Supermarvin's PicO III

[supermarvin76]

 

Man. I hate to hear that you are getting frustrated with WC's. I also do not like to hear a little hair algae is popping up so soon, however if you keep up with husbandry and stick with it the tank is still new enough that it will take time to balance out on competing algae and over time, everything should become pretty stable and nothing invasive should flourish. I hope you don't say #### it and go for the macro option, unless you WANT to of course.

 

My advise is make the WC as easy as you can and make sure you have good RODI water. Maybe switch to a consistent bi-weekly plan. However, you have to keep up with WC's. You know stability is key and your params will be super tight if you do a weekly WC.

 

Are you dosing anything? Amino's, etc? Don't.

 

How often are you feeding?

 

I would pull back on feeding at the first sign of hair algae, just for a couple days. I would not dose anything. I would do a normal WC. Nothing more, nothing less. Rinse and repeat.....watch for improvement and dial that bad boy in. No drastic re-action, just light feeding, frequent WC's and solid stable params and sit and watch everything come together.

 

For what it is worth, here is my summary on my albeit smaller PicO Shallow although that's just me and there are plenty alternatives:

 

1 - Weekly 10% WC's with Red Sea Coral Pro

2 - Auto Top Off with good Spectrapure RODI water

3 - Use AquaMaxx 100 micron filter pad on the top of the media tray (http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx_Filter_Pad_Filter_Pad_Mechanical_Filter_Media-AquaMaxx-UJ00123-FIFMMEPM-vi.html]http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx_Filter_Pad_Filter_Pad_Mechanical_Filter_Media-AquaMaxx-UJ00123-FIFMMEPM-vi.html[/url]) and change every 3-4 days. I pre-cut and rinse and it takes 2 seconds.

4 - In the media tray under the 100 micron pad, I have Seachem PhosGuard in a Boyd Media bag, followed by Chemi-Pure Elite 6.5oz, then on the bottom Purigen in another Boyd Media Bag.

5 - Not essential, but I use Prodibio Nano Kit. Dose per instructions. Have had plenty good tanks without it, but I am liking this stuff.

6 - Skimmer, on such a small tank not needed, but I have a small Air driven I don't sweat if it pulls anything out or not, which is does mostly, but I run the tank like it is not required (1-4 above, without fail, especially WC's and ATO).

 

Let us know how it goes! Your tank has a ton of potential and I am liking it! FWIW I don't think you need to run the fuge section with Chaeto. Just my .02

Thanks.

 

I don't does anything at all. I suppose that's part of my reasoning for the weekly water changes.

 

I am running Purigen and ChemiPure Elite. That's it.

 

I chane the filter pad out every 2-3 days.

 

I use RODI for WC and ATO.

 

I feed frozen mysis every 2-3 days.

[pimp4cheddar]

Really nice tank man...sub'd

 

Nice progression!

 

How do you like the filtration of the tank? Is it loud?

 

I'm thinking of buying a Pico SIII but I don't want anything standing taller than the tank (so no skimmer).

[supermarvin76]

I just took the skimmer out of the first chamber and put some chateo in there. I have the PicO 1w led over it with a fixture I put together with some left over MaxiJet mounts and zip ties.

 

Think I should put more light over it? If so, how?

 

Should I put a little power head in there to tumble the chateo?

 

I don't know how well this is going to work, but I hope it works well.

 

Thanks everyone!

[Passaggper]

I think I'm still confused. I can only assume your nitrates are high? Is that why you are making changes?

[supermarvin76]

I am tired of fiddling with this skimmer.

 

What can anyone tell me about the lighting?

[TristanC]

I think you will be ok with just the inlet flow, as for the light chaeto doesn't need much if it starts to break apart you could try adding more light. How high are your nitrates?

[supermarvin76]

I must admit..... I don't test! Weekly 4 gallon water changes.

 

Please don't yell at me!

[Passaggper]

You should pick up a nitrate test kit and just see where you're at. I don't run a skimmer and I do regular water changes. It has taken me a while to get below 5ppm but I'm at around 2 now. Hopefully it will stay there with regular maintenance. I haven't messed with macro algae of any kind so if you don't have to... why bother with it? This is just my opinion.

[TristanC]

I dont run a skimmer or macro, just weekly 2.5g changes and gfo/carbon in a reactor. My tank hovers around 8ppm nitrate but my fish are fat and happy because I feed alot.

[supermarvin76]

I dont run a skimmer or macro, just weekly 2.5g changes and gfo/carbon in a reactor. My tank hovers around 8ppm nitrate but my fish are fat and happy because I feed alot.

 

I've not been following.... Sorry. I've been super duper busy. I know you have that slick reactor, but do you run carbon and GFO in the same skimmer, at the same time?

 

 

Update- I put the skimmer back in, have the chateo below it, and have it lit with a JBJ LED fuge light which is incredibly bright.

 

Here is a little video update using my iPhone....

 

 

 

 

Forgive me, I didn't realize how terrible the quality was until I just tried to watch it.... Hopefully you get the point.

[supermarvin76]

Looky what I got!!! I couldn't help myself.

 

[supermarvin76]

Duncan has about 6-7 new heads total.

 

 

And a close up of the Frogspawn

 

[TristanC]

Nice pic of that frog!

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

nice pics, and hey, i hate my 9002 too, the new cad nano pls50 skimmer arrives today, ill keep you updated on its performace, i figure it cant be any worse than the 9002 right? lol

 

also, instead of purigen, ditch it for phosban? that was my combo, phosban and chemipure elite (i know, double gfo, but it just worked, didnt like regular chemipure)

 

also, im now switching from cpe to kz carbon. updates to come on the skimmer bro

[supermarvin76]

nice pics, and hey, i hate my 9002 too, the new cad nano pls50 skimmer arrives today, ill keep you updated on its performace, i figure it cant be any worse than the 9002 right? lol

 

also, instead of purigen, ditch it for phosban? that was my combo, phosban and chemipure elite (i know, double gfo, but it just worked, didnt like regular chemipure)

 

also, im now switching from cpe to kz carbon. updates to come on the skimmer bro

Excellent. I'll look forward to hearing about he skimmer. I have GFO, but don't really know how to bag it and am worried about using too much soon haven't used any at all. Being an AIO, I don't have a reactor.

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

gfo is easy, my phosban is 50grams for 50gallons so for me, 20grams (approx 20gallons) 20grams into teaspoons is 4! voila... put it in a bag, drop the bag into ro a few times to get the powder out, then into my chamber it goes...

 

the korallen-zucht carbon was way more difficult if you ask me, had to boil water, remove oil like film, uhghh, was gross hahaha

and as far as the skimmer, wow, ive never seen such foam in a tunze... ever have the issue with too much foamhead? i couldnt get any in my 9002.... lol

[supermarvin76]

So I closed a deal today to take photos of the LFS and its corals, and edit them. We're swapping my services for coral!

The pictures of the frogspawn above, and the fire fish a few pages back combined with my smooth talking sealed the deal.

 

I'm stoked!

[Giga]

Nice frog spawn

[supermarvin76]

Nice frog spawn

 

Thanks. I don't know what I'm doing, but the frog seems to be happy with me.

[Giga]

Thanks. I don't know what I'm doing, but the frog seems to be happy with me.

 

Your learning though right, got to start somewhere

[supermarvin76]

I want a hammer or torch next. I don't know where to put one in my tank tough. Actually I really would like a hammer AND a torch...

[supermarvin76]

I am thinking about re-scaping ever so slightly... I would like to leave all the rocks the same, but move them back about 2 inches to free up some space up front.

 

The only problem I can think of when doing this is, my rocks on on the bottom of the tank, and then the sand is in. When I move the rocks, I fear I'll disturb that. Thoughts?

[supermarvin76]

I pushed the rocks back about 2 inches. Doesn't sound like much, but it's very noticeable, at least to me, my wife doesn't have a clue.

 

When doing a water change yesterday I accidentally sucked my frogspawn out of the sand with the siphon hose. It shriveled up the most I've ever seen it. Even more shriveled than when I bought it, it's back to normal jow though. I was worried though!

 

Also, I added two tsp of Two Little Fishies Phosgaurd in a bag below my floss.

[TristanC]

Ive rescaped my tank quite a few times, as long as your keeping your sandbed mixed/clean you wont run into any problems with releasing stuff. I actually dropped my mag cleaner on my frog the other day (don't ask me how) and it was pissed for a good 2 days, back to normal now though. Post up some pics!

[supermarvin76]

Ive rescaped my tank quite a few times, as long as your keeping your sandbed mixed/clean you wont run into any problems with releasing stuff. I actually dropped my mag cleaner on my frog the other day (don't ask me how) and it was pissed for a good 2 days, back to normal now though. Post up some pics!

 

 

I'll try to get some new pics this weekend. But for now, the update is there is no update.

 

I am thinking about selling the Tunze 9002 and replacing it with a PLS-50...