Ratvan's Old School Pico - Rockwall Pico v2

[Ratvan]

20 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

You can still put the gifs up

Bummer about the birdsnest, but glad the others are doing good. And yeah, I'm getting a lizard. My wifes crazy, she thinks that day gecko is ugly .. She's a weido. I'm going to look for animals this weekend and have a chat with the owner of the reptile store I go too, see what he can get his hands on. Lighting for reptiles is a bit complicated, almost like with the reef lighting. My tree frog was nocturnal so she didn't need any special lighting but with this gecko it's active during the day so I have to make sure he gets uva and uvb so finding a fixture that does just that is a pain in the ass.

My LFS has a reptile section, so hard to stay out of that. Especially when they place Praying Mantis on the till, in a Spec 3 that I have a spare of....

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

6 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

My LFS has a reptile section, so hard to stay out of that. Especially when they place Praying Mantis on the till, in a Spec 3 that I have a spare of....

yeah they do that on purpose lol. I'll grab some shots of the reptile store on sunday when I go. He finally moved into a nice large space so I expect to see some great animals soon.  He still has some setup to do in the place, but it looks really good so far. He is going to have a live plant section so I'll have a place to pick up reptile safe plants.

[Ratvan]

Decided that I would add some sand to the tank, looks a little cleaner and brighter with a sandbed I feel 

#

 

Just waiting on water to clear and shopping for some SPS Frags to go in here after the New Year...

[Ratvan]

Seems that the Lobo's were struggling in the larger tank along with my Fox Coral and Trumpet (these two were stung by the torch a while back and haven't recovered yet) so I have moved these into the Pico for the time being, I hope that I can soup feed them in this tank and hopefully get them looking good again, just fed the corals with some Reef Roids and some shaved Artemis 

 

[A.m.P]

Yeah, I like the look of the sand, hopefully it can survive the flow you've got planned. A course gravel might do a better job in the future lol.

[Ratvan]

9 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Yeah, I like the look of the sand, hopefully it can survive the flow you've got planned. A course gravel might do a better job in the future lol.

The sand isn't actually all that bad, I've had it in my 34G for a little while now so it seems to settle fairly rapidly. You can't see due to the rocks but the flow has cleared the sand around the base of the mesh screen. I do want to add some Crushed Coral to the tank though to give the sandbed a more natural feel rather than the uniformity it currently has. 

 

Half tempted to try and catch those Red Headed Gobies now....

[ninjamyst]

hoping the lobo and trumpets do well in this tank.  would make for some cool before and after photos later.

[Ratvan]

18 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

hoping the lobo and trumpets do well in this tank.  would make for some cool before and after photos later.

Thanks, yeah that would be cool. However I seem to have a slight Macro Addiction

 

Botryocladia - Red Grape

 

Haliptilion - Purple Fern Algae

[kurnn]

I love red grape. It is a nice addition. But i never had them survive in my tank.

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, kurnn said:

I love red grape. It is a nice addition. But i never had them survive in my tank.

Any idea's why? Mine's looking a bit poorly from the shipping this morning, have a few loose grapes floating around the tank.

I do wonder if those will be enough for new plants 😱 

[Ratvan]

Possible first victims

 

[Tempestas]

18 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Possible first victims

 

Ooooo....😯

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, Tempestas said:

Ooooo....😯

Indeed, however someone has offered me some frags from their tank

[Ratvan]

[Ratvan]

 

New growth on the Caulerpa

 

 

[Ratvan]

Got some interesting Algaes in the tank at the moment, Cyano definitely I am aware of and know that it is me over feeding the tank (and the PAR38 being too strong) but feel that the Festive Shut down should give the tank enough time to mature into itself (will be dosing a bacteria before I leave the tanks) 

 

Anyways, my Rock is now turning a green colour

 

Will get that Cerith some help either Monday or Tuesday

[kurnn]

On 12/18/2019 at 3:44 PM, Ratvan said:

Any idea's why? Mine's looking a bit poorly from the shipping this morning, have a few loose grapes floating around the tank.

I do wonder if those will be enough for new plants 😱 

I still dont understand what may be the cause. Mine was loosing grapes, and the color was faded then slowly melted. 

[Ratvan]

Well, The ATO failed over the Christmas break. The heater has gone too (burned out I assume after tank ran dry) 

 

This tank I'll keep running but have removed the surviving Macroalgae and Coral and returned to the 34G, has a lot of Green Hair Algae on the rocks. Might see if I can either swap the PAR38 Out for the ASTA 20 LED again and see if I can rustle up a spare heater at home. 

 

Some shots of the surviving Macro Algae (Red Grape has multiplied massively) that has been moved into the larger reef

 

 

Oh and breakfast feeding

[Wingy]

That sucks but I know you will get it back on track. If you don have corals the Asta will be fine. The fish don't  care.  

[Ratvan]

2 minutes ago, Wingy said:

That sucks but I know you will get it back on track. If you don have corals the Asta will be fine. The fish don't  care.  

Corals were long gone sadly, thankfully they were ones that already had suffered damage 

 

I'll be bringing over the softies from the 5G Home Reef starting tomorrow

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Corals were long gone sadly, thankfully they were ones that already had suffered damage 

 

I'll be bringing over the softies from the 5G Home Reef starting tomorrow

aww man that sucks . sorry to hear about the losses.

[Ratvan]

Well things do not look all that bad today, spent most of my lunch so far cleaning the glass and basting off the rockwork (hence sandy macros).

I plan on manual removal of as much of that Green Hair Algae as I can get before I add to the Clean up Crew ( a single Cerith Snail) 

 

I am now more than certain that the lighting for this tank is too overkill, my photo period currently is 4 hours and you can see the amount of algae grow that brings. Worth noting that I have not completed a water change since 2019-12-20 nor have I fed the tank in any way. Might swap over to the Black Box

The Red Grape has taken off in this tank, I now have two plants 10cm+ and am likely to trim down the larger plant again into another 2 or 3 stems.

 

Rockwall is slowly falling apart, so will either have to redo this scape or like I say do a permanent version in the Spec 3 which has the added benefit of less Power Point usage....

 

Currently considering switching this into the Fluval Spec 3 with 

[Ratvan]

Really need to downgrade this bulb!

 

[A.m.P]

Lol, those ABI Par bulbs are nuts.

[Ratvan]

21 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Lol, those ABI Par bulbs are nuts.

Currently on a 2 hour photoperiod and still growing algae like the clappers

I have found a 5w, 9w and 12W version of the Bulb (not ABI but European make) 

Will start building the Spec 3 Rockwall shortly!