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Peter's petite pair of picos


castiel

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Good luck on the restart! Let me tell ya, when I started my 2.5 pico, I used dead , bleached rock and dry sand because in such a small tank I didn't want any unwelcome hitch hickers. I used water from my existing tank and I added one teaspoon of sand from my other 28g nano to seed the system and man now there are pods everywhere, I even had to add a tiny blue Damsel to eat some of the pods out of there because they were pestering my corals, even eating my healthy Zoa's. I have seen different types of worms, two nice size bristle worms and I don't know where it all comes from. The thing is, you are going to have plenty of benificial life inside those rocks and you are probably a lot better off without all the crabs and large worms anyway. You know a cycling tank is hard enough on the critters in there but add the fact that they are in such a small invironment, things go bad quik. I am a firm believer in "If you didn't put it in there, you probably don't want it in there!". I'm adding a link to my 2.5 build and also my 28g JBJ led nano if you are interested, Brandon has helped me a lot along the way, I have been doing large reef tanks for forty years but these pico's are a whole different critter. Good luck to ya!

Donnie's 2.5g pico reef!

Donnie's 28g JBJ led nano!

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Funnily enough, as you might see from the start of my thread, I had base rock to start with, then went the complete opposite direction to what I believe was uncured rock (I hope to confirm that this weekend). So tomorrow I will be reconsidering the whole setup, and maybe use a combination of the two - some base rock, some live rock. And cleaning the sand too, I can barely believe how many worms I see burrowed in there.

 

My wife's tank seems to be doing okay, though I think we will do another water change in that tomorrow too, just in case. Nowhere near as many hitchhikers, so maybe that is the difference.

 

Thanks for the links, good to read about your experience =0)

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Okay, well the fresh start has begun. And when I saw fresh, I mean very fresh.

 

Today my tank was rancid, had this nasty film on top of the water that was thick and gloopy. I took the rock out with the intention of rinsing it, but it was soon evident that they still smelled rancid too.

 

So, inspired somewhat by Donnie's 2.5g thread, I decided that the best action would be to go back to the base rock I originally started with, with a little 'seed' material. So I saved a few fragments of the nasty live rock, soaked them in some fresh saltwater for a while, and then popped them back into the filter compartment along with some other base rock fragments.

 

Oh, and for now at least, no sand. Except a couple of teaspoons worth, again to help the cycle hopefully.

 

I also took the opportunity to put the phosphate remover in there, along with the carbon bag and the wool. And also repositioned the heater, so it now sits on the bottom of the left two chambers (under the filter media) which I think will do a much better job at heating the water at teh right temperature.

 

That also leaves the middle chamber empty (except for half the heater at the bottom), so I was thinking about looking into the mangrove idea at some point.

 

I might also take a small piece of live rock from the wife's tank to help ensure the cycle completes okay.

 

I'll post some new pics once it's settled down.

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Okay, question about the other tank. Still has the original live rock in it, water change was done on Wednesday.

 

Ammonia is sky high in this tank, over 8.0 (test was a dark blue colour, so that's my best guess).

Nitrites .50

Nitrates 10

 

Just did a 60% water change (all the water we had left!), which hopefully will help.

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Builder Anthony

Your going to have to constantly change that water on the dying rock.Dont even worry about a cycle till that stuff has cleaned up.Get a bucket and dip the rock repeatedly in and out of the water swuishing it around then let the water in the bucket settle and look for hicthhickers.

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Water change done. And will be done every other day for a while.

 

Thanks

 

I'm learning a lot from reading this thread. Was going suggest waterchanges initially to keep ammonia levels down to a more manageable level, but I wasn't sure and didn't want to send you on a potentially wrong path as I am still learning myself. This confirms it. You obviously have your test kits.

 

Look forward to following this build here too! :)

 

llj

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Hey there =0)

 

Well I have the freshwater test kit, so no saltwater reference card ... but not sure I need one when the ammonia is that high!

 

The two tanks are very different indeed now - one bare bottomed with base rock, one sand bottom with very live rock. Will be interesting to see how each fares.

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Man the only problem with starting with the base rock is its gonna be a long time if ever before you get some coralline growing. In my 2.5 its been up for 5 months and there is not a speck of coralline. If it were me doing it, I would have just scrubed the liverock and rinsed it well and used it back. If you are persistant with it you will have a much better tank. It seems most of the larger life in the rock is probably dead but there are still benificial organisms in there. I would stress to you to use the liverock instead of baserock, I have been tempted to take mine down and start over with liverock. I can't right now because it is in a contest on http://etak.forumotion.com/t287-my-next-pr...co-reef-contest but as soon as this is over I may start again, I would like to have a little coralline, I don't miss scraping the glass but a little color on the rocks would be nice. You can make the liverock work. just clean it good and it will be ok. As for the ammonia, you are gonna have high ammonia until the nitrites kick in, without ammonia the cycle can not complete. I would love to have that liverock of yours in my tank!!! I really believe the reason I don't have coralline is because of the LEDS.

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Donnie, I see what you are saying but I'm happy with this approach, particularly as we now have one tank full of live rock and one with base rock - will make another interesting point of comparison between the two.

 

Found out yesterday that the seawater we are buying is the same as used in Melbourne Aquarium and Melbourne Zoo! The guy who collects it delivers three truck loads per week to each, but sends a weekly delivery to the LFS too. And while many LFS in the area collect from the bay, this is from an area way from the city out on the coast proper. He said he loves using seawater for his tanks, so many trace elements you don't get 'from the fake ####' as he put it =0)

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Man that is cool, if I bought water from the sea here it would have to come from the Gulf Of Mexico :o that aint happening, especially after BP's blunder in the gulf. I live about 300 miles north of the gulf, won't even make a fishin' trip there anymore, nasty! I will be following your progress to see how the different tanks progress. With Brandon helping you out I'm sure they will be fantastic, he really knows his stuff on the pico's.

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Went to three stores today scouting which were best for marine, and two of them were great. Nice range of corals for good prices. But struggled to find any gobies suitable for our tanks ... so might need to order those in somewhere (when we're ready, some time off yet!).

 

Water test on my tank shows 0.25 ammonia, so hopefully the cycle is underway. The wife's tank's ammonia is still off the chart, so another major water change today and rinsing the rocks to try and get it under control.

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A few new tank shots.

 

HwqFN.jpg

His

v4PZ8.jpg

Hers (excuse the filthy glass)

BqU2n.jpg

 

Rinsed the live rock from Ang's tank in saltwater and hacked off a fair bit of dead sponge and stuff with a screwdriver. I also stole a couple more small pieces of rock from her tank =0)

 

Also found a huge bobbit worm in Ang's rock, which I disposed of. But saved a few other worms that came out and put them back (plus one or two in mine).

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Today's readings.

 

My tank:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm

Nitrite: 0.5ppm

Nitrate: 5.0ppm

 

So looks like the cycle is well underway.

 

Ang's tank:

Ammonia: Still off the chart (dark blue) 8.0ppm+

Nitrite: 5.0ppm

Nitrate: 5.0ppm

 

So appears to be cycling but still way too much for it to handle. So another major water change today.

 

Also, saw the feather duster in Ang's tank again which I take as a good sign (boy those things must be tough!)

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Hope you all don't mind me keeping my test results in here? Best way to keep track of what's going on =0)

 

Ang's

Ammonia - 1.0

Nitrite - 5.0

Nitrate - 10

 

I take it as a very positive sign that Ammonia is so much lower than yesterday! We did a 75% water change last night, but a day on it's still only at 1.0. I know this is still too high, but given Nitrite has remained high and nitrate has increased, suggests that the tank is finally starting to deal with the ammonia?

 

Peter's

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - .25

Nitrate - 5

 

Looks like the cycle is in its latter stages ...

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Hi Peter,

 

I see the cycling is underway.

 

Funny, Ang's tank doesn't look like it's had 8ppm ammonia.

 

Any ideas on stocking yet?

 

llj

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Yeah it is slightly odd to be so much lower, but we'll just keep testing!

 

As for stocking ... to be honest I didn't want to think about that until cycling was well underway, as I know I'll get impatient and want to start buying things!

 

Some initial ideas I have though:

 

A variety of zoas around the bottom-middle of the tank

I'd love a hammer located at the top of the rock.

And a xenia of some kind.

Maybe some mushrooms inbetween.

 

Livestock - ideal would be a goby/shrimp pair, but I'll have to see how easy it is to get that around here! From recent LFS visits, a goby of the right kind might be a struggle. I'll have to start making friends and see what chance I stand here =0)

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I like Stonogobiops nematodes. That genus is very appealing to me and they form a symbiosis with pistol shrimps. Saw a pair at my lfs, and again, very appealing. I do have more real estate than you do, though.

 

llj

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I am trying to go by lgreen's 'Ultimate Guide to Nano Fish', which gives me these options:

 

-Blue Neon Goby

-Clown Gobies

-Eviota Gobies

-Panda (Clown) Goby

-Redhead Goby

-Trimma Goby

-Yellow Neon Goby

-Citron Goby

-Green Banded Goby

 

As much as I love the look of a Stonogobiops nematodes (you and your latin names!), a Yasha Goby, or a Firefish Goby, I know I can't in this size of tank. Which is fine, I am more interested in the coral side of things to start with at least.

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Today's readings.

 

Ang's

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 1.0

Nitrate - 10

 

Peter's

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - .25

Nitrate - 5

 

I'm surprised at the speed Ang's tank has suddenly dealt with the ammonia. Hopefully we're not too far off a complete cycle (I think my tank pretty much is)!

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