cincyJames' Gumball Pico

[gena]

Oh wow!!!!  I love this idea and it looks soooo good .  The turquoise paint color you chose is really nice too!!!!

[cincyJames]

The gumball tank now has more $ in coral/livestock than in the tank itself Lol.  A little algae growth, but nothing out of the ordinary for 1 month in.  Next step is to get some longer wires so I can hide the switch for the light. Haha. 

 

Stock list includes:
1 Peppermint Shrimp
3 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
4 or 5 Snails (variety)
Pulsing Xenia
Clove polyps
Zoanthids
4 Ricordia mushrooms
Blue Mushroom
Star Polyps
Teal Candy Canes

 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Amazing progress so far @cincyJames, thanks for sharing! The teal candy canes are really unique, nice find. Are you still feeling like you'll mostly stick to soft coral and mushrooms?

[Pjanssen]

so much fun!

 

[cincyJames]

Thanks, @Pjanssen!  I appreciate it. 

 

@Christopher Marks, I think for the time being, I will likely stick to mushrooms/soft corals.  They just are so much more forgiving and it allows me a little more flexibility with cleaning/water changes.  I am hoping that a few new snails/hermits will help with the algae bloom.  I have limited feedings too.  Also, my macros saw a little bit of a die-off, but seem to be rebounding now.  Once those are fully established, I think that should solve my algae issues.

 

I got a good deal on the Candy Cane so I figured we would see how it does in there.  I am trying to get a really good balance of size/color on the left side and right side... the shape of the dome really makes this difficult as it completely changes when you add water vs. when you glue them down without water.  All part of the learning "curve!"

 

[cincyJames]

Little bit of an update. Everything is doing well. The pulsing Xenia detached from the rock it was originally on... And has found a new home right in the CENTER of the tank. Lol. I may have to move it as it is blocking about 75% of the light in the tank. The only corals that seem to be super annoyed by this are the Zoanthids. Everything else seems fine with it though.  I put Xenia in because of how much it spreads and how tolerant it is, but I wasn't expecting it to take up the whole middle of the tank. Anyways, I will likely move it to the back left and maybe move one of the green ricordias to that side too. My blue rics detached and are on the back right of the tank, so that may add some balance. 

 

I ordered a couple float switches to try and set up an ATO. More of that to come.  Free space seems to be my issue... Who would have thought in a 1 gallon tank. Lol

 

 

 

[Lula_Mae]

4 minutes ago, cincyJames said:

Little bit of an update. Everything is doing well. The pulsing Xenia detached from the rock it was originally on... And has found a new home right in the CENTER of the tank. Lol. I may have to move it as it is blocking about 75% of the light in the tank. The only corals that seem to be super annoyed by this are the Zoanthids. Everything else seems fine with it though.  I put Xenia in because of how much it spreads and how tolerant it is, but I wasn't expecting it to take up the whole middle of the tank. Anyways, I will likely move it to the back left and maybe move one of the green ricordias to that side too. My blue rics detached and are on the back right of the tank, so that may add some balance. 

 

I ordered a couple float switches to try and set up an ATO. More of that to come.  Free space seems to be my issue... Who would have thought in a 1 gallon tank. Lol

 

 

 

Xenia says, "I will dominate and you will LIKE IT!"  It looks great though!

[Christopher Marks]

Gorgeous update @cincyJames, how funny to see the xenia already hogging all the resources this early in the game  

 

Hopefully it's not too tough to relocate. If it weren't for it blocking out all the light it, it looks pretty beautiful right there in the center!

[vlangel]

Your gumball pico is amazing looking.  At least your over zealous xenia does not sting.  I have a frogspawn that also had ambitious aspirations, unfortunately it is meaner in its approach to take over the container!

[cincyJames]

Over the weekend, I spent some time wiring up my ATO and rewiring my LED light so that I can run the blues on a separate timer.  More info on the ATO to come, but I am looking for some opinions/advice on lighting and color.  The current light has 18 white LEDs and 6 blue LEDs.  I would like to swap out some of the LEDs with different colors in order to get better coloration in the tank.  The light is as follows:

 

I ordered a bunch of LEDs on Amazon and the pack includes: White, Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Warm White, Yellow-Green, Orange, Purple (UV) and Pink.  Which lights would you swap out and with what color?  Again, I now have two functions for the fixture- Blues on or all lights on.  I could add some colors, try them out, swap others, etc. but I worry about constantly soldering new LEDs in and out of the board.

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, cincyJames said:

Over the weekend, I spent some time wiring up my ATO and rewiring my LED light so that I can run the blues on a separate timer.  More info on the ATO to come, but I am looking for some opinions/advice on lighting and color.  The current light has 18 white LEDs and 6 blue LEDs.  I would like to swap out some of the LEDs with different colors in order to get better coloration in the tank.  The light is as follows:

 

I ordered a bunch of LEDs on Amazon and the pack includes: White, Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Warm White, Yellow-Green, Orange, Purple (UV) and Pink.  Which lights would you swap out and with what color?  Again, I now have two functions for the fixture- Blues on or all lights on.  I could add some colors, try them out, swap others, etc. but I worry about constantly soldering new LEDs in and out of the board.

There's a post on here somewhere that details what different colors and wavelengths do to corals. Have you had a look at that for ideas? I think it was done by evilc66.

[fishfreak0114]

I believe this is the one Lula Mae was referring to

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/352618-led-colors-and-what-they-are-used-for/?page=1

[JoeR]

This is such an awesome tank! Really outstanding. So compact and astheatically pleasing.

 

I cant believe that peppermint shrimp leaves the softies alone! Mine destroyed them in short order...

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I believe this is the one Lula Mae was referring to

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/352618-led-colors-and-what-they-are-used-for/?page=1

Yes! Thank you for finding it, I was on my phone. My hard drive died so I've lost a ton of links, pics, files, etc. 

[cincyJames]

13 hours ago, JoeR said:

This is such an awesome tank! Really outstanding. So compact and astheatically pleasing.

 

I cant believe that peppermint shrimp leaves the softies alone! Mine destroyed them in short order...

Thanks, @JoeR!  That was definitely the goal.  I have a little cleanup work to do with the wires that are hanging out the lid, but other than that, I am happy with how clean and tight everything is.  The peppermint shrimp seems to be pretty well behaved... at least currently.  I drop pellets in a couple times a week and he usually jams about 3 or 4 down his throat.  He is definitely getting larger too with 4 molts in about 6 weeks.

[cincyJames]

13 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I believe this is the one Lula Mae was referring to

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/352618-led-colors-and-what-they-are-used-for/?page=1

Thanks, @fishfreak0114!

 

[cincyJames]

Happy Friday, Nano-Reefers! 

 

I spent some time working on the ATO this week and wanted to provide a bit of an update. A few years back, I purchases a small 12V pump for a different project, but never used it.  I picked up an old 9V cellphone charger at a local thrift store for $1 and used that as the power source. I connected a float switch in-line and all appeared to be working great. To move the water, I glued some airline tubing into the pump. 

 

 

 

As mentioned in a previous post, lack of space is my biggest issue with the sump area of the Gumball Pico. The other issue I had is that the shaft on the float switch isn't long enough to get to the maximum water height in the sump. To fix this, I made a housing for the float switch out of an old pill bottle. This extended the depth of the float to roughly the high water line in the sump and also protects the float from jostling around due to water dropping down the return pipe. 

 

 

With the ATO setup and installed, I turned it on.... AND... The float got hung up on the filter media in the sump! When I added the float switch, I added some Chemi Pure Blue to the sump and removed the filter pad. The issue became that there were just too many bubbles getting into the display, so I added the filter pad back as a bubble trap... And that is what the float is hanging up on. Lol.

 

So, it will be back to the drawing board I guess. I either have to redo the float switch housing, get a float switch with a longer shaft, figure out a different way to eliminate bubbles or... Just forgo the ATO and just keep adding top off water manually every few days. I am certainly not against just adding it manually, but I just would like to see this little tank go with as minimal interaction as possible. I am only about $10 into the ATO project, so it's no loss either way. There is also the real fear of the float switch getting stuck and pumping a gallon of freshwater into the tank...Game Over at that point.  There definitely isn't enough room for a second switch down there either. Haha

[Christopher Marks]

Wow I admire your persistence! An ATO would really help streamline the system no doubt. Float switches do make me nervous, even if you get it to fit, do you worry salt creep from the overflow might eventually overpower it? Hopefully it's easy enough to give it a freshwater bath during water changes to avoid that worry.

 

Could you trim the filter pad in any way to give clearance?

[gena]

On 1/8/2018 at 7:35 PM, cincyJames said:

Little bit of an update. Everything is doing well. The pulsing Xenia detached from the rock it was originally on... And has found a new home right in the CENTER of the tank. Lol. I may have to move it as it is blocking about 75% of the light in the tank. The only corals that seem to be super annoyed by this are the Zoanthids. Everything else seems fine with it though.  I put Xenia in because of how much it spreads and how tolerant it is, but I wasn't expecting it to take up the whole middle of the tank. Anyways, I will likely move it to the back left and maybe move one of the green ricordias to that side too. My blue rics detached and are on the back right of the tank, so that may add some balance. 

 

I ordered a couple float switches to try and set up an ATO. More of that to come.  Free space seems to be my issue... Who would have thought in a 1 gallon tank. Lol

 

 

 

Oh wow <3.  I don't think I could love this more.  So whimsical and fun.  It looks amazing!  It just keeps getting better .

[cincyJames]

25 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Wow I admire your persistence! An ATO would really help streamline the system no doubt. Float switches do make me nervous, even if you get it to fit, do you worry salt creep from the overflow might eventually overpower it? Hopefully it's easy enough to give it a freshwater bath during water changes to avoid that worry.

 

Could you trim the filter pad in any way to give clearance?

Yeah, I probably could.  The issue I run into is that to work on the sump, I basically have to lift the whole globe up off of the base.  This can become somewhat precarious... whether filled with water or not. Ha!  I will probably give it a few weeks, give myself some time to think, plan, rethink, re-plan, etc. and then try it again.  In the meantime, I have some new corals in there that I need to get pics of an post. Ha!

[Christopher Marks]

Ah yes, that makes sense! I was hunting online for smaller float switches of some sort, but that seems to be a tall (or expensive) order.

 

I wonder if you could somehow add an extension to the bottom of the float switch with a simple piece of foam? Something to narrow its contact with the water and avoid the filter pad. That way you could raise the float mounting switch higher and clear more obstacles.

[Draco]

I have the exact same gumball machine (From my childhood days) and I considered doing it for the contest as well, but I had no idea how to reef-proof it. You've given me ideas that I just may steal

 

I absolutely LOVE this. great photography as well!!

[cincyJames]

So Friday was an equipment update, but today is a stock update! The pico keeps chugging right along, with very few issues. On a sad note, my peppermint shrimp appears to be no longer with us.  Last Sunday morning, I woke up to one of the cleanest molts I have ever seen! It basically looked like he ate too much and decided to get some bigger clothes. (I know the feeling too). Lol. 

 

 

Two days later though, poof.... GONE! I really have no idea what happened to him. The lid was secure and I have since cleaned both the display and sump....and nothing. My only thought is that he simply died and the hermits and snails cleaned him up quick!

 

To console myself, I decided to pick up some cheap frags. I purchases some GSP and some Green Plays. I moved the green ricordia to the left side of the globe (to be more balanced with the right side) and put the palys and GSP front and center. I am planning on moving the GSP to another spot, and move the palys to below the cloves polyps. The clove polyps haven't been doing as well as before. It has new growths, but they are really competing for light with the Xenia. Only the strong survive in the Gumball Pico! Haha

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Looking great @cincyJames! That's too bad about the peppermint shrimp, they're most vulnerable after a molt.

[Lula_Mae]

I'm sorry too, about the pep. Bright side, you don't have to worry about it eating any corals?