Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

Ratvan's Old School Pico - Rockwall Pico v2


Ratvan

Recommended Posts

Ok well it seems that I should be ready to send my first coral after the weekend. As the Green Yuma's continue to drop babies like mad I figured that I would attempt to spread the love. 

20190726_091539.thumb.jpg.e9d2a5a143ed301c5b38c859e1bd16c7.jpg

I have so far managed to get two to take a hold on some rubble so need to collect some more sample pots this weekend and post everything out on Monday for delivery on Tuesday. 

 

Will see if I can get a snail to clean the glass, probably a Astrea if they're not huge

 

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
On 7/25/2019 at 8:29 AM, Ratvan said:

Thanks, it's the bit of the Hobby I know will come just a little early with this on. 

 

Well In other news I thought I would compare growth on my Aiptasia that's been sat in a coffee jar.

 

24th May: The Day before Isolation. 2mm across and about the same tall

20190524_124844.thumb.jpg.1f988e89bf82691e219116057a48c71b.jpg.ce4748741d41519ec4bde261946ff661.jpg

 

Today (25th July) Fully extended 60mm wide and roughly same wide (1.5-2")

20190725_132118.thumb.jpg.265527358d809203deabd5d077a01dfc.jpg

 

20190725_132126.thumb.jpg.552c7246fff5746ca61b41b0b80e1219.jpg

 

It is still really pretty under blues. I have nothing switched on at the minute (all lights, heaters, pumps etc off) as tank sat at 30C/86F inside office temp is 35c/95F

That stuff will grow anywhere 😝 

  • Wow 1
Link to comment
On 7/25/2019 at 2:09 PM, Ratvan said:

95235532_LFSBlenny.thumb.jpg.25d84a4287979eb4284d59b0d83b9338.jpg

 

Yeah can't decide on taking the risk or not....

Full of character, swims to front of tank when people are near

Well went into my LFS and this guy was still there, I decided to pick it up and currently have it acclimating in my QT tank. I figured i'd rather do my best to make it as comfortable as possible so at least it will pass in clean warm water. I added a Pipette of Rotifers while still in the fish bag and have seen it picking at the bag so I am assuming that it is at least eating something,

 

I might add to the 5.5G that should have been the GCG tank, but we will wait and see.

  • Like 2
  • Wow 1
Link to comment
DSFIRSTSLTWATER
1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

Well went into my LFS and this guy was still there, I decided to pick it up and currently have it acclimating in my QT tank. I figured i'd rather do my best to make it as comfortable as possible so at least it will pass in clean warm water. I added a Pipette of Rotifers while still in the fish bag and have seen it picking at the bag so I am assuming that it is at least eating something,

 

I might add to the 5.5G that should have been the GCG tank, but we will wait and see.

Well good luck with the little guy. I hope you can get him to bounce back.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

@mcarroll any medications that you can suggest?

 

I already have on hand

 

Cupramine - Anti Parasitic

Formalin - Velvet & Brook, also Dewormer

Kanaplex - Anti-Bacterial

Malachite Green - Cuts, ammonia burns

 

Have Prime as well.

 

Not treating this one currently but would like to know that I have covered the majority of the common issues

 

 

Link to comment

Looking good mate 🙂 nice addition. 

 

Im like a kid on Its birthday today! Looking out for postie! Haha I’ll let you know when it arrives! 

Link to comment
32 minutes ago, afcajax73 said:

Looking good mate 🙂 nice addition. 

 

Im like a kid on Its birthday today! Looking out for postie! Haha I’ll let you know when it arrives! 

Haha I know the feeling. I have just realised (well at 3am) that I forgot to include heat packs when I shipped the Mushrooms out.

I'm so sorry guys, I hope they're okay. 

Link to comment
28 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Haha I know the feeling. I have just realised (well at 3am) that I forgot to include heat packs when I shipped the Mushrooms out.

Did you mean cold packs?

Link to comment

Well! It’s arrived 🙂 

 

only slight issue is that the inside of the bag was all wet and there’s no water left in the tub. 😞 it looks like the tub has leaked somehow. 

 

ive put it in a little tank I have on its own to see how it goes. I’m not sure if it’s survived or not at this stage. I’ll keep you posted! 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

It's here 😄 cheers bud, there was a slight water leak here too - maybe different tubs or using some thread tape?  
The coral however seems fine, it's currently sitting in the tub floating at the moment because i woke up still asleep.
Think if i ever wake up i'm going to start gluing some of my frags to the rock.

Will keep you posted on how it does.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
2 hours ago, afcajax73 said:

Well! It’s arrived 🙂 

 

only slight issue is that the inside of the bag was all wet and there’s no water left in the tub. 😞 it looks like the tub has leaked somehow. 

 

ive put it in a little tank I have on its own to see how it goes. I’m not sure if it’s survived or not at this stage. I’ll keep you posted! 

 

29 minutes ago, Proxo said:

It's here 😄 cheers bud, there was a slight water leak here too - maybe different tubs or using some thread tape?  
The coral however seems fine, it's currently sitting in the tub floating at the moment because i woke up still asleep.
Think if i ever wake up i'm going to start gluing some of my frags to the rock.

Will keep you posted on how it does.

Cheers Guys. Ok so those pots are no good or need some work. I will look around to see if I can find anything more suitable before hitting up some medical supplies stores. Going to assume the third leaked as well

  • Like 1
Link to comment
47 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I will look around to see if I can find anything more suitable before hitting up some medical supplies stores.

Yeah, sterile specimen containers tend to be pretty reliable.

Dynarex Specimen Containers sterile 4 oz 100/Cs
 
I know we can get them here on Amazon; but like you said, a medical supply store should carry them too.
  • Like 2
Link to comment

The leak wasn't too bad my end, most likely just slight drops through the threads of the tub as they're pretty big/open.
The frag is in the tank, i also removed all my zoa's from the frag plugs and glued them to the rock work while i was at it 😄

  • Like 2
Link to comment

My tub had no water in when it arrived I was out my wife took the parcel she didn’t know what it was she left it on the kitchen side and didn’t bother  tell me for about 5 hours, it’s not looking good for this little fella it’s a shame because these are the best shrooms I have seen

 

totally appreciate the effort tho I really do there not that many people willing to give corals out for free and then pay for postage thank you and I do mean it  

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
25 minutes ago, St3 said:

My tub had no water in when it arrived I was out my wife took the parcel she didn’t know what it was she left it on the kitchen side and didn’t bother  tell me for about 5 hours, it’s not looking good for this little fella it’s a shame because these are the best shrooms I have seen

 

totally appreciate the effort tho I really do there not that many people willing to give corals out for free and then pay for postage thank you and I do mean it  

Give it a few weeks I'll try again. Literally gave away 3 and another 3 have appeared. 😐

 

Hopefully it pulls through for you. Have paid a bit more for the correct specimen pots not the baby food containers I bought. I think possibly could get away with going 1st class if I can get it small enough for a mailbox can post for £3.55

 

Also Blue Disco rock is looking like I need to thin it out at some point and dont want too many in the pico and 5.5g so they're next on the list as is the GSP that I bought. It's almost palm sized already.

 

Honestly years ago I got so much free stuff from people that I met in the hobby.  I couldn't pay for it at the time so I was told "pay it forwards". I can at least try and do that now. Plus knowing that something that I once kept is living in tanks elsewhere is really cool. Especially as my track record so far is not great, I can now be cheeky and ask for a frag back if I lose everything in a crash 😁

 

 

20190729_162939.jpg

20190729_132953.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
2 hours ago, St3 said:

My tub had no water in when it arrived I was out my wife took the parcel she didn’t know what it was she left it on the kitchen side and didn’t bother  tell me for about 5 hours, it’s not looking good for this little fella it’s a shame because these are the best shrooms I have seen

 

totally appreciate the effort tho I really do there not that many people willing to give corals out for free and then pay for postage thank you and I do mean it  

Agree with ratvan, give it time - i recieved a mushroom from a mail order that looked like seagull **** and it recovered eventually.

 

Quote

 I can now be cheeky and ask for a frag back if I lose everything in a crash 😁

LOL, sneaky tactic 😄 - man if my tank ever gets under control that things actually grow instead of just surviving (still struggling them that salinity drop a while back).
I'll most likely have some xenia you can have lol. - i've got some kind of purple mushroom idk what it is that's growing nice though.

Link to comment
18 minutes ago, Proxo said:

Agree with ratvan, give it time - i recieved a mushroom from a mail order that looked like seagull **** and it recovered eventually.

 

LOL, sneaky tactic 😄 - man if my tank ever gets under control that things actually grow instead of just surviving (still struggling them that salinity drop a while back).
I'll most likely have some xenia you can have lol. - i've got some kind of purple mushroom idk what it is that's growing nice though.

You got a recent picture apart from the one when it arrived? Stick it up on your log if you do. 

 

I got plenty of Xenia thanks. Also I hear they do not ship well. 

 

I might try and encourage the babies to grow on that acan skeleton in my last pics. Will have to move that from the GSP tomorrow.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Why do all these fast growing corals grow the lowest for me? 😄
My GSP is as angry as me after too many stella, had so much algae on it i shot it with a turkey baster 😄 smart idk but it worked lol.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment

Damn time is flying at the minute

 

August FTS 2019.08.01

20190801_094844.thumb.jpg.606c1178c3867479ffecb33e572b9d63.jpg

 

20190801_094856.thumb.jpg.748b78e0967843614f3089c5a2051060.jpg

 

 

July 2019 Tank Goals

So at the end of April I started to review what I wanted to achieve within each month, I will be reviewing 

  • Coral Growth. I will be doing as much research as possible to get the best growth on my existing Corals

Well yes in a way i have been successful on this as I have had to look into trading/selling/giving away several of my Green Yuma Corals. I am also starting to become overwhelmed with Blue Discosoma Mushrooms, not a bad position to be in. 

  • Coral Colouration. I want to be able to produce some really interesting and bright Mushroom heads from the tank. 

The Asta 20 LED light has definitely improved the colouration on my Corals, my Blue Discosoma Mushrooms I am starting to think of this as my Coral QT tank for after the contest.   

  • Fragging, I want to learn how to Frag these corals and maybe also create some of my own Frag Plugs

So far this seems very very simple, Scissors, Snip, Rubber Bands and Done 

  • Aquascape. I am very unhappy about my Aquascape and want to change it, however i know that i am likely to change this again later so considering removing the large live rock for some smaller individual pieces.

Still not a great fan of the Aquascape, but to be honest I think I am going to leave it now and focus on getting coral growth and obviously a few Ricordea's, I will most likely fiddle around with the rockwork but think i will hold off any major rescape for the contest at least. I want to slowly turn this into a Rubble Zone and have an idea how to do this (buy mushrooms on rocks only and smash the rocks to rubble)

  • Like 5
Link to comment
7 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

 I want to learn how to Frag these corals and maybe also create some of my own Zoa Frag Plugs

Zoanthids and palythoas are pretty forgiving.  Sometimes the biggest challenge for me is getting them off the rock without damaging them. Often you can break up the rock which they are on and use a razor blade to carefully cut between the polyps along the break.

 

I like dipping in a Lugol's iodine solution after cutting.  I feel it helps disinfect the wound and help healing (not sure about that, but I do it anyway).

 

You can place glue on the foot, but don't get it on the polyps themselves.

 

Some of these corals contain dangerous palytoxin, so little protection and commonsense can go a long way to working with them safely.  Never leave them unattended are pets, obviously never boil a rock containing polyps, don't brush them, and wear nitrile gloves when fragging them.

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...