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Ratvan's Old School Pico - Rockwall Pico v2


Ratvan

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Thank you to everyone who has commented so far, i really appreciate the advise and encouragement. 

This is how the tank looks this morning, lights have been on for approximately 30-45 minutes before I arrive at work so I am greeted by a mostly open tank

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I'll be playing with the Frag rack as mentioned, not a massive fan of how it appears at this point in time, I'll have a dig around and see if I can find any suction cups and try a floating rack on the back wall. Without my knowledge I have had a f#ck off huge air con placed directly over my desk and tanks, I am thinking about having a solid lid to combat the amount of sh#t i have pulled from the surface this morning via paper towel, thankfully I do 40-50% changes either side of the weekend. 

 

Quick snap of the Greens

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Finally the sump Zoa's, for the first time since they started to open I can photograph the smallest amount of neon colours. Barely noticeable in this shot, I need to play with my Macro Lenses and Colour Settings again 

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To be honest I am most excited about these, no one knows what they're going to be and I can't wait to try and identify them over the coming months. Ugh that Bubble Algae, I cant wait to get these off the rock and toss the damn thing. 

 

In other news the Aiptasia in the emergency QT has disappeared and I cannot find it....

 

Fragging List

Sump Zoas 1 - Neon Mouths onto Frag Plugs

Sump Zoas 2 - Green Palys off rock and onto plug

Sump Zoas 3 - Allow to grow further, Frag "easy" areas.

 

Also need to work on removing the bubble algae again....

 

Also NEW HITCHHIKER SPOTTED (Zoanthid Spider/Chiton?) It had to be on the smallest Polyps Possible

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So did a few frags and threw away the rock once i had once i used tweezers to take out the Bristle Worms and Brittle Stars. 

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That'll be it for the photographs today, unless these open or i spot something new

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4 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

So the 2nd batch of Sump Zoas/Palys have opened up now on their new plug. I managed to get two Frag Plus of these

 

 

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Exciting stuff! Sorry to hear about the air conditioner, that’s annoying,  but maybe a lid would be good after all. And excited to see what the sump zoas turn out to look like! I have a rock in a bucket still covered in zoas, so I know the feeling! They could turn out to be anything! 

 

But the new frags look good! 

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9 minutes ago, MetaTank said:

Exciting stuff! Sorry to hear about the air conditioner, that’s annoying,  but maybe a lid would be good after all. And excited to see what the sump zoas turn out to look like! I have a rock in a bucket still covered in zoas, so I know the feeling! They could turn out to be anything! 

 

But the new frags look good! 

Yeah it is a ballache, but you never know maybe it will alleviate the need for cooling fans? I now know that construction will continue for another couple of nights. I've said "f#ck it" and done a lights off and covered the tanks with tarpaulin. Will keep them covered this way until works are done, not a fan of pulling ceiling tiles out of my tanks (Betta Tank) 

 

Fragging was not as nerve wracking as I thought it was. Looking forwards to the other rock now

Looking at the Neon Mouthed Frag, I seemed to have glued one of the Polyps to the plug, by half of it's mouth...... whoops

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1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

Yeah it is a ballache, but you never know maybe it will alleviate the need for cooling fans? I now know that construction will continue for another couple of nights. I've said "f#ck it" and done a lights off and covered the tanks with tarpaulin. Will keep them covered this way until works are done, not a fan of pulling ceiling tiles out of my tanks (Betta Tank) 

 

Fragging was not as nerve wracking as I thought it was. Looking forwards to the other rock now

Looking at the Neon Mouthed Frag, I seemed to have glued one of the Polyps to the plug, by half of it's mouth...... whoops

Lol ya live, ya learn. Lol...who knows, maybe the half of the mouth that isn’t glued directly to the plug will still open...but if that’s the only casualty, I’d say it was a successful fragging endeavor

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Also, that hitchhiker looks to me like it could be a zoanthid eating nudibranch...hard to see in the pics, does it look like this?

 

 

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56 minutes ago, MetaTank said:

Also, that hitchhiker looks to me like it could be a zoanthid eating nudibranch...hard to see in the pics, does it look like this?

 

 

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*sighs* yup that's it

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9 minutes ago, yoshii said:

Glad the fragging went well!

 

Yeah get rid of that nudi asap. And check the rest of your zoas for nudis and eggs!

Ugh. Will do so first thing in the morning. So it seems that I need to do more than a FW dip. 9% H2o2 do? Diluted obviously. 

 

So that's another post off the list lol

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1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

Ugh. Will do so first thing in the morning. So it seems that I need to do more than a FW dip. 9% H2o2 do? Diluted obviously. 

 

So that's another post off the list lol

I haven't used H2O2 for pests before, so I don't know, but I'm sure there's threads that cover the topic. Or someone else can chime in. I've used coral dips or Bayer, and/or manual removal

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1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

Do the eggs look like little spirals? If so I have been wondering what they are...

Yep, they look like this. Manually remove them, just be careful not to break it apart and spread them in the tank. It's best to take the zoas out of the tank and scrape the eggs off. Then rinse into a container to make sure none are left

 

zoanudieggs.jpg

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5 minutes ago, yoshii said:

Yep, they look like this. Manually remove them, just be careful not to break it apart and spread them in the tank. It's best to take the zoas out of the tank and scrape the eggs off. Then rinse into a container to make sure none are left

 

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Thanks. Seems tomorrow is scrub down day. Good news, everything is more or less on frags or removable rocks so no issues there. 

 

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Yikes! Well looks like @yoshiihas this covered. I’d go with the bayer dip. It’s like a regular insecticide, not specially made for reef tanks. Google Bayer Coral Dip and you should find a bunch of guides online, I’ve never personally done a bayer dip. In the past, I just had quarantine tanks for new corals and I always observed them for a month or two before adding to the display tanks.

 

But I hear the bayer method is effective, and it’s widely used as one of the leading pest dips

 

imguess the important thing is that you noticed and identified the problem hopefully before it becomes a big issue. But the sooner the better with this, you don’t want those eggs hatching more than they already have.

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I have some Bayer Provado Ultimate Insect Killer at home @yoshii will this work? 

 

I'll read up on it and post what I do, maybe it'll help someone else.

 

I've put a bit of thought into my maintenance schedule since I'm not actually using my backup as intended (due to those cheap lights) and me wanting something in my main tank. 

 

I think for the next few weeks I'll add the dip to my WC schedule. I can use the old water for rinsing off the Bayer dip. Need to pick up some more vinegar for cleaning as well tomorrow. 

 

I thought the eggs were nerite eggs for a day or so now, they started popping up last week. 😐. Took me a while to work out all my nerites are FW ☺

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This is what people are using for a coral dip:

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/e648716e-2948-4065-93ce-c7591000dc9f_1.01f7afe31dd4f204c333cf37c6230391.jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF

 

I'm not sure who decided to try it, but it's been tested and proven at this point.  I'd be hesitant to try something else.

 

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I will pop to my LFS for some Dip on my lunch, if not will whip out the H2O2 (9%)

 

Polyps seem closed up this morning, hopefully the dip will resolve that

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And here you can see where i glued a Polyp down by the mouth (oops)

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Sexies doing Sexy Things, I believe that this is Coralline Algae on the glass? Well I hope anyway. If its not on the front viewing pane, I tend to leave it. 

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Also spotted some Red Cyano Algae? So I am going to be cutting back on the feeding (especially my Duncan - I am slowly turning it into Audrey II - Mwahahaha) as I have already reduced the lighting to 6 hours due to algae build up that i notice from the addition of the Asta 20.  

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5 minutes ago, 748S911 said:

Where you able to find coral dip? 

Yeah I picked up a bottle of Seachem Reef Dip, all my corals are currently soaking in a made up solution of this, got another 20 minutes to go and then swish and turkey blast them. In the meantime I am doing a water change and cleaning up the sand bed via airline tube siphon. I have a cheap powerhead in the bucket with them to keep the water moving, I just want to access all parts of the plug with the baster

 

I have been told that this solution makes the corals sulk a lot, would rather have sulky then eaten corals at this point. But not expecting anything to look too good for a while

 

I am also going to be using my Backup as a pure QT, making some better racks etc. 

 

 

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Just now, Ratvan said:

Yeah I picked up a bottle of Seachem Reef Dip, all my corals are currently soaking in a made up solution of this, got another 20 minutes to go and then swish and turkey blast them. In the meantime I am doing a water change and cleaning up the sand bed via airline tube siphon. I have a cheap powerhead in the bucket with them to keep the water moving, I just want to access all parts of the plug with the baster

 

I have been told that this solution makes the corals sulk a lot, would rather have sulky then eaten corals at this point. But not expecting anything to look too good for a while

 

I am also going to be using my Backup as a pure QT, making some better racks etc. 

 

 

Sweet, sounds like its gonna be a very productive day at the reef! 

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........and back in the tank looking irritated. Didn't see anything come off of the Polyps that i recognised anyway. Other than the typical detritus build up

 

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Frag Rack will go into the backup and I will run this as an actual QT this time. I might have found my first fish as well. Not going to add it for a while. Especially while combating Nudi's and Cyano. I got a fair bit of Cyano off of the sandbed and will do another clean on the remaining half either Thursday or Friday as I upset my Narcissus Snail. Forgot I had him. 

 

Shocked things are opening, have they learned its lunch time for them too?

 

Will sort that out tomorrow and rest of the week

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