teenyreef Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I love tailspot blennies! Looking forward to pictures During the month I was trying to get my skimmer to break in I did give it a vinegar bath. When I opened to valve up all the way and it started working finally, I had given it a vinegar bath a couple days before. So it may have been a combination. Link to comment
moores38 Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 So here's a decent update: Still trying to photograph the blenny. He's a little shy and goes darting in the pores on my rockwork whenever I approach. He hasn't been eating pellets (at least not in my presence) so I've become concerned. I picked up some Reef Nutrition Mysis today and hopefully he'll gobble that up. Still waiting on the skimmer parts to come in. I e-mailed IM and they stated the desktop skimmers were sold out recently, once a new shipment comes in the the new parts will be sent my way. In the meantime I've been doing 1 gal water changes ever 4-7 days, basing the frequency on the film accumulation on my glass. I'll be waiting until I'm completely happy with my skimmer and it's abilities before I add anymore fish. I'm still debating as to whether I want to add one or two clown's. I don't want it to be over crowded. Lastly, the corals have been doing great, the acans really like the mysis. I'm still trying to feel out a spot for the acan's. Seems the couple I have really like very very low flow. Since everything with the coral family has been going fairly smooth, I ordered five more frags today. I pasted the WYSIWYG pictures below because my photography skills are awful. Anyway that's all for now.... Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Those look great! Really nice colors - hope they color up like that for real in your tank I have acans in both low and high flow in my 4g tank. For whatever reason, the ones in high flow have grown to twice the size and number of heads as the ones in low flow. I feed mine mysis a two or three times a week and they've grown really fast. Link to comment
Miamifish897 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Whenever I photograph my tank I have AI sols so I turn off the violet lights leave on blues with a high percentage of whites photoshop also helps with minor tweaks. If you are using an iPhone theres an app called camera plus it has a macro feauture which is pretty cool. Link to comment
NISMO703 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 If your planning on doing weekly water changes a skimmer is overkill depending on your bio load, you wont want to run carbon and gfo together in the same reactor. Just curious, why wouldn't you run carbon and gfo together in the same reactor? I'm getting ready to buy the midsize IM reactor and another member suggested that combo. Thanks. Link to comment
da1001 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 GFO is harder and can break up your carbon and turn it into dust basically, haha. Alot of ppl still run them in the same reactor they just put a piece of circular sponge between the two so they dont interract with each other. Link to comment
kylhcky Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 as long as it is packed tightly you can get away with mixing the two, when they tumble together is when you get the dust storm. just make sure not to shock the system with too much gfo, start with 90% carbon, 10% gfo and work your way up as your tank needs it. Link to comment
moores38 Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 So per the suggestions of others I've downloaded the closest thing I could find for a customizable photo app on the iPhone 6. Then I proceeded to take some crappy pictures. Just got my replacement parts in from IM and reinstalled my skimmer so we'll see how that goes, the microbubbles are absolutely insane right now. I'm having a bit of an algae problem and still trying to decided on what I want to do for livestock. I'm still hesitant about putting two clowns in there. I'll be picking up a cleaner shrimp and a scarlet hermit to add to the cleanup crew today. Slowly bumping the intensity of Kessil and hoping things will really start to color up. Other than that, nothing really new to report. New FTS Link to comment
WickedReef Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Your corals look happy!!! The main thing about taking decent pics on the phone is adjusting white balance.Im not a iphone guy but I read this:http://iphonephotographyschool.com/ios-8-manual-camera-controls/ So far, iPhone apps (apart from iPhoto) weren’t able to set a custom white balance for the scene. In iOS 8 this changes, and third-party apps can now allow full manual control of the white balance. White balance, or color temperature, is measured in Kelvin degrees (K), which sounds abstract for the majority of people shooting photos with the iPhone. Therefore some apps like Camera+ 6.0 (not yet released) have decided to offer photographers a set of useful presets which can be used to quickly adjust the white balance to the relevant lighting conditionsOne of these may work? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id329670577?mt=8https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id917146276?mt=8 Link to comment
moores38 Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Your corals look happy!!! The main thing about taking decent pics on the phone is adjusting white balance. Im not a iphone guy but I read this:http://iphonephotographyschool.com/ios-8-manual-camera-controls/ So far, iPhone apps (apart from iPhoto) weren’t able to set a custom white balance for the scene. In iOS 8 this changes, and third-party apps can now allow full manual control of the white balance. White balance, or color temperature, is measured in Kelvin degrees (K), which sounds abstract for the majority of people shooting photos with the iPhone. Therefore some apps like Camera+ 6.0 (not yet released) have decided to offer photographers a set of useful presets which can be used to quickly adjust the white balance to the relevant lighting conditions One of these may work? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id329670577?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id917146276?mt=8 Cool, I'll definitely give that a read! Fortunately I do have the Camera+ App, now I just have learn ho to use it! Ha! By the way, your acans are amazing, I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of acans every time I see them. What are your thoughts on two clowns in the IM 10? I know that's what your adding, I'm just concerned with their size in relation to the tank and water space... Link to comment
moores38 Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 So, as my Dad always used to say, "sh*t or get off the pot." So I sh*t.....meet my newest additions. I was dead set on Black Ice Snowflake Clowns and no crabs in my CUC, but... Label as Fancy Snowflakes, look pretty close to Black Ice to me.... And an Emerald Crab, 3x Scarlet Hermits (although one is completely white), and a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp acclimating... Fingers are still crossed that my skimmer comes around though. I'm going to use TeenyReef's advice and see if I can get rid of these darned microbubbles!. Hopefully my tailspot gets along with the two clowns. As you can see by the prior posts I was giving myself a complex about putting that many fish in there, but they appear happy and content. My blenny has been in the rockwork most of the time, even when it was the sole occupant I would only catch glimpses of it shooting into the rockwork or a head poking up here and there. I'm hoping the addition of the crabs and shrimp to the crew will clean up any left over food and start working on the little patches of algae I have hanging around... Link to comment
WickedReef Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Love those clown, very nice!!!! Post a full tank shot when ya get them in!! Link to comment
moores38 Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Love those clown, very nice!!!! Post a full tank shot when ya get them in!! I'll get a video up for you soon! I've been trying to practice my photography and I'm mounting all the corals in the sand bed to the rock work, finally. It'll tank some time for the dust to settle. Anyways, I'd like to share a valuable lesson learned. I originally had my heart set on Black Ice Clowns, 100%. I went to my old trusty fish store about 35 minutes north in Lansing (I recently moved from the Lansing, MI area down to the Jackson, MI area) to check out their selection. They had a large clutch of standard orange's and a clutch of blacks, with one Wyoming White Clown, none of which I was looking for. After a conversation with a co-worker they enlightened me about a LFS in Jackson. I was happy to hear I could potentially cut that drive time to and from my LFS, now that I had one in my backyard. I stopped in and was impressed at the amount of livestock they had for such a small store. I was mainly impressed with their clown selection. They had Wyoming Whites, Mochas, Misbar's, Fancy Snowflakes, Percula, and Snow Onyx, but no Black Ice. I stood looking at this pair of two Fancy Snowflakes for about 45 minutes debating on buying them. Were they the Black Ice I wanted so badly? No. Were they smaller or juvenile size, as I was looking for a smaller size for my tank? No. Were they perfect? No, one has a crooked mouth, kind of like he's smirking, he eats fine, but he sh*teatin' grin pis*es me off sometimes, haha. However, at $70 a fish they were still cheaper than ordering online (+ shipping = $~190), they were so close to already being home, and they looked pretty much like what I wanted so I bought them. Not even a couple days later, I see a post online from a KOLFS (Kind Of Local Fish Store) about a hour away, of whom have the largest stock of saltwater fish in the state, and just recently received a shipment of 30+ pairs of designer clowns in, to include Black Ice Clowns, and they are selling them for about $70/pair. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO BE PATIENT. I about turned over in my grave. I can only return my current Clowns for a full store credit, this store carries none of the brands I have or use, they have little to no coral frags, and I'm not adding anymore fish to my tank, so really it's pointless. So I'm stuck.....just thought it might be a valuable lesson to others, if you have the time, or the feeling that maybe you should wait....wait!!!!! I'm currently going through my bereavement phase and looking to be consoled in my time of need... BUT on a happy note, the yearly Frag Swap and Expo is happening soon. Looking to stock and fill my tank with corals! Link to comment
WickedReef Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I'll get a video up for you soon! I've been trying to practice my photography and I'm mounting all the corals in the sand bed to the rock work, finally. It'll tank some time for the dust to settle. Anyways, I'd like to share a valuable lesson learned. I originally had my heart set on Black Ice Clowns, 100%. I went to my old trusty fish store about 35 minutes north in Lansing (I recently moved from the Lansing, MI area down to the Jackson, MI area) to check out their selection. They had a large clutch of standard orange's and a clutch of blacks, with one Wyoming White Clown, none of which I was looking for. After a conversation with a co-worker they enlightened me about a LFS in Jackson. I was happy to hear I could potentially cut that drive time to and from my LFS, now that I had one in my backyard. I stopped in and was impressed at the amount of livestock they had for such a small store. I was mainly impressed with their clown selection. They had Wyoming Whites, Mochas, Misbar's, Fancy Snowflakes, Percula, and Snow Onyx, but no Black Ice. I stood looking at this pair of two Fancy Snowflakes for about 45 minutes debating on buying them. Were they the Black Ice I wanted so badly? No. Were they smaller or juvenile size, as I was looking for a smaller size for my tank? No. Were they perfect? No, one has a crooked mouth, kind of like he's smirking, he eats fine, but he sh*teatin' grin pis*es me off sometimes, haha. However, at $70 a fish they were still cheaper than ordering online (+ shipping = $~190), they were so close to already being home, and they looked pretty much like what I wanted so I bought them. Not even a couple days later, I see a post online from a KOLFS (Kind Of Local Fish Store) about a hour away, of whom have the largest stock of saltwater fish in the state, and just recently received a shipment of 30+ pairs of designer clowns in, to include Black Ice Clowns, and they are selling them for about $70/pair. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO BE PATIENT. I about turned over in my grave. I can only return my current Clowns for a full store credit, this store carries none of the brands I have or use, they have little to no coral frags, and I'm not adding anymore fish to my tank, so really it's pointless. So I'm stuck.....just thought it might be a valuable lesson to others, if you have the time, or the feeling that maybe you should wait....wait!!!!! I'm currently going through my bereavement phase and looking to be consoled in my time of need... BUT on a happy note, the yearly Frag Swap and Expo is happening soon. Looking to stock and fill my tank with corals! I know the feeling. Maybe see how much the store that has what you want, will take them for store credit and take a loss but still get what you want. Link to comment
moores38 Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 So an update. Everything seems to be very happy. I believe my clowns are starting to pair and are picking out a nesting location in a cubby of the rockwork, the seizures have also commenced. The zoas near the cubby are getting pissed that they're being confused with an anemone. Corals are looking super healthy and are showing really good signs of coloring up, except the ricordea, with the boosted light intensity. Skimmer is producing excellent skimmate, a little wet, but I'll take it, only a few microubbles. I try and clean the skimmer cup as little as possible, every time I do I have a micro bubble outbreak for a day or two. This weekend is the Michigan Frag Swap that I'll be missing for a weekend back home with the family, bummed I couldn't snag some frags! Recently got a whim and I'm going to add some macro algae to the tank, preferably a fast grower so it can perform some nutrient export for me and provided a snack for all my herbivores, and in addition, I'd like to add some Dragon's Breath as well, but I have a feeling it will get eaten. Considering decreasing my feeding amount and increasing the frequency to twice a day to keep everyone happy. My emerald has been a good sport so far, but I catch him stealing from my acans occasionally. I'm tempted to add an MP10 to the tank, I just hope it wouldn't be overkill for the acan's, I'm starting to have an issue with detritus build up in my rockwork. I turkey bast pretty regularly, but it's no bueno. If I did do that I'd probably turn the return pump down as much as I could and still get my desired tank turnover. This would allow 100% of my water to pass through the media basket instead of overflowing and well as give the skimmer some more time to work the water. Anyways, thats enough of my rambling for now.....I'm feeling risky and I'm not even going to proofread today... Link to comment
teenyreef Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Glad to hear things are going so well! I took my emerald crab to the LFS last week. He just got too big and was too aggressive stealing from the corals. I don't clean my skimmer cup beyond dumping it out, doing a quick rinse, and wiping the crud off the top edge. I do clean the lid, though. That seems to keep it fully broken in. I'm running my MP10 just like you described. The stock pump seems to keep things going at just the right rate to keep the media basket from overflowing, and the MP10 keeps the rocks clean. I use the turkey baster every couple days and the MP10 blows it all away. I recently decreased my lighting intensity. I realized my rics had really changed color, and not for the better, and my rainbow acans were all turning solid red. I can already see a difference after just a few days. Link to comment
Livewreck Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Hey ya'll. Great thread. Sign me up, please. I really love this little aquarium. It's so easy to set up and care for -- unlike some other brands which will go nameless. I'd love to get a fish or two but I travel every few months and have to leave the pico reef on auto pilot for up to three weeks at a time. That's no problem with just corals and a few snails. The Tunze nano top off works great, and I've learned how to dose my tank by placing additives into the ATO reservoir. But fish need daily feeding. Have any of you tried auto fish feeders? Please let me know the details. TIA Link to comment
Ahanix Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Hey ya'll. Great thread. Sign me up, please. I really love this little aquarium. It's so easy to set up and care for -- unlike some other brands which will go nameless. I'd love to get a fish or two but I travel every few months and have to leave the pico reef on auto pilot for up to three weeks at a time. That's no problem with just corals and a few snails. The Tunze nano top off works great, and I've learned how to dose my tank by placing additives into the ATO reservoir. But fish need daily feeding. Have any of you tried auto fish feeders? Please let me know the details. TIA Welcome! I tried an auto feeder on my Fusion 30 for a week when I went on vacation - Came back to a thick sheet of Cyano on my sand, but I'm starting to think it was the NLS Pellets that I was using, in conjunction to over feeding. That being said, it did take me a couple months to bounce the tank back, but my fish were fat and happy. If I wouldn't have purchased a super cheap auto feeder it may have done better. I would say if you have someone that can feed your fish, you will be much better off. Link to comment
Livewreck Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Thank you Ahanix. The Eheim Feed Air Automatic Feeder might just fit the bill. The price is right and the reviews are pretty good. But first... I'm on a fish hunt. I'd prefer multiple fish of the same species for a "natural reef" schooling look -- whatever that might mean. That's going to put sever limits on my choices, and I'm not sure its possible to achieve that effect in such a small tank. I was thinking of getting 2 or 3 Red Spotted Gobies as they grow to a max. length of only 1" in length. This is a photo copied from Unique Corals - one of my favorite online stores: Link to comment
moores38 Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 You sure you folks are in the right thread? Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 You sure you folks are in the right thread? LOL! Link to comment
Livewreck Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Sorry about that. Seems I can no longer multitask. Link to comment
moores38 Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Been a long time since an update. So, my tank has completely gone to the way side and the only reason everything hasn't died and the tank isn't dried up is because of my Apex and ATO. Water changes have been few and far between, and I honestly can't say the last time I've look at it. Everything was really taking off and happy, then I look my cleaner shrimp and another hermit, presumably by emerald who still lurks around. My entire liverock body is covered in what appears to be brown hair algae. Anyways, I'm quite discouraged and bored with the tank. I've done water changes till my arms fall off and I've had no resolve. My only option it seems is to maybe get an external GFO and carbon reactor, but I don't think I'll have enough room to jam a pump in my third chamber since I already have the return, Apex probes, heater, and ATO assembly in there. Also thought about trading in my livestock for store credit and parting the tank out, especially considering I'll have to move the tank at least twice in the short term future. A hobby I've been really looking into is poison dart frogs, a little pricey of a startup but way less than saltwater and I feel the vivarium/dart frog hobby is the terrestrial equivalent of the saltwater hobby. The main thing with it is it'll be a heck of a lot lighter to move and from my research it's considerably less maintenance.....Who knows, that concludes my rant for now, feel free to chime in, hope everyone is doing well! Link to comment
Drew11 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I went through the same type of deflating experience in my 12g tank a little over a year ago. Wanted to be done with it as I was battling dinos, lost a few corals, a couple fish, but I'm so glad I didn't call it quits because I beat them and it was a great feeling. Now that tank is thriving and I can grow anything in there. "Brown hair algae" if you have a picture lets see... usually the sign of dinos is little bubbles on the ends of the algae. My strongest opinion as far as stuff like this goes is to let the tank catch up to itself. Adding in corals and fish and crabs and snails is always changing the bioload in a new tank. I say new because to me a new tank needs a solid year to break in at least IMO. I'm no expert by any means and I'm just speaking off my experience, but if you're up for just give it time and it will heal. I did do a blackout period with peroxide dosing to defeat the dinos. Best of luck in whatever you decide! Link to comment
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