brandon429 Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 did you ever know that trick of dosing iodine to a tadpole's water and it keeps it from changing into a frog? wish that would have worked with my chihuahua, he was much cuter and less mean as a baby. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 lol brandon... looks cool, idk if 1 hours can sustain all that, but i hope it does. make sure to point the corals to the sun light, they should not be in the shade of the rock formation if the sun hits from the other side. Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 did you ever know that trick of dosing iodine to a tadpole's water and it keeps it from changing into a frog? wish that would have worked with my chihuahua, he was much cuter and less mean as a baby. It's a much cooler creature as frog IMO ...and why would anyone want a chihuahua anyway? lol brandon... looks cool, idk if 1 hours can sustain all that, but i hope it does. make sure to point the corals to the sun light, they should not be in the shade of the rock formation if the sun hits from the other side. Yea, the original reason I set this up in their house is because I dont have any sunny windows in my apartment. They told me it 'gets sun all day long' slander and lies. Fortunately the scape that I have going on seems to allow light over the entirety of the rock work--even the back side of the 'mountain' not directly facing the sun. So my next step is to buy a lazy suzan for this thing to sit on so it can easily be rotated and all sides can be appreciated while also making it easy to make sure everything gets equal lighting. Im also going to buy a mangrove and plant it in the center of the rock work. I was thinking I might eventually add some kind of goby if this thing proves successful/stable. I feel if the blue ochtodes takes off it will be an awesome nutrient export. That combined with weekly WCs might be able to sustain one... What kind of goby would be suitable? I was thinking maybe catalina goby because they are not tropical water fish and this isnt a heated aquarium. Any ideas on a very hardy, small, and relatively immobile fish? Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 Yea, who knows. Probably a bunch of people who have never tried anything like this who have strong opinions on how stupid I am And yea, good call on the cyano and gha. Ill have to make sure to get the nitrates down to zero asap and Ill probably add some more ochtodes just to make sure they stay at zero. Better to make sure they can never have a chance to take hold. My mom offered to bring it out into the direct sun for the next few days/week or so to make sure everything is 'kicked off' and does alright. I told her no, that it should just stay there so its environment is stable. Link to comment
garrettparson Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 This is alot cooler then I thought it would be. The no circulation thing is what worrys me but it seems to be doing okay for right now? Link to comment
brandon429 Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I guess if you are stocking grazers that will eat it then the gha won't matter +10 for trying new things, we wouldn't even have a nano reef if some guy didn't listen in like 1985 (julian sprung lol)_ Link to comment
jm82792 Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I did one of these in a pickle jar utilizing an air pump years ago and had some octocoral grow in it. Now you are making me want to do a solar powered water pump for a small sunlit pico reef complete with say a small goby or something. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 radioshack sells the 10 dollar solar kit, with a little wire with a fan on the end of it. there you go seriously, it would help better than no circ and thats a pretty sick idea, I guarantee you no one has a pico powered by solar at all. worldwide. Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 This is alot cooler then I thought it would be. The no circulation thing is what worrys me but it seems to be doing okay for right now? Yea everything seems to be doing okay. The aiptasia and majano were stretching for light but other than that everything looks good. I guess if you are stocking grazers that will eat it then the gha won't matter+10 for trying new things, we wouldn't even have a nano reef if some guy didn't listen in like 1985 (julian sprung lol)_ Im not 100% on what Im going to throw in there for the CUC. Im probably going to try to stick to as few dwarf ceriths as possible and eventually get a couple bristle worms in there. I did one of these in a pickle jar utilizing an air pump years ago and had some octocoral grow in it.Now you are making me want to do a solar powered water pump for a small sunlit pico reef complete with say a small goby or something. radioshack sells the 10 dollar solar kit, with a little wire with a fan on the end of it. there you go seriously, it would help better than no circ and thats a pretty sick idea, I guarantee you no one has a pico powered by solar at all. worldwide. I know reefers love their gadgets but I want to keep this tank as a test of simplicity. If things start to go awry Im going to hook up one of these bad boys if I do end up having to hook one one I will try to make it temporary and solve whatever problem made me use it in the first place. Im really banking on not having any trouble though. So far so good. Link to comment
garrettparson Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 what is the HOB filter called? It looks so small. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 it looks similar to the stock JBJ picotope HOB that i chose to use on my sunlit marina cubus pico. does a great job on small pico tanks. Link to comment
garrettparson Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Thats what I was thinking. I would like to use this on hippocampus zosterae tank. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 yep it would be safe even for them, but in order to safely house their babies even a weak small HOB like this will need a sponge pre-filter add on. Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted June 29, 2011 Author Share Posted June 29, 2011 what is the HOB filter called? It looks so small. Azoo Palm Filter So I was talking to my dad today on the phone and he said most of the life in the tank (ie asterinas, the majano, dwarf ceriths) have migrated to the top of the tank and are just hanging out there. He suggested salinity stratification due to lack of water movement. I think it's probably due to lack of oxygen so I told him to throw the two ceriths away as they are probably the biggest bioload (and they could be eating algae that produces O2). When I go back Ill check the pH to see if there is an O2/CO2 imbalance Anyway, hopefully this magro algae takes hold soon and dumps some more O2 into the tank... Link to comment
.Newman. Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 dont throw away snails lol. i think it may have to do with the oxygen issues too. my asterinas always migrate toward the top especially at night time even though i have one of those HOBs running. either that or they are eating surface scum. Once i actually saw a real small fly floating on the surface and an asterina was extending its stomach along the water surface and was eating it...pretty random lol. Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted June 29, 2011 Author Share Posted June 29, 2011 eh--Ive got like ~150 dwarf ceriths. I dont really feel like driving an hour and a half to save two of them. I told my dad to stir the tank and look for optical differences to see if there is salinity stratification but Im with you--Im really thinking it's O2 ...and that's pretty cool about the fly Link to comment
Squared Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 This a nice little vase reef . I want to set one a vase pico. Link to comment
BGJ223 Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 any updates on this? I am curious as to how viable it is. It has been just over a month since the last update? Good news, bad news, lessons learned? Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 Well I kind of stopped attending to this guy, and in fact it's only had 1 partial water change since Ive set it up It hasnt been ravaged by cyano or diatoms, but the water is a tab bit scuzzy from bacteria I think. If one was to do weekly water changes I dont think this would be an issue at all. I put a couple halimeda trimmings in there but none of them seems to take hold. I also tossed like ~6 amphipods in there and they have done very very well. They have a stable population. From the shot glass of live sand I also have a stable population of hair worms (and possibly other sand-dwelling critters that make tunnels). I also put in a few asterinas and Ive seen them around but it doesnt appear their populations have taken off like the amphipods or worms. The aiptasia and majano have each divided at least once. I tossed a pretty plain mushroom in there and it seems that it melted away. Im actually shocked it didnt bomb the whole thing. I think ultimately Im going to turn this into a 2.5g frag tank/second tank because I have all the materials to set one up and I think my parents would really like having a 'real' tank after being teased with a little setup like this. Ill just stock it with trimmings from my Edge. But overall I would say this was a success. It's definitely possible and if someone put an attractive, very hardy anemone/coral in there (such as good-looking majano), this would be a pretty cool set up. I encourage anyone who is interested to set one up! Very easy to take care of and a neat little experiment. [photo taken today] Link to comment
brandon429 Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 so to sum up ur saying the aquarium above sat three months on a windowsill with only a partial water change and built up no algae on the windows of the tank> why take it down then, its an anomaly, shouldn't be stopped yet Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted September 1, 2011 Author Share Posted September 1, 2011 try it for yourself, kittenface Link to comment
brandon429 Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 I have, many times, they didn't run clean for long so you should let your project run longer since it seems to have a tune to it that makes it stay clean. ur not defensive right? My rationale is no tank this small needs to be absorbed into a larger tank. Its two dollars of live rock and some sand, just start the new tank and let this one run, maybe its your unique light patterns in the window (to the left it looks like direct sun gets in sometimes) or the salt mix you use, something helps keep it clean and this is helpful to know. Yours and newmans are the only still picos running in this forum, why take it down keep the pics coming Link to comment
BGJ223 Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 I vote that you keep it going Link to comment
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