Back Up Pico (Non Contest) - Now With Some Corals

[Ratvan]

So I have decided that I would set up another Pico tank on my desk at work, mainly because I do like to have a back up plan in case my original idea crashes.

 

Last week I picked up a Fluval Spec 3 (2.6G), knowing full well that I would need to replace the light and stock pump, the tank was a grand total of £10.00 and included a Nano 50W adjustable heater. So i got to rummaging through my spares bins and pulled out an old Mini 404 Pump. I also noted that the existing Output from the pump to output nozzle someone had made a series of cuts to dampen the flow from the pump (Probably a Betta Fish house at some point) so I cut a new pipe from suitably sized air hose and re fit to the pump and output nozzle. 

 

So on my lunch break I nipped down to my LFS for some more pre mixed water (this is now my Monday Lunch Time Task), picked up some more live sand, approx 0.5KG (which I "sprinkled" over my dry sand) 0.5KG as well as took a hammer to a really ugly bit of Live Rock again another 2KG ish. I have stacked this randomly in my Spec 3 with Saltwater and letting the Cycle start. I will most likely not test this again until Thursday/Friday at the earliest. The smallest Frags of this live rock were donated to my Contest Pico once i had super Glued the Macro to it. The rest I piled into a double "Tower/Island" with two smaller outcrops taking up the space in the front and rear left corners. 

 

I also added some Egg Crate to the back panel and far side (furthest from me) as I have seen some gorgeous tanks with Xenia and Green Star Polyps climbing th tank walls, I figured that Egg Crate would allow this process to take place faster? My Desk also occasionally takes a knock from time to time so the Egg Crate will also aid protecting the Glass from any potential falls.

 

All in all I have roughly 1-1.5 inches between the Glass/Back Walls and the Live Rocks.

 

Softies I want to Try

• Pulsing Xenia (Have purchased 2x Frags)
• Kenya Tree
• Green Star Polyp
• Toadstools
• Mushrooms
• Zoa's (Zoe Garden on rock with Xenia/Green Star "background")

 

 

[748S911]

Sweet!

[Ratvan]

So it's been a pretty quiet day at work, and the chat on here seems quieter as well so I have been searching my LFS's for the Corals and Colours that I have available to me. These seem to be the cheaper of the frags as well which is nice.

 

I also have been speaking with the guys at the LFS and as well as getting a couple of injured Betta's (one Injured one is Blind) to look after which happens to me occasionally they will buy/exchange Frags of whatever Coral (except Xenia) and they are very interested in the Macro Algae. I am a long way off of that however. Also it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain Sexy Shrimp in the area, also discussed sale costs of those. So how do you breed Sexy Shrimp lol

 

Kenya Tree (Frags of 1 Head 2 for £5)

- Pinkish (regular)

- Neon Green **

- Ivory Kenya Tree ** (beautiful)

- Yellow Kenya Tree (£30 for a Frag of 2 Heads!!)

 

Xenia Types (Frags of 4 Heads up to £10.00)

- Pulsing Xenia (have) ADDED 12.04.2019

- Blue Pulsing Xenia** 

- Silver Pulsing Xenia** 

- Yellow Crusting Xenia

 

Star Polyps (Frags of 6 Heads up to £10.00)

- Neon Green Star

- Metallic Green Star

- Anthelia Blue Snowflake**

- Ivory Star Polyps**

-Green Button Polyps TWO TYPES ADDED 12.04.2019

 

Zoa's (Under £5 per Frag)

So many to choose from, range from fairly cheap to real expensive. I'd most likely want to have a separate Zoa Garden tank..... or that main rock.....love the names as well lol

-Red Eagle Eye

-Epacker

-Mardis Gras

-White Ring Epacker

-Green Implosion

-Purple Rainbow

-Gorilla Nipples

-Reverse Space Monster

-Blueberry Fields Forever

-Fred Flintstone

-Blue Tubs

-Kaleidoscope (Eagle Eye Zoa Morph)

-Tangelo

-Gold Lemon

-Silver Rimmed Green people Eater

-Alpha and Omega

-Wonder Woman (love this one)

-Bird of Prey

-Eye of the Storm

-Fire and Ice

-Speckled Ice

-Jiggy Dazzler (love this one too)

 

Mushrooms and Toadstools, to me at the minute seem like too much money for what you get. Unless I see one at a great price I don't think i'll be having any. 

Damn that Zoa list has me thinking now

 

**is where i am leaning at the minute

[TatorTaco]

What light do you plan to use for this tank?  I'd like an office reef, but i'm worried about how distracting the light bleed would be against the walls in my office. I'd prefer my office not to look like a tanning booth if possible. 

[Ratvan]

7 minutes ago, TatorTaco said:

What light do you plan to use for this tank?  I'd like an office reef, but i'm worried about how distracting the light bleed would be against the walls in my office. I'd prefer my office not to look like a tanning booth if possible. 

Well I have a "NICREW Clip on Aquarium LED Light, Fish Tank Clamp Lamp Small Nano Tanks, White Blue LEDs, 6-Watt" on my contest tank, once I took down my desk partition (to allow the HOB) the blue is barely seen on the roof, i get a lovely rainbow instead on the ceiling. Not sure how good it is, it makes my FW Plants go insane with growth though

 

I also have the stock Lighting from the Spec 3 that I need to dig out the AC Adaptor for, my plan at the minute is to 

1. Find the damn adaptor

2. Put Fluval lights on Comp Tank

3. Put Nicrew on Fluval 

 

I think this should work as the contest tank will be Macro's and this will be Softies most likely

[Ratvan]

So the light arrived today, after trying to resolve the Macro Algae incident I fitted it to the tank and snapped a couple of pictures mainly of the Xenia to be honest. 

 

 

@TatorTaco, that first shot has the lights on the white and blue setting (NICREW Clip on Aquarium LED Light, Fish Tank Clamp Lamp Small Nano Tanks, White Blue LEDs, 6-Watt), you can barely see it. However you can see my proximity to a West Facing Window

[Ratvan]

Didn't plan to buy anything for this tank until the 22nd April as I will be away from the tanks for a week. 

However I was in the LFS getting some pre mix saltwater, when i was approached by the Saltwater guy.  

Long story short i came home with some Button Polyps, I didn't really pay that much attention to what he told me they are

 

Green Button Polyps and Red Button Polyps, have been acclimatised and are now slowly opening. Both came attached to the rock

Also got a nice load of what I think are Bristle Worms in the rock

 

 

[kimberbee]

I love that you have it arranged in the corner like that! 

 

Friendly reminder that sometimes xenia can take off fast and take over a tank. I had some for a while and kept it in check by trimming/scraping the rock with a razorblade. Then I'd do a water change right away cause they would slime up the water. 

[Ratvan]

11 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

I love that you have it arranged in the corner like that! 

 

Friendly reminder that sometimes xenia can take off fast and take over a tank. I had some for a while and kept it in check by trimming/scraping the rock with a razorblade. Then I'd do a water change right away cause they would slime up the water. 

Thanks, I get regular visitors to my desk so I like to "scape" so that it can be seen from Various angles. I can see the "Reds" from where i sit and both angles and visitors can get a nice clear shot of them both. I might still rotate the rock if the Polyps don't cover that front corner

 

I am planning on the Xenia taking over the back wall/glass (hence Egg Crate) as I love the look of that, I really wanted to do it with some Bright Xenia like the Metallic Green Star,  or  Mint Choc Chip but I am struggling to find that sadly. 

 

Also my Xenia seems to twist as it pulses which is interesting

 

The Frags each cost me £5, which is why i picked them up. They were cheap because they've not been rebased on "Sales plugs or rock"

🤷‍♂️

[Dutchymomo]

I heard somewhere that someone on youtube had his/her pulsing xenia twisting. 

[Ratvan]

2 minutes ago, Dutchymomo said:

I heard somewhere that someone on youtube had his/her pulsing xenia twisting. 

Well the strangest thing is when i went back to the LFS today, I had a look at the Xenia... it didn't twist but it did bend....

Maybe a current/flow thing? I don't know but i like it. Cannot wait for it to carpet.

[mariahranch]

Great looking scape in your spec! I have two of the original spec 1s set up. They are poorly aquascaped but heavy on coral frags. I keep getting carried away on orders, oops.

 

here are some pics of mine. One has a yellowtail damsel and the other has a Pygmy hawkfish hiding in a cave under a rock

[Ratvan]

23 minutes ago, mariahranch said:

Great looking scape in your spec! I have two of the original spec 1s set up. They are poorly aquascaped but heavy on coral frags. I keep getting carried away on orders, oops.

 

here are some pics of mine. One has a yellowtail damsel and the other has a Pygmy hawkfish hiding in a cave under a rock

Thank you for sharing those pictures. What mods did you do on the tank?

 

How long have they been set up and how long occupied? Sorry lots of questions. 

 

Well I know that I'll get carried away and set up a larger tank. I've been rescuing Betta fish but to be honest no more batches for me. Too much emotional drain. So that will give me a 1ft cube (acrylic lid) and a 18x10x10 so needs a stand and I got a decent set up with sump and a lot of work. So I got more rock then I needed. 

 

The original plan was to set this up as a frag rack system. I built that but then after about 30 seconds of watching bristle stars, worms and other critters on the live rock I was smitten and swerved off plan immediately. 

 

At least I am sticking to budget corals. Still dont fancy shipping it at the moment until I know more about how my tanks act.

 

I love how your greens pop, what is that immediately under the damsel in the pic? I love it, what size would you say that frag is? 

[mariahranch]

The only mod on both of these tanks is the diy led light that I made and am running at about 50% power on a simple timer. I’m using the stock return pump and nothing for added flow. One tank the light is made with luxeon leds and the other was made with 99 cent 3w leds from Steve’s leds. I have a 10w marina preset heater in each tank. They were set up in early Jan, I started adding coral in early feb a couple of pieces at a time and all is doing well with visible growth. That Kenya tree was about 2” fully extended when I got it and is now about 6” and already dropping tiny babies- I’ve also made 4 frags from it too 🤣. Both tanks have coralline algae growing on the back wall. I know I will have to remove coral as it grows because I have way too much in the one tank...

 

 The hawk fish has only been in a few days- prior to that I had a damsel in that tank too but I just moved him to a 5 gallon tank.

 

Directly beneath the damsel is a small ricordea, about the size of a quarter when fully open. It was actually bigger because it was in the process of splitting when I found it at the lfs, so a few weeks after I got it I pulled it apart and have two nice separate frags.

 

I might also add that besides the hammer I just added to damsel tank, all frags pictured were under $20. 

[Ratvan]

10 hours ago, kimberbee said:

I love that you have it arranged in the corner like that! 

 

Friendly reminder that sometimes xenia can take off fast and take over a tank. I had some for a while and kept it in check by trimming/scraping the rock with a razorblade. Then I'd do a water change right away cause they would slime up the water. 

Back to the Xenia sorry. If I want it to climb a wall/glass should I wait until there are multiple "heads" on the frag or just bung it at the base and make sure it goes up? 

 

33 minutes ago, mariahranch said:

 I might also add that besides the hammer I just added to damsel tank, all frags pictured were under $20. 

That is perfect for what I want in this, well maybe a bit cheaper. £15 absolute limit and that'll be month budget for the tank and can still get 1/2 cheaper bits a few weeks later.

 

Thanks so much for.your help

[kimberbee]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Back to the Xenia sorry. If I want it to climb a wall/glass should I wait until there are multiple "heads" on the frag or just bung it at the base and make sure it goes up? 

That I'm not really sure on that. It will probably start to grow wherever it wants, so just trim it back when it grows in the direction you don't want. You can save frags you've trimmed, but since they get so slimy, you won't be able to glue them. Gently rubber band, or tie with fishing line to some rubble, until it attaches (a few days to a week or so), then glue the rubble to the wall/glass/eggcrate. That might actually work out best - you can use the eggcrate like little xenia frag cubbie-holes.

[Ratvan]

11 hours ago, kimberbee said:

That I'm not really sure on that. It will probably start to grow wherever it wants, so just trim it back when it grows in the direction you don't want. You can save frags you've trimmed, but since they get so slimy, you won't be able to glue them. Gently rubber band, or tie with fishing line to some rubble, until it attaches (a few days to a week or so), then glue the rubble to the wall/glass/eggcrate. That might actually work out best - you can use the eggcrate like little xenia frag cubbie-holes.

That was more or less the plan without any knowledge of dragging so thank you again. 

 

So next week I will be having a look at this stock in the shop.

 

I am aware that I may have too much live rock but I am working on the Mrs to allow me a small 18" cube in cabinet. £30 incl trash stand (but enough for a 18x10 sump).

 

I wont buy or add anything until at least June now due to long weekends. I am already away a day and am shitting it thinking about coming back on the 23rd. 😥😥🤢🤢😥😥

 

Under £10 Selection, packs of 3 with holders.

 

Rest is under £20.

 

So I'm already paranoid about putting my hands in tanks since I used to take in injured or sick fish so have been wearing gloves at each step. It's one of my weird perks. 

 

I WANT Jiggy Dazzlers for name and looks. Also plainly obvious I will at least seriously plan and consider a zoa garden at some point. 

 

The Pavona, War Coral and Montis I want to see in person and hope to use the time between now and the end of the contest to learn as much as I can about them.

 

Plate Zoa pack is my end of contest award to myself if I dont crash it

[Ratvan]

New growth on my Polyps this morning i notice

And yeah Xenia has 4 new heads, pretty cool. Also noticed a Feather Duster on the Xenia plug this morning

 

[Ratvan]

7 hours ago, Ratvan said:

New growth on my Polyps this morning i notice

And yeah Xenia has 4 new heads, pretty cool. Also noticed a Feather Duster on the Xenia plug this morning

 

What would be the best way of Fragging these Polyps?

I was thinking of gloving up and taking a razor blade to see if i could detach some of these colonies and split up the Frags a little more to encourage some more growth, I would also put on Frag plugs but I have no idea how to hide these as I do not want too many on my substrate (sand)

[Ratvan]

So Penny has been exploring her new tank (while I re-cycle the contest tank) and has been happily trampling over the Button Polyps that I have placed in my back up Pico. This made everything close up for photo's. Naturally

 

In other news, my boss started talking about the tanks i have on my desk area and how he thought would be amazing if i could set up a tank in our reception/welcoming area. I already want to get rid of my two Fresh Water Tanks as ultimately I don't want the stress of Holiday feedings, bank holidays etc etc so i am not overly keen at the minute about setting up an Office Tank. For the actual office and not just me. 

 

If anything I think that I would rather just keep my two small Pico Reefs as evaporation has not yet been an issue and I aim to keep these relatively self contained (except water changes etc), I do have a 5 Gallon spare at home (Lights are going to be pants but can look at a strip replacement) L40, H30, W20. A Nice shallow layout that I think would look nice, having a look at the equipment online also a powerhead might be on the cards. I am working on letting the Mrs allow me to swap a Freshwater for a Marine Set up.

 

The max flow of the pump is 120LPH (7x Volume of Tank), could I simply remove the sponge filter section (internal Filter) and run the impeller as a power head by itself?

 

 

[mariahranch]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:47 AM, Ratvan said:

What would be the best way of Fragging these Polyps?

I was thinking of gloving up and taking a razor blade to see if i could detach some of these colonies and split up the Frags a little more to encourage some more growth, I would also put on Frag plugs but I have no idea how to hide these as I do not want too many on my substrate (sand)

I have no idea about fragging the zoas, although I did have a hermit decide to frag one for me once 🤣

 

One of my specs got some new inhabitants, this tank now has a geometric Pygmy hawkfish and a baby pj cardinal. They aren’t friends but they leave each other alone for the most part. The hawk fish was added first and his 99% of the time until the pj was added, now he has to stay out so he can watch what the other fish is doing! Lol

 

 

[Ratvan]

Well since I upgraded my Contest Tanks lighting I had a Spare Nicrew light hanging around. I dont really like having stuff that doesn't have a place and my FW tanks all have other lighting. SO I banged it upon my Backup Pico.

 

Currently have 2x Lights that give me

24 White LEDS

6 Blue LEDS

 

Still bad but looks a bit better, plus it is my "play around tank" so why not lol

 

 

 

And my little Saltwater Corner

[Ratvan]

To give you an idea of the output of these. Both on full blue! Lights approx 4" off this coral (2" from surface, these are atop a column on their own rock so 2" under surface.) I have another "frag" as the rock broke at the base of the spec 3. Nothing can be seen. All closed up.

 

Sump Zoa/Palys. Compared to image 2. Asta 20. 20% on whites. 50% both cold and warm blues. 100% on other channel that I cant remember.

 

Hopefully frag these tomorrow or Monday and pop them in the contest tank. Also cobbled together a quick frag rack that I want to add. Swap around rocks and away I go.

 

Also added my snails to this tank today as was looking a bit too dirty for my liking and left them nom nom nomming away at the algae. Might frag those polyps off turbos shell as well if I can find him.

 

 

**comparison image to come soon**

[MetaTank]

I completely forgot about this little spare tank...lol

 

So the first pic is the 2 nicrew lightson full blue, and the second pic is the Asta20 on 20% white, 50% on both blue channles, and 100% on the weird 4th channel?

[Ratvan]

50 minutes ago, MetaTank said:

I completely forgot about this little spare tank...lol

 

So the first pic is the 2 nicrew lightson full blue, and the second pic is the Asta20 on 20% white, 50% on both blue channles, and 100% on the weird 4th channel?

Oops. 

 

My phone is ancient and I wiped most of my photos so it would function. Clearly I added the wrong one first. ☺

 

I'll turn the two lights off and bend the Asta across 👍

 

Bit all over the place this evening