5.5 gallon spec v. Was all she wrote.

[MarieH]

Water change on Tuesday. All my fraglets are responding to the light. All is well. Evaporation is controlled by topping off 2x a day,  I am thinking I have room for a micro ato so its a go soon as I can locate one.

[gena]

3 hours ago, MarieH said:

Water change on Tuesday. All my fraglets are responding to the light. All is well. Evaporation is controlled by topping off 2x a day,  I am thinking I have room for a micro ato so its a go soon as I can locate one.

Do you mean the Micro Smart ATO?  There is also a DIY ATO out there that you can do.  I'm sure you've probably seen it in Fab's pico thread . 

[MarieH]

7 hours ago, gena said:

Do you mean the Micro Smart ATO?  There is also a DIY ATO out there that you can do.  I'm sure you've probably seen it in Fab's pico thread . 

Thanks I'll explore that option, but I am not very diy..ee.    Maybe. It saves 200$  so yes..I should try.

[gena]

38 minutes ago, MarieH said:

Thanks I'll explore that option, but I am not very diy..ee.    Maybe. It saves 200$  so yes..I should try.

I just found all the pieces for the DIY.  I had picked it up a couple of years ago.  Just have to actually do the DIY .  At least I found the parts.  Not sure I will need it, but possibly for my pico jar.

[MarieH]

51 minutes ago, gena said:

I just found all the pieces for the DIY.  I had picked it up a couple of years ago.  Just have to actually do the DIY .  At least I found the parts.  Not sure I will need it, but possibly for my pico jar.

Nice. I am thinking of a reef jar now.  ha, it looks like fun.

[gena]

2 minutes ago, MarieH said:

Nice. I am thinking of a reef jar now.  ha, it looks like fun.

It sounds promising that we will have a reef jar contest.  You totally should join in if so .

 

I probably won't need an ATO for my jar.  At least not for the contest.  Maybe down the line.

[MarieH]

Progress so far. Everything doing well. Status quo. All quiet on the eastern front.  Now to get some growth but I see new polyps on the zoas and my tiny green candycane seems to be bigger.

[MarieH]

On 9/7/2017 at 8:54 PM, gena said:

It sounds promising that we will have a reef jar contest.  You totally should join in if so .

 

I probably won't need an ATO for my jar.  At least not for the contest.  Maybe down the line.

you guys are awesome, however tempting, I almost ordered the 2g on Walmart site, but I have to consider my 3g is nowhere near done!  Besides I have 2 freshwater tanks, dog and cat,   So I will watch for now.

 

 

Is there a link to the jar contest???

[Lula_Mae]

47 minutes ago, MarieH said:

you guys are awesome, however tempting, I almost ordered the 2g on Walmart site, but I have to consider my 3g is nowhere near done!  Besides I have 2 freshwater tanks, dog and cat,   So I will watch for now.

 

 

Is there a link to the jar contest???

Contest hasn't been announced but there's several of us anxiously awaiting to see what kind of pico contest it will be lol.

[MarieH]

9 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Contest hasn't been announced but there's several of us anxiously awaiting to see what kind of pico contest it will be lol.

Ok, thanks. I'm watching.

[MarieH]

Have an excessive amount of amphipods, and I think they might have killed a trochus snail or else he was in decline and they opportunistically did him in. Will the population explosion decline when they face starvation? I definitely don't think I should feed them...   what to do?  

Anyone?

[cfaye@Delaware]

Hi, I see a few people on NR are having this problem right about now. Mine started a few weeks ago and I went nuts. As of now things seem to be ok for a while now. Because your tank is small, you are sort of limited on livestock that can help with the pod. population. I have a Green Clown Goby for over a month now and I feel that he has done the job. I had several types of pods, the evil ones that attacked my frag are gone, the pods I have now he eats those also, but I also have seen the crabs pick at them. Right now not liking crabs much. So I think the fish ate those pods.

[MarieH]

 HI THANKS! Green clown goby.  I'm looking for one. I guess there is not much to do but hope they all starve before they eat any coral.  My snail actually alive. He was just retracted into the shell to hide from the pods I think. 

[gena]

I have a wrasse so I pretty much never see pods.  I've forgotten how annoying pods can be!  I also have a Green clown goby...great fish and worth a try for pod control .

[MarieH]

17 hours ago, gena said:

I have a wrasse so I pretty much never see pods.  I've forgotten how annoying pods can be!  I also have a Green clown goby...great fish and worth a try for pod control .

Thanks, I am keeping my eyes out for one.   I do love them too.

[MarieH]

Weather was hot for about 3 weeks. tank temp. in low 80s.   I noticed bubbles on the rock at night and kept up once weekly 50 percent watere changes but yesterday it was evident ,,cyano on everything.  90 percent waterchange yesterday, used a baster to suck out as much as possible.  Cleaned the filter and mag 180 which were slowing down, turned out the lights early.  Woke up today, it looks better, corals are open and looking well.  I will reduce light period though,  Fingers crossed because I know in a few hours of photo period, it can return.  Other than that, amphipods are still the rule, but there is a vendor in Ontario has a green clown and I am ordering a mini maxi and a porcelain crab before weather gets too cold.

[MarieH]

Got rid of the cyano issue, now that cooler temperatures are here. 2 large water changes and redirection of flow seemed to help.     Looking for orange themed corals that stand out under this bulb.   Green and orange look nicest I find pinks and purples not so much it seems to me. (They need a whiter bulb?)

[MarieH]

Cyano zero.  looks like time to shop...  also one trochus passed on but left me three orphans lol.  seems they can breed in captivity.  nice if not a pest, i could sell them i guess..

[Orangutran]

On 9/20/2017 at 9:26 AM, MarieH said:

Have an excessive amount of amphipods, and I think they might have killed a trochus snail or else he was in decline and they opportunistically did him in. Will the population explosion decline when they face starvation? I definitely don't think I should feed them...   what to do?  

Anyone?

I know what you mean about certain pods eating frags! I have witness with my own eyes, an amphipod munching on the same coral every night until it was gone! Maybe a possum/pinkstreaked wrasse may fit in your tank.  I'm not sure if you have any other fishes...

[MarieH]

On 10/20/2017 at 9:54 AM, Orangutran said:

I know what you mean about certain pods eating frags! I have witness with my own eyes, an amphipod munching on the same coral every night until it was gone! Maybe a possum/pinkstreaked wrasse may fit in your tank.  I'm not sure if you have any other fishes...

only 3g so no fishies but seems to have levelled out now, and is lower density population now I think...thank you, maybe next one. 14g?

[MarieH]

coffee always gets cold when I read this site lol.  So news of today.  I took off my aquaclear filter as it seemed the macroalgae was growing well from appearance but when I tried to thin it, it sort of disintegrated into mush and the bottom half was a mushy mess. I could of saved some of the fresher pieces but I decided to scrap it altogerher. The filter was not doing much and might of been the reason for cyano outbreak. So now big water changes and I have a pack of chemipure blue I can put in the jbj filter if needed.  The evo mag is enough circulation and things  look neater. Pics to follow.

One trochus passed away but left me 4 babies. gonna need a bigger boat!

[MarieH]

Well this has been fun.  I removed the aquaclear 50 as I had a cyano bloom and the tank always looked 'dirty.'  I found little growth on my corals and they looked kind of upset all the time.  So I cleaned out the aquaclear to find a mess of detritus beneath what looked like healthy caulerpa and chaeto mix on top.  I think the laminar flow from the aquaclear was bothersome although I aimed the small evomag 180 to break up the flow.  

 

The good news is that going filterless has been a better solution.  Everything has responded well and is now growing out better, so I placed an order for a few more corals  I have a marroon striped candy cane and a neon 2 head that was really small and I thought I was losing it but its all good now.   I ordered a teal trumpet, a blassto merletti and some  paly and zoa .   I turn off the evomag occasionally for a few hours to let them extend.  I also upped feeding.  I had a big lump of red bubble algae on a piece of rock but I just flicked it off cleanly with a sharp knife over the toilet bowl. It was kind of cool though. 

[debbeach13]

Sounds like it is working well for you. 

 

[MarieH]

Pulled out some rock, added some new zoas, and blastomussa merletti . I ordered a teal candycane and what I received was a neon piece but surprisingly the piece I already have is teal compared to the neon piece which is all good.  I took off the evo mag because it was beginning to annoy me with the rattle it makes at times, I had to keep unplugging it and restarting it, so I dug out my aquaclear 50 and it looks like enough flow by itself with the water level raised higher.  I got a freeby piece of green digitata and it seems to be happy directly below the flowon top of the rock.  I kept the same rock arrangement as in setup photo. I removed a couple side pieces that were just gathering detritus.   

I found a german vendor on ebay who has some nice caulerpa taxifoiia, so I am going to try that in my tiny refugium in stead of the mixed macro I had that melted into a white mush, when I ditched it, I did note that the little bit of taxifolia in it was green and healthy. I think the grape caulerpa was the problem when it went into seeding mode. I think  the melting macro filled  the tank with a white residue that took a few weeks to completely clear. Lucky no fish or shrimp was in there.  

 

Really challenging to take pictures under the blue lamp, but I'll try with my camera in raw and see. Not much to look at right now, lots of brittle stars and benthic creatures, and tons of pods and one big bristle worm that I know of.

Tiny tanking is fun.

[MarieH]

Like I said not much to see here lol :)