Rudy's New Pico Reef - Old School Pico Reef

[RudyEnt]

Hello everyone,  sorry that I gave not updated and I have been meaning to but I had a catastrophic event to my 150 gal tank.  I had a seam leak at the base of the tank 5 days ago. So I had to rush and put together a 90 gal that my friend had.  I had to get a stand and make a ton of water.  I had to stuff all my corals from a 150 into a 90. Not a good fit.  So far I have only lost two fish and my corals look very stressed.  But it could have been worse. 

 

Does anyone know what the Marineland warranty is like?

[RudyEnt]

Update time.  Well, I have been busy.  With the leak in my 150g tank and having to move everything out and into another tank.  I have really not been active on on this nano.  So it has pretty much run itself.  All that I have done is add fresh water for evaporation and did a one gallon change in the past two weeks.  Now that I am looking at it it looks better than ever.  Everyone looks happy and well and the corals seem to be growing or opening up wider and bigger.  I don't know what to say other than Damn, I have to keep my hands away from the tank and just enjoy it so it does better.  I will take better pictures than the ones I took this morning and post them.

[Christopher Marks]

Hi @RudyEnt 👋 Can you believe it has been 7 months already?

 

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! ❤️ 

[RudyEnt]

Wow, seven months, that seems fast.  When I started the pico tank I had not done it in over 20 years.  I have to say it was fun.  So different than my two large reef tanks.  I learned a lot.  For one I found out that less is more.  Keep my hands out of the tank other than for the cleaning.  I also learned that my rock flowers did not like black sand.  I so really like the look of it.  But I ended up removing it and everyone was happy.  I learned that one-gallon weekly water change was key to stability in my tank.  Just keep in mind to adjust for salinity.  I also learned that, don’t hit the light when cleaning.  Attempting to electrocute my fish and myself is not a good idea.  Not to mention it messes with the life of your led light (hint, I had to get a new one).

 

Overall, I had good growth on my corals and other than having to move one of my fish and replacing him with another they where happy.  I will be changing corals moving forward and adding sand.  I think it will do better as a softy tank.  I am not sure, but I may move everyone to a 12-gallon tank that I have so I can add a refugium for more pod production.  I want to make this tank into a seahorse and dragonet tank.  I am in love with the personality of my two red ones.  I can’t believe I never had dragonets before.  Although they do change colors more than my crested geckos.  As for seahorse, I think it would be a good challenge that I have never done before.  Another first for me was hatching brine shrimp.  That was fun, time consuming but fun.  My success with that would serve well for seahorse.  Overall, I really enjoyed going back to a small tank and low flow.  It is so different.  Good luck to everyone but I hope I win.  I have plans for that tank and a space picked out for it.

 

This picture is just before lights out last night.  I will clean the tank tomorrow instead of Sunday and take a new picture.

[RudyEnt]

Ok,  again I forgot to take a picture, so I just took one and the corals are closing again,  but while cleaning the tank earlier today I realized that my frog spawn was facing side ways so I turned it to show the rest of the heads unfortunately I broke it in halve. 

[RudyEnt]

Finally, a shot of the corals fully opened 

[debbeach13]

Congratulations you made it to the finals. For me the biggest surprise with your tank is the fish. 2 clowns, 2 dragonets and a YCG in such a small tank. I would have bet money against that working. Good luck.

[RudyEnt]

5 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Congratulations you made it to the finals. For me the biggest surprise with your tank is the fish. 2 clowns, 2 dragonets and a YCG in such a small tank. I would have bet money against that working. Good luck.

Thanks