Flatland's Pico Contest Tank

[flatlandreefer]

I fed the jar around 9am this morning with two spoons of reef chili, nutrimar ova and some rods food. I let it circulate until around 1pm and then did a 100% water change. I treated a few spots of algae with 3% peroxide. I then filled the vase all the way back up with fresh salt water, emptied that and replaced the water again so it was basically a 200% waterchange. I think I like going with 200% as there was still detritus left over after the initial 100%. 

 

I used my 2 fishies nano mag for the first time today, it works very well especially since the vase is a curved surface, I would highly recommend it! 

 

Below low is a pic post water change, everything seems to be doing well. 

[flatlandreefer]

Here is a picture of my Duncan. It has tons of baby heads popping out! I will say it looks a lot more drab under the par 38 than under my kessil. 

[fishfreak0114]

Looking good!  I really like the blasto I may have to look into a nanomag, I'm having a hard time keeping the glass clean.  I keep getting little hard green algae dots that I have to really scrub at with a toothbrush since a razor doesn't work in there.  How big is it?

[flatlandreefer]

11 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Looking good!  I really like the blasto I may have to look into a nanomag, I'm having a hard time keeping the glass clean.  I keep getting little hard green algae dots that I have to really scrub at with a toothbrush since a razor doesn't work in there.  How big is it?

 

Thanks! I'm excited for the blasto to grow! The nano mag is small, maybe two inches max and the wet side is very thin. I think i got it for $11 and well worth it. 

[jahnje]

19 hours ago, flatlandreefer said:

I found this article that I thought was pretty informative and a good guide to treating algae with peroxide. One thing I didn't realize is that I probably should have gotten a stronger peroxide than I got in the first aid section of the grocery store. 

 

https://www.reefjar.com/how-to-kill-algae-with-h202/

I'm having trouble finding 'food grade' for a decent price.  I hope you have better luck.

[flatlandreefer]

After a little more research it sounds like the 3% from the pharmacy aisle will work fine. The small patch I treated yesterday is dead! 

[flatlandreefer]

Button scoly dumb fat and happy after feeding the jar this morning. I am going to do a water change this pm with 100% live aquaria salt so no more instant ocean in this tank. 

[flatlandreefer]

Wow just got done with a very frustrating water change! I made the mistake of trying to glue a rocordia frag in place before the water change, having the frag slip out of my long tweezers that I was using to place it, rock work shifting, water spilling... etc. I did get it done though and the frag is in place finally. I have decided that all corals will be placed firmly attached to the rock work and maybe some future magnets attached to the glass, nothing loose. It has been kind of a pain in the a** to place frags and remove detritus with the nepthea just sitting on the bottom of the tank and getting knocked around easily. I have attached the nepthea to the rock work and I am happy with the decision! Placing frags in this tank can be very frustrating, but I anticipated this issue ha. 

[flatlandreefer]

I also threw in a single blue leg hermit crab as a small clean up crew to help with any algae in between water changes or areas I can't get to. 

[flatlandreefer]

Quick pick of my nepthea. It seems to be happy being glued to the rock. I'm hoping it grows out to the edge of the vase and then grows up along the glass. I did a water change today, so much easier to remove all of the detritus with everything glued to the rockwork!

[vlangel]

I also found that to be the case.  I just stick my syphon hose all the way to the bottom and ta dah! All the detritus and gunk is sucked out in less than a minute, which is better than sucking out a coral accidently.? I always have my bucket of newly made saltwater ready to refill and the whole process takes me less than 5 minutes.

[flatlandreefer]

I shot a quick video of my pico using my iPhone, the video was a lot more in focus and balanced on my phone than  when it was converted to YouTube. Anyway I still wanted to include it to document progress down the line even if it isn't the best quality. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgZFa6JnhQA&feature=share

[vlangel]

The video was great and I love those duncans!

[flatlandreefer]

32 minutes ago, vlangel said:

The video was great and I love those duncans!

 

Thanks! Yeah the duncan is starting to explode, all of the baby heads it had when I got it are really getting big!

[flatlandreefer]

I had an emergency in my main display last night so my clowns had to spend the night in the pico. Took a quick pic before I had to transfer them back. 

[fishfreak0114]

Hope things are ok!

[flatlandreefer]

1 minute ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Hope things are ok!

 

Things are looking better than expected so far, fingers crossed. It was quite the feat to catch the clowns in the vase!

[debbeach13]

Sounds like a quick turn around. Good for you. Clowns in a vase Just pour em out!

 

[flatlandreefer]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Sounds like a quick turn around. Good for you. Clowns in a vase Just pour em out!

 

 

The rock-scape is just big enough that I couldn't pull it complete out other wise that would have happened!

[Clown79]

Your Pico is looking great!

 

The clowns looked cute for the emergency....hope all is well in the other tank.

 

I find water change is quick and easy on the jar- glueing corals down and scraping hard algae off the glass, royal pain!

[flatlandreefer]

8 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Your Pico is looking great!

 

The clowns looked cute for the emergency....hope all is well in the other tank.

 

I find water change is quick and easy on the jar- glueing corals down and scraping hard algae off the glass, royal pain!

 

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far. Everything seems to be happy!

 

2 fishes nano mag has been working great for me so far,  gluing frags really tries my patience but in the end it can be rewarding. 

[flatlandreefer]

December update pic

[vlangel]

Lookin' good.

[Felicia]

Just a friendly reminder that if you haven't already, please pm me your December FTS and a link to your build thread by January 5, 2018.

[flatlandreefer]

I went down to the basement this morning and found that the air pump wasn't producing any air bubbles. I took the air line out of the tank and found that the last inch or so of the airline was blocked from some sort of precipitate or other accumulation. I cut off the affected airline and everything is all good now. I guess I will make a habit of clipping off the end of the airline every month to avoid this going forward.