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Ratvan's Old School Pico - Rockwall Pico v2


Ratvan

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8 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

Wow.  Nice progress!  I don't even have water in mine yet.  So behind!  omgomgomg

I'm sure when all you experienced Reefers get going I'll be lagging behind, probably at this stage i am at now hopelessly staring at pictures of fish and my empty tank lol

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23 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I can find bigger things easy, Morays, Tangs, etc. Blennies and Goby's are really hard unless I want to order online (work tank rather not take the risk) 

I have a similar issue here - my LFS' all carry the same basic things, so finding something interesting for this tank is a little difficult. I'll have to order online, which makes me nervous. I live in a pretty rural area so our deliveries always come later in the day. 

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16 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

I have a similar issue here - my LFS' all carry the same basic things, so finding something interesting for this tank is a little difficult. I'll have to order online, which makes me nervous. I live in a pretty rural area so our deliveries always come later in the day. 

I know that feeling, i am not really comfortable with getting things shipped to me, had a series of unfortunate events with Freshwater being shipped to me. 

My LFS do not stock any of the Clean up Crew that I wanted, they had plenty of conchs and really large Turbo snails but nothing that I felt comfortable picking up and placing in the tiny tank.

 

They do have a great selection of Hermit Crabs however and some really nice Softies (Xenia and Kenya Tree? Softies?) for £2.99 per frag or three for £5.00 which I may pop back and include once my parameters settle down, so it seems like I am back to square one. There is another LFS for me to try this weekend, it is a bit out of my way hence the weekend trip, the other issue is i would have to buy stock on a night, keep warm in a tropical tank and travel to work the next day to acclimatise and add again....  which also is slightly off putting. Or travel home with a 5G bucket with pre-mixed water, add a pump and heater and keep warm that way? Pfft I dunno, options, options. 

 

I did spot a Yellow Goby that was tiny and also a Ruby Red Dragonnet (Blennie?), that was beautiful. Still leaning towards an inverts only tank with macros and softies at the minute but that can and probably will change

 

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I believe your macro will be fine with some ammonia, but as you know, you'll have to wait for your cycle to become established before adding other livestock.  I like what you have going on here.

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52 minutes ago, seabass said:

I believe your macro will be fine with some ammonia, but as you know, you'll have to wait for your cycle to become established before adding other livestock.  I like what you have going on here.

Yes, I had a chat with the guys who are sending out the Macro. I sent them my water parameters and they have said that the macro should be fine  in those conditions. Two of the macros that they have sent are used to remove Nitrates which can only help with the cycle. 

Delivery is booked in for 9:30 so by lunch time I should be able to "plant" within the tank.

The guys have confirmed that they have s[potted some Hitch Hikers within the algae, so will be interesting to see what arrives

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So my order has arrived, and on boy do I have  "Hitch Hiker" it shall be revealed later, once I have everything in the tank

They also threw in a couple of Frags of Xenia, which was nice. Probably me asking them to do their best to give me hitch hikers in my order

Getting everything up to temperature at the minute, I will top off once I have everything planted

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Snow_Phoenix
42 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

So my order has arrived, and on boy do I have  "Hitch Hiker" it shall be revealed later, once I have everything in the tank

They also threw in a couple of Frags of Xenia, which was nice. Probably me asking them to do their best to give me hitch hikers in my order

Getting everything up to temperature at the minute, I will top off once I have everything planted

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Looks awesome, Ratvan! If I had access to that many macro types, I'd gotten a little bit of each and run an exclusive macro-only tank lol. 

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1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Looks awesome, Ratvan! If I had access to that many macro types, I'd gotten a little bit of each and run an exclusive macro-only tank lol. 

Thanks, so with little to no idea of what is what and how it should be planted... i got my hands wet again

Also let me introduce my first resident. Miss Penny Pincher (i'm guessing at female - for no other reason than i like the name)

 

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Snow_Phoenix
18 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Thanks, so with little to no idea of what is what and how it should be planted... i got my hands wet again

Also let me introduce my first resident. Miss Penny Pincher (i'm guessing at female - for no other reason than i like the name)

 

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Looks so colorful! 😊

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Thanks, I think i need some live rock rubble.

I have placed the two Caulerpa's in the sand substrate. 

The Ochtodes, Codium and Gracilaria don't want to stay in place but i don't really want to drain the tank to superglue them into position, I hope they last the weekend so i can pick up some rock rubble to attach them to on Monday

The Xenia has started to pulse although the fronds are still rather clamped

Also came back from a meeting at work to find this, nearly had a heart attack.

Almost an instant Molt!!

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Try to get your hands on some extra shells. Miss Penny may want to move to a slightly bigger home one day.

 

Also, watch the xenia. It's pretty but usually grows fast. It could take over the whole tank by the end of the contest!!

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7 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

Try to get your hands on some extra shells. Miss Penny may want to move to a slightly bigger home one day.

Thanks, I had not thought of that. However, I have recently introduced a few Assassin snails to one of my Freshwater Snail Factories, I shall have a selection of shells early next week 👍

I just have to keep my hands out the tank now.......

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2 hours ago, kimberbee said:

Also, watch the xenia. It's pretty but usually grows fast. It could take over the whole tank by the end of the contest!!

Missed that part, sorry,

 

Well at lunch I picked up a rather run down Spec 3 for £10.00, the pump is almost shot and needs a light replacement. The tank is filthy so needs a clean. But I was thinking that I could potentially split off the Xenia into the Spec (cover back wall of Spec Tank) if required; or if I decide to keep this tank Macroalgae only. 

 

I also have a load of Egg Crate spare that I was thinking of making some frag racks, just playing around with spares and cheap 2nd hand finds really. 

Been looking on Gumtree and there are people nearby selling Frags for like £3-5 each. 

 

Bubble Tip Anemone

Green Mushrooms

Rasta Zoa's

 

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3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Almost an instant Molt!!

Most likely a stress molt - probably from shipping, but how are the ammonia levels?

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4 minutes ago, seabass said:

Most likely a stress molt - probably from shipping, but how are the ammonia levels?

Ammonia - 0PPM

Nitrites - 0PPM

Nitrates - between 0-5PPM

 

She has been very very active all day, doing handstands, eating the black patches on the large live rock, trying to climb up the HOB intake sponge, also seems to have settled on/in the Blue Ochtodes, she's been sat there eating for about 20 minutes  

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1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

also seems to have settled on/in the Blue Ochtodes, she's been sat there eating for about 20 minutes  

She might eat all of it! I had some of that algae from a friend and my hermits snacked on the whole thing. 

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9 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

She might eat all of it! I had some of that algae from a friend and my hermits snacked on the whole thing. 

I'm so glad I just left them unattended over the weekend. Oh well. Live and learn

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16 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I'm so glad I just left them unattended over the weekend. Oh well. Live and learn

Maybe it'll be fine. You do have a different color hermit than I did. 🤞

 

There's definitely a learning curve to the hobby. Everyone makes mistakes along the way!!

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