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Snow's 2.9G O.S.P.R. Mushroom Mansion


Snow_Phoenix

Derp  

18 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Derp stay, or should he be booted out of the Mushroom Mansion? Pick wisely, your answers *might* determine his future!

    • Keep Derp. It's fun to watch him wreak havoc in your Pico.
      11
    • Toss the bugger out. Hermits suck anyway.
      1
    • Watch him for a while - if he keeps feeding one coral to another shroom again, kick him out!
      6

This poll is closed to new votes

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  • Poll closed on 05/31/2020 at 04:00 PM

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Snow_Phoenix

Hello. So I'm pitching in, but from the opposite side of the world. Mostly tagging along for fun - it's been a while since I kept a Pico-reef, and even then, my smallest pico reef was 3G++. So this would be both a challenge and a new experience for me.

 

Specifications:

 

Tank:

 

5mm thick, rimless, crystal white glass, pre-made. (Not a janky tank, I'm afraid :tongueout:)

12" x 7" x 8" 

~2.9G capacity 

 

Equipment:

 

Filter:        Small Nice288 HOB filter (1.72L or 0.45G capacity) 

Lighting:   36W PAR38 LED or 16.7W Aquazonic LED

*Tentatively no other equipment included.

 

Media:

 

Filter Floss

Activated Carbon

PhosBan   RowaPhos

Seachem Purigen* (*Maybe)

 

Rocks & Sand:

 

~1.5kg++ of aragonite LS

~1.5kg of cured, mature LR taken from the refugium of my 20G

 

Livestock:

 

Simple stuff. Honestly, tbd - and whatever that catches my eye. I'm making this a budget tank, meaning all pieces are not going to exceed $15 in value per frag.* 

1 TSB. (currently in QT :ninja:

1 pink-legged hermit crab.

1 interesting shrimp. 

Any good hitchikers will be retained. (already had my first unofficial hitchiker in QT - turns out to be this tiny crab with blunt claws and striped legs)

 

*I've already acquired around 12 frags today from my LFS. Each one cost me between RM 10 ($2.46) to RM 20 ($4.92). All the frags are currently being held in my 20G and will be moved into the Pico over time. I've fragged some of my own corals in my 20G, so I'll move those over to the Pico too once they're stable. 

 

TBC. 

 

Theme:

 

'Rojak' tank. Rojak is a Malaysian dish with various fruits and fried char kuey smothered in thick, sweet sauce with peanuts. 'Rojak' generally means 'mixed' in local slang - which means I'll probably have anything and a bit of everything included. (Well, within reasonable means, of course). 

 

*Updated Livestock List (Subject to change at any time):

 

Corals:

Red Pavona

Red/Blue Lobo brain

Red Acans

Green Acans

Orange Clove Polyps

Assorted Rhodactis Mushrooms

Assorted Ricordea Yuma Mushrooms

Green Hairy Mushroom

Neon Green Star Polyp

Green Japanese Nepthea

Green Weeping Willow Toadstool Leather

Orange Polyp Toadstool Leather

Pink Finger Leather

Green Blasto

Ultra Green Zoas

Eagle Eye Zoas

Pink Zoas

Dragon Eye Zoas

Red Zoas

Utter Chaos Paly

Rainbow Implosion Paly

 

Anemone:

Red Mini Carpet Anemone/Bali Anemone (*bleached but recovering)

 

Macroalgae:

Galaxaura

Fern Caulerpa

Grape Caulerpa

 

Inverts:

Pink-legged hermit crab (Calcinus sp.) - Derp

Golden Banded Coral Shrimp (GBCS) (Stenopus zanzibaricus) - Zanipolo (Zani)

Nassarius Snail (Nassarius vibex)

 

Hitchikers:

Microbrittle stars

Red spaghetti worms

Tiny duster worms

Various sponges and tunicates

1 xanthid crab (Paractaea monodi) - Scarlet

1 unknown crab - Grump

 

Fish:

Circus Goby (Priolepis nocturna) - Prowler

Tailspot blenny (Escenius stigmatura) - Miko

 

 

FTS:

 

1/4/2019:

 

20190401_102955.thumb.jpg.28d8c2b07647ae7e0e1d255e1a9a1d0d.jpg

 

2/5/2019:

 

IMG_20190502_113745_497.thumb.jpg.e6d7c4551960a3215187e26907898e63.jpg

 

1/7/2019.

 

LRM_EXPORT_268700277551693_20190702_093226313.jpeg

  • Like 9
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Snow_Phoenix

These are the examples of some of the frags I picked up today, just for the Pico:

 

I also brought home a bit of macro to seed both my nano and Pico. It came with some pretty cool hitchikers:

 

I still haven't got around to doing a leak test for my Pico yet, but I'll do it before putting anything in it. :happy:

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 7
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Snow_Phoenix

I had to get a new extension cord from the store. The older spare one I had had two charred outlets, and even though the other four we working fine, I didn't want to take the risk. 

 

20190324_191454.thumb.jpg.9f4db7f9ae49e04efdb5712437309cd4.jpg

 

I also got a thick layer of black lacquer fixed to the back of the tank, as a personal preference. 

 

20190324_191317.thumb.jpg.63f367f578b431e6aacedad141add1a4.jpg

 

20190324_202127.thumb.jpg.7d636dbea49f88323008bccaca018ebe.jpg

 

The whole family is in on this one. My mother supplied that tiny floral linoleum base for the tank to prevent any salt creep from getting to the cupboard underneath. 

 

I pulled out my retired PAR38 and it worked very well. The spread is very, very good and perfect for some of the critters I plan on putting in. 

 

20190324_192540.thumb.jpg.a461417d0dabb7bbe107b5ff9ce950ee.jpg

 

My only concern is that the light is too strong and pretty much overkill for a pico. So I have an older LED set with half the power (but less spectrum range) on hand just in case. 

  • Like 8
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Snow_Phoenix

I did my first leak test today!

 

Filled it up  to the level I'll most likely be using throughout the contest:

 

T07.thumb.jpg.1200d256e9f411a4e4835e4b3fd93952.jpg

 

Waited anxiously for 10 minutes without any issues, and then I decided to put my HOB filter over it and give it a test run. I noticed the motor of my spare filter was very, very weak. Luckily, I bought another filter yesterday at the LFS - exact same type - in anticipation of any trouble, so I'm using the new filter instead:

 

T08.thumb.jpg.40daa7c2f17c4ff316a807c504b213dd.jpg

 

The motor is quite strong, and the tank has been full of chlorinated tap for almost 50 minutes now:

 

T09.thumb.jpg.22d5e8d61f5ef73cabd52b6033c24c98.jpg

 

I'll be draining it shortly and dry out both the filter and the tank once again. The next time it goes wet will be on the official starting day of the contest. :happy:

 

 

 

  • Like 6
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Snow_Phoenix

This is the cured LR I'm going to be using. Scape will be simple and straightforward - with the possibilty of a second, smaller piece supporting the first if it can't stay upright. 😊

 

20190326_182353.thumb.jpg.a8db22d45d2015a63f10b77ed1952881.jpg

  • Like 6
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8 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Your tank is a beauty and I am a bit jealous, ha ha! 

I thought it had a canopy and matching base. I didn't realize it was just the packaging!!

  • Like 1
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Snow_Phoenix
25 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Your tank is a beauty and I am a bit jealous, ha ha!  It seems you have a well thought out plan.

Thanks, Dawn. I don't actually have a proper plan because I keep changing my mind about what to put in and how to go about it. But I like a bit of randomness and chaos, so I'll probably try to make it as diverse as possible. I think I'll keep this up long-term, if everything goes well. :wink:

16 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

I thought it had a canopy and matching base. I didn't realize it was just the packaging!!

Haha, yes, it's just the packaging lol. I kept it on so that there won't be any dust getting into the tank. :ninja:

  • Like 2
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Snow_Phoenix

So my urchin attempted to sneak into my breeder box to eat the macro I planned to put in my Pico today. He was literally crawling all over the plastic - thank goodness these guys don't have a trunk tipped with teeth or something. :scarry:

 

Here's just a sneak peek of the macro: 

 

20190327_121320.thumb.jpg.45b8a2b1e2cf7be23a2a3418f68af674.jpg

 

There's a bit of grape caulerpa, chaeto and galaxaura with a few strands of GHA. There are some really good hitchikers in the clump - beige microbrittles, pineapple sponges, and a lot of pods. 

 

Macro should be the first thing to go in once the tank gets wet and is ready to hold livestock. I think the cured LR will minimize the chances of any cycle from occuring, although the sandbed will be completely new. 

 

I plan on transplanting a few spaghetti worms from the sandbed of my 20G to the sandbed of the pico too. 

 

IMG_20190327_095958_438.thumb.jpg.ed4c1d45b9406d3646036daffe8faaa5.jpg

 

Tbh, I have no idea how I'm going to safely move one or two of these unique specimens but I'll try my best. 

  • Like 4
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Snow_Phoenix
23 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I love the macro algae!!

 

send me some grape 🍇 

Lol! 

 

I'm planning on getting different types if I can. I originally had some fern caulerpa but my purple rock urchin got into the in-tank fuge and that was history. 🤣

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Snow_Phoenix

I managed to take a second, better pic of the rock today thanks to an orange lens clip-on filter, which killed the blues. 

 

20190327_181726.thumb.jpg.f8e444366b9b6f1599661cbac8757a69.jpg

 

This rock used to be crawling with strands of caulerpa peltata - which was unfortunately scraped dry by my tuxedo. The coralline remained though. There's also dozens of these unique black spirals on the top surface of the rock. To my knowledge, only bristleworms inhabit this piece - I don't even have vermetids here. So I wonder what they actually are...? 🤔

 

It's clean though, and not very porous. Good for base rock/fuge rock, I suppose. We'll see how it does in the pico later. 

  • Like 2
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Snow_Phoenix

My sandbed is officially littered with frags. I think I might permanently move my yuma pile into the Pico (*or not - am still fickle-minded on this one). My yumas keep cupping and stretching for light under my Prime in the 20G. They are used to my PAR38, so maybe putting them back under a familiar light might help. 

 

Also, I'm thinking of permanently moving all my free-standing frags into the Pico over time. The 20G will be torn down sometime in April and be upgraded to a larger system that will benefit better with colonies rather than tiny frags (JMO). 

 

The Pico would be the perfect place for the frags to grow out in. Especially the zoas, which have always been a hit or miss in my main tank: 

 

20190327_121447.thumb.jpg.4156e2795e84cd9e2602be27c12527db.jpg

 

So...who knows? Guess the pico will be beneficial. Anytime a frag outgrows it, I'll just move it out into the 60G and make a colony out of it (*hopefully). 😊

  • Like 6
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5 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

My sandbed is officially littered with frags. I think I might permanently move my yuma pile into the Pico (*or not - am still fickle-minded on this one). My yumas keep cupping and stretching for light under my Prime in the 20G. They are used to my PAR38, so maybe putting them back under a familiar light might help. 

 

Also, I'm thinking of permanently moving all my free-standing frags into the Pico over time. The 20G will be torn down sometime in April and be upgraded to a larger system that will benefit better with colonies rather than tiny frags (JMO). 

 

The Pico would be the perfect place for the frags to grow out in. Especially the zoas, which have always been a hit or miss in my main tank: 

 

20190327_121447.thumb.jpg.4156e2795e84cd9e2602be27c12527db.jpg

 

So...who knows? Guess the pico will be beneficial. Anytime a frag outgrows it, I'll just move it out into the 60G and make a colony out of it (*hopefully). 😊

That sounds like the perfect plan!

  • Like 1
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Snow_Phoenix

Went to the LFS and they had fern caulerpa! 

 

20190328_143346.thumb.jpg.6e42ff5af8b7c75f4375ebea25fdc0d0.jpg

 

So nice to have more types of macro for the fuge + pico-to-be. Also brought home a small critter for the pico. Currently being QTed. :ninja:

  • Like 2
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Snow_Phoenix

So, I have a small box of LS being held separately in a QT that also holds my critter + tiny LR piece. 

 

20190329_135549.thumb.jpg.35ccc9601b48f551d695a53d1ba48618.jpg

 

Also, meet the first hitchiker for the pico who snuck away on the LR piece of my critter: Grumpy Crab! :lol:

 

20190329_172808.thumb.jpg.66404b82a3689df03d774a1adadaade0.jpg

  • Like 3
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