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Innovative Marine Aquariums

The Fools Reef ... The final 2.5 gallon long pico


TheRope

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just read that you ordered from fragbox, so did I, really nice shipping speed and arrival in freezing rain. I was impressed with what I got.  The were even open inside the bags once I set them on the kitchen table in daylight. 

 Btw I think its your live phyto that caused you algae bloom. I have been feeding roids from day one, I sometimes get a brownish oily film on top of the water but no algae prob to speak of.  I need to get the vitalis lps feeder...

I have read that adding phyto will cause a   bloom, you don't need phyto unless you want to feed pods snails and microscopic marine animals.  I think coral itself mostly feeds on zooplankton and those tiny  animals that consume phyto.  I would stop with the phyto and see. Just a thought.

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Oh ive stopped feeding a loooong time ago! Everything is surviving on its own, all my corals and crabs seem to have more than enough in there. Im guessing the light is proving more than enough for the corals with the added insane amount of pods. The algae was happening even after i stopped feeding. I realized it was my ro filter that was garbage. So im back on distilled and i havent had algae at all just some on the glass and on the magnets/bubble tube/heater cover. The non organic materials. But thats no problem for me. Comes off very easily and doesnt spread elsewhere! Rocks are spotless so are my corals ^^  thanks though! And yeah fragbox is the only place i get my coral. Never seen anything bad after a dipping session, only amphipods (which i hate killing).

On 29/01/2018 at 10:38 AM, MarieH said:

Just read that you ordered from fragbox, so did I, really nice shipping speed and arrival in freezing rain. I was impressed with what I got.  The were even open inside the bags once I set them on the kitchen table in daylight. 

 Btw I think its your live phyto that caused you algae bloom. I have been feeding roids from day one, I sometimes get a brownish oily film on top of the water but no algae prob to speak of.  I need to get the vitalis lps feeder...

I have read that adding phyto will cause a   bloom, you don't need phyto unless you want to feed pods snails and microscopic marine animals.  I think coral itself mostly feeds on zooplankton and those tiny  animals that consume phyto.  I would stop with the phyto and see. Just a thought.

 

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Welp. Ive reached a plateau. Tank is stable, And i havent added anything. Nothing has died or been removed (other than a stomatella snail) and nothing has changed.

 

I just do water changes, clean the glass and make sure everyrhing is running fine ... now we wait. Ill document anything out of the ordinary and post up a few pics. Gladly answer any questions or suggestions.

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hey looking good

 

question, there's a bell curve involved if we stop inputting protein into the cycle and let things run as is. it can work, but the downside of the curve is coral loss eventually. did I read you added live pods or phyto> above normal loading of those sure might replace things agreed, a bug is bound to stumble into a coral if they've been target stocked into the tank. that being said I was going 30 days in between my own feedings last year, though I never stopped feeding I did reduce it 70% for most of that year just due to being gone alot

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3 hours ago, brandon429 said:

hey looking good

 

question, there's a bell curve involved if we stop inputting protein into the cycle and let things run as is. it can work, but the downside of the curve is coral loss eventually. did I read you added live pods or phyto> above normal loading of those sure might replace things agreed, a bug is bound to stumble into a coral if they've been target stocked into the tank. that being said I was going 30 days in between my own feedings last year, though I never stopped feeding I did reduce it 70% for most of that year just due to being gone alot

Hm I wasn't aware of that at all, thanks. Now that it has begun plateauing i will start re introducing proteins into the tank. Ill try feeding a bit again :)

 

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15 hours ago, brandon429 said:

My sexy shrimp died I think I was starving mine out too much

 

that is looking great and the crab is awesome I need one of those

Im surprised it didnt atart munching on corals. I got rid of mine for that. But yesss porcelains do great in the jar, especially when they have no predators theyre always right in the open :) im gonna do reef roids though its apparently garbage. I will target feed as well as possible

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15 hours ago, brandon429 said:

My sexy shrimp died I think I was starving mine out too much

 

that is looking great and the crab is awesome I need one of those

Yeah they normally start eating small polyp corals or picking at zoas if too hungry.  I have 4 and just spot feed them every other day or so...eat like little fiends! 

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12 minutes ago, Duane Clark said:

Yeah they normally start eating small polyp corals or picking at zoas if too hungry.  I have 4 and just spot feed them every other day or so...eat like little fiends! 

Yeah i used to feed mine mysis or lps pellets but it was around the time where feeding was spiking algae too much and i just cant feed and not waterchange, it doesnt work in my tank :/ 

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I was so hard on my vase in '17, it would go weeks wo a water change and feeding as I traveled about

 

amazing self sustenance for sure, but the "tune" only works for corals that are adapted...they'll still require protein input at some point but its absolutely possible to time/tune it to hardly ever

 

the pj reefs tiny pico reef models run that way, on sparse protein input for sure and his tanks are the most stand alone picos I know, they don't even have circulation.

 

Pico reefing is about pushing rules 100% but that heterotrophic feeding does indeed set a floor boundary in ecosystem tinkering. coral symbionts simply cannot meet all needs for sustenance, hence the stinging cells/gut/mouth polyp setup. for the other portion, that tiny kicker that must be ate

 

even the plant autotrophs...must have input in the system in some fashion as each batch of mulm is stripped more and more of nutrients before bacterial digestion/physical breakdown and eventual reuptake into other plants (though freshwater systems are astonishingly good at recirc small amnts of organic material, eventual input required)

 

I was personally told of this by the great author Eric Borneman (personally via message lol)

 

he told me one time when posting in his forum that the trophic distinction between heterotrophs and autotrophs specifically implies feed requirements, though that varies experiment to experiment.

 

I had some mass loss in my brain coral due to nitrogen negativity

 

currently under restoration, ive done 5x 100% feed/water changes this last week alone. pumping back up

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25 minutes ago, TheRope said:

Yeah i used to feed mine mysis or lps pellets but it was around the time where feeding was spiking algae too much and i just cant feed and not waterchange, it doesnt work in my tank :/ 

I have to feed my tank now.  I installed a chaeto reactor and it is VERY effective.  It takes all nutrients out so to keep it alive I "feed" my tank which make everyone happy.  if Cheato ever died for some reason I would be in trouble.  such a dance 

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The jar is looking great! I've had the same thoughts about feeding. Everything does great with no feeding, but it won't work forever. The trick is figuring out how much and how often, since the bad effects of either too much or too little are so slow to manifest. 

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1 hour ago, teenyreef said:

The jar is looking great! I've had the same thoughts about feeding. Everything does great with no feeding, but it won't work forever. The trick is figuring out how much and how often, since the bad effects of either too much or too little are so slow to manifest. 

Thank for the compliment! I think im going to feed once ever 1-2weeks before waterchange and see what that gives me :)

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Just now, TheRope said:

Thank for the compliment! I think im going to feed once ever 1-2weeks before waterchange and see what that gives me :)

That's what I'm doing, only that works out to "feed at completely random intervals followed by a water change" for me :D

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26 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

That's what I'm doing, only that works out to "feed at completely random intervals followed by a water change" for me :D

Haha i mean, if it works it works! ??

IMG_20180208_212137_876.jpg

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On 08/02/2018 at 4:03 PM, brandon429 said:

I was so hard on my vase in '17, it would go weeks wo a water change and feeding as I traveled about

 

amazing self sustenance for sure, but the "tune" only works for corals that are adapted...they'll still require protein input at some point but its absolutely possible to time/tune it to hardly ever

 

the pj reefs tiny pico reef models run that way, on sparse protein input for sure and his tanks are the most stand alone picos I know, they don't even have circulation.

 

Pico reefing is about pushing rules 100% but that heterotrophic feeding does indeed set a floor boundary in ecosystem tinkering. coral symbionts simply cannot meet all needs for sustenance, hence the stinging cells/gut/mouth polyp setup. for the other portion, that tiny kicker that must be ate

 

even the plant autotrophs...must have input in the system in some fashion as each batch of mulm is stripped more and more of nutrients before bacterial digestion/physical breakdown and eventual reuptake into other plants (though freshwater systems are astonishingly good at recirc small amnts of organic material, eventual input required)

 

I was personally told of this by the great author Eric Borneman (personally via message lol)

 

he told me one time when posting in his forum that the trophic distinction between heterotrophs and autotrophs specifically implies feed requirements, though that varies experiment to experiment.

 

I had some mass loss in my brain coral due to nitrogen negativity

 

currently under restoration, ive done 5x 100% feed/water changes this last week alone. pumping back up

Whay kind of response did you see after 5x feed and waterchange. Very curious 

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I'm on top of a mtn currently but when home I'll post a pic to show

 

It's no big deal for sure, but within about 12 days after purchase some tiny fox monti frags have sent tissue over the edge due to the feeding. I feed frozen cyclopeeze and roti feast

 

Nothing fancy yet, but it's mass I can see from frags that were $ the direct benefit. 

 

My algae work doesnt change ever, I have glass algae work not ever rock algae work. I hand guided guided a while to make it only coralline and coral, yours is coming along great.

 

My brain coral has some tissue loss holes this will repair over time in 2018 I'll document along the way, already done that tissue repair a good three times now since 2010. Lots of times when you see brain corals in nature shows you'll see a challenge spot. Could be an animal bite, or disease area... Challenge spots and recovery are what they're able to do

 

 

I feel more passionate about feeding than ever, it's my disease prevention. Tough corals don't need dips, they don't recede, they don't have rtn they have the problem of overgrowing your entire pico~

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The corals can go a good bit in between feeds, it's motile animals like crabs that need them. The crabs will die within a few mos if the feeding wasn't on par, corals just tend to hold.

 

But with occasional blast feeding, corals produce visible mass within a month solid. There's 87 different kinds of feed out there so I don't know if they all produce the same results

 

 

 

 

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Yeah ive shown that quite a bit i believe its been close to 2 moths no feeding at least ... but im excited to feed tomorrow :) but its odd t see that all the copepods and amphipods and crabs still have had sufficient nutrients. Im not sure where theyre getting it from haha

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It's crazy how much food is in a small jar. I just posted a pic of a bristle worm that grew to about three inches in my jar. I hardly ever feed the jar so I have no idea what's he been eating. And he not only survived, he was growing fast! 

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