Fluval Spec 3 Pico Reef

[Langer6]

+1 on the emerald crab love. Looks great as usual.

[Tuffryu]

Happy Friday folks! Minor update on the use of Acropower.

So I've been using it for about a month now and the most noticeable difference is in polyp extension and color. There are also signs of faster new growth in several $5 sps frags that were slower growers - particularly in the pavona and setosa pieces. I've been adding approx 2ml every 4-5 days.

 

The effects on soft corals is also noticeable as the mushroom that split into 2 is starting to split again (no pictured below). I am considering starting up the fluval spec again to move all soft pieces over to.

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

[teenyreef]

It's looking great! I like acropower, you just have to be careful about how much to dose or you get lots of algae on the glass. But I'm happy to scrape algae in exchange for nice acros

 

My emerald did a marvelous job until it got big. That's when the trouble started with yanking food right out from down the acans' throats.

Since the algae problem had been solved by then, I put it into retirement at the LFS.

[Tuffryu]

It's looking great! I like acropower, you just have to be careful about how much to dose or you get lots of algae on the glass. But I'm happy to scrape algae in exchange for nice acros

 

My emerald did a marvelous job until it got big. That's when the trouble started with yanking food right out from down the acans' throats.

Since the algae problem had been solved by then, I put it into retirement at the LFS.

 

I haven't had much algae from dosing AP but then again I'm not dosing too much. It's good stuff regardless.

 

The emerald is doing awesome. Mine is still small so hopefully she behaves. We'll see. Curious Teeny, are you dosing Iodine or Strontium in your tanks?

[teenyreef]

I dose Aqua Vitro Ions for magnesium, which includes strontium and boron. I also dose very small amounts of iodide (not iodine) but since I don't measure it in paranoid about getting too much.

[Tuffryu]

I dose Aqua Vitro Ions for magnesium, which includes strontium and boron. I also dose very small amounts of iodide (not iodine) but since I don't measure it in paranoid about getting too much.

 

Lol yes iodide - good point. Thanks as always for the prompt replies. I don't test for iodide either. I am adding magnesium via top off water but realized that the seachem reef advantage doesn't contain either strontium or iodide.

 

I'll have to look into Vitro.

[Tuffryu]

Some minor updates

I'm cutting back the green star polyps on the main colony and gluing them onto small rocks as well as other parts of the main rock.

 

 

 

This green pavona frag was a nice find for under $10. I"m running out of places to glue these things so I'm starting to stick them sideways. The astreopora right above it has been extending a lot after using Acropower, and the little digitata frag to the right was a piece that broke off a couple of weeks ago when I was cleaning powerheads. Seems to be showing some growth.

 

 

 

Scarlet hermit crab making it's presence on the monti cap.

 

 

 

I'm not sure what happened but small polyps of xenia are scattered all around the tank in the sand with a few of them stuck to the back glass wall. Gonna let them grow a little but hope they dont take over.

 

 

 

Finally did some water testing tonight, and numbers continue to look pretty good.

 

Alkalinity: 7.5 dKH

Calcium: 460 ppm

Magnesium: 1460 ppm

PH: 7.9

Gravity: 1.024

 

Happy Monday everyone!

[shinjo2040]

ooommmgggggggggg so many corals! Even after i just got 4 new corals and think that i have no where to put any more corals... I come and visit your page and see that i could still fit another 200 corals. LoL i dont know how you packed everything in there and still have them all look so amazing and healthy! Love the pictures, keep em coming!

[Tuffryu]

ooommmgggggggggg so many corals! Even after i just got 4 new corals and think that i have no where to put any more corals... I come and visit your page and see that i could still fit another 200 corals. LoL i dont know how you packed everything in there and still have them all look so amazing and healthy! Love the pictures, keep em coming!

 

Hey Shinjo! Hahaha, thanks for the comment.

4 new corals is a great start. Just keep in mind the size of the corals you put in. All of my pieces started as frags and several have started to grow into nice colonies. I don't think I'd recommend buying a large piece of coral for anyone with a nano/pico tank. Personally, I am finding it much more interesting to grow small frags. They're a lot cheaper and you can put a lot more in the tank

 

One more thing. if you can, try removing the corals off the plugs they come on. Saves a lot of space.

[shinjo2040]

One more thing. if you can, try removing the corals off the plugs they come on. Saves a lot of space.

 

One of the reasons i've been keeping my pieces on plugs is because my anemone has still been wandering my tank about once or twice a week so it's been nice being able to have the flexibility of moving frags around with less chance of damaging them. Also... i dont really know how to remove them from the plugs without damaging them. LoL

 

There are one or two frags that i think i could place without having to worry about them getting run over by my anemone. They're a ricordea and some acroporas. Any tips on getting them off their plugs? Thanks!

[Tuffryu]

 

One of the reasons i've been keeping my pieces on plugs is because my anemone has still been wandering my tank about once or twice a week so it's been nice being able to have the flexibility of moving frags around with less chance of damaging them. Also... i dont really know how to remove them from the plugs without damaging them. LoL

 

There are one or two frags that i think i could place without having to worry about them getting run over by my anemone. They're a ricordea and some acroporas. Any tips on getting them off their plugs? Thanks!

 

I just pry them off with a flat head screwdriver. For softer ones like polyps, you have to cut them at the base where the tissue is kinda tough. I then just glue them onto a smaller rubble piece or directly onto the larger rock.

 

It's cool you're doing anemones. I think they look cool, but I can't deal with the movement. I'm planning to start the fluval spec again in the next few months and will move all of the soft corals over to make the 9gal all sps.

[Tuffryu]

So I bought a cheap-o JBJ wavemaker for fun. Not a bad unit for $50. It has 2 outputs that swap back and forth to the time you set. Pretty simple.

 

 

 

I added my Tunze 5024 micro pump from the fluval spec to the left side of the tank so it blows directly on the sps frag mountain.

(Watchmen goby photobomb)

 

 

 

View from right side.

 

 

 

More xenia that have somehow left the main colony and ended up on the sand.

 

 

 

Finally some nitrate and phosphate testing. Phosphate is a bit higher than I want. Will probably water change this weekend. I'm starting to run low Calcium and Alk additives so I ordered B-ionic 2 part. Curious how much of a difference it'll make compared to Two little fishies supplements. Guess we'll have to see.

 

Peace out

 

[Tuffryu]

Lame post but I was noticing the emerald crab getting aggressive towards snails recently. I know they're omnivores but didn't think she was going to start hunting things so soon.

 

The crabs pick up stuff that's left around from feeding etc, but the more I thought about it there's probably not much in the tank to consume. I decided to start target feeding the emerald by making some really simple food out of flakes and some left over frozen vege/brine stuff that the goby hates.

 

Pretty simple recipe. I bought some non-flavored gelatin and heated in a pan and added the food stuff in. Let it rest and put in it in the freezer. Bam instant bonding food that will stick together for the crab.

 

 

The emerald LOVES this. I feed her once a day, with a small piece (about 1/4 of a dime size) that I target feed with tweezers.

[Tuffryu]

So my b-ionic order came in today, just as the last few drops of two little fishies supplements ran out.

 

For the record, I don't drink Rolling Rock beer as I'm more of a micro brew guy myself. The bottles just happen to be around and are clear enough to see liquid levels so I use them to store alkalinity and calcium that go into the doser

 

 

 

Water params

Calcium: 430 ppm

Alkalinity: 8.5 dKH

Sgravity: 1.024-5

 

Will track and document the b-ionic supplement changes over the next few weeks.

[shinjo2040]

 

For the record, I don't drink Rolling Rock beer as I'm more of a micro brew guy myself.

 

Somebody is in denial... its ok to drink cheap beer bro. more money for frags! Tank is looking awesome as always

[Tuffryu]

 

Somebody is in denial... its ok to drink cheap beer bro. more money for frags! Tank is looking awesome as always

 

Thanks man!

Bahahahah, yea man I hear ya. It's my wife's beer - I swear! lol.

[Tuffryu]

New addition is this green monti cap. He looks awesome under blue lights. I'm running out of places to glue them, so this guy is facing the back wall LOL. I might start sticking them on to the back glass.

 

After switching over to b-ionic, I am noticing some slight differences in a few frags showing more signs of growth. The wavemaker is also working out pretty well.

 

 

 

 

The green star polyps are growing out of control. I'm going to cut it back again and see if the local fish store will give me some credit.

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter everyone!

[Tuffryu]

Has anyone done the peppermint shrimp for aiptasia thing? If so, what was your experience and how many did you purchase for size of tank?

 

I have a few pests starting to grow and was considering buying a laser for them, but wanted to get some perspectives on the shrimps.

[Tuffryu]

Okay so no replies to the peppermint shrimp question so I'll just post in case others are wondering.

They work - and work well! I bought 2 and threw them in to see what would happen. Much cheaper alternative than the $150 2 watt laser I was considering.

 

 

 

So this rock below with the mushrooms on it had like 4 aiptasia polyps on it, always extended and likely stinging these shrooms. A day after the shrimp are added - nothing. Coincidence?

 

 

 

I keep telling myself not to buy anymore and just let things grow for now, but it never works. So the LFS has some new frags and I had to get this guy for $10. The fish store guys at the time didn't know, but it looks like a shortcake acro. If anyone has a clue, let me know.

 

 

 

So I bought the coral for a good deal, but it's much bigger than the pieces I tend to buy so I had to glue some more dry rubble together to create another extended branching area off the main rock to glue the coral on to. Which I guess works because I can probably add a few more onto the sides as well

 

This acro kinda looks like asparagus in the tank.

 

 

 

One big happy family

 

 

 

 

All hail the peppermint shrimp! I'm starting to believe everything the internet says. LOL

 

Lighting update COMING SOON!

[Tuffryu]

Shit just got real....for realz.

 

Tide PLUS M baby! Will post pics when I get it set up.

 

[Tuffryu]

This light kicks so much ass. I can't even begin to describe it.

It has settings that change the LED patterns throughout the day - ie. Morning, Midday, Evening, Night.

 

It has a geo-location tab that can simulate the weather for a particular location. The features like Clouds, Lunar cycles, etc are all just incredible. The moonlight channel is pretty sweet where you can have single LED on at around 5% to simulate moon hours.The pic below is in "photo mode".

 

Setup was pretty straightforward, although I had Dave fix my settings. The app that controls the light is simple to use. Win all around.

 

Will post more soon. Happy Friday folks.

 

 

 

[Tuffryu]

Work has been busy and so I haven't had much time to post which sucks

 

The nanobox light is doing great and the app is really convenient. Here are some updated pics. I've had to increase the dosing pump to do 11ml of calcium a day and 10ml of alkalinity. It's crazy because it's getting used up faster than I expected.

 

 

 

 

I'm currently watching my hermit crab devour a snail. Bought this blue sympodium polyp frag sitting in the front left of the tank. It's closed not but man when it's open is it gorgeous.

 

Hope everyone is doing well.

[teenyreef]

Looks great! I'm glad the dosing is going well. How are the acros doing? Are they coloring up?

[Tuffryu]

Looks great! I'm glad the dosing is going well. How are the acros doing? Are they coloring up?

 

Hey Teeny,

good to hear from you! Dosing is working well and yea the acros are definitely coloring probably more due to the light upgrade. I think the biggest difference with the new nanobox light is the red and cyan LEDs. They're much stronger. The moonlight mode is pretty nice as well.

 

The biggest difference I've seen after using acropower has been polyp extension. It's pretty incredible how much it's increased and very cool to see.

[Nanomaniac]

Tank is looking good, nice choice of lighting.