Joevember Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 Picked up a frag with 2 green rhodactis shrooms. They were twice as big in the store when I got them. I'm on the lookout for some xenia or leather corals now. Wish me luck on the hunt! 7 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted June 25, 2019 Author Share Posted June 25, 2019 Here are the new shrooms all opened up. I also found another tinier stomatella. I'm finally getting cool hitchhikers again. 4 Quote Link to comment
Daniel91 Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 Wowza. Located in Los Angeles by any chance? I have free Xenia lol Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted June 26, 2019 Author Share Posted June 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Daniel91 said: Wowza. Located in Los Angeles by any chance? I have free Xenia lol I wish! Over here in the Chi 😄 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 Just did a 60% water change and cleared out all the detritus from the rocks. The buildup of detritus on the sandbed isn't too bad anymore, I just have to stir it up once in a while. Also if you notice, I have remounted some zoas that my crabs keep breaking off the rock. I also power washed my chaeto since it was full of sludge that it was getting way too dense and acting like mechanical filtration. But none of it was white or dying at all, which surprised me. I'm thinking that I'll upgrade my little 'stand' that the tank sits. One reason is that the back panel of wood that the light is attached to is wobbly. Another reason is that I hate all the wires I have to look at constantly, it takes away from the look of the tank. I'm thinking of installing a DJ power strip right on the front to make maintenence easy too. Just look at this mess... The last thing is that I want a better mounting system for my controllers. I finally updated the first post in this thread too. 5 Quote Link to comment
Wonderboy Posted July 2, 2019 Share Posted July 2, 2019 Looking great still! You had mentioned dinos/cyano elsewhere. I recommend dosing phytoplankton (nannochloropsis - few mL) every other day; it should both die back and then grow in your system - both of which influence gradual change to the current-state environment. WC half the water only when it gets too cloudy for your liking. Reduce dosing amount if tank is cloudy, but don't stop - eventually other populations of organisms will eat it faster than it can grow/die when dosed and those organsims will outcompete current micro residents. Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 2, 2019 Author Share Posted July 2, 2019 8 hours ago, Wonderboy said: Looking great still! You had mentioned dinos/cyano elsewhere. I recommend dosing phytoplankton (nannochloropsis - few mL) every other day; it should both die back and then grow in your system - both of which influence gradual change to the current-state environment. WC half the water only when it gets too cloudy for your liking. Reduce dosing amount if tank is cloudy, but don't stop - eventually other populations of organisms will eat it faster than it can grow/die when dosed and those organsims will outcompete current micro residents. Thanks, I'll try that out. For some reason I had the idea that phyto can't live in pico/nano systems, or that there wasn't any point in dosing other than for coral. I looked into nutrient dosing and this seems like a great idea. There are a lot of people around me that culture phyto so I'll pick some up ASAP. And I'm sure my porcelain crab will enjoy it. 😄 Do you think more bio-media will help out? I have some more marine pure spheres that I can throw in the fuge. 1 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 2, 2019 Author Share Posted July 2, 2019 Also if anyone has some soft coral suggestions for me, I'm hitting up one of my LFS' soon and I'd love some other people's ideas on what to get. I'm thinking of another ric, but if you have any suggestions for what would look good please lmk. Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 11 hours ago, Joevember said: Do you think more bio-media will help out? No. 1 Quote Link to comment
Wingy Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 15 hours ago, Joevember said: Also if anyone has some soft coral suggestions for me, I'm hitting up one of my LFS' soon and I'd love some other people's ideas on what to get. I'm thinking of another ric, but if you have any suggestions for what would look good please lmk. My duncan is loving life in the pico. I see a lot on line that are bushy and not tall but mine has a fleshy base about 1 1/2 inches high with large heads on top and lots of baby heads growing underneath. 4 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 I was wondering why I didn't get any notifications for this journal from my recent post, so I checked the thread and realized that I didn't even post an update. So here is what I meant to post two days ago. I picked up a toadstool frag, the store's softy selection was lacking. They had mostly palys, GSP, and a few shrooms. I thought the growth pattern and shape was something that would add to the overall layout on the arch. I would've liked a green one though. And as I thought would happen, the dinos are growing on the toadstool. I'll mount it later today. I also started dosing phyto, right now I'm doing 3ml every other day (not sure on how much I should be dosing). I haven't noticed anything, but I'll keep updates flowing is I see something change. One frag that I have never seen any algae on is this random red zoa that I got for free with a purchase. I think it's one of my favorite color morphs in the tank. The polyps are also much more dense than my others. The ricordea has been a little closed lately. It was only fully open the first week I had it. The other one I had melted away on me after never reattaching to the rubble I had it on. I'm thinking a trace element or two could be low, so I'll be testing later. Happy RFA 6 Quote Link to comment
Wonderboy Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 It's okay to dose the phyto every day at *more if necessary. *Honestly, I actually don't know how much I dose in any of my systems because I will just slosh a bunch in when I feel the microfauna need a good boost (sometimes more than a 1/2 cup in the 2.5 - but that system has been trained to eat that). Pretty much, aim for making a not sterile phyto culture right there in your tank - I would almost double the dose each day until it stays cloudy until the next dose and then reduce the dosing amount by almost half. I also have a theory that a decent rotifer population could decimate dinoflagellates quickly. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting dinos, yet ...so, I haven't experimented - their size and feeding mechanism are pretty convincing though. If you want to try, it would definitely help to cloud up the water, as well. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 6, 2019 Author Share Posted July 6, 2019 14 hours ago, Wonderboy said: It's okay to dose the phyto every day at *more if necessary. *Honestly, I actually don't know how much I dose in any of my systems because I will just slosh a bunch in when I feel the microfauna need a good boost(sometime more than a 1/2 cup in the 2.5 - but that system has been trained to eat that). Pretty much, aim for making a not sterile phyto culture right there in your tank - I would almost double the dose each day until it stays cloudy until the next dose and then reduce the dosing amount by almost half. I also have a theory that a decent rotifer population could decimate dinoflagellates quickly. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting dinos, yet ...so, I haven't experimented - their size and feeding mechanism are pretty convincing though. If you want to try, it would definitely help to cloud up the water, as well. Thanks, I couldn't find much about dosing to fix nuisance algaes online. I'll start dosing 5ml daily then. 1 Quote Link to comment
mikey79 Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 I would like your free xenia, may i have it? Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 13, 2019 Author Share Posted July 13, 2019 Woke up, checked the tank, and I found no dinos anywhere in the tank! Usually I have to blast the tank with a turkey baster, but it was all clear. Thanks for the help @Wonderboy One less problem to worry about, now if I could only fix the brown jelly in my other tank... 4 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 As I expected the dinos aren't 100% gone; it's now restricted to two zoa frags on the top of the rock. I'll keep dusting them off when I see any dinos on them. Right now the main factor in the closing of my zoas is my halloween hermit, I named him Jason today. He just walks where he wants. I also noticed that the RFAs are bigger than they usually are. I assume that this is because they were stressed out by all the dinos in the water column. They lost some color, but I think it'll come back with some feeding. The skirts are red in real life, but the filter takes it out. 4 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 Sneak peak on what I got tonight 👀 Gotta wait till tomorrow for them to open.... 5 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Just read the whole thread,awesome job on everything,definitely really nice and clean. Makes me wanna hurry up and set my pico up. 1 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 I'm surprised at how colorful the new frags are this morning. Didn't take them any time to get comfortable and open up. I got these zoas from the guy that donated the other frags to me (sunny d, god armor, and rastas). The first one I bought was an utter chaos; I've wanted one of these since I had the idea for a softy tank. It's even brighter in person. The other one I got was a pink zipper. It doesn't look pink with the filter on it though... I'll see if I can get some better shots without it later, the pics are just so blue without it. The other zoas are still semi closed at the moment. The sunny d is the only one with dino bubbles on it. Anyone know why they're not opening? I'm guessing they're still mad from the dinos. I'm also pretty sure the ones by the filter return just don't like the flow they get, I'll have to move them later. Here's a new FTS for you guys Forgot to mention I moved the ricordea to the other tank, it's looking better over in the 20g. 4 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 8 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said: Just read the whole thread,awesome job on everything,definitely really nice and clean. Makes me wanna hurry up and set my pico up. Thanks! It's been a little crazy, I didn't think a small tank would be this much work. You gotta set up one now 😁 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 They always are,but so much fun. I know,I'm slackin. Here are my past pico's: Current project 2g DBP betta tank: 4 Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 Haven't spotted any bubbles today. The zoas are all opening up too. I really can't believe that dosing phyto can do so much in a system so quickly. I think I started dosing 2 weeks ago. Got a cool top down to show off too 😄 3 Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 53 minutes ago, Joevember said: I really can't believe that dosing phyto can do so much in a system so quickly. I think I started dosing 2 weeks ago. That's great news! Quote Link to comment
Joevember Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 1 hour ago, seabass said: That's great news! Yep, I really didn't know how it would work. I thought the whole idea of adding more nutrients to fight an outbreak would be counterproductive, but it worked amazingly. The zoas seem to be liking the extra nutrients as well. I'll definitely dose phyto on all my tanks from now on. 2 Quote Link to comment
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