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Chris' Creative Container Pico!


cnseekatz

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20 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Love it! Following along! 

 

19 hours ago, GunslingerGirl said:

Well damn I am screwed. I want to hire you to build all my future tanks lol

Thank you guys! 

 

19 hours ago, SaltyBuddha said:

 

@cnseekatz one year?!?! I added a few mangroves to my IM10 about two months ago. Still no leaves growing but the roots are a few inches now. How long did the leaves take to show up?

It took me a long time to get any real growth because I didn't allow them to root into any kind of substrate. I suspended them so they would develop bigger, stronger, aerial type roots. I think that slowed down their development. 

 

17 hours ago, Coral_chef said:

Ok well I give up 

:lol:

 

16 hours ago, vlangel said:

I love it!  Man, I am glad I am a contestant and not a judge.  Too many cool tanks to choose from. Suddenly my tank feels very very ordinary.

Thanks!

 

 

Cord management.

 

The spiral wire is holding the mangrove in place. By the time everything was in the bowl, the plant wanted to lean back, out of the light. This keeps it front and center. 

 

enhance

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Holy Awesome!!! so what you've done in 3 days is the vision I had in my head for my contest pico!! :wub:

 

 

Honestly, I'm definitely following along, and will be rooting for you! lol My mangrove pico has no chance.. btw, can I copy your method to support the mangrove with the wire? My egg crate looks like amateur hour now.:bowdown:

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23 hours ago, Orangutran said:

Holy Awesome!!! so what you've done in 3 days is the vision I had in my head for my contest pico!! :wub:

 

 

Honestly, I'm definitely following along, and will be rooting for you! lol My mangrove pico has no chance.. btw, can I copy your method to support the mangrove with the wire? My egg crate looks like amateur hour now.:bowdown:

Absolutely! I recommend finding some wire that's somewhat flexible. It'll be easier to position your mangrove, and assuming it grows, you'll want to be able to shift things around.

22 hours ago, medinar83 said:

Awesome job! glad to see a local Irvine neighbor in here :)

Oh nice! I didn't know there were any Orange County people on this board. Cool!

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1 hour ago, cnseekatz said:

Absolutely! I recommend finding some wire that's somewhat flexible. It'll be easier to position your mangrove, and assuming it grows, you'll want to be able to shift things around.

 

What a great idea! I need to find bendy wire, and a place to secure it too... btw, do you plan on feeding your mangroves? One of my leaf is kinda turning brown. :( I know they need magnesium to grow well, and I've been spraying them daily. 

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17 hours ago, Orangutran said:

What a great idea! I need to find bendy wire, and a place to secure it too... btw, do you plan on feeding your mangroves? One of my leaf is kinda turning brown. :( I know they need magnesium to grow well, and I've been spraying them daily. 

I don't know! I've never fed them before, besides the existing nutrients in the reef.

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I put a cheapo digital thermometer in there and the temp is holding pretty steady at 76-77 degrees. I imagine that'll be fine?

 

I also cranked up the flow so now there is some decent surface agitation. I figure in a really small environment, oxygenation might be an issue. Hopefully this'll take care of it. I'm guessing that'll increase my evaporation pretty substantially. Thankfully, it's been practically nothing over the first couple days.

 

This is my first crack at aerial plants, so it'll be interesting to see if I can keep them alive. They felt pretty dried out this morning, so I soaked them for about 15 minutes then sprayed down their leaves. 

 

enhance

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24 minutes ago, cnseekatz said:

I put a cheapo digital thermometer in there and the temp is holding pretty steady at 76-77 degrees. I imagine that'll be fine?

 

I also cranked up the flow so now there is some decent surface agitation. I figure in a really small environment, oxygenation might be an issue. Hopefully this'll take care of it. I'm guessing that'll increase my evaporation pretty substantially. Thankfully, it's been practically nothing over the first couple days.

 

This is my first crack at aerial plants, so it'll be interesting to see if I can keep them alive. They felt pretty dried out this morning, so I soaked them for about 15 minutes then sprayed down their leaves. 

 

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So purdy :wub:

 

With those air plants, I soak 15 minutes once a week.  And some do better than others.  Those thin frond ones, like you have, dry out and die easier I've noticed.  If that happens, get the ones with thicker fronds.  They are much hardier.

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Just make sure you dry out the centers of the air plants after you soak them. The middle can rot if too much water is left there for long. 

 

Really enjoy the entire tank shot. Looks really good

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10 hours ago, cnseekatz said:

I put a cheapo digital thermometer in there and the temp is holding pretty steady at 76-77 degrees. I imagine that'll be fine?

 

I also cranked up the flow so now there is some decent surface agitation. I figure in a really small environment, oxygenation might be an issue. Hopefully this'll take care of it. I'm guessing that'll increase my evaporation pretty substantially. Thankfully, it's been practically nothing over the first couple days.

 

This is my first crack at aerial plants, so it'll be interesting to see if I can keep them alive. They felt pretty dried out this morning, so I soaked them for about 15 minutes then sprayed down their leaves. 

 

enhance

This pic is amazing!  

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On 10/20/2017 at 8:58 AM, gena said:

So purdy :wub:

 

With those air plants, I soak 15 minutes once a week.  And some do better than others.  Those thin frond ones, like you have, dry out and die easier I've noticed.  If that happens, get the ones with thicker fronds.  They are much hardier.

 

On 10/20/2017 at 9:07 AM, Boggers said:

Spray them down daily like the mangrove, and soak every week. You should be fine.

 

On 10/20/2017 at 3:18 PM, SaltyBuddha said:

Just make sure you dry out the centers of the air plants after you soak them. The middle can rot if too much water is left there for long. 

 

Really enjoy the entire tank shot. Looks really good

Thanks for the advise guys. That matches up well with the instructions I've read. I'll give it my best shot!

On 10/20/2017 at 4:45 PM, debbeach13 said:

This bowl looks so pretty

 

22 hours ago, vlangel said:

This pic is amazing!  

 

21 hours ago, Mariaface said:

Uhm?! The handiwork is amazing?! This isn't even fair!

Thanks guys. I don't have a lot of confidence in the actual reef part... so I figured it might as well be pretty to look at by itself!

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On 10/22/2017 at 10:13 AM, Christopher Marks said:

Brilliant execution of your design, this is incredible! Every single detail.

Thank you! Very nice of you to say!

 

I don't think that the nitrogen cycle has started yet. The water is crystal clear, and I haven't seen any algae. I would love to jump start it or even skip it, but in an environment so small, I really want to let everything develop on its own. It's going to be tough to keep things balanced when I start adding livestock, so I'm going to try to be patient. In the meantime, staring at an empty canvas is going to test my resolve!

 

enhance

 

enhance

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15 hours ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Looking good as is! Cannot wait to see this thing with some corals in it. Going to look amazing 

 

15 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I love it!

 

12 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

It's so freaking beautiful, and it doesn't even have coral yet!

 

Thank you guys. Don't worry, there's still plenty of time to blow it by stocking it wrong!

 

I've been trying to figure out what to put in this thing. There's (obviously) not a ton of space to work with. I'm not going to do a fish, so I'd love to find an interesting, yet non-destructive invert to go in there. Mantis and pistol shrimp are out because I don't want any diggers. I would love to find a crab that will take advantage of the exposed rock, and go for dry hikes now and then, but I don't know of any inter-tidal species that are common in the hobby. Maybe a fiddler crab... but I think they burrow too. Anyone have any thoughts? There are also more common options that I can custom match to the coral selection (like anemone crabs, etc.)

 

Coral Possibilities:

 

1. Bubble Tip Anemone - Pretty, hardy and fast growing. Would add nice color, but would prevent me from adding anything else. Could pair with a porcelain crab?

2. Zoanthids - I have plenty I could import from my 45. Nice option, especially if I get a decent color array. I worry that they'd struggle in a system with no fish to muck up the water.

3. Pulsing Xenia - A fun thought. Super easy and would make an interesting visual when they quickly take over every square inch of real estate.

4. Acans - Would provide good color variety, and would do fine under the PAR light. Could go in the sand, leaving room for some other stuff among the rocks.

5. Clams - I would love to do a clam bowl, but I'm not sure that my bulb generates enough light. Also, this bowl can only fit small clams, which are notoriously tough to raise.

6. SPS - I would like to try a frag or two of something hardy. Light is still a concern, so I'm thinking digi or stylo would be good candidates. 

7. Plating SPS - Last idea is a plating species that could grow out from the rock wall, creating a shelf & void space beneath. A monti-cap or even a plating acro could work. 

 

Non-Coral Ideas:

 

Being based around a mangrove, I designed this bowl to be able to grow plants. Another direction I could go is to do some marine plants. I don't want to go standard macro-algae, because besides a few successful examples (like Brad's mangrove/macro tank and some of Stella & Gena's tanks) they tend to get wild and out of control. Instead, I though maybe a sea-grass or turtle grass would be cool. I don't really know much about them, but it's a thought.

 

Regardless, I figure I have at least a couple of weeks of cycling to decide which direction I want to go!

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