Fishfreak's C.C. Coffee Pot Pico: Soft reboot complete

[Snow_Phoenix]

32 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Sooo, tonight I added a tiny left handed hermit since the tiny blue leg I bought was actually a tiny cerith 

 

I also made quite a few changes  pics tomorrow if the tank doesn’t crash overnight 

He's cute!

[fishfreak0114]

So, while waiting to do the tank transfer for the fishies for my other tank, I decided to spice things up in the pico. It was too overgrown with algae and there isn’t a great variety of coral. With my trusty bone cutters, I made baby frags of several corals including zoos, a rodactis, blastos, and cyphastrea, as well as moving two little gorgs that have been stung like mad by my Japanese leather and never have polyps out. So far they all seem good!  One clump of zoas has yet to open fully, but I poured straight peroxide on it last night for bubble algae so I’m not too surprised. 

 

Excuse the poor quality pics!

[Lula_Mae]

Glad to see you back around! I've wondered how the pico was doing.  I LOVE the pom pom, they are so fun, probably my favorite inverts. I hope the sexies behave themselves, you may need to feed them. 

[fishfreak0114]

5 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Glad to see you back around! I've wondered how the pico was doing.  I LOVE the pom pom, they are so fun, probably my favorite inverts. I hope the sexies behave themselves, you may need to feed them. 

I’m glad to be back!  The Pom Pom is insanely cool, I’ve wanted one ever since I set up my biocube! I’ve decided to name her Regina George since she makes me think of mean girls. And the left handed hermit shall be Gretchen Weiner.   I’ve been chucking in a bit of frozen every time I feed the main reef, and I have some PE pellets that my fish won’t touch that I’m using for the pot. 

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I’m glad to be back!  The Pom Pom is insanely cool, I’ve wanted one ever since I set up my biocube! I’ve decided to name her Regina George since she makes me think of mean girls. And the left handed hermit shall be Gretchen Weiner.   I’ve been chucking in a bit of frozen every time I feed the main reef, and I have some PE pellets that my fish won’t touch that I’m using for the pot. 

The burning question now is... does she wear pink on Wednesdays?!?

[fishfreak0114]

Soooo all the corals were closed when I got home from ultimate frisbee. Not good. Inverts are a-ok. I’m almost wondering if there’s a bit of ammonia or something?  I’ve never really fed the pico and now it’s had several small feedings in a week. 

 

Anyways, I abstained from food tonight and did a 75% water change. Fingers crossed that does the trick! 🤞

[fishfreak0114]

The coral still seemed a little peeved tonight...now I think I know what did it. While adding the new coral, I decided to move my Japanese leather backwards and tore it from the rock. Leather nasties in the water. I did another water change tonight. None of the corals are closed enough that I’m worried, just a little irritated

[fishfreak0114]

 

[Wingy]

The corals may have been peeved at the shrimp trampling over it.  Mine like to explore the corals and dance on everything which really upsets the corals.  

[fishfreak0114]

2 hours ago, Wingy said:

The corals may have been peeved at the shrimp trampling over it.  Mine like to explore the corals and dance on everything which really upsets the corals.  

I think you may be right!  More than once now I’ve seen a happy open coral, and a minute later a sexy lands on it 🙄. Things looked a lot better today!

[fishfreak0114]

 

[fishfreak0114]

Sooooo I’m glad I looked in the pico tonight. The LPS were peeved and it didn’t take long to figure out why!  The Japanese leather melted into nothing. The pot smelled awful!  But in less than 5 minutes a 90% wc was done and hopefully things are back on track. Inverts seem ok as far as I can see

[Tigahboy]

Hoping your pico has a quick recovery!

 

And wow, it's hard finding pom poms with BOTH nems.  LOL.  I've been looking all over.  

[fishfreak0114]

12 hours ago, Tigahboy said:

Hoping your pico has a quick recovery!

 

And wow, it's hard finding pom poms with BOTH nems.  LOL.  I've been looking all over.  

 Thank you, I’m hoping there’s no further damage when I get home today!

 

And lol I got lucky, mine was the last in the store!  I expected no poms. 

[vlangel]

The sexies and pom pom are so cute.  They are perfect choices for your tiny coffee pot pico.  I would think they have added a lot of interest and fun to your pico, without adding much more work.

[fishfreak0114]

3 hours ago, vlangel said:

The sexies and pom pom are so cute.  They are perfect choices for your tiny coffee pot pico.  I would think they have added a lot of interest and fun to your pico, without adding much more work.

 I’m 100% in love with them   So far I haven’t had to feed too much either, which is great 

[fishfreak0114]

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I was last on. I went off to university, and my tanks remained at home. They’ve survived, perhaps not thrived.  The coffee pot is still running, though only one sexy shrimp remains. I had hoped to spruce up my tanks and get my feet wet again this summer now that I’m home, but with everything going on right now I’m not sure it will be possible.

 

If I am able to acquire some livestock at some point, I hope to get a couple more sexies, and either a pom pom or porcelain crab. 
 

I am happy to say that the microfauna continues to do great. The limpets are breeding and I see amphipods cruising through the chaeto.  The corals have done ok, some fading away while others do just fine under the fluorescent bulb. I still wish there was a way to get better lights on it, but I’ve never seen something small enough (other than the bulbs I used initially, which burnt out fast)

[debbeach13]

Hey fishfreak0114 so nice to get an update from you. It sounds almost like a miracle to have even one sexy alive after a year. I hope you find a solution for a light. Good luck restocking and welcome home welcome back. 

[MainelyReefer]

Glad your coffee pot is still running.... good to know there is another survivor from the CCC.  

[WV Reefer]

3 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I was last on. I went off to university, and my tanks remained at home. They’ve survived, perhaps not thrived.  The coffee pot is still running, though only one sexy shrimp remains. I had hoped to spruce up my tanks and get my feet wet again this summer now that I’m home, but with everything going on right now I’m not sure it will be possible.

 

If I am able to acquire some livestock at some point, I hope to get a couple more sexies, and either a pom pom or porcelain crab. 
 

I am happy to say that the microfauna continues to do great. The limpets are breeding and I see amphipods cruising through the chaeto.  The corals have done ok, some fading away while others do just fine under the fluorescent bulb. I still wish there was a way to get better lights on it, but I’ve never seen something small enough (other than the bulbs I used initially, which burnt out fast)

Good to hear from you. 😊 

[fishfreak0114]

15 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Hey fishfreak0114 so nice to get an update from you. It sounds almost like a miracle to have even one sexy alive after a year. I hope you find a solution for a light. Good luck restocking and welcome home welcome back. 

 Honestly I’m surprised that one little sexy is still kicking, the others passed long ago. Thanks for the welcome!

15 hours ago, GraniteReefer said:

Glad your coffee pot is still running.... good to know there is another survivor from the CCC.  

 Is your thread still running?  I’ll have to check it out 🙂

[fishfreak0114]

It's a sad day for the coffee pot. Last night I returned home from two weeks away. The lights were already off. This morning, I immediately knew things were very wrong. It appears that at some point while I was gone, one of the leathers melted. It's unclear if anything else went amiss, but it was enough to trigger tissue recession in LPS, melted gorgs, and even black, dead tissue on the finger leather.

 

I've done two large water changes, floated a bad of activated carbon, and removed dead/mostly dead coral as well as moved those with hope of recovery to the biocube. A few softies remain. The sexy shrimp is MIA.

 

I'm pretty upset, as things have done well for so long, and the blastos in particular had been doing great.  Since the tank has been left relatively barren (but I'm stubborn and refuse to take it down), I'm thinking it's time for a soft reset. Lots of deep cleaning of the sand, move out any corals that aren't super hardy, and take things in a new direction.  This may be one of the most boring ideas in reef history, but I'm thinking to just let it fill in with "weed corals".  GSP, xenia, maybe some pest zoas/palys, just let it be survival of the fittest.  The reason I say it will be boring is because with only 0.3g of water for biomass to fill, how much can really happen?  I just want it to be lush and healthy though, I'm not too picky what is actually in there.

[banasophia]

20 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

It's a sad day for the coffee pot. Last night I returned home from two weeks away. The lights were already off. This morning, I immediately knew things were very wrong. It appears that at some point while I was gone, one of the leathers melted. It's unclear if anything else went amiss, but it was enough to trigger tissue recession in LPS, melted gorgs, and even black, dead tissue on the finger leather.

 

I've done two large water changes, floated a bad of activated carbon, and removed dead/mostly dead coral as well as moved those with hope of recovery to the biocube. A few softies remain. The sexy shrimp is MIA.

 

I'm pretty upset, as things have done well for so long, and the blastos in particular had been doing great.  Since the tank has been left relatively barren (but I'm stubborn and refuse to take it down), I'm thinking it's time for a soft reset. Lots of deep cleaning of the sand, move out any corals that aren't super hardy, and take things in a new direction.  This may be one of the most boring ideas in reef history, but I'm thinking to just let it fill in with "weed corals".  GSP, xenia, maybe some pest zoas/palys, just let it be survival of the fittest.  The reason I say it will be boring is because with only 0.3g of water for biomass to fill, how much can really happen?  I just want it to be lush and healthy though, I'm not too picky what is actually in there.

Aww so sorry... this is one of my favorite tanks. But nothing wrong with the “weed corals”, looking forward to what it becomes. 

[fishfreak0114]

17 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Aww so sorry... this is one of my favorite tanks. But nothing wrong with the “weed corals”, looking forward to what it becomes. 

I'll try to post more regular updates with the new plan in place  I'm kind of in love with pulsing xenia (got my first frag a couple weeks ago), so I was already half-considering changing the coffee pot up before the crash.

[fishfreak0114]

I found the old sexy shrimp!!