seabass's cookie jar - now with baby RFAs

[gena]

7 hours ago, seabass said:

I hate doing this, but I ordered some coral from Diver's Den on Friday.  It was all aquacultured except one that was maricultured.  I got it all at once to avoid shipping charges.  It seems way too early to be thinking about coral; but I guess I got caught up in some of the other contestants' progress and started some early planning, which led to an early order.

 

I haven't decided whether to put them in my tank to start with, or wait some more.  I think waiting makes sense, but I'm also getting excited to put them in.  Oh well, I have until Tuesday to decide.

I'm a guinea pig in this experiment.  So far so good.  I think I'm the person the other member is referring to as far as having diatoms.  If not, I do as well.  I'm not concerned about it as that's the natural progression of a maturing tank. 

 

Every tank I've had, has had diatoms and they usually show up at the end of a cycle or toward the end.  From my experience.

[Lula_Mae]

10 hours ago, seabass said:

I hate doing this, but I ordered some coral from Diver's Den on Friday.  It was all aquacultured except one that was maricultured.  I got it all at once to avoid shipping charges.  It seems way too early to be thinking about coral; but I guess I got caught up in some of the other contestants' progress and started some early planning, which led to an early order.

 

I haven't decided whether to put them in my tank to start with, or wait some more.  I think waiting makes sense, but I'm also getting excited to put them in.  Oh well, I have until Tuesday to decide.

I might stick them in the main tank for a few days unless you feel the pico is ready for something, or just be prepared with bacteria and water changes.

 

2 hours ago, GunslingerGirl said:

Ok never moving in with you lol

 

If it gets below 70 in my house... I am either wrapped up in a blanket or screaming for the heat to turn on. In the summer sometimes I used to sleep with my fleece tie blanket. Granted my feet stuck out. But yea. I like to be toasty. Have to have socks on at all times or my feet might fall off. But I also have circulation issues, so that contributes.

 

I am having great success with 2/4 of my macros, the chaeto and cactus caulerpa being stubborn. And the zoas seem happy. The inverts are currently hiding in the nice toasty rock. I don't blame them.

My cactus caulerpa was stubborn at first in the 5.5, then it took off well enough that I relegated all of it to the AquaClear fuge lol.

[seabass]

I've added an airstone.  I also dumped a cup of phyto in it over lunch.

The rock appears to be coloring up a little.

[seabass]

I got my coral shipment today (3 frags).  Everything looked OK.  I thought I had some Coral Rx, but didn't.  So I ran to the home improvement store and picked up some Bayer Advanced Insect Keller (for soil & turf).

 

I've never used this as a coral dip before.  I have to say, it's a little scary.  I watched a ladybug land on the bottle, a couple minutes later I saw it convulsing on the driveway, another minute and it was dead.  For the dip I used some Solo cups with a cup of saltwater and 15 ml of Bayer.  I left the corals sit in the solution for 20 minutes.  Then I put the frags in clean saltwater for another 10 minutes.  Another rinse and I put them in my Caribbean tank.

 

 

Oh... I went ahead and bought another jar today.  There is a line on these jars that's visible when there's water in it and the light is on.  Unfortunately, the line is towards the front of mine.  So I'm going to drill another jar (paying closer attention to the location line).  I plan on using the original jar for clownfish fry (should I ever get more).

[metrokat]

Bayer is scary but it works.

[GunslingerGirl]

I have always been afraid of Bayers. I feel like I would overdose and kill everything.. and then conversely would end up diluting it too much..

[SeaFurn]

18 minutes ago, GunslingerGirl said:

I have always been afraid of Bayers. I feel like I would overdose and kill everything.. and then conversely would end up diluting it too much..

Scares me too but I use It.  One time I used it on GSP and thought I killed the frag. Then I learned you can't kill GSP! 

 

[seabass]

2 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Scares me too but I use It.  One time I used it on GSP and thought I killed the frag. Then I learned you can't kill GSP! 

I assure you that you can.  I've managed to do it before.

 

GSP is one of the frags that I got (I know, it's practically a weed).  Besides dipping it, I ripped it off the rock and picked the hell out of it.  I felt so bad for it that I dipped it in solution of Lugol's iodine.  I'm hoping it bounces back tomorrow.

[SeaFurn]

It's probably pretty pissed after all that. It might take 2 days to bounce back!  You'll keep it off your main rocks I assume - since it grows like wild fire? 

Btw- i probably would have bought another jar and redrilled the hole too. 

[seabass]

47 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Btw- i probably would have bought another jar and redrilled the hole too.

So, I'm not crazy?   Well, I guess no more obsessive compulsive than you anyway.

 

Thank you.

[el fabuloso]

Nice build! Can't wait to see where you go with this.

[schgr.cube]

Just now, el fabuloso said:

Nice build! Can't wait to see where you go with this.

Jeez I haven’t seen your name in a while!!

[el fabuloso]

Just now, schgr.cube said:

Jeez I haven’t seen your name in a while!!

[Clown79]

On 16/10/2017 at 11:11 AM, seabass said:

I wonder if @Clown79 is experiencing the same.  She also reports a steady 80°F, but I wonder if that includes night temperatures.

 

So far my controller is working perfectly (I'm using an old DA ReefKeeper 2).  I purchased two extra Bettastik heaters, just in case.

I've been checking and since the temps dropped in my home during the day with the light on the tank sits at 78-79.

At night it's been around 77.

 

Once I turn my heat on (soon cause I'm cold.lol) I will let everyone know how that effects the night time temps.

[seabass]

2 hours ago, el fabuloso said:

Nice build! Can't wait to see where you go with this.

Thanks.  I got some magnets coming to make a couple floating frag rocks.  With all the distortion, I'm hoping I like the effect.

[Lula_Mae]

4 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Scares me too but I use It.  One time I used it on GSP and thought I killed the frag. Then I learned you can't kill GSP! 

 

I have.  Even the frag you sent me!

[vlangel]

9 hours ago, el fabuloso said:

Nice build! Can't wait to see where you go with this.

I read your whole thread on pico tanks to prepare for this!  ?

[seabass]

So my other two frags are open and looking good.  But as suspected, the GSP frag(s) are closed up tighter than a clam with lockjaw.  But I'm not worried.

 

Also, I held my pico light over my Caribbean tank (which has admittedly been light starved) to check out an anemone that I want to put in this jar.  The anemone has much better color under this PAR bulb.  But what was even more surprising was its reaction to the light.  It stretched out like it was sunbathing on the beach.  I guess I didn't realize how little light they've been getting.

 

I also found a baby dwarf cerith snail in my 100 gallon tank (from some live sand I got from Gulf Coast Ecosystems), so I added him to my pico.  Even in two gallons of water, you can barely see him.  He seems happy enough for now; but I'll probably eventually stick him in my Caribbean tank as it isn't a Pacific snail.

[cfaye@Delaware]

47 minutes ago, seabass said:

So my other two frags are open and looking good.  But as suspected, the GSP frag(s) are closed up tighter than a clam with lockjaw.  But I'm not worried.

 

Also, I held my pico light over my Caribbean tank (which has admittedly been light starved) to check out an anemone that I want to put in this jar.  The anemone has much better color under this PAR bulb.  But what was even more surprising was its reaction to the light.  It stretched out like it was sunbathing on the beach.  I guess I didn't realize how little light they've been getting.

 

I also found a baby dwarf cerith snail in my 100 gallon tank (from some live sand I got from Gulf Coast Ecosystems), so I added him to my pico.  Even in two gallons of water, you can barely see him.  He seems happy enough for now; but I'll probably eventually stick him in my Caribbean tank as it isn't a Pacific snail.

 

I had a few questions, what type of rock, I'm sorry, are you using because it did change color......goodness.......

I have heard of Dr. Tim's but not sure of what the one & only is, is that the same thing as the phyto you put in cause color change was quick.......

 

Caribbean snail, Pacific snail.....water Temps ????

 

[seabass]

35 minutes ago, cfaye@Delaware said:

I had a few questions, what type of rock, I'm sorry, are you using because it did change color......goodness.......

It's dry rock from Reef Cleaners.  I figure it's just diatoms, but it's not on the sand yet, so I'm not sure.  It's some form of algae.  I suspect the phyto is pretty loaded with phosphate (although I haven't done any testing).  I'm going to turn the water green with phyto tomorrow.  There are a few pods, but I feel like I need to make it a little less sterile.

 

35 minutes ago, cfaye@Delaware said:

I have heard of Dr. Tim's but not sure of what the one & only is, is that the same thing as the phyto you put in cause color change was quick.......

Dr.Tim's One & Only is their nitrifying bacteria product.  I wouldn't have bought any, but I already had it laying around and it was about to expire, so why not?  The phyto can color up the rock a bit, but generally it would be green.  This is more golden brown, like diatoms.  I probably need to add a few more snails.

 

35 minutes ago, cfaye@Delaware said:

Caribbean snail, Pacific snail.....water Temps ????

Nah, lately I've just been trying to keep Pacific livestock and Caribbean livestock in separate tanks.  No real reason behind it; however, this jar will be a Pacific pico.

[Rene]

2 hours ago, seabass said:

 He seems happy enough for now; but I'll probably eventually stick him in my Caribbean tank as it isn't a Pacific snail.

That bothers you too? 

 

I've got a tube coral and a rose coral in my otherwise Pacific tank and it annoys me every time I see them. I really need to find someone who wants them now that I've broken the Florida biotope tank down. 

[vlangel]

On 10/18/2017 at 10:09 PM, Rene said:

That bothers you too? 

 

I've got a tube coral and a rose coral in my otherwise Pacific tank and it annoys me every time I see them. I really need to find someone who wants them now that I've broken the Florida biotope tank down. 

Wow, I wished I lived locally, I would take them.  I am too dumb to know where my coral come from, LOL.

[seabass]

Not much new with the tank:

 

So I got a new jar (same type) due to a visible line in the first one.  I haven't decided if I'm going to switch it out yet or not, but I'm posting a dry pic just in case someone calls foul:

 

Upcoming project:

 

In other news, GSP are still closed up tight.

[Clown79]

How is your tank handling 23w of light and how high do you have it?

[seabass]

4 hours ago, Clown79 said:

How is your tank handling 23w of light and how high do you have it?

It's only a 12W bulb, hanging about a foot above the lid.  I think that 23W would be too much, unless it wasn't hung directly over the jar.  Still no corals in it, but it needs a water change.  My GSP are slowly recovering in my Caribbean tank (with the other two frags).