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Birthday Office Pico Reef - 2.6 gal


James33

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Ok new issue...went home last night and saw this worm in my tank...tried to get a photo of it but as soon as lights come on it goes into the rock. Also, the second circled picture I thought was a feather fan worm maybe? When I turn the light on the feather like things come out and when light it off it goes away. Can anyone help identify from these crappy photos?20180606_102444.thumb.jpg.11b5e93042e3efae094c2106329e22fc.jpg

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So I dropped a piece of shrimp in before I left for work today and these were my test results just now...do I leave the shrimp in or should I take it out now?

20180608_212122.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Alright so.....I feel I'm at a place where I can proceed with my tank! 

 

Tested parameters last night and got..

 

Temp - 78F

pH - 8.4 

Salinity - 1.025

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 20-40

Phosphate - somewhere between .5-2

Alkalinity - 9

Calcium - 400 

 

I'm attaching a picture of my tank with diatom bloom. I was thinking to do a water change tonight, test everything tomorrow morning and if my phos//nitrates come down with water change, add CUC? How does that sound?

 

Also, what do you recommend I run in the back of the tank? I just have bio max and the carbon in there at the moment that came with the tank? 

 

TLDR; 1. based on values can I add CUC? 2. What should I run in back of tank?20180708_230524.thumb.jpg.ee74a8089d436625790acbe7f7e0e446.jpg

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4 hours ago, James33 said:

Alright so.....I feel I'm at a place where I can proceed with my tank! 

 

Tested parameters last night and got..

 

Temp - 78F

pH - 8.4 

Salinity - 1.025

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 20-40

Phosphate - somewhere between .5-2

Alkalinity - 9

Calcium - 400 

 

I'm attaching a picture of my tank with diatom bloom. I was thinking to do a water change tonight, test everything tomorrow morning and if my phos//nitrates come down with water change, add CUC? How does that sound?

 

Also, what do you recommend I run in the back of the tank? I just have bio max and the carbon in there at the moment that came with the tank? 

 

TLDR; 1. based on values can I add CUC? 2. What should I run in back of tank?

 

20180708_230524.thumb.jpg.ee74a8089d436625790acbe7f7e0e446.jpg

BuMpP

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Could a Mod also maybe move this to Pico Journals? I can't quite seem to figure out how to get it moved and not sure why I even put it in Nano to begin with?

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29 minutes ago, James33 said:

Could a Mod also maybe move this to Pico Journals? I can't quite seem to figure out how to get it moved and not sure why I even put it in Nano to begin with?

Looking good. Your parameters look like mine in my new Nuvo 10.  It’s my second tank and I needed to move some corals out of my 4 month old Biocube, so I did my first water change and added corals on Saturday.. so far so good. I have about the same amount of diatoms, not a huge amount... planning on ordering my custom CUC from Reef Cleaners in the next day or so plus some ninja star snails which are my favorites. 

 

@Christopher Marks is the creator of this forum and happens to be following your thread, so he will likely see your request about moving it and help you out, or you can send him a pm and he is very helpful. 🙂

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Also, I had the same issue with my Biocube in the beginning... if I topped off with RODI it made my salinity drop. Not sure what caused it but I suspected it was my refractometer so I upgraded to a Milwaukee digital one and I love it. 

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I'd go ahead and remove the shrimp if you haven't. I see where no one answered, which is odd. You may already have removed it LOL. 

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Did you start your cycle in late April? I went back through and it appears that you did. You can do a 75%-100% water change to get those Nitrates down to an acceptable level right now. I don't run mine at 0, I like mine around 5.  Once those are down you should be good to add CUC. Not sure about the Bio max but leave the Carbon in there for sure. But be sure and be diligent with changing it out. All I run in my AIO is Poly Filter, ROX 0.8 Carbon and 24/7 Skimming. As long as you're doing weekly water changes, blowing off detritus off your rocks (a turkey baster works best) and taking care to siphon out your back chambers at least monthly. You should be fine. I beat my diatom bloom by killing the lights until I got coral. You don't even need them for a CUC. Those lights are one of the things helping fuel those suckers along with silicates. Next thing I did was add the 10 gallon crew from Reef Cleaners.com. The entire crew was only like 21 bucks shipped to my door. After adding the crew and killing the lights. The Diatoms were gone within 1 week. Be sure and have good source water as well. If you're not making it yourself be sure you trust the source you're getting it from or those diatoms will be here to stay and get worse. 

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On ‎7‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 4:23 AM, ReefGoat said:

I'd go ahead and remove the shrimp if you haven't. I see where no one answered, which is odd. You may already have removed it LOL. 

Yes, shrimp has been out. Ammonia went crazy high and I was like "OK ENOUGH OF THIS" hahaha. Thank you!

 

On ‎7‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 4:43 AM, ReefGoat said:

Did you start your cycle in late April? I went back through and it appears that you did. You can do a 75%-100% water change to get those Nitrates down to an acceptable level right now. I don't run mine at 0, I like mine around 5.  Once those are down you should be good to add CUC. Not sure about the Bio max but leave the Carbon in there for sure. But be sure and be diligent with changing it out. All I run in my AIO is Poly Filter, ROX 0.8 Carbon and 24/7 Skimming. As long as you're doing weekly water changes, blowing off detritus off your rocks (a turkey baster works best) and taking care to siphon out your back chambers at least monthly. You should be fine. I beat my diatom bloom by killing the lights until I got coral. You don't even need them for a CUC. Those lights are one of the things helping fuel those suckers along with silicates. Next thing I did was add the 10 gallon crew from Reef Cleaners.com. The entire crew was only like 21 bucks shipped to my door. After adding the crew and killing the lights. The Diatoms were gone within 1 week. Be sure and have good source water as well. If you're not making it yourself be sure you trust the source you're getting it from or those diatoms will be here to stay and get worse. 

I had thought I replied to this but must have left the thread open and work and didn't hit send! I started the cycle at the end of May actually on 5/23. Actually, since I posted this, the diatom bloom on the top rock is disappearing already, which I thought was interesting because I hadn't changed the light time yet. Doing another water change tonight since I actually have time to and whatnot. Thanks for the reply, I'm going to look into more carbon and poly filter!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have you chosen any clean up crew yet?  For such a small tank you dont need much, maybe a small hermit or a snail or two.  Hermits will kill snails for their shells so don't mix them.

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On 7/24/2018 at 4:56 AM, vlangel said:

Have you chosen any clean up crew yet?  For such a small tank you dont need much, maybe a small hermit or a snail or two.  Hermits will kill snails for their shells so don't mix them.

I did! I have a cerith snail, scarlet hermit (uh oh?), and a trochus snail

 

....except my cerith went missing a couple days ago and I have NO idea where it went 😞 

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I think we would enjoy a FTS for August.  Ha ha, I like ET hiding in your rock.

So what livestock are you thinking of adding besides the snails and hermits?

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9 hours ago, vlangel said:

I think we would enjoy a FTS for August.  Ha ha, I like ET hiding in your rock.

So what livestock are you thinking of adding besides the snails and hermits?

I will get you a pic tonight or tomorrow, work has been pulling hair out. Livestock wise, nothing too complicated (I mean I am new so everything will probably be complicated) but maybe GSP, mushrooms, xenia?, or zoas?

 

 

ALSO...I JUST MOVED FROM PITTSBURGH TO THE WEST COAST!

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11 hours ago, James33 said:

I will get you a pic tonight or tomorrow, work has been pulling hair out. Livestock wise, nothing too complicated (I mean I am new so everything will probably be complicated) but maybe GSP, mushrooms, xenia?, or zoas?

 

 

ALSO...I JUST MOVED FROM PITTSBURGH TO THE WEST COAST!

O my, did you know that I live in the North hill of Pgh?

 

Your livestock list looks like really good choices for your first pico.  Everything you chose is fairly forgiving, and can be colorful.

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4 hours ago, vlangel said:

O my, did you know that I live in the North hill of Pgh?

 

Your livestock list looks like really good choices for your first pico.  Everything you chose is fairly forgiving, and can be colorful.

I did not! I can just see that it says you are from Pittsburgh under your badge photo to the left!!

 

And hopefully, I put a GSP frag in two days ago and I'm waiting ever so patiently!!

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Well, came home and decided to move my rocks because the scarlet hermit ran into a cave and didnt come out for a few days...i thought maybe it was molting, but nope it's dead 😭 I also havent seen my cerith in over a week and I'm just like 🤷‍♀️😭

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Nano Nano Boo Boo

Doesn’t necessarily mean your doing anything wrong. What are your water tests reading? Any signs of issues in the rock or water?

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2 hours ago, Nano Nano Boo Boo said:

Doesn’t necessarily mean your doing anything wrong. What are your water tests reading? Any signs of issues in the rock or water?

This is going to be so embarrassing, but

 

Scarlet Hermit - 1

Me - 0

 

I went out to take one last look at my tank before I go to sleep as I do everynight, AND THE HERMIT IS MOVING! I could have sworn there wasn't a crab in there anymore, guess it shows how new I am 😂

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11 minutes ago, James33 said:

This is going to be so embarrassing, but

 

Scarlet Hermit - 1

Me - 0

 

I went out to take one last look at my tank before I go to sleep as I do everynight, AND THE HERMIT IS MOVING! I could have sworn there wasn't a crab in there anymore, guess it shows how new I am 😂

Was it a molt you saw before? My emeralds keep tricking me like that... their molts totally look like dead crabs!!!

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  • 1 year later...
Poison Dart Frog

I read through this thread and was wondering how your tank was doing. I'm pretty new to pico reefing too and kinda went through the brown diatom stage, followed by the hair algae stage. Like you I started with a clean up crew. Also, curious how you like those bulbs. My girlfriend set up a small tank with 2 of the 50/50 bulbs and a clown fish. So far she has pulsing xenia and some mushrooms and they're doing pretty good. The mushrooms really open up each day. 

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