Yoshii's Old School 2.5g Hawaiian Pico 🌴

[yoshii]

Last minute FTSs to count for July..

It's definitely looking a bit "weedy" in here. I also seem to have a growing army of teeny tiny snails that munch away at the algal film on the glass (black dots in the pics)

 

Here's the tank enjoying some morning sunshine

 

And then at night (and after I cleaned the glass and used my nice camera) with the Asta 20 and a bit of ambient light

[Ratvan]

So what's with the gaps between the updates? Also how you finding the Asta 20 on your reef?

 

I also believe we are due a Goby update

[yoshii]

On 8/21/2019 at 10:33 AM, Ratvan said:

So what's with the gaps between the updates? Also how you finding the Asta 20 on your reef?

 

I also believe we are due a Goby update

Hahaha that's a great question! Partly me being lazy but also this summer has been pretty busy for me. It's been a really hot summer so work has been extra busy (coral bleaching prep). And I've had a few mainland friends visit.

 

I'm liking the Asta 20 so far, still playing with the spectrum, but I want to get PAR readings to finally my settings.

 

Goby has a name now! I'm going on vacation to the Big Island for the next 10 days so I brought goby to work and I'm going to make my coworkers take care of him. They decided on a a very appropriate name 😂

 

I left the pico at home...since it's been so hot the tank has been reaching 84, even at night if the fan is off. So I took off the light and filter, and moved it to the coolest part of the room (the closet 😂) hopefully it does ok 🤞 I expect some high light algae to wither, but hopefully it won't be too bad 😬

[yoshii]

Hey guys, just got back from vacation on the Big Island, it was lots of fun! Ate a lot of food and did a lot of diving! I still need to go through all the pics but I'll have to post some here for you guys 🙂

 

The pico wasn't having such a great time, but it's ok. It definitely smelled when I got back, and the water was pretty yellow because of algal die off. The shrimp and hermit didn't make it, but some of the algae are still hanging in there.

 

I did a big water change and put carbon in the HOB. After a day the water looks a lot clearer. 

 

 

Zoas are closed up but not melted

 

The goby, I mean "The Witch King of Angmar" did fine and my coworkers were happy feeding him (a little too much) when I was gone.

 

It's still been really hot and since I got back I've had the tank fan on almost 24/7. I'm considering trying to find a place at work to move the tank, but we're still waiting for our new office to be finished. On top of that, I found out I maybe have to move soon, as my landlady wants to sell the place. So we'll have to see where the tank ends up 🤷

[seabass]

2 minutes ago, yoshii said:

Hey guys, just got back from vacation on the Big Island, it was lots of fun! Ate a lot of food and did a lot of diving!  I still need to go through all the pics

I hope you post some of your vacation pics here for us.  Diving pics?

[yoshii]

51 minutes ago, seabass said:

I hope you post some of your vacation pics here for us.  Diving pics?

Yep! Didn't see much cool algae, but lots of fun little gobies, and some Tiger sharks

[yoshii]

Apologies again for lack of updates. The HOB has been out of commission, I think I messed up the impeller alignment when I accidentally pulled it out while it was still running. Now it makes this terribly loud noise every few minutes. Which I don't think my apartmentmates would enjoy hearing...so I unplugged it.

We're still planning on moving out soon (~1 mo) so I haven't restocked any macros since a lot melted when I was on vacation. The Witch King of Angmar (teeny goby) is still chilling in his jar at my work. I probably won't add it to the tank until after I move and get everything settled again.

 

The tank has just been sitting in the corner of the room, being neglected. I'm running airline in place of a HOB for now. But I have a feeling I won't get that replaced until after the move. I still want to keep this tank running, even after the contest is over, so it won't neglected forever!

 

In the meant time, I'll upload some Kona diving pics in the next post!

[yoshii]

Kona Diving

 

 

Our first day dive and we run into Tiger Sharks a few minutes into the dive!

 

 

 

Crown of Thorns sea star

 

Got to see several of these "Kona Black Morph" Longnose Butterflies! This black version is only found in Kona I believe

 

Giant mounding Porites here form a lot of the reef structure. These colonies are hundreds of years ago (at least)

 

 

 

Coral gobies! Apparently these guys usually hang out on Porites rus or monticulosa, but in Kona they will also hang out on Porites lobata (as seen here)

 

Young Green Sea Turtle checking us out

 

 

The next few pics are from our blackwater dive. At night, we took a boat a few miles offshore, where the bottom is about 6300' below us. The dive is hanging out below the boat (with a tether so you don't drift off) and using your light to see all the cool plankton and pelagic critters that migrate up from the deep at night. Trippy to be "floating" in black nothingness, but super cool.

Ctenophore (comb jelly)

 

Siphonophore, with "stringy tentacles" used to catch prey

 

Idk what this is

 

My fav ctenophore! (comb jelly)

 

Back to day dives, a Wire Coral Goby

 

Red Leaffish in this Antler Coral colony

 

And his neighbors, Coral Gumdrop Gobies

 

 

Frogfish

 

 

Me

 

Male Whitespotted Boxfish

 

 

 

Red firefish! A rare find in Hawaii

 

 

Leptastrea

 

Collector urchin with a "face" (I found it like this)

[Wonderboy]

Wow! Those are all such amazing photos - thank you for sharing them! That's such an amazing experience, especially the blackwater dive - really hoping I can do something similar one day!

[yoshii]

42 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Wow! Those are all such amazing photos - thank you for sharing them! That's such an amazing experience, especially the blackwater dive - really hoping I can do something similar one day!

Thanks! The blackwater was really cool. Some of my friends said it was really disorienting for them and they probably wouldn't do it again, but it obviously depends on the person. I like tiny weird things, so seeing the tiny jellies, larval fish, squid etc. was a highlight for me. I only wish it was easier to take pics!

[seabass]

Simply incredible!

[William]

This makes me want to get back into diving .... I’ll prob need a recertification if it has been 8 years....

[Wingy]

That was beautiful Yoshi.  Thank you.

[MainelyReefer]

Awesomeness!  These Hawaii adventure updates are the best plus that Leptastrea needs to frag itself into my Dropoff

[DAP]

Love the pics !

Thanks for the update.

[Christopher Marks]

Hi there @yoshii! 👋 Can you believe it has been 7 months already? You had quite an adventurous summer! We missed out on your July FTS but your journal is still on track to qualify!

 

This is a friendly reminder to post your final competition FTS and a 1 to 2 paragraph recap of your experience in the pico reef competition. Be sure to share your future plans for your pico reef as well, will it continue forward or get an upgrade? The competition ends on Sunday October 27th at midnight!

 

Thank you for being a part of the Old School Pico Reef Competition! ❤️ 

[yoshii]

Thanks CM! I definitely plan on revamping the tank and keeping it running! 🙂

 

Today is Day 1 of moving for me, and I finally found out what happened to one of the Petite Gobies - somehow it jumped and ended up in a basket on my shelf and turned into fish jerky.

 

The other goby, The Witch King of Angmar is still extremely tiny, and still doing fine in his jar at my work.

 

I hope to find time to write up a little something for the end of the contest tomorrow. Be ready for an ugly FTS!

But we are upgrading from an apartment to a house, so that is exciting, and I've already scoped out potential spots for this pico 😎

[allesluge]

4 hours ago, yoshii said:

Thanks CM! I definitely plan on revamping the tank and keeping it running! 🙂

 

Today is Day 1 of moving for me, and I finally found out what happened to one of the Petite Gobies - somehow it jumped and ended up in a basket on my shelf and turned into fish jerky.

 

The other goby, The Witch King of Angmar is still extremely tiny, and still doing fine in his jar at my work.

 

I hope to find time to write up a little something for the end of the contest tomorrow. Be ready for an ugly FTS!

But we are upgrading from an apartment to a house, so that is exciting, and I've already scoped out potential spots for this pico 😎

Good luck on your moving, it is always exciting to move to a better place. 

[yoshii]

On 10/26/2019 at 12:50 PM, allesluge said:

Good luck on your moving, it is always exciting to move to a better place. 

Thank you! It has gone well so far. 

 

I forgot to get a shot of the pico riding shotgun, but here it is now. I haven't finished moving everything over from the old place yet, and so it's just sad, sitting water currently. This week I need to get it up and running, and get a new HOB.

 

Although a few months in I started seriously slacking on updates, it was fun to watch everyone else's tanks and community during this contest 🙂 I'm not trying to win anything, just keep the tank running and following others with the same tank and various setups definitely provides motivation to keep going. Although the contest is over, I do plan on giving this tank a fresh start and keep it running. Experimenting with natural lighting and ways to beat the heat was fun, and I will use those experiences in designing the next phase of this tank. Moving into a more permanent place will also help, since I won't be worrying about moving anytime soon. Thank you to CM and the amazing NR community!

 

PS. CM no need to add this in the voting thread 😅 

🙂

[yoshii]

Mostly done with moving! Still got a few more things to grab from the old place.

 

The new place is definitely quirky, I think it will be a fun home, it will just take some time to get used to. I've been letting the tank sit to see what the temperature swings are throughout the day. It's in a room with an East-facing window, as opposed to the last place in which the tank was right in front of a West-facing window. It heats up a bit with the afternoon sun, at 5pm I've seen it at 84 on a hot day so far. Then at the coolest in the morning, it's gone down to 77. Quite the temp swing! We're starting to get into the "winter" months soon, so it might get even cooler at night. I may need to invest in some sort of mini chiller. Or only keep organisms that can tolerate that kind of temp swing (probably tidepool critters).

[seabass]

A fan on during the day will dissipate a few degrees at the expense of more evaporation (which may be a deal breaker).

[yoshii]

9 hours ago, seabass said:

A fan on during the day will dissipate a few degrees at the expense of more evaporation (which may be a deal breaker).

Yes that's what I had been doing at the old place, it worked decently well, but it definitely was ugly. Although I don't know if another cooling option would be any nicer looking. With the fan I topped off every day, which wasn't a problem until I went on vacation.

[yoshii]

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving 🙂

 

While Cyber Monday shopping I also ordered a new HOB and teeny pump (to serve as powerhead) for this tank. I'm hoping I can collect new algae in the next few weeks since my favorite spots are on the south shore and surf is nice and calm in the winter.

[Lula_Mae]

12 minutes ago, yoshii said:

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving 🙂

 

While Cyber Monday shopping I also ordered a new HOB and teeny pump (to serve as powerhead) for this tank. I'm hoping I can collect new algae in the next few weeks since my favorite spots are on the south shore and surf is nice and calm in the winter.

I've been using the Azoo Mignon 150 on my little 2.3 gallon and have been really impressed with the flow it outputs. I don't think I even need more flow with it, which is nice! It seems just the right amount for my tank's dimensions. Looking forward to seeing new macros! The diving pics are cool, I didn't know night time diving was a thing!

[yoshii]

6 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

I've been using the Azoo Mignon 150 on my little 2.3 gallon and have been really impressed with the flow it outputs. I don't think I even need more flow with it, which is nice! It seems just the right amount for my tank's dimensions. Looking forward to seeing new macros! The diving pics are cool, I didn't know night time diving was a thing!

Oh nice thanks! If the one I ordered doesn't work out I will try that one. I got one that is supposed to be "skinny" / have a lower profile. I think it's called "Slim". It was a cheap one I figure doesn't hurt to try.

 

Yes night diving you see so many different things than during the day, kinda just like our tanks. It was very cool!