3 Gallon Picotope!- Clean Slate

[Weetabix7]

Congrats!!

That last one looks like a Montipora. 

[JoeR]

1 minute ago, Weetabix7 said:

Congrats!!

That last one looks like a Montipora. 

Thanks! That's what I thought it was, but when I asked him he said it was something totally different? They're pretty knowledgeable but he could be wrong I suppose.

[Lula_Mae]

$1 zoa frags?  Nice!  Wonder if the mystery piece is an encrusting monti maybe?

lol I see Weetie had the same idea

[JoeR]

4 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

$1 zoa frags?  Nice!  Wonder if the mystery piece is an encrusting monti maybe?

lol I see Weetie had the same idea

Yes, $1 zoa frags!! And they are actually really nice colors, it's almost painful not buying a ton of them but I already have too many zoas lol but for $1 how can you not. Fintastic aquariums of wake county is amazing, and they're opening more branches in a few states I believe

[JoeR]

I have a few questions, if anyone has insight I would greatly appreciate it:

 

1. Can I (and if so, how) remove the "monti" off of the frag plug and reattach it onto my live rock? I would hate to still be able to see the unnatural shape of the plug after it grows out.

 

2. Same thing for the ricordea- how do I safely get it off the plug? Could I just chip the plug away until you can't see it?

 

3. I bought epoxy to attach the corals, but it apparently doesn't work underwater even though it says it's for corals... would superglue work instead and be safe?

 

4. Suggestions on WHERE to permanently place the corals? I have a few ideas but as a new reefer it's hard for me to figure it out based on growth, max size, etc. 

 

5. The local fish stores won't take the Kenya, not even for free they said so I guess I will just have to tuck it in the back? Makes me mad that I paid $35 for an apparently worthless coral.

 

6. The filter is not providing enough flow, how can I increase its output? I was debating removing the sponge and making a fuge. Or buy a power head 

[Weetabix7]

You can use an exacto knife or flathead screwdriver to try to "Pop" the frags off the plug. 

You might want to try them in different places in the tank and wait til you discover where they are happy before removing them from the plug. 

There is one kind of superglue that is safe, I think it's cyanoacrylate. 

[JoeR]

Update!

 

Man. Life's been crazy, so this tank has kind of been put on the back burner a little. I've also had several issues with it, like the leather getting PISSED and engaging in chemical warfare. I couldn't figure out why everything was looking so bad, or what the white stuff was... then I realized it was the leather. On top of that, cyano was still an issue even though my parameters are perfect.

 

i don't know how to take good pictures (via snapseed and iPhone 7) but these ones aren't too bad. I have to decide where I want the newest corals still, like the rico and zoas. Also I'm getting a ton of coralline growth, is that a good sign? 

 

Oh oh and I need something to clean the glass still... I've been using a credit card.

 

Update!

 

Man. Life's been crazy, so this tank has kind of been put on the back burner a little. I've also had several issues with it, like the leather getting PISSED and engaging in chemical warfare. I couldn't figure out why everything was looking so bad, or what the white stuff was... then I realized it was the leather. On top of that, cyano was still an issue even though my parameters are perfect.

 

i don't know how to take good pictures (via snapseed and iPhone 7) but these ones aren't too bad. I have to decide where I want the newest corals still, like the rico and zoas. Also I'm getting a ton of coralline growth, is that a good sign? 

 

Oh oh and I need something to clean the glass still... I've been using a credit card.

 

If you click on the photos you'll see they aren't really blurry, not sure why that happened...

[Weetabix7]

Joe lives!!!

 

Those pics don't look bad at all. 

 

Glad you figured out the Leather. 

Using carbon helps lower the risk of that. 

 

Coralline growth is good, and credit cards work well for scraping glass, IME. 

[JoeR]

Thanks!

 

Carbon? I thought the chemipure elite that I use would help, is that what you mean?

 

also meant to say- The one orange coral (can't remember anymore what it's called) got bleached and hasn't recovered yet. What should I do to help it?

[Weetabix7]

The Orange Ricordea?

Or the orange one in the front left corner?

 

Yeah, chemipure elite should help. 

[JoeR]

3 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

The Orange Ricordea?

Or the orange one in the front left corner?

 

Yeah, chemipure elite should help. 

No not the ricordea, the other one lol. The montipora look-a-like

[Weetabix7]

7 minutes ago, JoeR said:

No not the ricordea, the other one lol. The montipora look-a-like

 

Ooooh. 

Welp, we're gonna need to ID it before we can come up with a plan to help it. 

We need to know whether or not it's SPS. 

If it is, it could be that your parameters are off just a wee little bit. 

If it's not SPS, then it might need less light. 

Either way, you can't go wrong with a lugol's dip. 

[JoeR]

On 5/2/2017 at 8:49 PM, Weetabix7 said:

 

Ooooh. 

Welp, we're gonna need to ID it before we can come up with a plan to help it. 

We need to know whether or not it's SPS. 

If it is, it could be that your parameters are off just a wee little bit. 

If it's not SPS, then it might need less light. 

Either way, you can't go wrong with a lugol's dip. 

Still no idea on ID.. any ideas?

 

Also if I wanted to add an acro or two, would I need to start dosing? If so, is there like an "all in one" that I can easily dose myself without a system? My lfs had these a few weeks back and I sooo wanted one of the blue/green ones

[Lula_Mae]

2 minutes ago, JoeR said:

Still no idea on ID.. any ideas?

 

Could it be something like a lepto?

[JoeR]

11 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Could it be something like a lepto?

Thanks, looks like you nailed it- maybe a jack-o-lantern lepto?

And as far as colors go, mine is kinda lame comparatively to the other lepto coral 

[Lula_Mae]

20 minutes ago, JoeR said:

Thanks, looks like you nailed it- maybe a jack-o-lantern lepto?

And as far as colors go, mine is kinda lame comparatively to the other lepto coral 

If that's what it is, jack-o-lantern leptos are still a nice orange!  I'm not 100% as I've never had it before but now that your frag's grown out a bit the striations make me think that's what it might be.

[Lula_Mae]

Also those acros are nice!!  Now that I'm back in NC I'll have to make a trip up there sometime.  Whether dosing is needed would depend how much is being consumed; if you have few stonies you might get away without it.  I've got C-Balance but haven't used it yet.  I'd look into getting alk, mag and calcium tests from a good company like Salifert so you can get an idea what your tank's using before deciding whether to dose.

[JoeR]

33 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Also those acros are nice!!  Now that I'm back in NC I'll have to make a trip up there sometime.  Whether dosing is needed would depend how much is being consumed; if you have few stonies you might get away without it.  I've got C-Balance but haven't used it yet.  I'd look into getting alk, mag and calcium tests from a good company like Salifert so you can get an idea what your tank's using before deciding whether to dose.

Where in NC are you now? Anywhere near Raleigh?

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, JoeR said:

Where in NC are you now? Anywhere near Raleigh?

Bout an hour east of Charlotte.  Visited an LFS while in CLT today but even though it's humongous I wasn't impressed lol.  Mostly fish and large coral colonies...seems like they cater to a clientele with deeper pockets than mine!   Raleigh is about 2 hours from me.

[JoeR]

6 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Bout an hour east of Charlotte.  Visited an LFS while in CLT today but even though it's humongous I wasn't impressed lol.  Mostly fish and large coral colonies...seems like they cater to a clientele with deeper pockets than mine!   Raleigh is about 2 hours from me.

Yeah that's how I felt too in most of the lfs in Charlotte. Too big of corals with too high of a price tag! Raleighs also about a two hour drive for me too, but since they post exactly what they have in stock that weekend on Facebook you don't waste your time! It's most definitely worth it. If you have Facebook I can post the link to them here if you want.

[Weetabix7]

15 minutes ago, JoeR said:

Yeah that's how I felt too in most of the lfs in Charlotte. Too big of corals with too high of a price tag! Raleighs also about a two hour drive for me too, but since they post exactly what they have in stock that weekend on Facebook you don't waste your time! It's most definitely worth it. If you have Facebook I can post the link to them here if you want.

 

Oh, that's nice!!

I don't know how long of a drive it is for you two, but there's an Aquarium Store in Columbia, SC that's good, it's called Fishy Business. 

One of the things I like about them is that they have $25 frags or 3 for $60. 

They have a large selection of frags too. 

I got my RFA from them, as well as my now famous Brain. 

[JoeR]

34 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Oh, that's nice!!

I don't know how long of a drive it is for you two, but there's an Aquarium Store in Columbia, SC that's good, it's called Fishy Business. 

One of the things I like about them is that they have $25 frags or 3 for $60. 

They have a large selection of frags too. 

I got my RFA from them, as well as my now famous Brain. 

I think I remember you mentioning that place... like I said, I'm 2 hours from EVERYTHING lol. So doesn't matter where it is, it's about the same distance. I work at Bojangles right now ((kill me)) so obviously I don't make a lot of money, but $25 frags seem a little steep to me depending on what type of frags they are I guess. Maybe I'm just spoiled from the one in Raleigh lol..

[Weetabix7]

2 minutes ago, JoeR said:

I think I remember you mentioning that place... like I said, I'm 2 hours from EVERYTHING lol. So doesn't matter where it is, it's about the same distance. I work at Bojangles right now ((kill me)) so obviously I don't make a lot of money, but $25 frags seem a little steep to me depending on what type of frags they are I guess. Maybe I'm just spoiled from the one in Raleigh lol..

 

Wow, yeah, you're lucky if $25 for a frag is expensive compared to your local place. 

But hey, I'm glad you have that resource!!

[JoeR]

Just now, Weetabix7 said:

 

Wow, yeah, you're lucky if $25 for a frag is expensive compared to your local place. 

But hey, I'm glad you have that resource!!

I wouldn't say it's "expensive" I'd just say It's not a "deal" lol and like I said it also depends on the type of coral. Are they SPS, LPS, softies? The lfs I'm talking about has $1 zoas sometimes, which can be seen in the most recent photos, $5 frags, $10 frags, $15 frags, etc. the most expensive frag in my tank is the rico, which I paid $17 for... but obviously they have more expensive frags and colonies, I just don't get them. And again, I work a crappy fast food job so that also influences my spending.

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, JoeR said:

Yeah that's how I felt too in most of the lfs in Charlotte. Too big of corals with too high of a price tag! Raleighs also about a two hour drive for me too, but since they post exactly what they have in stock that weekend on Facebook you don't waste your time! It's most definitely worth it. If you have Facebook I can post the link to them here if you want.

Sure, that'd be great!  I don't facebook much but do use it to look at pages sometimes.

 

6 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Oh, that's nice!!

I don't know how long of a drive it is for you two, but there's an Aquarium Store in Columbia, SC that's good, it's called Fishy Business. 

One of the things I like about them is that they have $25 frags or 3 for $60. 

They have a large selection of frags too. 

I got my RFA from them, as well as my now famous Brain. 

I think Columbia's about 2hrs from here.  The place I went to had $15, $35, and $40 frags but the selection was pretty small.  There was a nice green cabbage leather in the $40 section that I was tempted by.  I didn't get to check out their inverts cuz of course that's the corner they were doing maintenance in.   Might also be that I'm picky and like weird things lol.  Or would never pay $70 for a mostly-bleached colony of mediocre birdsnest...

 

5 hours ago, JoeR said:

I think I remember you mentioning that place... like I said, I'm 2 hours from EVERYTHING lol. So doesn't matter where it is, it's about the same distance. I work at Bojangles right now ((kill me)) so obviously I don't make a lot of money, but $25 frags seem a little steep to me depending on what type of frags they are I guess. Maybe I'm just spoiled from the one in Raleigh lol..

Hey, gotta start somewhere!  Fast food jobs aren't very fun but any job you can stick out for a while when your young should look good on your resume when it's time to look for a "real" job.  I used to work at a Dairy Queen in a state where it's a full-on fast food restaurant and ice cream is almost an afterthought.  Got pretty good at blizzards and cones though lol.