Midwest Industrial CC Pico Reef - Upsized Pico Now w/Sexy Shrimp

[ChristopherDido]

Alright so now that everything is back in check and running smooth here is an update:

 

I was running into some weird brown-ish/translucent "stringy" algae growing off my rocks and on the glass.  I asked a couple local people what they thought, no one had a clue.  Oh well, so I added a Blackfoot Turbo Snail to try to clean some of it up, he was making some progress.  Then I got to thinking, I have been researching to upgrade my 28g NanoCube looking at Macroalgae and what many are doing with that.  Long story short, someone local had some Dragon's Breath Macro and I bought a small clump off of him.  I figured this would help out with getting the nutrients out of the jar that were causing the algae to grow.  And Guess what? IT WORKED!!!! So, now with the snail and the Macro the algae issue is dissipating and quick, I only put the Macro in on Friday and the snail on Tuesday and bam, week later and it's looking good.  

 

Anyway here's what you all checked in for!

 

One of my RFA's decided to move himself away from the others and under a ledge :-(  sucks too because he is definitely my brightest colored one! He is the one on the right.

 

View from the Front, you can see the Macro coming up from behind the rocks and can see some of my Zoas, which all have grown at least one head, I think the most growth is 3 on the "red camo" ones.  I'll try to get a good pic of them with my next set of updates.

 

And here is a close up of the Macro Algae, I don't see any orange tips yet, but hoping they will start to show.

 

Thanks for checking in and let me know what you think, I am not sure if the rubberband is the best idea for holding down the Macro but for now it's working.

[hinnenkm]

No way, I have been wanting to put dragons breath in my pico too and just happened to forget to grab some the last time I was at the store.... we are going to have twin picos by the way things have been going!

looking good though and glad to see it doing well

[ChristopherDido]

4 minutes ago, hinnenkm said:

No way, I have been wanting to put dragons breath in my pico too and just happened to forget to grab some the last time I was at the store.... we are going to have twin picos by the way things have been going!

looking good though and glad to see it doing well

Well I'm not ready to try out Mangroves, so not quite twins :-)  I'm hoping my super colorful RFA moves back out from under the ledge, it's getting light, but it's bugging me.  I think it will move again, cause when I fed the tank the Pom-Pom Crab was pulling it down from the ledge trying to steal the RFA's food for itself.  Hoping that irritated the RFA enough to want to move back out, we'll see I guess. lol.

[vlangel]

I hate it when a nem moves into a spot where its not as visible!  Why do they do that?

[ChristopherDido]

26 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I hate it when a nem moves into a spot where its not as visible!  Why do they do that?

Maybe all the others were making fun of it for it's bright beautiful colors!  seriously though WHY?

[Lula_Mae]

19 hours ago, ChristopherDido said:

Alright so now that everything is back in check and running smooth here is an update:

 

I was running into some weird brown-ish/translucent "stringy" algae growing off my rocks and on the glass.  I asked a couple local people what they thought, no one had a clue.  Oh well, so I added a Blackfoot Turbo Snail to try to clean some of it up, he was making some progress.  Then I got to thinking, I have been researching to upgrade my 28g NanoCube looking at Macroalgae and what many are doing with that.  Long story short, someone local had some Dragon's Breath Macro and I bought a small clump off of him.  I figured this would help out with getting the nutrients out of the jar that were causing the algae to grow.  And Guess what? IT WORKED!!!! So, now with the snail and the Macro the algae issue is dissipating and quick, I only put the Macro in on Friday and the snail on Tuesday and bam, week later and it's looking good.  

 

Anyway here's what you all checked in for!

 

One of my RFA's decided to move himself away from the others and under a ledge :-(  sucks too because he is definitely my brightest colored one! He is the one on the right.

 

View from the Front, you can see the Macro coming up from behind the rocks and can see some of my Zoas, which all have grown at least one head, I think the most growth is 3 on the "red camo" ones.  I'll try to get a good pic of them with my next set of updates.

 

And here is a close up of the Macro Algae, I don't see any orange tips yet, but hoping they will start to show.

 

Thanks for checking in and let me know what you think, I am not sure if the rubberband is the best idea for holding down the Macro but for now it's working.

I love dragon's breath! Weetabix did a little tutorial on her thread showing how she uses fishing line to tie down macros, if the rubber band doesn't work well.

[ChristopherDido]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

I love dragon's breath! Weetabix did a little tutorial on her thread showing how she uses fishing line to tie down macros, if the rubber band doesn't work well.

I'll be sure to check that out! Thanks! So far holding up.

[ChristopherDido]

Just a few Quick update photos.  Did a 100% water change tonight, I love Water Change Days, it's when I get to feed the RFAs and my Pom Pom Crab!  

Saw my first signs of pod life in my tank while doing the water change.  Algae has been at bay and staying that way, I think in large part due to the Dragon's Breath Macro.  This has gotten me thinking a lot about the other two tanks that I have up and running and getting them to go more natural as far as filtering goes.  I'm gonna experiment with my students at school with that, so yeah tune in to that for updates we meet again on Wednesday. 

 

Anyway, back to the pico.  I added another Zoa this weekend, got a good deal on some Rastas, $25 for 4 polyps, everywhere else locally has been asking $15/polyp.  They are still on the frag plug til I do my second coral dip on them this Friday and then I will pop off the piece of rubble rock they are attached to and glue them down in the pico.  I am seeing 1 or 2 new polyps from each of my frags, so that is making me happy they are growing and not just surviving with just the air pump providing circulation.    I think when the temps stabilize across the country in the next few weeks I will be ordering some RFA's, no one around here really has any great ones and those that do have them are wanting $60 each and I can't bring myself to pay that for them.  

 

Well here is what you all came here to see :-)  

 

1st a full top down shot of the pico. You can see most of the corals in there at the moment, I still have lots of real estate.

 

Few Shots of different angles looking down into the Jar.

 

And Finally a FJS using my DSLR camera.  I really need to buy a few filters, been looking at the Aquariclip, thinking I will check out a local camera shop tomorrow and see what they got to hopefully get some better photos.  I will probably do another update later in the week after gluing down the Rastas and will use that as my January FJS update.

 

Thanks for checking in!

[vlangel]

Your jar is progressing very nicely.

[ChristopherDido]

On 1/23/2018 at 7:30 AM, vlangel said:

Your jar is progressing very nicely.

Thanks, I love looking at it! It's such a unique idea and am glad I joined the contest. I had read and thought about doing one shortly after setting up the 28g. Glad I waited to get to understand the husbandry aspect a bit. 

[vlangel]

19 hours ago, ChristopherDido said:

Thanks, I love looking at it! It's such a unique idea and am glad I joined the contest. I had read and thought about doing one shortly after setting up the 28g. Glad I waited to get to understand the husbandry aspect a bit. 

I feel the same way.  I never dreamed how satisfying such a simple reef jar could be.

[ChristopherDido]

So bad news, got another RFA for my Pico Jar Contest Container. All others I've gotten had opened up rather quickly and attached well. I floated for 15-20 minutes, placed on rock after turning off pumps and left it sitting for 30 minutes. I'm concerned they may have injured it. I won it on an auction from a local LFS. It's smaller than all others I've had, when he pulled it out to give it to me it was inside of some tube thing. He cut it out and then put it in a bag. The color from what I could see was gonna be beautiful.  Sadly this morning when I woke up it was no where to be found.  I'm devastated and don't know what to do.  Would you go back and talk to the LFS, it didn't even live for 24 hours, I told him I was concerned by the fact that it was in that tube and he had to "cut" it out.   He said "I wouldn't sell you something I thought I had damaged, wouldn't want you coming back to yell at me."  I joked back that I would if something happened, would you go back?

[vlangel]

On 1/26/2018 at 10:05 AM, ChristopherDido said:

So bad news, got another RFA for my Pico Jar Contest Container. All others I've gotten had opened up rather quickly and attached well. I floated for 15-20 minutes, placed on rock after turning off pumps and left it sitting for 30 minutes. I'm concerned they may have injured it. I won it on an auction from a local LFS. It's smaller than all others I've had, when he pulled it out to give it to me it was inside of some tube thing. He cut it out and then put it in a bag. The color from what I could see was gonna be beautiful.  Sadly this morning when I woke up it was no where to be found.  I'm devastated and don't know what to do.  Would you go back and talk to the LFS, it didn't even live for 24 hours, I told him I was concerned by the fact that it was in that tube and he had to "cut" it out.   He said "I wouldn't sell you something I thought I had damaged, wouldn't want you coming back to yell at me."  I joked back that I would if something happened, would you go back?

I sure would not be happy either.  I think I would go back and them what has happened.

[ChristopherDido]

1 hour ago, vlangel said:

I sure would not be happy either.  I think I would go back and them what has happened.

They took care of me this morning after I was able to find the little guy beginning to slough off skin. Got store credit. 

[debbeach13]

Sounds fair

[ChristopherDido]

51 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Sounds fair

Definitely fair! I was very pleased with the outcome! 

[ChristopherDido]

Quick update and question for you other Pico Reefers. I currently am Running the 23W ABI bulb over my Pico, I'm concerned I may be giving it too much light. Curious about your thoughts. If it is too much, what do people think of the 12W version? Same color? 

 

Am I even allowed to change it out?

 

Being I said update, here's a quick pic! 

[fishfreak0114]

Not sure about intensity, but you are allowed to change the bulb.  If you want to keep using your current light, you could use something to diffuse it. I have tulle across my bulb.   Your pico

is looking awesome!  Love the RFA’s. 

[ChristopherDido]

2 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Not sure about intensity, but you are allowed to change the bulb.  If you want to keep using your current light, you could use something to diffuse it. I have tulle across my bulb.   Your pico

is looking awesome!  Love the RFA’s. 

Thanks! I'm just concerned I may be giving off too much light. I think I'm gonna buy the 12W version and try it out for a week and see if I notice any difference. I think I'll end up re-using the 23W anyway, trying to get another teacher who loves my classroom tank into reefing so I may setup a Pico and surprise him with it and use whichever bulb I don't keep for that one.

[ChristopherDido]

So I went ahead and pulled the trigger and bought the ABI 12W PAR38Bulb, I have been noticing a bit of lightening up of the Green RFA and my Reddish/Orange RFA seems to close up pretty good when the light is on.  The 12W should be here on Friday and I will hang it and see how everything fairs for a week, if all looks happy then I will stay with it and use the other ABI bulb for a 2.5 gallon pico I am planning to try and surprise the science teacher at my school with.  He loves coming in to look at the Classroom tank and is considering starting his own at his house, I'm trying to kick him over the edge and get a setup going.

 

So my really colorful RFA is still hiding behind the ledge, maybe the downgrade on the PAR38 will change that, we shall see.  I added this past week 4-5 heads of Rasta Zoas, so excited to show them off now that they are glued down.  Water changes have been a breeze and my Macros look great, not seeing any "growth" yet but that may be because I don't exactly know what to look for yet.  

 

Anyway here are some pics!

 

January FTS/FJS - I changed the Angle, is that allowed?

 

Rastas that were recently added and glued

 

View of some corals from slightly above

 

Closeup of the Clove Polyps, thinking they need more flow

 

My Hiding RFA :-(

 

Same view that I have used in Previous FTS/FJS 

 

Let me know what you think!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

[ChristopherDido]

Came across Blue Zoas! Was so excited, it's what I've been wanting for awhile. Price was $50 for 7-9 polyps, was talking and looking around more and the guy at my LFS that knows about this pico said, "I'll give it to you for $20." Said you're kidding right? He said nope. So I bought it! Acclimated and dipped it last night and it's fully open today under my new PAR38 12W. Gonna dip it one more time in a week then figure out where to glue it down.

 

One thing I've noticed with the 12W, I'm getting a weird "banding" effect when viewing the jar through my camera lense, can't see it in this photo cause I moved the camera around to get rid of it. But it's odd. Overall happy with the color and amount of light, will keep an eye on it and see if I notice any changes this next week, if I do I'll go back to the 23W.

Thanks for checking in!

[vlangel]

Those blue zoas are beauties and at such a bargain too!

[ChristopherDido]

5 hours ago, vlangel said:

Those blue zoas are beauties and at such a bargain too!

I know! I've been wanting Blue in my tanks forever, couldn't pass up that deal. I figure that Rock when it's said and done is gonna be one of those beautiful photos of zoas you see online. Very excited!

[JBM]

Nice tank you got there...

 

don't worry about the wandering rfa. It will eventually come back around

[Clown79]

On 28/01/2018 at 9:05 PM, ChristopherDido said:

Quick update and question for you other Pico Reefers. I currently am Running the 23W ABI bulb over my Pico, I'm concerned I may be giving it too much light. Curious about your thoughts. If it is too much, what do people think of the 12W version? Same color? 

 

Am I even allowed to change it out?

 

Being I said update, here's a quick pic! 

I use a 24w over mine.

 

I covered up a few of the white leds with electrical tape which helped with how much light it was getting and made it more blue too.

 

Your tank looks great. Love the rfa's.