skyscraper’s PicO III Reboot (7 Month Update 4/8, new photos)

[Reefkid88]

Nice looking set up !!! Definitely off to a good start. So is that light just cool whites and royal blues ? I love the way it looks in pictures 😎

[skyscraper2290]

Thanks! I’m honestly not super sure on the exact lights used. I just picked it up from a LFS for $50 to act as a temporary light till I get my nanobox duo back from Dave. It does have some reds on it too and it’s easy to adjust but no ramping or anything. Overall though for $50 it has been very worth it and will be a great back up light to have around.

[skyscraper2290]

So unfortunately the firefish didn’t make it through the day. I had adjusted my Jebao pump to aerate the water more but just wasn’t enough. I was honestly a bit surprised it made it through last night. I am super bummed about this because it’s definitely my fault for not being careful enough. From the fish section of the forum it sounds like the epoxy from mounting some frags are the most likely culprit of the firefish’s demise. I barely used any epoxy, just the frags that I couldn’t removed off the plug, but apparently it was enough to kill the firefish. I never had this issue before with epoxy. 

 

In better news the goby and shrimp were completely unaffected. I also

picked up my captain America and armor of god frags today and they are already starting to open up. Does anyone have any tips on mounting frags and avoiding using epoxy? 

[skyscraper2290]

So picture dump now that everything in the tank is basically open and happy

 

 

 

Pistol Shrimp and Hi Fin Goby (Harry and Larry)

 

 

Acan

 

 

Hammer

 

 

Random Ric

 

 

Blue Ric

 

 

I thought these were Armageddon but now I think they are more Armor of God

 

 

Armor of God

 

 

Hawaiian People Eater

 

 

Pink Hippo

 

 

Space Monster

 

 

Spit Fire

 

 

Sunny D

 

 

Utter Chaos

 

 

Captian America's opening up

 

[Reefkid88]

Awesome Zoa collection so far. 

[skyscraper2290]

9 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

Awesome Zoa collection so far. 

Thank you! There are some great local reefers around with awesome frag set ups that I was lucky to find. Better than almost all of the LFS here.

[Reefkid88]

I know how that goes. Thankfully I live qnd Orlando and there are some good choices for Zoa's and Acan's around these parts. 

[skyscraper2290]

16 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

I know how that goes. Thankfully I live qnd Orlando and there are some good choices for Zoa's and Acan's around these parts. 

I’m sure you have tons of options there! I’m in Utah so options are limited but soooo much better than when I was living in Wyoming and my “LFS” was 100 miles away.

[Reefkid88]

Dont get me wrong,I do. I mean Top Shelf,Living Reef and WWC are all 30 minutes away. But if you want high end good stuff the locals have the upper hand on that one. 

[skyscraper2290]

28 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

Dont get me wrong,I do. I mean Top Shelf,Living Reef and WWC are all 30 minutes away. But if you want high end good stuff the locals have the upper hand on that one. 

 

Ya definitely agree with you there, I think all the zoas in my tank have cost me about $200 which a LFS would probably have charged at least double that. Also getting to see some of the frag set ups of these local reefers is amazing. 

[skyscraper2290]

Just won a local auction on some white walker zoas! Really excited about them, it’s from an owner of a LFS that has been sitting on them for 2 years.

[skyscraper2290]

Picked up the white walker zoa frag that I won at a local auction and they are looking really nice. While I was at his store picking those up I of course couldn't resist getting a few more frags. I picked up some fire and ice zoas, mary jane zoas, one more frag of zoas that I don't know the name of, and another ric. I also went to another LFS right by my house and they had some orange firefish in stock so grabbed the healthiest looking one (they all looked good) to replace the purple firefish I lost. 

 

White Walkers

 

Fire and Ice

 

Mary Jane 

 

Unknown (suggestions welcome)

 

New Ric, you can really see the bright green inside on the bottom here

 

New Ric

 

This has grown a good amount already and is starting to look like a Yuma to me but could be wrong

 

Space Monster, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite zoas in the tank

 

Utter Chaos, another favorite, with one of my hermit crabs trying to piss them off

 

The pistol shrimp out and about, there are now about 4 burrow entrances and he just started creating one under ric rock too. 

 

And the new fire fish, Sunny, this was the best picture I have been able to get so far and his eye is a bit out of focus here but oh well. 

[skyscraper2290]

So was feeding tonight and saw what I would say a huge bristle worm sticking out of my big base rock. Scared the crap out of me at first, looked to be at least 4” but was still partly in the rock. Surprised it ended up in the tank. It looked to be a common bristle worm but will try to do some night investigating to make sure it’s not a bad one.

 

On another note I picked up a purple tipped hammer and a Duncan as well from another local reefer. I still want to get one more hammer and have been looking at the nice ones on aquaSD. For the most part I think I’m going to try to get one more torch, 4 more rics and 2-3 more acans. This should take care of the bottom portion of the tank so have to start planning for the top portion, suggestions are very welcome.

 

The new firefish seems to be doing great so far. I will probably add my last fish in the next couple weeks, most likely a rainford goby. 

 

Now that I am close to multiple LFS I have a hard time not going to a store all the time but always have to remind myself of long term goals and how I want the tank to grow in. It can be so hard to resist though lol.

 

Here is a top down because what’s a post without a picture ahaha

[vlangel]

I am glad that that the tank is coming along so well.  I just love seeing pics of the pistol shrimp and goby.  You are inspiring me to maybe get a pair for QT.

[teenyreef]

Nice! I really like how that base rock looks in front. Perfect for the lower light corals without having to put them on the sand bed.

[skyscraper2290]

3 hours ago, vlangel said:

I am glad that that the tank is coming along so well.  I just love seeing pics of the pistol shrimp and goby.  You are inspiring me to maybe get a pair for QT.

Thank you! I had always wanted the goby shrimp pair so was very excited that a LFS had them. They are super cool though, I saw get a pair! Haha

 

1 hour ago, teenyreef said:

Nice! I really like how that base rock looks in front. Perfect for the lower light corals without having to put them on the sand bed.

Thanks teeny! The base rock has been perfect so far and it’s where the shrimp and goby have been able to tunnel into. Now I need to figure out where that large frag of AoG zoas will go. The Duncan will probably stay on the sand bed for a while. I just can’t wait to get my duo back over the tank again and start getting some coral up top. My goal is to not add anything else until the duo is back but it’s gonna be tough haha

[skyscraper2290]

Guh I keep seeing deals on the Rokinon 100mm macro lens for 400 and I want to pull the trigger so bad haha

[--chris--]

Beautiful tank already, what are you shooting with now?

[Justind823]

Good to see a Pico tank back in action! I love your goby/pistol combo

 

Great pics, I'll be following along

[skyscraper2290]

30 minutes ago, --chris-- said:

Beautiful tank already, what are you shooting with now?

Thank you!! So I have a Sony A7RII and recently picked up the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 and I love the lens but just miss being able to get super close and really bring out the details of the coral.

 

25 minutes ago, Justind823 said:

Good to see a Pico tank back in action! I love your goby/pistol combo

 

Great pics, I'll be following along

I appreciate that! Definitely one of the coolest combos I think you can have in a tank, at least the nano size where you can really watch them. 

[skyscraper2290]

Tried not to do too much with the tank the past few days. Everything has been looking great and I am starting to see lots of green coralline algae on all the rocks with lots of purple spots. So my rock is maturing very nicely so far. I did want to mention this but I set this tank up basically 1 full month ago (9/11) and I am currently up to 24 total frags, the orange firefish, and hifin goby and shrimp pair. The only issue I ran into was the purple firefish I had gotten died after using some epoxy to mount a couple frags, at least that is the only thing I have been able to figure out so far. All my levels are looking great and nitrates have been hovering between 2-5ppm. I added a new acan, monti, greenish/brownish acro, and a brownish milli yesterday. Last weekend I added an acan, purple tip torch, and a 2 headed duncan to the tank. Like I said before everything has been looking just how you would want it, with the lone exception of the acro I picked up hasn't had great polyp extension yet. It seems I have done a lot fast with the tank so far and I think a big factor I have been able to go this fast is because of the Red Sea Mature Reef kit that I used for the cycle, so at this point would definitely recommend especially for a nano tank. 

 

Anways, thats enough of me rambling and here are some pics...

 

 

 

Milli

 

Monti

 

Green/brown Acro

 

Purple acan

 

Red acan

 

Green Mouth acan

 

Purple tip hammer

 

Duncans

 

This Yuma is starting to look really nice

 

Always watching

[Reefkid88]

Glad to hear everything is going good for you so far. So you really think the coral glue/epoxy killed the firefish ? 

 

 That Mille looks awesome. Those pics are also incredibly clear too. 

[skyscraper2290]

2 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

Glad to hear everything is going good for you so far. So you really think the coral glue/epoxy killed the firefish ? 

 

 That Mille looks awesome. Those pics are also incredibly clear too. 

 

Thanks! I hope it will grow out nicely. I’m pretty happy with how the pictures are turning out but cropping pretty heavily. 

 

From what I could find on the firefish through this forum and other people’s input here the epoxy sounds like the most likely culprit. Water levels were all fine, was eating and swimming around earlier that day and started showing the symptoms shortly after using the epoxy. Sounds like it could mess with oxygen in the water and harm some fish. Nothing obvious on the outside of the fish either. A couple people here said they have seen it happen but it’s not very common.

[ninjamyst]

can't wait to see this tank in a few months when the corals grow into their space.  Very nice selection so far.

[skyscraper2290]

38 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

can't wait to see this tank in a few months when the corals grow into their space.  Very nice selection so far.

Thanks ninja, have a picture in my head how I want it to turn out and think I’m heading in the right direction to make that happen. Also trying to be picky about what I’m putting in the tank.