My Custom PicO

[Mstefa1]

So my problem today is that the heat rolled in and my tank is 84.6 degrees F. It's still only spring here so the AC is not running yet and it won't be until the average temp is 85 or so outside. The ambient temp in the room was 89, but it's down to 84. I'm not playing games with ice cubes or anything so it will just have to manage. I wasn't concerned when the tank was 82 but this is pushing it.

 

Perhaps it's time to get that fan for evaporative cooling. I want something sustainable, not a solution that is a pain in the butt. What do you guys do? Obviously temperature stability is important but at what max temp do you see a problem? My Aquapod has a chiller and my frag tank is in the cooler basement.

[Mstefa1]

My jager heater is running this morning. The tank is 82 and the ambient is 80. WTF?

[andi.rahl]

O_o weird.

[Hexadron]

I had my AC running as soon as it hit 80 Degrees. My condo gets very hot though. Turn on that AC!

 

I'm looking forward to what other people say for cooling options. I suppose a fan would be the easiest/cheapest method.

[mpsti05]

Damn! As soon as it gets above 75 out I turn the ac to 72 lol, my condo is on the top floor with vaulted 15ft ceilings with skylights so once the sun comes over top it gets warm in the living room. Tank will jump to 79 and I like to keep it at 76 for the sake of the jawfish. I keep a fan on circulating the air and tank stays at 76 this way, Id put a fan 4-5ft blowing right at the tank but only if you have an ato

[Mstefa1]

I have room air conditioners... Plenty of them but it's not time to install them yet. Besides, it's cooling off today and staying cooler for a few days. My wife likes the seasons so running the AC during spring and fall is not an option. But once they are running, I usually keep them running.

 

Of course I have an ATO.

 

Frankly, I'm more concerned on why the heater was running.

[Mstefa1]

After being up 26 hours, when I finished up work this morning I headed down to one of my LFS. As soon as I parked the car, I fell asleep. My wife texted me a few times and I woke up. I didn't have the energy or patience to shop (as it is the largest pet store), but I still got a few goodies.

 

I picked up a black-rayed shrimpgoby, a tiger pistol, and a gold stripe maroon clown for my PicO. I also picked up a lawnmower blenny for my Aquapod.

 

I drover70 minutes home, and when I got home, I floated all the bags, passed out on the couch for 45 minutes, picked my daughter up from school, and passed out again for another 1.5 hours. Finally I acclimated them and everybody seams happy. That pistol sure is an interesting fellow!

[Hexadron]

LOL. That's a lot of passing out in one day.

[Mstefa1]

LOL. That's a lot of passing out in one day.

 

Passing out sober isn't cool! So I got conned into working day shift this weekend, however 14 hr shifts during the day isn't much better than my 12 hr shifts during the night. My family was asleep when I left for work and they were in bed when I got home. Didn't spend much time with my tank. I finally saw my pistol & goby . The pistol has sure rearranged the sandbed. The two of them are hanging out in the back. I tossed a few pellets back there with a pipette and they got a meal. At least working day shift got me a day off for free (I'm salary) so I can take my kids to the amusement park on Monday!

[Hexadron]

Ugh, I finally dialed in my mp10 so it wouldn't be blowing sand all over the place. I love pistols, but would hate them making a mess all the time.

 

How was the amusement park?

[Mstefa1]

Not much going on here. My torch or whatever it is has really grown big since it has room to stretch it's tentacles. The SPS is doing good, but the acro is still brownish even though it's little polyps seam happy. I've turned up the blues another notch to see if that helps. The grandis palys I have are in the PicO fragged from my Aquapod have really opened up. The green guy healed up nicely and the cinnamon guy is big and has another polyp. The blastos also have at least another head.

 

Not sure why, but zoas haven't faired well in here. The original colony I put in there didn't look great when I came home from vacation. It's now opened up a little more, but it obviously isn't happy. I never found the missing single zoa polyp that I lost. Also the other single polyp that I did find isn't happy and I may have lost that. I dipped them all again about a week ago and haven't found any nudis that may have been bothering them. Kinda sucks because I wanted to show off some sexy zoas here but I have several frags in my frag tank to test out when I'm ready.

 

I still have lots of life in my tank. I think I've also discovered flatworms. The appear to be the brownish color. They don't appear to be bothering anything. Today I've also noticed they are in my frag tank so they must be hitchhikers on the liverock. I'm not panicking but I may use flatworm exit if they become a problem in the future. For now I'm just watching them. Most of the nerites that I took from my Aquapod and put into my Pico when I was dealing with algae do to light issues have been consumed by crabs. I've got a big turbo in there and a small snail or two that would be too small to house the crabs are left. I've only had to toss them back in the tank a few times after climbing out.

 

As for livestock, my sexy gold stripe maroon clown is the life of my tank. He is so happy and really makes the tank come alive. I'll have to try and get a pic of him. My pistol and goby are awesome too, but they are hard to see. My sand bed has changed several times as they dig under the rock. Just as long as the liverock doesn't fall I'm perfectly OK. I have been trying to feed them every other day but I'm not sure how often I have to feed them, being the less the better. My feather duster worm that I mysteriously found in my Aquapod refugium and relocated to my PicO is also an interesting watch. It was not the most happy with the flow in my PicO, although after being displaced by the Pistol it has found a place right out front in the sand bed that it can open up nicely and not worry about being blasted with flow.

 

In regards to water conditions, Ca, Alk, and Mg are nice and stable but that is to be expected since I don't have many corals in here. I still perform 3-4g weekly water changes on here (which is the same I also perform on my larger Aquapod 24g). I haven't tested phosphates but I would assume not much has changed even though I'm sure it's higher than I would like. That may also explain the browning of the acro. Perhaps I'll frag the Acro from my Aquapod and put part in my PicO. Nitrates on my API test kit are hard to read but it looks like nitrates on my Aquapod read 0 and on my PicO read 10-20. Remember I use my Aquapod to test for color comparison.

 

Now that I've bored you with text, I'll try and get a pic or two up.

 

How was the amusement park?

 

Awesome! I took the kids there on Monday, Friday, and back again on Saturday to hit the water parks. All it costs is some food and gas with season tickets, not even a parking fee. I planned on going to the beach on Sunday just the kids and I since the wife was working however it was supposed to be windy and it wouldn't have been a great beach day given the fine sand at my favorite beach. Instead we went to the local state park and explored since I haven't been there since I was a kid. They have a huge pool which we spent most of the afternoon.

 

Not the best time to setup a tank consider I prefer an active summer but at least my tank will have some time to age.

[BadCrab]

Sounds like everything is progressing pretty nicely. I'm right there with you: your zoas are irratated and you want them, my euphyllia are. You have brown flatworms, I've got the red ones - tons of them. I'm not interested in flatworm-exit though - wrasse or blue velvet for me (BVN would be passed back to the reef club after he's done.)

 

Now, since you didn't post pictures, I will have to find and polish my pitchfork.

[Mstefa1]

 

Now, since you didn't post pictures, I will have to find and polish my pitchfork.

 

Patience grasshopper! I can't really take good photos during the day due to the light coming in from outside. The blinds don't do a good job blocking it out but fortunately it's overcast out.

 

Just a basic FTS... Not much special here.

 

I really like this guy. The camera makes his stripes white but they are really golden.

 

And if you want to complete the ID of my torch hitchhiker or whatever. You can see he is developing nicely. I hate taking pics of corals of this type when the flow is turned off. It looks flat but is actually quite beautiful swaying in the flow and glowing under the RBs.

[BadCrab]

a healthy looking Euphyllia glabrescens! (imo)

[Hexadron]

Thanks for the update!

[Mstefa1]

a healthy looking Euphyllia glabrescens! (imo)

 

Somebody tell my clown to host it!

[Mstefa1]

The sun is setting...

 

 

 

[Mstefa1]

Wife told me my goby jumped... Again.

[jgpico]

Wife told me my goby jumped... Again.

That sucks, I'm sorry. Do you not keep a top on your tank?

[BadCrab]

Get a Life Net dude!

[TristanC]

Damn that sucks dude..

[Mstefa1]

That sucks, I'm sorry. Do you not keep a top on your tank?

 

I like my tanks like I like my women - topless. Maybe I just need get some more coral in this baby. On more positive note, I think the culprit eating my zoas was a rogue crab. I've since banished him from the tank (tossed him in another). I worked last night for one of the other managers and I'm taking my family to the beach / boardwalk for the day tomorrow so I don't see getting much done this weekend. Let's hope my pistol doesn't go on a rampage without his goby buddy.

[Mstefa1]

Quickly did a water change in all my tanks today. Didn't have much time, but cleaned the glass, replaced the floss & filter pads, and replaced the media in one of my racks (I alternate replacing media with each water change). It's been about 2 weeks since a water change because I've been busy. I've also taken 2 paly frags that have grown out nicely from my frag tank and put them in my PicO, as well as taken a small clam from my Aquapod and put it in my PicO. We will see how that goes.

 

My Pistol seams just as happy w/o his goby buddy but I'll pickup a new fish one of these days - but probably not another goby. lol

 

I've got to fix my car this evening. A water hose broke and I had to park it about 15 minutes from my house on Friday evening so as soon as my wife gets home @ 4pm I'm off to get the replacement hose and slap it on. Assuming no other issues, I plan on taking the kids to the beach (2.5hr drive) on Monday if the weather holds good.

[Mstefa1]

Just got home from the shore / boardwalk and my pistol is out and about moving sand around. I swear he moves more sand since the goby jumped - probably trying to find his buddy. Last night I woke in in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep so I ran a bunch of tests on my Aquapod. I actually don't need to test my PicO much because I really don't need to dose in it yet. Maybe that will change since I put a few more frags in it and also the clam.

 

I did test phosphates in both tanks and the PicO came in at 0.10 and the Aquapod at 0.11. The PicO seams to be holding a steady number with no algae, but the Aquapod does have a few spots which isn't bad considering the lack of care it has received. What's surprising is that that Aquapod used to test 0.02 for Phosphates so I don't know what changed as I've changed the GFO media twice since then. It is a more mature tank though so I'm sure I'm battling old tank syndrome. I've order Blue Life Phosphate Rx, simply because I want to try it out. I've read that it works very well for removing phosphates, although the risk is removing too much at once Obviously this doesn't solve the root of the problem but we will see. I plan to start at 1 drop per tank, not anywhere near full dose.

[Mstefa1]

So my Blue Life Phosphate Rx came in the mail today and I just had to try it. I didn't test my phosphates in any of my tanks, but based on consistent prior tests I would guess that the previous results of .09 is where I've been at in my PicO. The package states 6 drops will lower phosphate .5ppm in 10 gallons of water - which is way too much. I put 1 drop in my PicO, then several hours later put a second drop in. Finally, several hours later I tested phosphates in my PicO and the reading was .02. This was astonishing that 2 drops could lower phosphates like that. I've also dosed my Aquapod the same amount so I look forward to testing that as well. My torch looks kinda pissed, but the lights are out so it's a little hard to tell. Everything else looks fine.

 

I'm taking the family to the beach again tomorrow so I won't be working my tank.