day which will put a dent in it, I'm going to have to do something else. I finally finished the worlds smallest phosphate reactor, but even this is just too big to fit in the back chamber. I just don't have room for anything. I put a tiny piece of a polypad in but even that was hard to jam in. I made this out of a toothpick holder, used some superglue and epoxy it was only about 90% water tight but it worked fine the media moved around and I have a micro powerhead for it, it just simply wont fit in the back chamber. So my options are : increase water changes, possibly to daily. Eliminate frozen foods - I can't see myself doing this, I'm not sure why but I've never had any fish that eat dry food, I just don't use dry food. Drill the back of the tank and made a little sump. I might have a 1/2 uniseal lying around somewhere otherwise I could always order one from BRS. I could then add a tiny skimmer, have room for a media reactor even a fuge. It would make water changes a heck of a lot easier, but by doing this I'd give up on the "easy pico" dream. That being said I am much more interested in having a quality looking display then seeing what I can jam into a small space and keep it alive. I want things to thrive. Finally here are a few new shots looking very pink and the part that was originally dead is growing back The one on the left is looking huge today. Also there are a few babies popping up. They were straight saw offs and straight into the tank originally. Goby hiding, he's still super thin so I've been feeding him PE Mysis. Yes even a fish this small will eat them. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 soo wheres the pic of that asterina star? Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 soo wheres the pic of that asterina star? I don't know if it's the one he's asking about. As I said there are a lot of different ones in there. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 there it is! thats the kind I have in my tank too. the white body with orange dots. They look real nice IMO. I know that they eat coralline, and other algae off the glass mostly and sometimes off rocks. Though a little while ago one of them took out my generation zoas. So you may want to add zoas to their diet list as well lol. If you have very few zoas, i suggest you take all those white and orange spot asterinas out and put them into some other tank w/o coral. theyre good for a FOWLR tank i bet. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 there it is! thats the kind I have in my tank too. the white body with orange dots. They look real nice IMO. I know that they eat coralline, and other algae off the glass mostly and sometimes off rocks. Though a little while ago one of them took out my generation zoas. So you may want to add zoas to their diet list as well lol. If you have very few zoas, i suggest you take all those white and orange spot asterinas out and put them into some other tank w/o coral. theyre good for a FOWLR tank i bet. He ate one of my tiny zoo colonies. Well several polyps over a couple of days. Newman can you not see the picture in my first post with several photos? Do you think I should drill my pico and add a sump? Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 adding the sump can give a chance to solve your phosphate problems. but how will you drill it w/o wrecking everything in there? i mean everything intricately placed and vibration would send them flying no? I'm going to try and think of another way that you could combat the phosphate and lower it to 0. And yes I couldnt see that asterina pic in that post before, but you fixed it now and its there. He must not have had much to eat on your glass then =/ Glad you only have 1 of them. I have like 20 lol. but i also have the coralline plus other algae on the glass to keep them off most of my zoas. Yet it does suck that they eat corals =/ I guess cool-looking things just have annoying diets in this hobby lol. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 I have way more then one, but not all are the same. In my main tank I probably have 1000 asternas. Anyway I think I can drill the tank when it's running. I drilled the hole for the powerhead in the tank while it was running. I'd only be drilling the back and the false wall would still separate the display area from where I'm drilling. I just need to be sure I drill the drain hole above where the sponges are so they are not exposed to air. Otherwise I would probably drill it closer to the bottom. I would then either run a return over the tank for additional flow and or possibly remove the return pump that pumps water back from the false wall or just run the return back into the false wall and keep the in tank flow the same. Still I will try other things. I had to order some stuff so I ordered a red sea deco filter. As far as I can tell this is the smallest hob filter out there. I know red sea's stuff is crap but for 10$ whatever. I could run gfo in there. I don't think there will be room to hang it off the back of the tank but I'm thinking I could run it on the side of the tank at night. At least until the phosphates get down. It's worth a shot. 3/4 gallon water change + 12hrs of waiting + the polypad and gfo phosphates are now at 0.42 I'll test again later tonight and probably mix some more water for a water change tomorrow. there is also a spider in my auto top off water container. I hope it falls in and drowns while i'm at work and when I come home I can just dump the whole container and refill it. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 haha, I totally had a spider in my ATO reservoir jug a while ago too. shows how much our reservoirs last for, spiders are able to setup shop Link to comment
Bobba Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 On of the most beautiful tanks I have seen! I am setting up a 12gal long and am contemplating using 3 of the Rapid Par30's. How accurate are thr colors in your pics compared to the actual tank? They seem to be more violet than blue, would you agree? I have a Boost Par30 over my Picotope and while it looks nice, it just doesn't have much color. My rock (4months since set up) is just now starting to show traces of corraline so that will probably help. If I knew the 12gal would look anything like yours with the Rapid Par30's I would order them tonight!!! Thanks Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 The spider appears gone but it's probably on the lid. I just use a 1 gallon jug it's mostly sealed but the hole for the airline tube is a little bigger. I will just wait out the spider to escape or fall in the water. I have probably 2 weeks of top off water in there. As for the PAR30 the colours are pretty accurate but maybe not 100% maybe 90%. My bulb is 3 blue and 2 white. Thanks for the compliment. I really tried to make this a nice looking tank. Things are taking a step back lately, but I predict a bounce back as soon as I solve the phosphate issue. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Thanks for the picture of the starfish.As for the other guy did you actually see the starfish eat your zoas.I think it would take quiet a while for it to do so.I like the color on the one you have with the orange i never seen that one before.Would apprciate pictures of differnt kinds. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 yes in fact i have seen the same individual asterina eat one of my gen. zoas one day and then come over next day and eat the second one. took it more than a day i think to finish the second one off. but clearly i was powerless to stop it because once those things clamp down around the rock the polyp is on, its very difficult to get the animal off w/o massacring everything in sight. So i did not want to even attempt to kill everything in that area trying to pry it off x_x Link to comment
andrewkw Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 The starfish I photographed did not move off several zoo polyps for at least 2 days maybe longer. I pried him off to take the pic. 36hrs in with the polypad post water change and no feedings phosphates are at : 0.31 I think it's funny the ATO goes off when I take water for a test. Link to comment
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