6.5 gal Pico reef - (December pictures)

[SavaS]

I don't often get home from work when the white lights are running, what a shock, the tank looks amazing during that time. These pictures don't do the tank justice... 

[SavaS]

Picked up a few new corals today, feel like I got a good deal. 

Mushroom - 7$

Rock flower anemone - 12$

2 X 3 headed Duncans - 40$

Last picture is new Duncan next to my current one. 

[SavaS]

Couldn't help myself, went back to the store and bought the other rock flower anemone they had, a greenish colored one. 

[itsamaybe]

On 7/12/2018 at 6:27 AM, SavaS said:

Are you referring to the pods or the phyto? I don't have anything in my tank that depends on pods yet so I'm not harvesting them for a few weeks. I want the population to be as large as possible before I start. Even then I won't be pulling large amounts out at first. As far as the phyto there's a 7-10 day turn around per gallon, meaning I can harvest a gallon or so roughly once a week (half of each container) . This is added to my tank and used to feed the pods. I hope this answers your questions, if not let me know. 

 

I plan to add a second tank and keep tiger pods as well. Neither those nor the isochrysis algae are available locally so any extra I might be able to sell for a few bucks. 

Perfect answer. I hadn't thought of culturing pods/ phyto  for feeding with a dosing system before. I had always thought of it more of a task for separate aquarium or a gang on back unit to avoid a centrifugal pump. 

[SavaS]

I have to say, I am really loving the rock flower anemones, I'm up to 7 now. They aren't super rare ones, just your run of the mill Florida keys ones but they are so cool. Some have orange mouths and white skirts, some are green, they seem to have a almost translucent glow to them. Here are some pictures, albeit bad ones... 

[SavaS]

Started the Lights for the eventual rock flower anemone tank. Have the leds soldered and tested, need to mount them in a hood, going to repurpose a mini hood I had for reptiles a while back. 

2x royal blue

8x blue

2x cyan

4x neutral white

2x violet

 

I'm debating on getting the imagitarium 3.7 gallon aio, for a no thrills basic aquarium (that would be a first for me). Anyone else have a rock flower only aquarium out there? 

[TatorTaco]

I see you've already found the Rock Flower Appreciation thread.  Honestly, that's your best source of info finding RFA exclusive tanks. I have the Imgatarium 3.7 from Petco.  I understand it's a personal preference, but i'm not a fan of the curved glass.  The stock pump should be enough flow for RFA though.  

 

Maybe this is something you have in mind?  

 

[SavaS]

Thanks for the input @TatorTaco, I ended up adding a few pieces of live rock and placing the four RFAs I could get to there so I'm going to stick to my main tank for now. Hopefully I can get the three that wandered behind my scape out eventually. It's hollow in the middle so they are still getting light and food. 

 

On another note, the RFA that got caught in the powerhead grate is fine and fully extended. 

[SavaS]

Video of one of my rock flower anemones eating

 

 

[SavaS]

Look who arrived today! 

[SavaS]

Also got a few corals as well, some of the zoas have 20+ polyps for only 10$, 15$ and 5$ for most of the others. @Aquarium Depot did a stellar job packaging everything! There are still a few things not pictured, several other corals and some macro. I'll be removing everything from the plugs and securing them to the rock sometime this weekend. Very happy overall. 

[Aquarium Depot]

Thank You for the positive words @SavaS 😀

 

Going to release this beauty soon - what do you think?  Follow AquariumDepot.com for notifications on this release!!

 

 

 

[SavaS]

My Duncans don't like waking up in the morning... Much like me... 

[SavaS]

Started noticing lots of baby stomatella snails in the sump the past few days. Before I switched tanks I had two that I knew of, a blue one and a greenish brown one, the blue one died, the other I've yet to see and now I find these guys. I've found one so far in the main tank, once I thin out my hermit population I plan to move more to the display. 

 

Yes, my sump is full of xenias, these pictures were taken after lights out so they're balled up. 

[SavaS]

When you're a hermit crab who leaves its shell to live in a rock, you probably aren't moving very much... 

[SavaS]

I started to realize the water I was getting from my lfs was going down hill with quality. My tank looked like crap over night, and I lost a rock flower anemone and majority of my zoas stopped opening. My favorite Duncan shriveled up and everything, even mushrooms, were looking upset. This was roughly one day after a water change. So I did another thinking I did something wrong, salinity was fine, water was the same temperature but everything got worse. The water change was the only change I made. I had a feeling my nitrates and phosphate were way high and after testing I found out they were. So I added carbon and Chemi pure elite. In two days things were looking better ish. Suddenly I started seeing hair algae popping up but it already seems to be slowing down. I decided to cut out the lfs and bought my own ro/di unit and new salt. Needless to say in a little over a week the tank is looking much better. My Duncan is starting to expand more and I'm hopeful things will recover. Unfortunately I lost half my zoas and palys, some Gsp and I think all the xenias that were growing in my sump... Time will tell about how this works out, fingers crossed for continued improvement. 

[Christopher Marks]

That's good to hear mixing your own water has been improving everything in the tank! Did you find the RO/DI system easy to setup and get running? That's a nice and compact setup.

[SavaS]

Yes, super easy. The directions are nice and easy, flush each piece for x amount of minutes and then you're good to go. Connects right to the faucet. 

[SavaS]

Ok so here is my over engineered sump... 

 

I color coded it to make it easier to understand. 

1. Return from main display, skimmer is in this area. There is a eggcrate floor that is suspended about 1" about the bottom to act as a settling chamber. 

2. The water from the overflow and skimmer falls into this chamber containing media pure balls and my biopellet reactor. 

3. The water leaves this chamber falling across phosban, Chemi pure elite and carbon into my 'fuge'. The fuge is basically rubble, two macros and a area for pods. I have several xenias in there as well. This area is more for pod growth and a area to set frags if need be. 

4. The water leaves this chamber for the return pump and ato. 

 

It's a lot, yes, but hopefully it drops my phosphate. That is my main goal and I will adjust accordingly with time. 

[SavaS]

More sump pictures... Here you can see the different chambers, skimmer, media pure balls, reactor, fuge, ato, return. Also is my temperature controller that drives a 120mm pc fan to cool the tank. 

[SavaS]

And here are a few shots of the corals, everything is looking great. 

[SavaS]

Some samples I picked up from saltcritters.com, I really excited about the bacto balls. Hopefully the ricordea/zoa food is worth the cost. This way I can feed something different each time, really mix it up. 

[SavaS]

Found a home for my @Pod Your Reefsticker. Today I emptied both the cultures I had growing into the sump to see if they make a difference. Already my firefish was darting around. 

[SavaS]

Finally got a picture of the lawn mower blenny. He's skittish but definitely knocking back the hair algae. (I am addressing the problem and using him to knock out the residual hair algae) 

[SavaS]

I have been waiting for this for a while now, should have gotten one much sooner. What a difference!