Hammer's 5 gallon pico reef: almost 4 months! updates, new corals and bye bye clowns :(

[HammerLover]

7 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

So cool!!

Thanks!

3 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Nice pics!  The sexy and crabs are too cute!

They are soo adorable and cute! Specially how the sexy shrimp wiggles its cute butt

 

the porcelains look quite weird doing some weird dance when they sway the "fan" things in their arms. I need a to take a vid of that soon.

3 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

Neat things happening in this tank!!!

It'll be interesting to see what you think of this setup, compared to your Cookie Jar, after it's been up 3 months or so. 

Thanks! I'll abruptly stop adding anything except, maybe a small frag next week. Im deciding to get a nice chunk of pipe organ coral, clove polyps and some gsp to create an island of polyps together with my xenia 

[HammerLover]

Since the tank is still fairly new, I decided to stock it fairly slow. Im way too afraid too add quite a ton of stuff in one seating, even though my rocks is from the sea and some media is from my fowlr. Maybe when its 2-3 months I'll be more comfortable.

 

one of the porcelain crabs lost its arm  its probably the rough handling of the LFS. However the crab is still active and does the fan thing with its arms so Im positive it will recover.

 

the sexy shrimp always hides at the back or underneath the torch so I barely see it. Maybe its still new that's why its kinda shy, and its quite a loner too. I found some purple shrimps for sale and I need to find if its reef safe so I can add it too soon.

 

some incoming additions that Im planning:

-2 more heads of xenia 

-a small colony of pipe organ coral

-some gsp 

-some clove polyps

 

i'll probably add the xenia and cloves first. Then after a week, I'll asd the pipe organ and gsp.

 

[Rain24]

Your porcelain crab is so cute! After the horror stories with the pom poms, maybe I should look into a porcelain crab? Nice that you're getting new stuff for the new tank!

 

I'll have to see if my dad is up for getting into a new hobby! I figure a 5 gallon should be fun to watch without that much expense and time involved.

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, Rain24 said:

Your porcelain crab is so cute! After the horror stories with the pom poms, maybe I should look into a porcelain crab? Nice that you're getting new stuff for the new tank!

 

I'll have to see if my dad is up for getting into a new hobby! I figure a 5 gallon should be fun to watch without that much expense and time involved.

Haha I think what happened to me is a highly unusual situation.  I wonder how it would have turned out if I'd put two in at the same time, or Shelby still had poms.  But porcelains are beautiful too!

[HammerLover]

On April 14, 2017 at 6:31 AM, Rain24 said:

Your porcelain crab is so cute! After the horror stories with the pom poms, maybe I should look into a porcelain crab? Nice that you're getting new stuff for the new tank!

 

I'll have to see if my dad is up for getting into a new hobby! I figure a 5 gallon should be fun to watch without that much expense and time involved.

Pompoms are quite peaceful I think. But of all crabs, porcelains are the most peaceful sepcially the white ones that filter feed. Hermits can be oportunistic and at times eat corals.

On April 14, 2017 at 7:36 AM, Lula_Mae said:

Haha I think what happened to me is a highly unusual situation.  I wonder how it would have turned out if I'd put two in at the same time, or Shelby still had poms.  But porcelains are beautiful too!

It could be. That's why most crabs are almost no no in my list. I will still add a pompom in my tank when some are available. Hopefully, they will indeed be available. I rarely saw them for sale. As well as porcelains

[Lula_Mae]

Yeah it wasn't till I moved up here that I ever saw pom-poms in an LFS.  Porcelains I don't know if I've ever seen except online.

[HammerLover]

So now Im having episodes of diatom bloom. I know this is part of a new reef tank but its really annoying me. I removed those in the glass but majority is still intact in the rocks. My snail isnt doing much of a cleaning though, so lots of diatoms are still left.

 

Lovely diatoms on the rocks 

[HammerLover]

Some more in the glass

[Nidilsky]

5 gallons seems so small and daunting. 

Btw, Lula, is that a Hepburn in your profile pic? Just curious.

 

[HammerLover]

An FTS taken in the evening. All the corals somehow close up at night. Since the tank receives sunlight, the timing of the corals opening and closing is based on the sunlight's cycle.

 

 I moved the torch a bit uptop since it isnt getting enough flow in the sandbed. Surprisingly the sexy shrimp moved there too, as well as the other porcelain. I think the two are best friends already, they seem to dont mind sharing the same coral they are hosting. 

 

Im going to add a couple of pederson cleaner shrimp next week plus a small chunk of pipe organ coral. I'll do a 10% wc too next week since my nitrates are climbing up (around 30 ppm)

[HammerLover]

Ps the white thingys in the front are bleached implosions palys Ive got from the LFS. They are going to dispose it already so I got them for free. After being in the tank for 2 days they seem to be opening up quite well so hopefully they will recover and color up.

[Pinner Reef]

Looks more like Cyano than Diatoms... or maybe just normal brown algae. Get your nitrates/phosphates down and it'll go a long way towards reducing that. Most CUC will eat the normal brown Algae which is why I was thinking that was Cyano... but also the bubbles.

 

I do so love bargain frags... I always look under rocks for the ones my LFS employees are missing. By the time I find them they are just happy to see them alive and practically give them away.  

[HammerLover]

30 minutes ago, Pinner Reef said:

Looks more like Cyano than Diatoms... or maybe just normal brown algae. Get your nitrates/phosphates down and it'll go a long way towards reducing that. Most CUC will eat the normal brown Algae which is why I was thinking that was Cyano... but also the bubbles.

 

I do so love bargain frags... I always look under rocks for the ones my LFS employees are missing. By the time I find them they are just happy to see them alive and practically give them away.  

Hopefully it isnt cyano  Im going to do a wc next week because I want the tank to settle itself with all the nitrates. I havent tested for phosphates but I dont have hairalgae so I think its not that high.

 

I believe the cause of the diatom bloom is me washing the sand with tapwater. Maybe a bit of silica got in the sand that's why the diatoms are growing.

 

 

The new shrimp I'll be getting turns out to be Urocaridella sp, which is known as hovering cleaner shrimp. It isnt quite a popular shrimp that's why I never knew about it. 

 

These shrimps seem to be quite peaceful and sociable so I'll be adding 3 of them in the tank. After a couple of weeks I'll add 3 more sexies to finalize the stocking in my tank. Shrimps have almost no bioload so I assume having 7 in the tank wont be an issue.

[Lula_Mae]

18 hours ago, Nidilsky said:

5 gallons seems so small and daunting. 

Btw, Lula, is that a Hepburn in your profile pic? Just curious.

 

It is indeed!  Good eye!  It's actually a subtle reference to my username as it's from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[Nidilsky]

17 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

It is indeed!  Good eye!  It's actually a subtle reference to my username as it's from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Never seen it, not the whole thing anyway. She was a wonderful person in real life.

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, Nidilsky said:

Never seen it, not the whole thing anyway. She was a wonderful person in real life.

It's an enjoyable film, the scene the pic is taken from is one in which she is singing.   She certainly was!  One of my role models and favorite actresses.

[HammerLover]

Sooo I went to the LFS awhile ago and the chunk of pipe organ was already bought

 

the arrow cleaner shrimp ( urocaridella sp.) are already sold out!! 

 

that's why I hate planning lol. I do found some small cleaner shrimps for sale. As well as bumblebee shrimps. Are they quite hard? I think feeding a bumblbee is the biggest challenge. Im still hesitating to add a cleaner because it can be way too big for the tank. 

 

Since I didnt buy the intended pipe organ coral I may need to find some substitute. There are lots of ricordea yumas available for sale today as well as green star polyps. Hmmmm I'll need to rethink my coral stocking plan. 

 

[Pinner Reef]

Go with Rics over GSP. Rics are waaay cooler and the GSP will grow super fast. Also stay away from Bumblebee shrimp... they're a type of Harlequin which only eat starfish (if I remember correctly) and will be difficult to care for. Have you thought of Candy Pistol shrimp? Might check them out as a substitute as most LFS can get them fairly easily.

 

You need duncans... and more euphillia

 

Happy Reefing!

[HammerLover]

 

8 hours ago, Pinner Reef said:

Go with Rics over GSP. Rics are waaay cooler and the GSP will grow super fast. Also stay away from Bumblebee shrimp... they're a type of Harlequin which only eat starfish (if I remember correctly) and will be difficult to care for. Have you thought of Candy Pistol shrimp? Might check them out as a substitute as most LFS can get them fairly easily.

 

You need duncans... and more euphillia

 

Happy Reefing!

I want this to be a mostly soft coral tank (lots of softies, some leathers, ricordeas and zoas) with a tad of SPS and minimal LPS. Maybe I'll do add a couple more LPS soon but I only liked blastos, candy canes and perhaps a small acan or scolymia. i already had a torch and I think adding hammer can be quite risky. But who knows lol, I might fit a hammer in there somewhere

 

I'm thinking of buying both the ricordea and gsp, though Im gonna stick the gsp in the wall for a nice background of polyps.

 

The sps I want to add is some digitatas, plating montis and a small chalice frag perhaps. Im really a fan of softies and LPS but I want to dedicate this tank as an almost soft coral garden.

 

 

[HammerLover]

This wednesday I'll be doing my first wc haha. I wont be adding anything till next week since this hobby is not to be rushed. Plus Im really busy with summer school this month 

 

IMAGINE 8 hours of friggin classes every day (monday-friday) and by the end of 6 weeks final exams will be given. It would've been easy if its history or english classes Im taking but Im taking integral calculus, physics and physics lab within such a short time period. How stressing! 

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, HammerLover said:

This wednesday I'll be doing my first wc haha. I wont be adding anything till next week since this hobby is not to be rushed. Plus Im really busy with summer school this month 

 

IMAGINE 8 hours of friggin classes every day (monday-friday) and by the end of 6 weeks final exams will be given. It would've been easy if its history or english classes Im taking but Im taking integral calculus, physics and physics lab within such a short time period. How stressing! 

Yeah, that sounds like...uh, fun!  Yeah, fun...   Hope it goes well cuz that's a lot to pack into a short period of time!

[HammerLover]

18 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Yeah, that sounds like...uh, fun!  Yeah, fun...   Hope it goes well cuz that's a lot to pack into a short period of time!

Its actually the most hellish thing Ive experienced in my entire college life!

 

my physics is 2 hours

30 mins break

then 2 hours of physics lab

30 mins break

and finally 3 hours of exciting integral calculus!

 

this is abuse for me! 

 

And once I pass all these subjects with fleeting colors Imma ask my parents to buy me some nice coral frags for my pico 

[Lisa166]

18 hours ago, HammerLover said:

Its actually the most hellish thing Ive experienced in my entire college life!

 

my physics is 2 hours

30 mins break

then 2 hours of physics lab

30 mins break

and finally 3 hours of exciting integral calculus!

 

this is abuse for me! 

 

And once I pass all these subjects with fleeting colors Imma ask my parents to buy me some nice coral frags for my pico 

This sounds like all study days for me . 

Usually classes from 830-1715. Two subjects per semester. 6 weeks of classes, one week of studying, and then... EXAMTIME 

 

Due to health issues I only have to do half of that this semester. 

 

Anyways. I love your tank. 

[HammerLover]

2 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

This sounds like all study days for me . 

Usually classes from 830-1715. Two subjects per semester. 6 weeks of classes, one week of studying, and then... EXAMTIME 

 

Due to health issues I only have to do half of that this semester. 

 

Anyways. I love your tank. 

Thank you very much!

I'm so excited with this setup so I need to control myself in adding so many stuff and frags

Its already day 2 of summer class and Im quite a bit enjoying it. I think I find Integral Calculus just as fun and challenging as Differential Calculus. Hmm hopefully Physics turns out well for me...

 

[HammerLover]

Sooo Im gonna buy 3 more stalks of xenia tomorrow. I just really really really really really love soft corals so much!

I dont know why some people get crazy over designer zoa frags/palys and several hard to keep sps corals

I dont know, its just me lol. I always love soft corals and some LPS over sps.

 

So the xenia will be bought tomorrow, plus I'll do a 30-35% wc  and scrub the glass and rocks since the diatoms are really annoying me. Next week I pooled some funds from my allowance so I can buy 5 heads of sweet and pretty ricordea yumas!

Once I get ahold of some peacock shrimps Im sure they will enjoy these heavenly beds of rics haha.