Dawn's shrimp chalet & 5.5 AIO !

[kimberbee]

17 minutes ago, vlangel said:

So what now...do you buy a heftier fixture?

Yep. Should be here tuesday. I sure hope it works!!

[Felicia]

17 hours ago, vlangel said:

Thanks Felicia.  The gentleman who gave me the frogspawn and hammer got those from me when I had my 90 gallon so I think they have come back to me which is cool. ?

That's really cool!  Its always wonderful when you can aquaculture and share corals in this hobby and then to see them come back around!  I still need to get around to getting some frags of a few of my softies from my 40B back from a friend.  

[vlangel]

I moved the light down about a foot so now its only a foot above the jar instead of 2 feet.  I hope that does not cause an algae outbreak!

[Lula_Mae]

12 hours ago, vlangel said:

I moved the light down about a foot so now its only a foot above the jar instead of 2 feet.  I hope that does not cause an algae outbreak!

When I tried the 23w tuna blue on the 5.5, I could practically see the algae grow! 

[seabass]

Now I'm wondering if my pico is growing algae due to my light.   I might try to raise it up a bit and shorten the light cycle.  I can see the algae pearling (which means growing).  Right now, it's too much for my snails to keep up with.

[vlangel]

Well folks, I have joined the ranks of pom pom crab keepers!  Tonight I picked up a cute little pom pom crab at my lfs.  The lights were off so no pics at least for now.

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, vlangel said:

Well folks, I have joined the ranks of pom pom crab keepers!  Tonight I picked up a cute little pom pom crab at my lfs.  The lights were off so no pics at least for now.

Yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!  

[fishfreak0114]

Exciting!!!!!  I hope to join too!

[vlangel]

A 1 minute video of the reef jar.  Its late afternoon and unfortunately the sun is shining on it for a short while so the effect is over exposed.  Still you can see the flow.

[vlangel]

 

A pic from the top!  Everything was fed yesterday and a WC last night.  No sightings of the new pom pom yet.  It has an abundance of hiding places.

[fishfreak0114]

Wow looking amazing!  Everything is really vibrant!  Thoughts on your first pico experience so far?

[Coral_chef]

that frog spawn is gorgeous 

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Wow looking amazing!  Everything is really vibrant!  Thoughts on your first pico experience so far?

Thank you fishfreak.  I think your coffee pot jar is also amazing.  Your incorporation of macro algae is so naturally beautiful. 

 

I am loving the pico experience so far.  It is definitely enhanced by sharing in it with so many others.  I love seeing so many different and creative ideas and I am cheering for each to be a success.

 

I am also enjoying having some coral and inverts that I love but are not seahorse safe.

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, Coral_chef said:

that frog spawn is gorgeous 

I adore frogspawn and this is a frag from a mother colony that I gave to a friend when I set up my seahorse tank.  I am loving it.

[fishfreak0114]

6 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Thank you fishfreak.  I think your coffee pot jar is also amazing.  Your incorporation of macro algae is so naturally beautiful. 

 

I am loving the pico experience so far.  It is definitely enhanced by sharing in it with so many others.  I love seeing so many different and creative ideas and I am cheering for each to be a success.

 

I am also enjoying having some coral and inverts that I love but are not seahorse safe.

Thanks  

I agree that it's awesome to share it with so many people!  I don't think I would have had the courage to try such a tiny reef if it wasn't for this contest.  So many ideas being shared, and support and advice being offered  

 

Are some of the corals not seahorse safe being they need a higher temp?  Or is it because they sting?

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Thanks  

I agree that it's awesome to share it with so many people!  I don't think I would have had the courage to try such a tiny reef if it wasn't for this contest.  So many ideas being shared, and support and advice being offered  

 

Are some of the corals not seahorse safe being they need a higher temp?  Or is it because they sting?

Its the frogspawn and hammer because they sting.  However even acans are a 2 on seahorse.org.  I am guessing because if the flesh is receded then a pony can possibly be injured by the bare skeleton.

[teenyreef]

Your jar looks great, Dawn, it's nice to already have all the corals in place! 

[vlangel]

7 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Your jar looks great, Dawn, it's nice to already have all the corals in place! 

Thanks teeny.  I was purposeful in getting my coral in and placed quickly because of what I read in brandon's thread, (I can't remember if it was a thread here on N-R or R2R).  He basically said that the jar will be most problematic (algae wise) in the early stages.  So to have most of the rockwork covered with coral quickly helps because then that is less surface area for the algae, especially once the coral settles and begins to grow.  Also the introduction of pests hitchhiking on the coral is only in the beginning so battle it all then and as the jar matures the battles will lessen. At least I think that is what he was saying, and that all made sense to me.

[vlangel]

Hey everyone, I had a flashlight checking out the jar and look who I found!  I am naming the pom pom crab Cheerleader.  I need all the help I can get with such stiff competition in this contest, ha ha!

 

Anyway, I was told to target feed the crab at least 2Xs a week so Cheerleader got a nice piece PE mysis this morning.?

[vlangel]

I have been feeding extra heavy to make sure Cheerleader is getting food.  I thought I better do a big WC to compensate and when I turkey basted more gunk than I expected came out.  I did 2 WCs to get most of the swirling debris.  It had to be somewhat tramatic for Cheerleader but he/she never moved.  Hopefully as the tank settles down so will Cheerleader.

 

Also I removed the cheato because little tendrils of cheato were everywhere.  I swapped it for the red titan that I have which grows in a shelf formation.  It had some bristle worms in it but they are good detritivores so I let them stay.

[teenyreef]

It's amazing how much dirt just the corals and live rock organisms can generate!

[FlamingPrawn]

This looks amazing! I struggle to keep a 10 gallon going and you're making a cookie jar look easy...

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, FlamingPrawn said:

This looks amazing! I struggle to keep a 10 gallon going and you're making a cookie jar look easy...

Thank you.  Actually my cookie jar is 3 gallons and many of the contest containers are half that or less, so I don't feel as accomplished as a lot of the folks.  There are some really amazing ones!

[vlangel]

The coral that are thriving in the jar are really doing well. The few that are not thriving are,'well, not thriving'! I am really pleased overall.

[teenyreef]

I usually consider "not thriving" to be pretty good in my tanks since it's much better than "mostly dead"