Dawn's shrimp chalet & 5.5 AIO !

[vlangel]

I went to my local club picnic last weekend and they alway have a raffle.  There was a 606 maxi jet that looked new and had no tickets in it.  So I put a ticket in and the little pump was mine.  Today I swtched the adjustable maxi jet for the rio 200 that I was using.  I put it on max flow just to see how it did.  It definitely increased water movement.  I will leave it as is and see how the coral respond.  I can always decrease the flow a little if the coral do not open fully.

[hinnenkm]

Such a cool little tank! How's it going with the sun coral?? 

[vlangel]

7 hours ago, hinnenkm said:

Such a cool little tank! How's it going with the sun coral?? 

The sun coral was not doing well in this little pico so I moved it to the seahorse tank.  It is doing pretty well in the seahorses tank.

[vlangel]

As you can see the tank is doing fine.

[hinnenkm]

56 minutes ago, vlangel said:

The sun coral was not doing well in this little pico so I moved it to the seahorse tank.  It is doing pretty well in the seahorses tank.

Awesome, I’ve found that the more you feed, the longer and longer they stay open during the day. I had my classroom Ones to where they’d be open all day. Need to get them back to that point 🙂 love how fluffy the trumpets are looking! 

[vlangel]

My hubby spotted a lfs while we were on our motorcycles today.  We decided to go in and check it out.  Well I came home with a Ruby Red Dragonet and a zoa frag.  The dragonet is supposedly eating frozen food although it would not eat in the store.  It is not thin though so I took a chance.  I put it in this tank because I feed this little pico heavy and if this dragonet eats frozen it will get lots.  Also this pico is full of pods which should help it get off to a good start.  Once I see it eating  frozen well I will move it into the seahorse tank.  It should be QT for 7 weeks anyway before it joins the ponies.

 

The zoa frag is nice and opened right away but once I got it under my lights I realized that I already had the exact same zoas, LOL!  I only have 1 thriving colony of zoas and I managed to pick the exact same kind, (as she gives herself a Gibbs head slap!).

 

Also I moved the sun coral back into the pico now that it has more flow and they are doing well.  I like being able to feed them heavy and that is less risky in the pico.

[vlangel]

A pic of the new dragonet.

[JBM]

On 7/3/2018 at 1:07 PM, vlangel said:

I wish I could say that I was working hard to maintain this tank but that just is not the truth.  This tank gets fed the mysis the seahorses do not eat and a 95% water change every 2 or 3 weeks.

There is nothing wrong with that schedule and husbandry. The proof is in the pudding (or pictures )

[vlangel]

This is shocking but this is the water after a 100% WC.  The glass did have a lot of film algae but I couldn't believe this came out of the pico!

 

 

 

This is what it looked like when I finished.

[JBM]

Maybe some carbon is in order

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, JBM said:

Maybe some carbon is in order

Yes, that would probably help.  What amazes me the most is that with the exception of film algae the tank is virtually algae free.  I had not done a thing to it in 2-3 weeks except feed it.

[teenyreef]

It still looks beautiful! How is the dragonette doing? I've always loved them but never tried to keep one after a very early, failed, experiment.

[Christopher Marks]

@vlangel this pico is stunning! Since the transition from jar to 5.5 gallon, have you changed anything in your maintenance routine? 100% waterchanges really seem to work perfectly!

[vlangel]

14 hours ago, teenyreef said:

It still looks beautiful! How is the dragonette doing? I've always loved them but never tried to keep one after a very early, failed, experiment.

Thanks teeny!  Sadly the dragonette went through the teeth of my diy overflow and perished in the filter floss. 😣 I felt so horrible about it.  It was eating pods but I had not gotten it on frozen so I can't project how it would have fared in the long run.

[vlangel]

11 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

@vlangel this pico is stunning! Since the transition from jar to 5.5 gallon, have you changed anything in your maintenance routine? 100% waterchanges really seem to work perfectly!

I am really liking it and my maintenance routine is exactly the same except that I do less frequent WCs.  I do a 100% WC every 2 weeks.  There is filter floss in the back chamber but its for pods to grow.  I do not change it.  

 

The coral are really flourishing and I am loving how they are filling in.

[vlangel]

When I did a WCs yesterday the maxi jet 606 began making an awful noise.  I took it apart and rinsed the impellor but to no avail.  So I had to put the rio 200 back in...wow do I miss the flow of the maxi jet! 

 

I bought barnacle blennies for the seahorse tank but they are so little that I am afraid Eve, my big seahorse will eat them.  So I have decided to put them in this tank.  I have reinstalled the whisper pump and open airline tube through the coco worm tube since the flow is so diminished with the rio to make sure the blennies have enough surface agitation.  Also the barnacle skeleton they are enjoying in the QT is much too big for this little pico so I epoxied 2 empty turbo snail shells and a small conch to half of a clam shell to make a blenny house for them.  I hope they use it 😉.  I am planning to move them this morning.

[seabass]

Wow, the blennies must be really small.  We'll need some pics we you get the chance.  I'm sure they are super cute.

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, seabass said:

Wow, the blennies must be really small.  We'll need some pics we you get the chance.  I'm sure they are super cute.

They are absolutely adorable but they dart out of the barnacle like lightening to snatch food and disappear again in an instant.  I might be able to video the tank at feeding time and capture a glimpse of them that way.  I do not see how I could ever get a still shot of them though.

[vlangel]

ANNOUNCEMENT: I think I am going to shut down the shrimp chalet pico and move everything into my 10 gallon QT.  I have never wanted to have tanks all over the house and somehow that is what has happened.

Pros: It gets me down to just 2 tanks again and they are both in the same place (so not out of sight out of mind). I can enjoy the creatures & continued coral growth on the rockwork from the pico but have a tank large enough to serve as a QT for new fish going into the seahorse tank.  QT is a must with seahorses.

Cons: It will mean bigger or more WCs but with a HOB pump maybe a 50% WC every 2 weeks will still be enough.  I can use the seahorse tank as a water source to go in the QT to better acclimate fish to eventually going into the seahorse garden.  Also it can not serve as a HT but I prefer to use a 5 gallon salt bucket and open airline tube to treat the seahorses anyway.

[Pjanssen]

So the ten gallon will mainly house corals and inverts unless you need it for QT purposes? Three tanks are a lot. Wish I could convince my husband that we don't need the freshwater. I think I'd actually like just one big mixed reef tank, but there's too much $$ invested in the two nanos that I have that I have a hard time doing it. Still haven't set up the IM 20 that I won in last years contest 🙄

[vlangel]

7 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

So the ten gallon will mainly house corals and inverts unless you need it for QT purposes? Three tanks are a lot. Wish I could convince my husband that we don't need the freshwater. I think I'd actually like just one big mixed reef tank, but there's too much $$ invested in the two nanos that I have that I have a hard time doing it. Still haven't set up the IM 20 that I won in last years contest 🙄

Yes, it will essentially be a 10 gallon coral/invert display that will occasionally house animals that are being QT.  It will be penisula style just like the 5.5 but twice the size.

 

Each tank's equipment is often specific for the tank that it can be really difficult to think about changing.  When I was considering upgrading from the 36 gallon bowfront, my criteria was if I could find a seahorse suitable tank that the 30" T5 fixture could be used on.  I knew my sump could still be utilized so it was only the tank and stand that needed replaced.

[Lula_Mae]

Sorry to hear that it's shutting down but I totally understand because tanks everywhere are very hard to keep up with.  Thanks to the hurricane I have basically everything in my big tank so I'll be shutting down extraneous ones now and moving stuff around.  Might do some of that tonight even, not sure.  Desktop pico is sadly empty at the moment so I'm looking forward to having stuff in it again.

[vlangel]

21 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Sorry to hear that it's shutting down but I totally understand because tanks everywhere are very hard to keep up with.  Thanks to the hurricane I have basically everything in my big tank so I'll be shutting down extraneous ones now and moving stuff around.  Might do some of that tonight even, not sure.  Desktop pico is sadly empty at the moment so I'm looking forward to having stuff in it again.

I am sorry that you were effected by the hurricane.  I hope everything goes ok as you consolidate.

[vlangel]

Well folks, I did move the shrimp chalet out of the 5.5 AIO and into a 10 gallon.  Since its not really a pico anymore I am starting a new thread and closing this one down.  You can follow the former shrimp chalet here: