Lost Ponies of Atlantis Pico

[fishfreak0114]

I’m a little late here, but this tank is off to a great start!  I love the background and the statue! ❤️

[vlangel]

8 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I’m a little late here, but this tank is off to a great start!  I love the background and the statue! ❤️

Thanks fishfreak, I can't believe how you read this whole thread!  Hopefully my dwarf ponies will like it.

[vlangel]

As I was staring into my tiny pico this morning, pondering what is working and what is not working, I got a clearer vision for this tank.

1.  For whatever reason the zoas are not happy so I am going to move them back to the 56 gallon.

2.  The macro algaes are going to be the main feature.  So far I have red titan, red grape caulerpa, codium, and green grape caulerpa.  I plan to add blue hypnea, and dragon's breath when they are well established in the 56 gallon.  There may be more but thats what I have for now.

3.  The coral I am including must be durable and sturdy.  They may even have to endure treatments of panacur if the tank get hydroids from the baby brine shrimp cysts.  Hydroids are deadly to dwarf seahorses but commonly get transferred into DSH tanks via the bbs cysts. Right now my coral list includes mushrooms, cabbage leather, gsp, blue clove polyps, xenia, and palys.  I read that macros tolerate the panacur treatment well but most coral and inverts do not, (except mushrooms and palys).  I can temporarily remove some of the coral but the matting coral like gsp, blue clove polyp, and xenia probably will attach and not be movable.  Hopefully they can tolerate a treatment if its necessary.  I do plan to treat the sand prior to the ponies arrival so I should have an idea then how they will do.

4.  Finally the most exciting part of my vision is I am thinking of moving the timeline for getting the dwarf seahorses up.  I was originally going to wait until after our June/July vacation but this tank set up is so small and portable I am thinking of taking it with me.  In order to see if DSHs are sustainable long term in this setup, I really need to have them long term.  This tank is not just an experiment for me but it is also being followed by a lot of folks who are curious if it can work possibly for them some day.  So I may actually order the DSHs sooner than later, probably in the next month.  I know it is fully cycled and ready now so there is really nothing stopping me.  Whoohoo!

[debbeach13]

Yes baby sea horses. Sooner rather than later.

[vlangel]

As Atlantis is now.

[Tigahboy]

Nice FTS!  And I'm excited to hear you will be getting ponies soon.  🙂

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, vlangel said:

As I was staring into my tiny pico this morning, pondering what is working and what is not working, I got a clearer vision for this tank.

1.  For whatever reason the zoas are not happy so I am going to move them back to the 56 gallon.

2.  The macro algaes are going to be the main feature.  So far I have red titan, red grape caulerpa, codium, and green grape caulerpa.  I plan to add blue hypnea, and dragon's breath when they are well established in the 56 gallon.  There may be more but thats what I have for now.

3.  The coral I am including must be durable and sturdy.  They may even have to endure treatments of panacur if the tank get hydroids from the baby brine shrimp cysts.  Hydroids are deadly to dwarf seahorses but commonly get transferred into DSH tanks via the bbs cysts. Right now my coral list includes mushrooms, cabbage leather, gsp, blue clove polyps, xenia, and palys.  I read that macros tolerate the panacur treatment well but most coral and inverts do not, (except mushrooms and palys).  I can temporarily remove some of the coral but the matting coral like gsp, blue clove polyp, and xenia probably will attach and not be movable.  Hopefully they can tolerate a treatment if its necessary.  I do plan to treat the sand prior to the ponies arrival so I should have an idea then how they will do.

4.  Finally the most exciting part of my vision is I am thinking of moving the timeline for getting the dwarf seahorses up.  I was originally going to wait until after our June/July vacation but this tank set up is so small and portable I am thinking of taking it with me.  In order to see if DSHs are sustainable long term in this setup, I really need to have them long term.  This tank is not just an experiment for me but it is also being followed by a lot of folks who are curious if it can work possibly for them some day.  So I may actually order the DSHs sooner than later, probably in the next month.  I know it is fully cycled and ready now so there is really nothing stopping me.  Whoohoo!

Dwarf seahorses take a vacation!  I love it!   

Love reading about your thought process/analysis.   

This is going to be so interesting to follow.

[Hannahhhh]

4 hours ago, vlangel said:

As Atlantis is now.

So beautiful! I love the statue!!

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, Hannahhhh said:

So beautiful! I love the statue!!

Thank you Hannahhh!

[pricewayne]

YES! Can’t wait to see em 🙂

[vlangel]

A video of the pico set up to accommodate the DSHs.  I am thinking of getting 3 or 5 ponies.

[Wingy]

Would it be wise to try the panacur now, without ponys, to see if the corals can handle it?  

 

I am looking forward to the pictures of ponies on vacation.  

[vlangel]

12 hours ago, Wingy said:

Would it be wise to try the panacur now, without ponys, to see if the corals can handle it?  

 

I am looking forward to the pictures of ponies on vacation.  

That probably would be a good idea.  I plan to get panacur and at least treat the sandbed so that a small residual amount of medication will slowly leach into the tank over time hopefully discouraging  hydroids from getting established.  Its not a med that I have on hand because hydroids are not a problem for big seahorses.

[vlangel]

I am so busy with trying to get in shape for a 10 mile Tough Mudder in Sept plus doing landscape and lawn maintenance both at home and church, that the pico is really not getting the love it deserves.  The 56g blenny/goby and 30g seahorse tanks are challenging me to keep up!  That's why I have not ordered dwarf seahorses yet.  I need to be able to keep up with their WCs which I expect will be 3Xs a week and I am not there yet.  Right now I am doing once a week barely and the film algae on the glass is so thick I can barely see in the tank. 😕  Today I plan to do a WC and cleaning so maybe a before and after pic is in order. 😉

[vlangel]

See this Instagram photo by @vlangelbike

Looks pretty bad, uhhg!

See this Instagram photo by @vlangelbike

Ok a half hour later the pony pico is viewable.

[vlangel]

Video with commentary of the pony pico.

[seabass]

Excellent.  I really enjoy when people provide commentaries in their videos.  I know that sometimes I'm uncomfortable doing it, but it usually adds to the video.

 

I just did a clean out on my pico too.  I did the exact same thing, removed the rocks and corals, stirred the sand, removed the water, added new water, replaced the rocks and corals.  However, in the future, I'm considering trying to do it without removing anything (I broke off a digitata in the process).  Do you envision any problems with removing the statue after the seahorses are in the tank?

[Tamberav]

Tank is looking great 🙂 The shrimp add a lot of activity while you prepare for ponies!

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, seabass said:

Excellent.  I really enjoy when people provide commentaries in their videos.  I know that sometimes I'm uncomfortable doing it, but it usually adds to the video.

 

I just did a clean out on my pico too.  I did the exact same thing, removed the rocks and corals, stirred the sand, removed the water, added new water, replaced the rocks and corals.  However, in the future, I'm considering trying to do it without removing anything (I broke off a digitata in the process).  Do you envision any problems with removing the statue after the seahorses are in the tank?

Thanks seabass!  I am glad that the commentary enhanced the video for you.  I also feel a bit self conscious doing that.  None of my coral are fragile so I will probably always remove the statue/w coral and macros.  I am settling on just 3 dwarf seahorses and removing them should be easy enough unless they procreate.  That could definitely be more tricky.  I do have an airline hose with rigid tubing attached so I could do WCs that way as well.  If they have babies I probably would remove the sandbed and I am thinking about maybe removing it anyway before the ponies arrive for ease of maintenance.

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Tank is looking great 🙂 The shrimp add a lot of activity while you prepare for ponies!

Thanks Tamberav!  I agree the shrimp add interest and activity.  This tank would be pretty boring without them.

[vlangel]

 

 

A much better FTS after the tank has settled.

[Ratvan]

It's beautiful 

[Lula_Mae]

Such a cute little tank!  I was thinking about getting  ponies a while back and have always been interested in them, but just don't have the energy right now for that.  I look forward to seeing how the ponies do for you!

[Maddie]

Hi, gorgeous tank! Super excited to see the mini ponies! The background is really neat, and I love the decorations! I believe we have the same type of codium, which is really cool to me. 

[vlangel]

On 5/8/2019 at 8:42 PM, Lula_Mae said:

Such a cute little tank!  I was thinking about getting  ponies a while back and have always been interested in them, but just don't have the energy right now for that.  I look forward to seeing how the ponies do for you!

Thanks Lula Mae.  I hope I have the energy for them.  I do like how this tiny pico is turning out.