Joe's Boneless Pico Reef

[MainelyReefer]

9 hours ago, Joevember said:

also have a replacement a160we on the tank. The photoperiod on it is maxing out at 35% at noon. I have no clue how high the intensity should be on such a tiny setup.

I think the Kessil is a 40w light?  That’d put you at 14w if your running at 35% intensity, which is close to the 17w I run on my reef bowl(AI Prime 4-5 inches from water surface).  27w on my drop off seemed to be too much so it is reduced to 19.8w and most corals seem happy.  The drop off lights are super spread out though so yours may have a hot spot of sorts directly beneath the fixture.  In regards to the failed heater try a Cobalt Aquatics minitherm(10w) coupled with the inkbird(or any temp controller).  I don’t even unplug mine during WC’s and is doesn’t blow up(not reccomending trying)

[Joevember]

Added the first corals in today: 8 zoanthid frags and 2 gsp frags. I'll be adding in one of my RFAs in after all of my zoas open up more. I'll have the zoas mounted by then too. Don't know when I'm getting the inverts, and I'm still looking for the rest of the corals I want.

I tried to remember the trade names, so here they all are a little bit closed up:

Green Bay Packers

Watermelon

Gorilla's nipples... who did this?

Magician's palythoa, donated to the tank by a local reefer who also gave a bunch of gsp chunks. The colors are completely different from anything I've ever kept. 

Unknown

And here are the two that had a few polyps survive the first crash, still don't know how. Also unknown

(Any names on the unknown ones would be appreciated, I just like using their trade names in stocking lists)

[Wonderboy]

16 minutes ago, Joevember said:

Gorilla's nipples... who did this?

Hahaha

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

[Joevember]

Update time! I stopped by my LFS that I go to for my inverts to pick up a porcelain crab, and they had an amazing mini maxi for sale. I couldn't not get it, so here it is:

I didn't know the tank needed it until I saw it 😅

I also ended up getting a porcelain crab as well. It was the biggest one they had and it was a purple one, but it's missing his claw. Hoping that it'll grow it back in the next shedding. If anyone knows their behavior compared to the white ones please share it with me! Here is a pic of him:

And here's a pic of them both acclimating together; as you can see the mini maxi is engulfing the entire crab with its foot:

I also mounted some of the zoas to the rock and added 2 RFAs from my other tank. Pics coming tomorrow.

[fishfreak0114]

So cool that you’ve set it up at school!  I wish I could do that, but I don’t trust my apprentice to take proper care of it after I grad.

 I’m sorry to hear if your heater troubles 😕. you must have gotten bad luck with that one, I currently have that same model in three different tanks for years without issue. 

That carpet nem is gorgeous!  As for the purple porcelain, I had one once. It decided to live in my sump and I could never catch it, so I’d say pretty fast and elusive. My white one is out all the time. 

[Joevember]

4 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

So cool that you’ve set it up at school!  I wish I could do that, but I don’t trust my apprentice to take proper care of it after I grad.

 I’m sorry to hear if your heater troubles 😕. you must have gotten bad luck with that one, I currently have that same model in three different tanks for years without issue. 

That carpet nem is gorgeous!  As for the purple porcelain, I had one once. It decided to live in my sump and I could never catch it, so I’d say pretty fast and elusive. My white one is out all the time. 

Thanks, I'll have to pick up some more mini maxis soon. I'm hoping that the crab will be out and about like yours; I don't want him being tucked away in a hole all the time.

The heater must've been bad luck like you said. Tons of people have had luck with them here, and I'm the 1% that got stuck with an exploding one...

[Joevember]

New FTS as promised:

Everything has settled in nicely. The crab found its way inside the rock; took me 5 minutes to find the guy. I'll be adding another RFA tonight.

[Clown79]

Beautiful. Love the aquascape and coral choices.

[Lula_Mae]

Tank is looking great!  So sorry about the heater, I've used lots of those and never had issues, so that was very unlucky! I think it was you I replied to in the main contest thread about the Archaea heaters sold by Aqua Forest Aquarium; small, slender, and rock steady temps.  I recently bought replacements ones since mine are a couple years old and I get nervous lol.  Haven't pulled them out of the box yet though.

[Joevember]

The crab is hangin' out and filtering under the arch all day. I'm thinking I'll try to spot feed it this weekend and see how it goes. Then sometime in the next 1-2 weeks I'll move the tank over to my school, possibly monday.

Here are some more pics I took:

And FTSs

[seabass]

Lots of specimens, lots of colors.  Looks great!

[748S911]

This is looking amazing! cool rfa's

[Joevember]

Moved the last RFA I had in my other tank over. It's much bigger than the others. Before it found it's way into my wavemaker it was 5" across, but now it's about 3.5". I also realized that I'm going to have to take them off the glass whenever I need to move the tank, so I'm thinking about getting some small plastic cups and making little dishes for them to sit in for easy transport.

I also used a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to take out some algae on a couple zoa frags that started to look a little too ugly. Don't want this stuff to spread all over.

My chaeto has also been having trouble. There are a bunch of air bubbles around it at the top, where it has started bleaching out. I haven't exactly been feeding the tank because I just added the nems and crab, so maybe that's it. I might get some ChaetoGro if it continues after feeding. And if that doesn't work I'm just going to completely fill the filter with bio balls... 

 

I'll do the first WC on this tank and update with a FTS later.✌

[Joevember]

I got 3 more zoas donated to the tank on monday. I bought some acros and my gold torch from the same guy, his tank looks amazing. I think they are rastas, god armor? and something else. Everything is glued on the arch now. 

And bigger news, the tank is moving to school tomorrow! I'm excited to see how people will like it. I have all the RFAs on bottoms of cups so they can be moved easily without me tearing them off the bottom of the tank. 

 

Update tonight, I promise this time. This is a pic from monday.

[Joevember]

Pics as promised. 

Sunny D on left, rastas on right

God armor

Nems

And full tank shots

[seabass]

[William]

Wow

[MetaTank]

Looks real clean 

[WV Reefer]

4 hours ago, Joevember said:

Pics as promised. 

Sunny D on left, rastas on right

God armor

Nems

And full tank shots

 

Looks sooo clear! Very nice. 😊

[Joevember]

Thanks for the compliments, the tank is finally at school! I forgot to set my alarm so I barely set the tank up in time before school, but it is here. Everthing is all closed up and very dusty since the sand was stirred up so much, but it all acclimated nicely. Everyone's really interested in it too.

Here are some close up shots on the zoas

Also, the chaeto has definitely been growing. Some parts are still white, but it is much denser than when I first put it in. Might still get some of the chaeto fertilizer to help it.

And a FTS

[MetaTank]

35 minutes ago, Joevember said:

 

 

Congrats on getting the tank to school finally. Nice Magicians palythoas,  the color round the mouths is CrAzY, huh?

[Joevember]

41 minutes ago, MetaTank said:

Congrats on getting the tank to school finally. Nice Magicians palythoas,  the color round the mouths is CrAzY, huh?

It's wild ikr Don't have anything remotely similar

[Joevember]

Haven't had any updates because I got finished with AP testing, and didn't have a lot of time in school with the tank.

Anyway, I just finished adding the last inverts in the tank, I realized earlier this week that I had no CUC at all. There was brown algae everywhere and it was causing the zoas to close up. I added two trochus snails to deal with all the algae. They are already eating minutes after adding them in. If two is too many, I'll put one in my 20 gallon.

I also picked up a halloween hermit for scavenging and just looking cool. I liked the old one so much that I had to get another. 

And a FTS

[William]

3 minutes ago, Joevember said:

Haven't had any updates because I got finished with AP testing, and didn't have a lot of time in school with the tank.

Anyway, I just finished adding the last inverts in the tank, I realized earlier this week that I had no CUC at all. There was brown algae everywhere and it was causing the zoas to close up. I added two trochus snails to deal with all the algae. They are already eating minutes after adding them in. If two is too many, I'll put one in my 20 gallon.

I also picked up a halloween hermit for scavenging and just looking cool. I liked the old one so much that I had to get another. 

And a FTS

You are still in school? 

[Joevember]

4 minutes ago, William said:

You are still in school? 

Yep...