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Wingy's "Old School Pico Reef" now a 5 gallon rimless


Wingy

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Ok folks what is the green thing?  The tentacles are about as long as gsp, when bothered it closes up into itself more like a Duncan which makes me think it could be some type of anemone.  There were anemone grow out baskets on the far end of the frag tank I picked this piece out of which is my hope.  The zoas near it are are closed because of me.  

 

 

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Green mouth

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4 hours ago, Wingy said:

I have started putting together a jar in case this is a majano. 

That's my best guess as to what it probably is.  They are pretty neat; it's nice that you plan to try and keep it.

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Unfortunately I was unable to remove iwhat ever it was without destroying it and I was unable to remove that portion of the rock.  I ended up digging it out with a toothpick and covering the area with superglue.  The good news is that I found and removed a few spots of bubble algae that I missed during the new frag post dip inspection. 

 

 

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I found what I think was a small aiptasia.  I could not  pick or scrape it off and it was growing differently  than the little filaments of algae that you see on rocks. It was growing to evenly if that makes any sense.  It laughed at peroxide so I covered it with superglue.  I am also battling some kind of rust colored algae.  It is on the rocks covering the coraline and smothering my clove polyps which are on a plug in the substrate.   It doesn't blow off and it takes quite a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush to remove it.  I think that adding  a rock frag holder, 5 new corals on clean new frag plugs plus dipping both new and old corals was just to much to fast and things are out of balance.  At least I hope that is the problem.  Would running the light for 3 hours instead of 8 for the next few days be of any value?

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The clove polyps are not happy that they recieved a peroxide bath and toothbrush scrub and are still refusing to open.  The zoas that recieved the same treatment are opening for the first time in weeks however they are very dull with almost no orange color even under blues.  I will try and move things around to give them less light this weekend.  The pom pom crab has been mia since before Christmas.  The acan and favia are doing well as are the new zoas.  The acan has 2 new heads and the favia is nice and full.  The xenia is still alive but the stalks are getting scrawny.  I am not sure what it is, the stuff that is supposed  to  grow like weeds just doesn't  do well for me.  The best news is that the duncan is slowly coming back.  The skin is starting to grow over the exposed skeleton where the heads were and the remaining heads are open a lot more.  

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Another storm is here.  1 to 3 inches of rain on already saturated ground followed by 6 to 8 hours 50 to 60 mph winds, falling temps and snow early tomorrow.  Prepping the tank for possible power disruption. I will set up the precut styrofoam sheets on 3 sides, set a bucket nearby to pull the hob filter before I go to bed.  Empty water and soda bottles are standing by to fill with hot water and slide under towels to keep everything  warm.  

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23 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

How you doing got power?

So far so good here.  65000 households are out in my county and the airport is running on back up so I consider myself very very lucky.  

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Last night I spotted a large bristle worm stretching itself about 6 inches out of a rock, trying to take the shrimps pellet.  Lucky for me the long tweezers were right there and grabbed it about an inch from the head.  Those suckers are strong.  I came away with the head and the rest of the bristle worms had a feast.  With just one shrimp now I am not feeding as much and there isn't  enough food to sustain the bristle worm population. They are hungry and coming out when lights are on and trying to take food.  I make no secret in not liking them,  no matter how beneficial, but population reduction by starvation is cruel.   I would rather do the deed quickly.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Everything is still chugging along.  As I expected the xenia is doing poorly. It has been shriveled  for the past 2 weeks.  I just can't seem to keep that stuff alive.  I just stuckt it in the back and am ignoring it.  It may open if I am not watching.  The asteria snail is not well.  It hasn't  been keeping up with the algae, it falls a lot and hangs in one spot for days so bought another and a cerith.  The favia and acan are adjusting.  The acan has spit out 3 little babies.  It is a nice orange with yellow and rimmed in lime green.

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On 1/13/2020 at 7:37 PM, Wingy said:

Last night I spotted a large bristle worm stretching itself about 6 inches out of a rock, trying to take the shrimps pellet.  Lucky for me the long tweezers were right there and grabbed it about an inch from the head.  Those suckers are strong.  I came away with the head and the rest of the bristle worms had a feast.  With just one shrimp now I am not feeding as much and there isn't  enough food to sustain the bristle worm population. They are hungry and coming out when lights are on and trying to take food.  I make no secret in not liking them,  no matter how beneficial, but population reduction by starvation is cruel.   I would rather do the deed quickly.  

I think the bristleworms may still proliferate even if the main food source is cut. I think they feed on other things in your tank as well. It may be a hard battle, but plenty of people I think share the same sentiment as you do for the worm. I personally count them in as my CUC.

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8 hours ago, Smurf said:

I think the bristleworms may still proliferate even if the main food source is cut. I think they feed on other things in your tank as well. It may be a hard battle, but plenty of people I think share the same sentiment as you do for the worm. I personally count them in as my CUC.

They are part of the CUC, even if I don't  like them, but over a dozen over 6 inches is a bit much especially in a tank this size.  I have thinned them down to 3.  

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On 1/13/2020 at 10:37 PM, Wingy said:

Last night I spotted a large bristle worm stretching itself about 6 inches out of a rock, trying to take the shrimps pellet.  Lucky for me the long tweezers were right there and grabbed it about an inch from the head.  Those suckers are strong.  I came away with the head and the rest of the bristle worms had a feast.  With just one shrimp now I am not feeding as much and there isn't  enough food to sustain the bristle worm population. They are hungry and coming out when lights are on and trying to take food.  I make no secret in not liking them,  no matter how beneficial, but population reduction by starvation is cruel.   I would rather do the deed quickly.  

 

That's one thing I'm thankful for that I don't have to deal with fortunately, and also the main reason why I went with dry rock for my reef tanks.  I'd hate to spend the time, effort, and money to go 🐛 hunting for when they become too big or overpopulate and start to become the pest they truly are.

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13 minutes ago, Seadragon said:

 

That's one thing I'm thankful for that I don't have to deal with fortunately, and also the main reason why I went with dry rock for my reef tanks.  I'd hate to spend the time, effort, and money to go 🐛 hunting for when they become too big or overpopulate and start to become the pest they truly are.

I didn't  spend time or money on a trap.  I caught them using long black reptile tweezers. 

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1 minute ago, Wingy said:

I didn't  spend time or money on a trap.  I caught them using long black reptile tweezers. 

 

You did good!  Trying to grab those suckers by the head and beheading it in the process reminds me of the same skill that Mr. Miyagi used to catch flies with chop sticks.  Definitely a master 🐛 assassin in my book. :ninja:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did a big water change today, scrubbed the gha every place I could get to and moved a few things.  I bought another asteria  and a cerith but they can't  seem to keep things clean.  I am beginning to think the pom pom crab was doing a lot of clean up.  It went missing about 2 weeks before the gha started showing up.  The favia and acan are doing very  well.  Since putting them in I have noticed a huge reduction in the giant amphipods.  I don't  know if is the result of adding the favia and or acan or if moving the rock work around changed something.  The zoas are much happier now that they aren't  being picked at.  Most have several new polyps.  

 

Tank shot tonight.  Almost everything is done pouting.

 

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I had to open my mouth about how well the acan was doing.  It looks like something tore it up on one side leaving it in shreds.  Hopefully it looks worse than it is because the lights are off.  

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I moved the light and the tank cracked today.  I was able to find a 5 gallon rimless at Petco.  I did a quick leak test, heated some water and transferred everything but the substrate over.  I dumped in a bottle of Biospira and hooked everything up.  I have a family medical emergency and am on a plane tomorrow.  I do have someone to check on things but they have no experience.  I hate leaving the tank this way but it can't  be helped.  

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3 hours ago, Wingy said:

I moved the light and the tank cracked today.  I was able to find a 5 gallon rimless at Petco.  I did a quick leak test, heated some water and transferred everything but the substrate over.  I dumped in a bottle of Biospira and hooked everything up.  I have a family medical emergency and am on a plane tomorrow.  I do have someone to check on things but they have no experience.  I hate leaving the tank this way but it can't  be helped.  

sending you best wishes, hope everything works out well for you

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What a bummer. Doesn’t it always happen right before you have to leave to go somewhere? 

Will you eventually move it back to a 2.5 gal later or just leave it in the new tank? Rimless sounds like an upgrade! 

 

Fingers crosses everything is fine while you are away. 

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4 hours ago, seabass said:

Oh my!  What bad timing.  I hope everything works out for your family, and your tank.

 

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

sending you best wishes, hope everything works out well for you

 

52 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

So sorry to read this. I hope everything goes well.

Thank you.  

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1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

What a bummer. Doesn’t it always happen right before you have to leave to go somewhere? 

Will you eventually move it back to a 2.5 gal later or just leave it in the new tank? Rimless sounds like an upgrade! 

 

Fingers crosses everything is fine while you are away. 

At this point I don't  know.  I really liked my little tank.  It was easy to clean and was to small to be a chore.  Tiny, inexpensive pieces looked huge and made a big impact.  Now everything looks so small in there.  OTOH now I have room for other things and can build a taller zoa mountain.   Heck maybe this piece of xenia will stop mocking me and open up. 

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