Felicia Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 12 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: Will do! I'm hoping more zoas open up before the deadline No worries! You have time. I'm just popping around posting reminders since we just worked out a plan for the FTS's and everyone may not have seen my post in the contest announcement thread yet. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want out of this pico. The most important thing to me is to have happy, healthy corals. I also realized that the three things I'm enjoying looking at the most aren't zoas. It's the toadstool, pink cabbage leather, and GSP. So I decided that I will take the tank in a new direction. I had planned to keep almost exclusively zoas, but so far most of the zoas aren't digging it. I think part of the problem is that they were in rough shape from the light troubles on my other tank, and I mostly took the crappier ones. The few really healthy ones I took are doing pretty good. I'm leaving those in the pico, but I removed the other ones and replaced them on zoa island in my other tank. Another thing I didn't like is how empty my zoa island looked after I moved a bunch into here. This morning I trimmed little pieces off of most of my leathers and glued them in here. I added green cabbage leather, Japanese leather, finger leather, a green branchy leather, a pink branchy leather, clove polyps, and pipe organ. I'm hoping these guys like the environment a little better. I also moved over some Sunny D's that were in an awkward spot in the other tank, but they are healthy so I hope that they made the transfer alright I will be keeping a close eye on everything, and hopefully the new direction leads to a pico full of happy, growing softies! I expect the leathers will be pissy for a while, especially the Japanese leather. That thing really doesn't like being cut. 8 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 Looking forward to seeing all the new stuff 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 17 minutes ago, debbeach13 said: Looking forward to seeing all the new stuff Thanks, I look forward to seeing it all too once things settle in a bit! Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 I think zoas would be awesome if they are happy but I know I have never been able to keep zoas happy consistently. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 1 hour ago, vlangel said: I think zoas would be awesome if they are happy but I know I have never been able to keep zoas happy consistently. I love my zoas in the other tank, but I'm glad that I did what I did. It already looks so much better and there is more variety of shapes and sizes. For the last week or so this thing has been stressing me out, which is definitely not what I want. I took some pictures and I need to do a more thorough update because my hanging light socket came in last week, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, hopefully soon! 3 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 So last week my hanging light socket arrived in the mail. I didn't start using it right away because I needed to find a see through lid. Today, I realized that I was making it way more difficult than it needed to be..,. Greek yogurt lid 2.0 PB260551 by orb1915, on Flickr Since the light is a lot closer to the water now, I taped over a bit more of the bulb. It also allowed me to tweak the spectrum and minimize the large splotches of blue and white which became much more prominent with the light close to the water. I also have two layers of needlepoint mesh over top of the lid for now to help diffuse the light. I 'll probably take one off in a week or so, depending on how things respond to the light level. PB260550 by orb1915, on Flickr Here's a new FTS showing all the changes... PB260556 by orb1915, on Flickr I've gotta say, I love having the light shining from the top! PB260563 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260564 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260565 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260566 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260569 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260571 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260573 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260577 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260578 by orb1915, on Flickr 10 1 Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 It looks great! 1 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 I also love the light shining from the top. Such a cute reef. 1 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Great variety. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 8 hours ago, seabass said: It looks great! Thanks Seabass! 3 hours ago, vlangel said: I also love the light shining from the top. Such a cute reef. Thanks, it's really nice being able to look in there without a bunch of glare on the front! 2 hours ago, debbeach13 said: Great variety. Thank you I found myself looking in a lot last night because there is so many things to look at 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 30, 2017 Author Share Posted November 30, 2017 Here's my official November FTS! PB290589 by orb1915, on Flickr This rasta just opened up! I didn't even realize it was in there PB290608 by orb1915, on Flickr PB290612 by orb1915, on Flickr PB290614 by orb1915, on Flickr 13 1 Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 I like it. It looks very natural. The pot makes it look like a window into a much larger reef. 1 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 Wow looks like it has been up a lot longer than a month! 3 Quote Link to comment
flatlandreefer Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 This is turning out way better than I originally thought it would, really neat pico! 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 This is looking fantastic! So unnatural to see a reef in a coffee maker which makes it 10x cooler . Nice work! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted November 30, 2017 Author Share Posted November 30, 2017 12 hours ago, seabass said: I like it. It looks very natural. The pot makes it look like a window into a much larger reef. Thank you! Natural is what I'm going for 8 hours ago, debbeach13 said: Wow looks like it has been up a lot longer than a month! Thanks These little reefs sure do fill up fast! So many people's tanks already look lush and mature! 6 hours ago, flatlandreefer said: This is turning out way better than I originally thought it would, really neat pico! Thank you, it's going way better than I thought it would too! I anticipated a little pot of stress that had tons of evaporation and endless troubles. Definitely not the case! 6 hours ago, gena said: This is looking fantastic! So unnatural to see a reef in a coffee maker which makes it 10x cooler . Nice work! Thanks so much Gena! That means a lot coming from you! 2 Quote Link to comment
Orangutran Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 Looks great! You must be doing something right when you have rastas popping up out of nowhere!!! 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 24 minutes ago, Orangutran said: Looks great! You must be doing something right when you have rastas popping up out of nowhere!!! Thanks! I was pretty surprised to see it, I thought I'd removed pretty much every single polyp that wasn't happy. But nope, there it was! 1 Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 On 11/27/2017 at 12:10 AM, fishfreak0114 said: So last week my hanging light socket arrived in the mail. I didn't start using it right away because I needed to find a see through lid. Today, I realized that I was making it way more difficult than it needed to be..,. Greek yogurt lid 2.0 PB260551 by orb1915, on Flickr Since the light is a lot closer to the water now, I taped over a bit more of the bulb. It also allowed me to tweak the spectrum and minimize the large splotches of blue and white which became much more prominent with the light close to the water. I also have two layers of needlepoint mesh over top of the lid for now to help diffuse the light. I 'll probably take one off in a week or so, depending on how things respond to the light level. PB260550 by orb1915, on Flickr Here's a new FTS showing all the changes... PB260556 by orb1915, on Flickr I've gotta say, I love having the light shining from the top! PB260563 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260564 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260565 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260566 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260569 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260571 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260573 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260577 by orb1915, on Flickr PB260578 by orb1915, on Flickr I LOVE what you are doing with this & love that you did a coffeepot pico!! I've always wanted to do one of those. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 11 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said: I LOVE what you are doing with this & love that you did a coffeepot pico!! I've always wanted to do one of those. Thanks Weetie! Haven't seen you around a whole lot lately, how are things? This little pico has been a pretty fun adventure so far! I can't wait to see what happens over the coming months. 3 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted December 4, 2017 Author Share Posted December 4, 2017 I've noticed that a lot of these tiny bubbles form on the glass. I suspect it's due to the shape of the pot? Perhaps because they can't go straight up to the surface. I'm sure a quick swipe with a tooth brush will keep them in check PC030627 by orb1915, on Flickr PC030633 by orb1915, on Flickr PC030628 by orb1915, on Flickr 4 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 I just love how this is turning out! It's creative and I think the macros really add to the natural look. The bubbles are most likely coming from the first round of incoming ugly algae, unfortunately. It's hard to say if/when/how long we'll see the ugly new tank syndrome in jars since we're doing 100 percent water changes, by it will probably depend on how mature the live rock is when we start. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted December 4, 2017 Author Share Posted December 4, 2017 3 minutes ago, teenyreef said: I just love how this is turning out! It's creative and I think the macros really add to the natural look. The bubbles are most likely coming from the first round of incoming ugly algae, unfortunately. It's hard to say if/when/how long we'll see the ugly new tank syndrome in jars since we're doing 100 percent water changes, by it will probably depend on how mature the live rock is when we start. Thanks teeny! I seriously love macros. If I come across any more I'll be sure to add them in here! So not ready for the uglies. At least it will (in theory) be easier to deal with in such a tiny tank. My rocks were only in the back of my other tank for a week before I set up the pot. So far I've noticed fairly bright green algae coloring my rocks, and hard green dots on the glass. It takes a lot of elbow grease to scrub them off with a tooth brush, so I mostly just let them stay. Maybe next time I'll dab them with peroxide and see if that helps. I've seen a few other tanks getting hair algae, fingers crossed I don't get that in mine! I had enough hair algae on that one rock when I set up my first tank... I can live without a repeat. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 Love it. Super cute reef 1 Quote Link to comment
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