tibbsy07 5.5 pico reef

[jbb]

What light are you using for the fuge? I must have missed it.

[tibbsy07]

 

What light are you using for the fuge? I must have missed it.

Deep blue series solar 3w led 6500k light

[tibbsy07]

I think I figured out part of the problem - the timer that the LED for the chaeto was on doesn't work very well. It turns on and off randomly once the timer is "on" so I'm willing to bet there was a decent amount of time with no light.

 

The chaeto may be beyond saving. I've had light on it for ~2 days straight and no recovery so far. It's still white/grey. There is a snail back there munching on it now. Lame. Still trying, though!

 

I'm tempted to say lack of nutrients, too, however I had chaeto growing like a champ in my 12g and I never fed that thing, nor did it have anywhere near as many corals or as many regular water changes. This tank gets phyto at least once a week, has more coral, and has more snails. Besides, chaeto's main source or energy is light. I suppose the CPE could be pulling out too much nitrate/phosphate, but I think it was more a light issue.

[metrokat]

I'm tempted to say lack of nutrients, too, however I had chaeto growing like a champ in my 12g and I never fed that thing, nor did it have anywhere near as many corals or as many regular water changes.

There.

[tibbsy07]

There.

You think the weekly water changes are the problem?

[metrokat]

I can't say that, I'm not there facing your tank issues like you are. All I know is what you post here. My tank gives me tell tale signs when something is off. I don't let up till I figure it out, but I don't start off assuming I know what caused it. I really don't know even though it is my tank. So process of elimination, lots of discussion and small changes later, I evaluate. Then I do it again.

 

I did suggest less than your 40-50% WC back a few pages but you had nitrates and trites and were opposed to that. You're thinking there is a high nutrient environment in the tank, I think you might have fed too much for a short while and seen the effects.

 

It's boring and tedious but if you were to measure your parameters (including alk/cal/mag) everyday for a week after your next water change, you can establish a pattern. Use aquaticlog.

[tibbsy07]

I can't say that, I'm not there facing your tank issues like you are. All I know is what you post here. My tank gives me tell tale signs when something is off. I don't let up till I figure it out, but I don't start off assuming I know what caused it. I really don't know even though it is my tank. So process of elimination, lots of discussion and small changes later, I evaluate. Then I do it again.

 

I did suggest less than your 40-50% WC back a few pages but you had nitrates and trites and were opposed to that. You're thinking there is a high nutrient environment in the tank, I think you might have fed too much for a short while and seen the effects.

 

It's boring and tedious but if you were to measure your parameters (including alk/cal/mag) everyday for a week after your next water change, you can establish a pattern. Use aquaticlog.

I did a major water change last night - 2 gallons again. This is the last major change for a while. 1g from now on.

 

I am going to test tonight when I get home from work and see what my levels are. I removed the chaeto completely. It was grey and limp. ABout 1/4 of the size it was when I purchased it. Womp womp.

 

I also removed a little blue-legged hermit. I don't like hermits, I've had nothing but bad luck with them. Killing snails and such. No bueno.

 

I vacuumed the sand bed, BIG TIME. The pictures I took are being slow to upload to google from my phone, so I'l have to post them later. I just took a water bottle and superglued it to the vacuum tube housing, then used that and spazizz's method of clinching the hose to stop/start water flow to suck up the crud and let the sand fall back. The bucket of old water smelled like rotten sewage and eggs... Gross. Got just over half the sandbed taken care of. I'll need to do more on the next water change.

 

The tea pot spout brush has been AWESOME for cleaning the inside of the AC70 intake tube and U tube.

 

The dragon eyes zoas are toast. They were looking a tiny bit melty the other day, but I came home last night to find almost all of them gone. One of the remaining ones was "sliced" in half and I found an asterina star nearby. The star is looking much bigger and has 3 new legs growing. I think it may have been nibbling on the zoas as well as the zoas melting. Shame, too. I really liked the radioactive dragon eyes

[Roshan8768]

Glad that you were able to clean out that sand bed of yours using that DIY rig we talked about. After reading the thread that you started about sand bed maintenance in pico's I've decided to just blast my sand bed and rocks with a baster before my 100% water change which I am currently doing twice a week.

[tibbsy07]

Glad that you were able to clean out that sand bed of yours using that DIY rig we talked about. After reading the thread that you started about sand bed maintenance in pico's I've decided to just blast my sand bed and rocks with a baster before my 100% water change which I am currently doing twice a week.

How large is your tank again? 100% 2x a week might be a bit much.

 

Here is what I pulled out of half the sand bed...

Smelled like burning, rotten eggs and poo. Gross.

 

Left half of the tank just before the water cleaning. They all look pretty good.

 

Farewell to the radioactive dragon eyes... Something done up and ate them

Sad that they turned into this from this:

 

On the bright side, things are growing a bit. The pink/orange ric is bigger than it was before. The GSP has gone crazy! I hadn't noticed until I saw the first few pictures of it:

 

And then now (only a portion, as this was a close up of the punk rocker which is budding a new head, too. About a week old but you can see how full the GSP looks).

 

I've been doing a LOT of reading at Advanced Aquarist and watching American Reef and Mike Poletta. I have so much work to do to figure out my tank... Kind of overwhelmed, but trying to relax, K.I.S.S. and not do anything drastic.

[tibbsy07]

Some days really nice tanks inspire me. On days like today, I get all bummed out. 6 months in and barely anything going. If anything most of the tank seems to be going in the opposite direction. Womp womp.

 

C'mon little pico, let's get going!

[Roshan8768]

How large is your tank again? 100% 2x a week might be a bit much.

 

My bad I meant to say once every two weeks... so twice a month

 

Also my tank is in my sig... 2.5 gallon AGA pico

[tibbsy07]

My bad I meant to say once every two weeks... so twice a month

 

Also my tank is in my sig... 2.5 gallon AGA pico

Yeah, I am just an idiot

[tibbsy07]

Bah, today is a day I just want to start over. Very unhappy with the tank as it stands... So lame. Part of me wishes I had been able to keep the 20L going. My wife told me the other night she wants me to get a bigger tank when we have a bigger place so that I can have cooler stuff and more stuff.

 

I feel like the tank is missing something. I'm ok with the lighting (though doing a T5/LED hybrid would be awesome, if not overkill). My sand is still semi-green (seems to be getting worse), and the coral are either stagnant or dying. I'm feeling very lost at the moment.

[Roshan8768]

I think you should do a couple of 100% water changes back to back and then don't feed and keep your hands out of the tank. With that said.... pico's are hard to keep!

[tibbsy07]

I think you should do a couple of 100% water changes back to back and then don't feed and keep your hands out of the tank. With that said.... pico's are hard to keep!

I just did a 50% on Monday. I'm going to test the water quality tonight when I get home from work. I'll know more then.

[Roshan8768]

You shouldn't even need to test... clearly there's a lot of stuff stuck in your sand. I'd do a couple of 50% changes before testing again. You want the water in your water change bucket to be as clean as the water you normally see in your tank. Once you get it to that point, you can start testing (Although I don't know why you'd want to)

 

The hardest part about picos is managing nutrient levels and stability (Temp, SG, pH, Alk/Cal) Right now, unless you havn't mentioned some information, your biggest problem is the nutrients

[tibbsy07]

Definitely the nutrients are my problem, but I need to see how out of whack they are currently before I do anything drastic. I want to know what I'm dealing with before I do anything.

 

I've got to figure out a way to get the gravel vac into certain areas that are a bit too small for the bottle I used.

[Roshan8768]

Fair enough I guess. IME if you can tell that your tank is too dirty there is no way that you will harm anything in there by doing a large water change if you match parameters... as in it's highly unlikely that you'll "shock" your livestock by making your water "too clean" But that's just me... I don't like testing and trust and rely on my eyes and the "look" of my tank a lot more than any test results

[tibbsy07]

I hear what you are saying, but chemistry doesn't lie.

 

Here are my current tank parameters:

Temp: 81

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0

dKH: 10.4

pH: 8.3

Calcium: 400

Magnesium: 1400

Salinity: 1.026, but had to top off almost 1/2 gallon which made it 1.023-1.024ish.

 

Basically the water looks good. Copepods all over the glass. Everyone looks pretty good. Watermelon zoas are half in half out, I think snail-related. Xeni are still tiny but pulsing again. Punk rocker is open and budding. Kenya tree, the 2 rics, the hammer and the blue sympodium are going. I have some concerns about the hammer, though - it looks kind of skinny? Not as full as other people's

 

Green bay packers are dead/dying. Radioactive dragon eyes are pretty much gone except 1 or 2 heads. Lame.

[metrokat]

It seems to be doing fine and holding on to good parameters. That salinity swing should be watched. If you had to top off that much that it affected salinity, then likely your salinity is low before evap happens. That could explain grumpy corals. Put in a certain amount of top off every day if you're not doing that already.

 

Do you think maybe you want to try a couple more frags of coral? Zoas maybe.

 

I saw the bucket of crud, my bare bottom 3g pico has more crud than that.

[tibbsy07]

Yeah I'm going to try and raise the salinity over the next couple of weeks. I need to get a lid and an ATO no question. The heat here has been pretty high and the room the tank is in gets a lot of sun.

 

I'd love to try more zoas. They are my favorites, but I'm hesitant, to be honest.

 

And you have more crud because you put old water from your main tank in that pico

[metrokat]

Yeah I'm going to try and raise the salinity over the next couple of weeks. I need to get a lid and an ATO no question. The heat here has been pretty high and the room the tank is in gets a lot of sun.

 

I'd love to try more zoas. They are my favorites, but I'm hesitant, to be honest.

 

And you have more crud because you put old water from your main tank in that pico

The lid would be good. Try palys like nuclear greens, captain americas, sour apples.

Nope the crud wasn't because of RSM tank water. I added nualgi and there were diatoms that made my CUC nuts. Poopy little critters. About to post cruddy pictures on my pico thread.

[tibbsy07]

The lid would be good. Try palys like nuclear greens, captain americas, sour apples.

Nope the crud wasn't because of RSM tank water. I added nualgi and there were diatoms that made my CUC nuts. Poopy little critters. About to post cruddy pictures on my pico thread.

I'm hesitant on palys because of the toxins but if I can find some for a decent price I'll give it a go. I just don't want to spend tons of cash to have them die again. I'll see who has what locally.

[ninjamyst]

I'm hesitant on palys because of the toxins but if I can find some for a decent price I'll give it a go. I just don't want to spend tons of cash to have them die again. I'll see who has what locally.

 

i had zoas melt on me a few times for no reason, but never palys...not sure why. maybe it's cuz of those damn zoa eating nudis in my tank.

[metrokat]

I'm hesitant on palys because of the toxins but if I can find some for a decent price I'll give it a go. I just don't want to spend tons of cash to have them die again. I'll see who has what locally.

the plain green palys you were contemplating is toxin central. Not all palys have toxins.