My Walmart Paint-by-Numbers Pico

[chippwalters]

I'm also having a detritus problem in this tank. I think I need to add some filter floss to the AC70. Right now the only filtration is coming from the Tom's filter and I'm seeing a build up of black 'gunk' in the tank. It's sort of amazing, the water flow in this tank is really strong, but it builds up crap really quickly.

 

I've a few nassarius snails in my tank and they do a pretty good job on detritus. They're not much on algae, but that's what the Turbo and Ceriths are for.

[metrokat]

nass vibex are very small and good workers.

 

for dosing, the 2 part will maintain your alk, here is a neat calculator to determine the dosing requirements of different products out there.

 

Also test when you can even if it is not at the same time every day. this will at least give you an estimate of your params.

[streetsong]

I really like the direction that you are going with this tank. It is visually pleasing and well balanced. Any new developments?

[pbjelly]

Sorry, I have been working crazy, crazy hours and haven't had time to update this thread. I've barely had time for upkeep on the tank.

 

It's no joke trying to do regular maintenance on two small tanks in my current 'no free hours' every week. So for now, dosing is tabled - even though the tank probably could use it.

 

 

I've had every little weird thing happen with this pico that so far (knock on wood) I've avoided with my nano. I've got aiptasia, found bubble algae, have digitate hydroids, a crazy HH crab that won't come out of his hidey hole, frags sliding off their plugs, salt creep, the list keeps going.

 

I do have a bit of exciting news though - drum roll please...

 

I've started trying to add - CLOUDS.

 

 

I know this could have been thought out better, but I've been waiting for a delivery of frag mags for the last two months - and I finally just gave up. Premium Aquatics insists they're on their way, but ten weeks is a long time to wait so I've tried mounting a piece of Pulsing Xenia to a Mag Fox and I've stuck that to the wall of the tank.

Let us just take a moment to discuss the insanity of trying to frag Xenia and stick it to anything...

 

My hope is that as the Xenia grows, it attaches to the wall and poufs out like a 'Happy Cloud'

 

Does anyone know if Krylon Fusion is reef safe for use INSIDE the tank? I'd love to try to disguise the mag fox for the next 'cloud' but I don't want to poison the tank.

 

And how do you keep Kenya Tree Corals from falling over? Mine has decided to slide right off it's plug and tip over into the gravel.

 

Happy Picoing and Bob Bless.

[metrokat]

Place the frag plug next to the tipped over tree and hopefully it will attach.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Sorry, I have been working crazy, crazy hours and haven't had time to update this thread. I've barely had time for upkeep on the tank.

 

It's no joke trying to do regular maintenance on two small tanks in my current 'no free hours' every week. So for now, dosing is tabled - even though the tank probably could use it.

 

 

I've had every little weird thing happen with this pico that so far (knock on wood) I've avoided with my nano. I've got aiptasia, found bubble algae, have digitate hydroids, a crazy HH crab that won't come out of his hidey hole, frags sliding off their plugs, salt creep, the list keeps going.

 

I do have a bit of exciting news though - drum roll please...

 

I've started trying to add - CLOUDS.

 

 

I know this could have been thought out better, but I've been waiting for a delivery of frag mags for the last two months - and I finally just gave up. Premium Aquatics insists they're on their way, but ten weeks is a long time to wait so I've tried mounting a piece of Pulsing Xenia to a Mag Fox and I've stuck that to the wall of the tank.

Let us just take a moment to discuss the insanity of trying to frag Xenia and stick it to anything...

 

My hope is that as the Xenia grows, it attaches to the wall and poufs out like a 'Happy Cloud'

 

Does anyone know if Krylon Fusion is reef safe for use INSIDE the tank? I'd love to try to disguise the mag fox for the next 'cloud' but I don't want to poison the tank.

 

And how do you keep Kenya Tree Corals from falling over? Mine has decided to slide right off it's plug and tip over into the gravel.

 

Happy Picoing and Bob Bless.

 

I really like the clean look and the blue background....

[pbjelly]

I really like the clean look and the blue background....

 

Thanks Mike - it's been a trial to try to keep this tank clean and healthy. Much harder than my biocube which is pretty self-sustaining. I think I'm going to take chppwaters and metrokats suggestion of adding some nassarius snails to see if they help with the detritus issue.

 

I've a few nassarius snails in my tank and they do a pretty good job on detritus. They're not much on algae, but that's what the Turbo and Ceriths are for.

 

I'm trying not to add too high a bioload to the tank, but the nassarius snails may clean more than I need to add to sustain them, so it could be a great addition. - Thanks for the suggestion.

 

It's such a balancing act with a tank this small - and I've got a crazy bunch of giant frag plugs in there that don't help. What I really need is a very small rock to mount some of the frags onto and expose more of the sand bottom. The big square frag blocks cut off a lot of surface area on the bottom of the tank and like big furniture in a small room, I have to lift them up to vacuum every week.

[pbjelly]

My newest pico problem.

 

 

caused by this????

 

 

The flow in the tank bounces around so much that apparently the snail on the lip of the AC70 managed to cause enough of a disruption to dig a hole.

 

...and have I mentioned the bubble algae?

[Cintax]

I hate bubble algae, many rocks have ended up out in the snow this winter to get rid of it.

[pbjelly]

I don't know what the bubble algae came in on, I haven't added anything new in quite a while, but I seem to have activated it during a big clean up that I did a few weeks ago.

I scrubbed in corners, I scrubbed rocks - lo and behold, a few days later - bubble algae.

 

I wish I could take the offenders out, but there are only three rocks in the whole tank

[Cintax]

Take the rocks out and chisel off the hold fasts. You can try H2O2 as well.

[metrokat]

Contestants get ready!

[pbjelly]

Take the rocks out and chisel off the hold fasts. You can try H2O2 as well.

I may give the hydrogen peroxide route a try if I can't get it under control manually. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Contestants get ready!

Ha! - you guys rock!

[pbjelly]

 

So, not quite the way Bob does it, but I love my clouds. In Bob's world, these would be 'happy stormy clouds'. Notice the darker background that I've used to separate the lighter tone of the puffy cloud.

Bob uses the round brush to do his. I've used a razor blade, a rubber band and a frag mag. I love these things, but they're kind of expensive for what they are, so I may have to do some creative re-purposing if I want more clouds.

 

I've also added a couple of macros to the display although I don't know that they're going to make it as they took a beating in transit to me and look a little sad. There's a new pile of Ochtodes that I'm hoping will become like foothills when they grow in (if they don't die) and a piece of Violet Dreams that I just think is pretty.

 

So far, the cloud is my favorite thing in the tank. It pulses and flows on the back wall completely hypnotizing me for hours.... pulsing, pulsing, pulsing....

 

 

 

 

 

What?

Oh, Happy Picoing and Bob Bless.

[metrokat]

lol. you are too funny. Are you out of work hell yet?

[pbjelly]

Thursday night it's over. Thank freaking goodness.

 

(Edited to thank Bob as well...)

[metrokat]

I've been meaning to plan the next all reefers meetup (not just ladies), hope to see you.

[pbjelly]

It sucked rocks that I had to miss the last one. I'm totally looking forward to getting together and seeing you and the other NY/NJ/LI reefers. Let me know when you want to do the next one and I'm there.

[pbjelly]

So my Kenya Tree coral has been looking scary bad. Slumped over, melting bad.

I tried not to panic. I've read that Kenya Trees can go through a 'dormant' period where they look terrible, but this seemed to last too long for the coral to even still be alive.

Well, I came home yesterday to little frags of Kenya Tree Coral all over the pico. The thing EXPLODED EVERYWHERE! Now I know how people end up with tanks full of this stuff. Who knows what my aquascape will look like in a week...

[Cintax]

I keep mine on a small rock and its never ever tried to leave it. So well behaved!

[streetsong]

Wow- This tank is looking awesome. I really like the pulsing xenia clouds, very creative. How is the kenya tree doing?

[pbjelly]

Wow- This tank is looking awesome. I really like the pulsing xenia clouds, very creative. How is the kenya tree doing?

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

The Kenya Tree really did explode all over the place. The parent looks fine now, albeit much smaller, and there are little frags that have attached themselves in all sorts of places that I never wanted them to be

 

I think the stock light is turning out to be problematic. The corals all seem healthy, but I'm not seeing real growth from anything. The GSP (which I actually think is Briarium) is just starting to spread towards the back of the nubbly coral shard that it's attached to, and the Xenia that I fragged have all healed nicely, but I can really see the 'clouds' stretching up the sides towards the meager light.

 

I'm just starting to see coralline growth in the tank. It's very sparse, but I see some on the front acrylic and a little on the rock. The combination of low light and high flow isn't really optimum, but at least (knock on wood) everything seems to be doing o.k. - if not great.

 

I know I could have just used a credit card to get the coralline growth off the front of the tank, but these were so cute - and I felt in keeping with the contest, so I got a pack of these tiny little guys and went to town. They work if you're careful, but of course now I can see all of the spots I missed.

 

 

I keep mine on a small rock and its never ever tried to leave it. So well behaved!

 

I wish mine was as well brought up, running wild and exploding... Will this become a nature/nurture question? Am I a bad Kenya Tree parent?

[moblues]

Doggone it! You've got some pulsing xenia, I've been looking for some since I got the tank going. Looks great and I love the placement. I doubt you're a bad parent, softies are just weird like that.

[pbjelly]

Doggone it! You've got some pulsing xenia, I've been looking for some since I got the tank going. Looks great and I love the placement. I doubt you're a bad parent, softies are just weird like that.

Hey moblues - thanks for the support. I have moments when my dog does something totally egregious and I wonder if I'm a bad doggy parent...

Do you have any local reefers around your area? I've found that everybody seems to be giving away Xenia all the time on my local board. Most of the corals in here are freebies from local folks - except the pom pom xenia, which I was obsessed with having for this tank and no one had. The pulsing thing is hit or miss. This frag was pulsing a lot when I got it, but in the weirdness that is the Walmart Pico - it only pulses when it's in certain locations.

 

The AC70 is too powerful for the dimensions of this tank - even modded, so I've got a whole zone where everything just gets blown all to hell by the current. The frags that I've mounted to the walls do better because they are out of the main storm. If I had just put a big rock in the middle of the tank like normal people I think the current issue would be solved, but no....I had to get all silly with this tank, so I'm always moving stuff around trying to figure out how to keep everything happy.

[pbjelly]

Picos are hard.

 

A lot of weird stuff happens in my pico and some of it I can affect, and some I can't.

 

For instance, my hermit crab.

I thought it would be a good idea to have a hermit in here as part of my mini clean-up crew, so I put one little hermit in the tank. I also threw a couple of slightly larger shells in with him just in case he wanted to change.

Over the months, I've wondered if this little guy was getting driven insane by being the only hermit in this little tank. He doesn't crawl around very much. I'd drop food in the tank for him and he'd just sit there. Strangest of all, he wouldn't change his shell.

He was obviously growing out of it, and somehow, either through friction, or by some active means, his shell was getting eaten away to allow for his growth.

 

 

I kept dropping more and more shell in until finally one day - Victory!

 

 

Then a half hour later one of the original shells I dropped in with him…

 

 

The the next morning…

 

 

Back to the old shell.

 

Also, the green bubble algae is REALLY bugging me. I don't know what to do about putting an Emerald Crab in here with the resident invisible black claw crab that's hidden in the rock. Can two little crabs co-exist in a tank this size?

 

I've tried manually removing the bubbles, but it's really hard to do without popping them and I've only got three rocks in here - two of which are covered in coral that I don't want to kill.

 

On a brighter note, I can see that a few little specks of clove coral have made the jump and are spreading a bit. I know it's supposed to be invasive, but I don't think anything is doing so spectacularly well under this weak stock lamp. They've faded badly to a weak lavender and I was worried that I was killing them, so the spread is nice.

 

Also, the ochtode macro is starting to recover. Some of it has gone white and will probably die, but the rest of it has developed quite strong holdfasts and hopefully will fill out in a nice blue puff.

 

Happy picoing, and Bob bless.