My first (pico) reef

[Coinee]

Well, I tried to measure the nitrites again today under some different lighting. It seems the shade of purple is actually about 2 ppm. This sounds a lot more reasonable and around the area of what I was expecting. I'll test again on Friday or Saturday. 

[Coinee]

I tested nitrites again today, I thought it was Friday... but I just realized it is Thursday

 

 

 

 

Good news is that they're at about 0.5 ppm today. 

 

 

 

Edit: Edited main post to include my equipment

[Coinee]

January 18th

I tested parameters today:

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrate - 5 ppm

Nitrites - between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm

Sp. Gravity - 1.024

 

Nitrites are clearing up a lot. It is only slightly darker than 0.25. Should be done cycling in a couple days. 

[Coinee]

January 19th

I tested parameters today:

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrate - < 5 ppm

Nitrites - 0 ppm 

Sp. Gravity - 1.024

Temp - 27C

 

TANK IS CYCCCLEEEEEEEEEEEED!  Time to go get 8 tangs, 12 hermit crabs, 6 anemone shrimp, 4 urchins and 3 star fish and some anemones! Lol Not really. I'll probably pick up something in a day or two, I would go today but I feel reaaaaaaaaaallllllllllly lazy.  

[Coinee]

So, I went out today after all. I wanted to get some GSP, the LFS had frags last time I went but the tank crashed and their GSP is alive but still recovering so they don't have any available for me. They had a nice candy cane coral that I'm going to add.

 

I picked up a Salifert Nitrite test kit, I tested my tank, indeed it is 0 ppm nitrite. I'll pick up the other Salifert tests as time goes on, I would have at my LFS but their expiration date was only like 6 months away and I didn't want to chance it. The nitrite ones expired mid 2020 so that was better. 

 

I haven't seen any algae in my tank or anything so I'm not gonna get any snails yet. If I get algae I'll probably get a snail or two (and skip the hermit for now). I realized since I have a pico tank, I'm more interested in coral. When I get a new tank, I'll look more into actual live stock. But I'll probably start some algae growing from the frag plug so maybe I'll have to get some snails sooner than later.

 

So, I dipped the coral and wow! The amount of bugs that jumped out of it were surprising. I'm using ReVive Coral Cleaner dip. First coral, first dip, lesson learned! 

 

Quick question:

What is that greenish bubble between the two candy cane heads? The bubble is more visible in the 2nd pic. I poked it and it is hard and doesn't break. Some sort of algae or something?

 

 

 

Edit:

 

I was poking the coral around to get it in a good spot in the tank and the green bubble softened up and I accidently burst it. Definitely was algae. 

[Lula_Mae]

16 hours ago, Coinee said:

So, I went out today after all. I wanted to get some GSP, the LFS had frags last time I went but the tank crashed and their GSP is alive but still recovering so they don't have any available for me. They had a nice candy cane coral that I'm going to add.

 

I picked up a Salifert Nitrite test kit, I tested my tank, indeed it is 0 ppm nitrite. I'll pick up the other Salifert tests as time goes on, I would have at my LFS but their expiration date was only like 6 months away and I didn't want to chance it. The nitrite ones expired mid 2020 so that was better. 

 

I haven't seen any algae in my tank or anything so I'm not gonna get any snails yet. If I get algae I'll probably get a snail or two (and skip the hermit for now). I realized since I have a pico tank, I'm more interested in coral. When I get a new tank, I'll look more into actual live stock. But I'll probably start some algae growing from the frag plug so maybe I'll have to get some snails sooner than later.

 

So, I dipped the coral and wow! The amount of bugs that jumped out of it were surprising. I'm using ReVive Coral Cleaner dip. First coral, first dip, lesson learned! 

 

Quick question:

What is that greenish bubble between the two candy cane heads? The bubble is more visible in the 2nd pic. I poked it and it is hard and doesn't break. Some sort of algae or something?

 

 

 

Edit:

 

I was poking the coral around to get it in a good spot in the tank and the green bubble softened up and I accidently burst it. Definitely was algae. 

It's bubble algae. When the bubbles get big enough, you can gently twist them off. I recommend doing it outside the tank in case it bursts so spores don't spread in the tank. Good job dipping! It's so important. 

[Coinee]

11 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

It's bubble algae. When the bubbles get big enough, you can gently twist them off. I recommend doing it outside the tank in case it bursts so spores don't spread in the tank. Good job dipping! It's so important. 

Yep that's what it was. I burst it when I took it out of the tank and poked it lol. 

 

 

I bought some GSP today, will post a pic of it when it stops being pissed off and opens up.  I probably won't add any more corals unless I find something I really like like a nice ricordea or zoanthid. 

Next addition will probably be a snail since I expect some algae to start growing eventually.

[Coinee]

January 22nd

I tested parameters today:

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrites - 0 ppm 

Sp. Gravity - 1.024

Temp - 26.2C

 

The GSP is starting to open a little bit now. A few polyps are half extended, so I suspect that I should have more out over the next couple days hopefully! When they come out, I'll share a picture. 

[Coinee]

Everything seemed to be going well up until now. I got ALGAE! Been tracking my params in a spreadsheet and things are more or less the same. Pic of the GSP included since I promised that.

 

The algae is like a brown rusty kind of colour in person. It's slowly starting to show up everywhere. Should I get a snail to take care of it? I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and try to scrub off some of the algae. 

 

The water I am using is Distilled Water, and the TDS is 0 or 1 ppm.

 

 

 

 

[Coinee]

Added a snail yesterday and I noticed a few hours later the GSP was all retracted and pissed off, so I checked params. Ammonia and nitrites were up to an uncomfortable level so I did a water change and banished the snail. I think the snail must have been dying or sick or something, it didn't seem active or responsive to any changes.

 

I checked params again today, they are:

 

February 3rd

I tested parameters today:

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrate - < 5 ppm

Nitrites - 0 ppm

Sp. Gravity - 1.024

pH - 7.8

Temp - 25.4C

 

Everything is back to normal and GSP is feelin' fine. 

[Wonderboy]

Don't worry about that algae - just keep the glass clear where you want; try a couple cerith snails (favorite pico snail - hardy). Good job responding to the GSP - everything's looking on track. Tagging along.

[Coinee]

So, tank and coral have been going along well so far still. Params are still on target, no issues now.

 

The diatoms are spreading a lot more now, but I'm just going to scrub them off and remove what I can with water changes. I was worried that they were something worse but after seeing them spread a bit more, it looks more consistent with diatom bloom since it is a new tank. 

[Newstead]

Those diatoms will wax and wane for a bit, then finally disappear. Sounds like the vase is doing well so far.

[Coinee]

1 hour ago, Newstead said:

Those diatoms will wax and wane for a bit, then finally disappear. Sounds like the vase is doing well so far.

Yep, I pretty much just have to wait it out and do some scrubbing to make the tank look not ugly. I'm really wanting to get a legitimate tank, the jar is kind of fuzzy and some areas are a little blurry. But if I upgrade, I'm gonna want something that I can have a small fish in...but I must resist. But I'd love to have a little watchman goby!

 

Overall, this is turning out easier than I expected considering how much other reef forums hate on tanks under a billion gallons. My GSP is pretty happy and my ricordea are getting a little bigger. The candy cane coral seems to be fine also, but it doesn't do much besides exist. 

 

I'll probably add another piece of coral in few days or a week since my birthday is soon! I'd like to have something from euphyllia in my tank, I'm going to see what I can find locally since the LFS corals don't seem to be as healthy as the hobbyist stuff usually here.

[Coinee]

I took the rock out today during the water change and scrubbed it with the toothbrush and rinsed it off (with tank water). That stuff does NOT want to come off the rock at all, but it comes off the glass very easily. Vacuumed what I could in the sand also. I took some more pictures of it in normal light. It is definitely more brown than red. It kind of looks like darker coloured sand. 

 

 

[mtnbikeracer]

Welcome to diatoms. An unfortunate side of a tank.

[Coinee]

38 minutes ago, mtnbikeracer said:

Welcome to diatoms. An unfortunate side of a tank.

I'm not too bummed out. They're not harmful and they will sort themselves out soon enough more or less!. 

 

 

Edit: I just realized that my Candy Cane coral are dead. I may have bleached them by mistake by following LFS advice...d'oh. But looking up images of "dying Candy Cane coral" seems to look similar to how they looked at the LFS since they weren't extended at all even in the store. I just thought the green in the centre looked cool and checking online said it was a hardy coral...Being a noob sucks LOL. Anyway, gonna leave them in the tank away from the light for a while and see how things go. At least my GSP and my Ricordea are fine! If I killed my GSP then I'd have to have an early retirement from reefing. 

[Coinee]

I got a pretty good deal for two pieces of coral. I got a nice mushroom coral and two heads of frogspawn. The colours in the pictures do NOT do this justice at all. Under my lights these pieces are suuuuuuuper bright. I love it!  The diatoms seem relatively under control now. I'm thinking about moving up to a proper tank in the next few weeks for more stability and more aquascaping room since the jar is too cramped and hard to move things around in for my fat hands.

 

 

[Coinee]

Bit of an update since I haven't posted here in a while and today is the 1 month anniversary since I first added some coral. My jar is running smoothly, no issues at all really! I half expected to fail at this but I'm further along than I expected so I guess we can call up to now more or less a success. The candy cane coral I got in the beginning is dead since I bleached it so I took it out of the tank. It's kind of funny that I killed the first coral I ever got, though LOL. But it's ok, it was my least favourite out of all the coral I have now. 

 

On a side note, the frogspawn is extending out a LOT more now, it looks super awesome and healthy so far. The mushroom coral is getting HUGE, it literally doubled or tripled in size since it puffed out a lot, it is really cool! I noticed my GSP trying to grow onto a piece of rock on the bottom of my tank, so it seems to be happy as well. I haven't really tested since everything has been happy looking. I missed my water change on Friday, so I'll probably end up doing that tomorrow and scrub the rocks and clean the sand a bit. The diatoms are mostly going away too but they slowly crawl back a little. No worries though!

 

Overall, I'm happy with how this is going. I'm disappointed with how difficult it is to take good pictures in the jar though. I have to use my phone to get pictures because my DSLR HATES the angles and the aberrations of the glass. I really want to upgrade to a new tank and shut the jar down since I've more or less "proved" my "proof of concept". If I get a new pico-tank sometime, I'm going to try to explore the Aquaclear filter approach with the chaeto to see how that works out for me to control nutrients and even provide more water volume.

 

Since I got this far, I want to say thank you to everyone for their help up to now. Without the people here, I DEFINITELY would have had a more difficult time getting this tank going up to now.

[Coinee]

This tank is still going...getting more greenish algae now coming in. Everything seems to be growing fine and spreading out well.

[Coinee]

Snapped a quick pic with my phone of my rhodactis looking cool. 

[Coinee]

Well, after 4 months of this tank running well after its cycle, it was time to officially decommission this tank today. Everything has been moved over to a proper aquarium. Updates will be made here: 

 

 

Reflecting on the pico jar in general, I did a lot of things right and this was pretty easy to maintain although, it was still a little expensive. I think more useful would be to discuss the things that I would have done differently:

 

I would have forgone the jar completely because it is difficult to take pictures through the glass due to aberrations in the glass (choose your jar carefully).

The jar is kind of an awkward space due to its shape: I should have given more thought to the aquascape with the live rock. 

I would have bought a smaller heater since the one I used is larger and I would have had a better aquascape to hide it behind the rock, possibly. 

I would have been a bit more careful with the light since I bleached my first coral (the candy cane).

 

 

But despite this, this was a great experiment and gave me confidence to move into the hobby and get things going.