Ratvan's Old School Pico - Rockwall Pico v2

[MetaTank]

3 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Baked the entire mix so it was more dense and would sink. Dont want floating foods in the tank. 

 

I spread it out and froze it over some eggcrate so I can get little 15mm cubes and cut that down. I did not consider the filtration to be honest. I didnt use it today as there is a public holiday Monday so dont want to leave something new and untried for 3 days unattended.

Do you have any at home? Have you tried adding it to water to see what happens yet?

 

Is the goal goal with the gelatin to make a cube that sinks and the critters can “graze” off of? 

 

 

I usually thaw my food in a little dish with tank water and break it up as much as I can. I add a few drops of the thawing water to the tank to “chum” the water and elicit a feeding response, then I turn the pumps off and grab the big chunks of food with tweezers and spot feed the crabs and acans and candy cane corals. After that, I spray some of the fine particles into the main flow when the pumps come back on to broadcast feed everything else. 

 

Whats your feeding method/strategy here? Just trying to wrap my head around the gelatin...lol

 

How long did you bake it for? Till it was cooked well enough for human consumption? (Though I already eat a lot of raw seafood, and that seafood market looked amazing!) And to be clear, the mix was scallops, littleneck clams, prawns, mussels, two kinds of white fish, salmon, and broccoli? At first, I thought the salmon(?) was a roasted and peeled red bell pepper, that color is amazing!

[Ratvan]

I dont sadly. Not this batch anyway. Got some that I made for my Bettas and Corys and yes the cubes stay relatively intact. 

 

Feeding strategy is to throw it in the tank slightly thawed so it'll sink and chum up a little. Then shrimp, hermit and benny can feast.

 

It was baked for 10 minutes, just enough for the gelatine to start to set. 

 

Haddock and Flounder (white fish) and Trout. I couldn't find any line caught or non farmed salmon so got line caught trout instead

[MetaTank]

9 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I dont sadly. Not this batch anyway. Got some that I made for my Bettas and Corys and yes the cubes stay relatively intact. 

 

Feeding strategy is to throw it in the tank slightly thawed so it'll sink and chum up a little. Then shrimp, hermit and benny can feast.

 

It was baked for 10 minutes, just enough for the gelatine to start to set. 

 

Haddock and Flounder (white fish) and Trout. I couldn't find any line caught or non farmed salmon so got line caught trout instead

Hope Benny takes to the frozen! Makes sense that you want something that will stay intact for the grazers. I have to spot feed my hermit crabs before anything else or they try to steal food out of the corals mouths 😮 

 

I think i need a crab feeding station, lol. 

[Ratvan]

Guess now I think on it I'm trying to make more of a gel food than a true frozen. If that makes sense?

 

It's my Sexies that are the nightmare at the minute, I've set up a cup feeder for my Duncan now so it can eat in peace. Rarely see Penny except to see her climbing the HOB or jumping from my rock. 

 

I think that I may have to get some more corals to use up the excess gel food. That's a good reason right?

[MetaTank]

1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

Guess now I think on it I'm trying to make more of a gel food than a true frozen. If that makes sense?

 

It's my Sexies that are the nightmare at the minute, I've set up a cup feeder for my Duncan now so it can eat in peace. Rarely see Penny except to see her climbing the HOB or jumping from my rock. 

 

I think that I may have to get some more corals to use up the excess gel food. That's a good reason right?

😂 I mean, the sun came up today, that’s a good enough reason for ME to buy more corals... so you may be asking the wrong person when it comes to me...lol

[Ratvan]

It's more training, once I see it posted I can see the flaws in the plan and work on them. 

 

I cant see me sticking to my budget with what I want to do. 

[Ratvan]

Well the HVAC contractor just sent me a picture and the heading "ur snail is being weird" 😆😆

 

I'm very confused as I'm sure I only bought one and that was so long ago

 

 

[MetaTank]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Well the HVAC contractor just sent me a picture and the heading "ur snail is being weird" 😆😆

 

I'm very confused as I'm sure I only bought one and that was so long ago

 

 

You’re about to have a lot of snailzzz. Lol

[Ratvan]

Well I see no sign of snails at all in the tank. If anything i think my glass is cleaner than usual. 

Popped out while i was onsite to find another LFS. Not keen on the Livestock here as I spotted some dead and apparently dying livestock in the display tanks.

Also not a huge selection of Corals but they seem relatively well priced. However the tank was not the nicest and I've never seen so much Aiptasia in one place

 

[Ratvan]

Hello again guys, question time. 

 

I have been looking into Montipora, especially the plating variety. I want to use as much of the tank as I can for the contest. Originally I wanted a large area of Xenia. Yeah the coral annoys me more than anything at the moment. So have switched the idea to having plating Monti on the back wall. Here is where i struggle.

 

I am assuming the two above are plating Montipura (by this I mean looks like dinner plates/leaves as it grows), I have a plan for that Frag Holder as well.

How about these below? Are these the same "Type" of Monti? Or are these the sticks i hear about?

 

Finally I really have been drawn to Ricordea Mushrooms lately, they look unlike anything I have ever seen. Love them 

 

Currently looking at adding either the Monti or Ric's (hehe Ric and Monti) in June with the other coming in July.

[seabass]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Or are these the sticks i hear about?

Usually when I hear people talk about sticks, they are referring to acropora frags.  Although I suppose the term could be applied to any vertically growing SPS frags.  In the montipora species, that might possibly include Montipora digitata.

Digitatas are fairly easy to keep, I have a couple in my pico.

 

Montipora capricornis create those familiar plates.

 

Other montipora encrust over rocks (like that superman).

 

Those yuma (ricordea) mushrooms look nice too.

 

 

[Ratvan]

9 minutes ago, seabass said:

Usually when I hear people talk about sticks, they are referring to acropora frags.  Although I suppose the term could be applied to any vertically growing SPS frags.  In the montipora species, that might possibly include Montipora digitata.

Digitatas are fairly easy to keep, I have a couple in my pico.

 

Montipora capricornis create those familiar plates.

 

Other montipora encrust over rocks (like that superman).

 

Those yuma (ricordea) mushrooms look nice too.

 

 

Thank you so much (again) for your help. 

 

So the encrusting types of Montipora? Is it possible for them to grow over an "armature" or coral skeleton to give some interesting shapes? 

[seabass]

Yeah they will encrust over various shapes.  It will lose all of the detail, but retain the general shape of the rock/structure that it is encrusting over.

[Ratvan]

Brilliant, thank you again

I shall pull the trigger on the order on Friday 

[Ratvan]

Well the new pellets for the inverts have gone down well. My homemade food however. Not as much.

 

 

[seabass]

 

[MetaTank]

4 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Well the new pellets for the inverts have gone down well. My homemade food however. Not as much.

 

 

It may take them a while to get used to the new food. Just stick with it for a few days and it may take

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, MetaTank said:

It may take them a while to get used to the new food. Just stick with it for a few days and it may take

It's more like it's too much like a gel....they cant eat the food at all

[MetaTank]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

It's more like it's too much like a gel....they cant eat the food at all

Bummer, I sorry to hear that. Any plans to try again soon? 

[Ratvan]

@MetaTank, yes payday is Friday so back off to the market after work, might swing by the butchers as well see if i can pick up any freebies

[Ratvan]

Urgh waiting is killing me. Spotted a couple of worms this morning

Also started to notice that I have some random loose Zoa Polyps floating around the bottom of the tank, probably as a result of my bungled fragging attempts

 

 

I think I will fish these out and see if I can get them to attach to some rubble, will stuff these in the HOB and hope they grow out.

I was considering gluing these direct to a plug but they're tiny

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

42 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Urgh waiting is killing me. Spotted a couple of worms this morning

Also started to notice that I have some random loose Zoa Polyps floating around the bottom of the tank, probably as a result of my bungled fragging attempts

 

 

I think I will fish these out and see if I can get them to attach to some rubble, will stuff these in the HOB and hope they grow out.

I was considering gluing these direct to a plug but they're tiny

 

 

 

I sometimes get stray polyps like that on ocassion. But based on my experience, it will be very difficult to get them to stick to anything. They'll most likely melt. 😕

[Ratvan]

5 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I sometimes get stray polyps like that on ocassion. But based on my experience, it will be very difficult to get them to stick to anything. They'll most likely melt. 😕

So fairly normal? Cool

 

That's annoying, well it wont cost me anything to make a mushroom/ Zoa chamber in my HOB, and at least I can try and track them incase they do melt, fairly certain that the light bleeds through my background into the HOB chambers anyway. 

 

I'm also going to trim my Gracilaria Macro Algae today see if I can't encourage some form of algae Forest 

[Ratvan]

So I waited until exactly 1 minute past midnight last night 

 

 

[Ratvan]

MAY FULL TANK SHOT 31.05.2019

 

I have trimmed, split and attached the Gracilaria to various small rubble pieces and arranged the (now) five separate strands around the intake for my HOB (with Crab Guard) I hope that this area takes off as an "in tank refugium" of sorts. I also tore the Codium into a few pieces to see if/how it'd grow back. I have one section in a "shaded" area of the tank, one in the HOB with light bleed and finally one piece in the Hob which I have "blacked out" so will see what conditions it prefers. 

This should, in my mind at least give me two area's of movement within the tank, having the Macro Algae on the right hand size of the tank and the Xenia and Duncan taking the left. 

 

Also added a darker background which i much prefer, which will also fit my "theme" of Ric's and Monti's (Rick and Morty! Get it? Get it?) will be looking for anything alien looking or sounding. (Reverse Space Monster's etc). 

 

May 2019 Tank Goals

So at the end of last month 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

Not a great deal of growth to report in all honesty. Although Comparing the Zoa's on Plugs that I received from MOC (Mail Order Corals) each now have more heads than when i started. My Sump Zoa rocks (in backup) seem to grow new polyps on a regular basis which is nice even if i think they are "magicians" but not 100% certain.

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

The Asta 20 LED light has definitely improved the colouration on my Corals, I am excited to receive my first SPS corals (Monti's) to see how they fare in my tank. The only issue I have currently is that I cannot really see a Blue within my Zoa's, especially the MOC Cool Citrine, slightly disappointing but still a ways to go and I still have a lot to learn

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

Well this was not as bad as I thought that it would be, things could be tidier but overall happy with my progress on the Zoa's 

• 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.

• DIY Frag Tree, I love the sand bed and watching my critters scuttle about on it, so i want to expand my use of the tank beyond simply Rock and Sand  

I looked into what I wanted to create and to be honest the items that I was looking at building I would not have made a great deal of savings, so i have ordered some Frag Pug Holders in various shapes and layouts to get free shipping on my Coral Order. I think that I will revisit this idea for my Home Tank (if i get one) or even my 7.5G Betta Cube at work

• Lighting. I think that my first two points (Growth and Colours) are going to need an investment in a more suitable light. The Nicrew lights seems to do well for growth (crazy amount of new heads) but the colours are severely lacking. I will be looking for a light unit for approximately £75.00 

Well picked up the Asta 20 LED after a few recommendations and love the light for it's price. I might be looking at picking up the Pixie 30 for the 7.5G Cube if i set up that tank

• Reef Lenses. Related more to the photographing of the tank more than the contest itself. Related again to Colour, I have played with my apps and camera settings as much as possible and think that i need another smallish investment to be able to better translate the tank in pictures. 

I love these, combined with the Lighting upgrade I am more impressed with my photographs. I still need a better phone eventually but so far very happy with the tank related purchase.