Wonderboy's UGFuge 2.5G Pico

[MetaTank]

2 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

 

 

Oh HELL NO!

 

lol I have a tiny one of those in my tank, now I want it out. Hahahah

[billygoat]

Wow what an amazing video! Brittle stars are truly bizarre animals. I have one in my system as well; it's not quite as big as yours but it's still the largest animal in my tank. It's sort of a terror (it ate all the feathers off my beautiful feather duster worm, I think because it wanted to get at the food particles caught on them) but also sort of fascinating; I was originally planning to rehome it but have since decided to keep it.

 

Stellar job with the photography! It's incredible to watch them eat. Like something out of a science fiction movie.

[debbeach13]

Great video's. 

[RudyEnt]

Very nice.

[Ratvan]

15 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

 

 

Those video's are amazing, I could watch that thing pulsing for hours. So fascinating

[Wonderboy]

Late night FTS:

 

 

😶

[MetaTank]

41 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Late night FTS:

 

 

😶

Is that what it looks like it is?

 

[Ratvan]

Loving this tank. Esp the under gravel glow 

[Wonderboy]

Yes, that's a pvc fitting  :]  

 

I noticed yesterday that some zoas (1 1/2 polyps) that I recently put into place were all of a sudden not there anymore; I reeeally didn't want to loose them to the firey pits of the substrate, so I pulled the rock, twitch (figured he would be freaking) and CUC out for some scavenger hunting - took me a good 10 mins of carefully tweezing and peaking under calcite chunks, but I was able to find them, surprisingly.

 

Since I was going to pull the rock, I decided to modify a few things over the weekend in the meantime. I set up a working station for placing more coral. I also figured I would relocate the flowerpot; it was looking more and more irritated each day - it was the first thing I did after getting the rock out. I am thinking it would be a good opportunity to see how the chaeto is doing as well - soon. 

 

 

Audrey II and Jaws Jr have been hanging out together all night 😆  the brittle actually hasn't used the PVC at all - it's been hanging out in it's normal location:

 

 

No I was/am really not worried at all, this star is very well fed; I did make a feeding video, I just have yet to upload it... soon also. Jaws Jr has recently taken to stealing food from the star's grasp when it finds any near him; I think it's great, but I don't think it's caught on any footage.

 

I have a few things to take care of this morning and will be getting back at this in the afternoon   :]

[Wonderboy]

Shots from today:

 

 

That's the underside of the DT rock sitting on it's flat back. I wanted to note that this piece holds itself exceptionally well off the substrate which is what gave me the brittle idea in the first place.

 

 

Speaking of the flat back, I think it's goofy to see outside of it's intended perspective:

 

 

 

I put the rock onto this plate everytime I added/adjusted corals and back into the glass bowl in between decisions: 

 

 

 

Construction site security (hence the blue uniform):

 

 

I kept the damsel in here with the rock so that he might become unrelated to his previous "territory". He was certainly not aggressive by any means, but I find it reasonable to do anything that might postpone the potential. The rock on its back and the round container offered a convenient environment change for this purpose. He did not freak out at all until I tried to net him when finished. 

 

The rock was put back into place 10 minutes before lights out (CUC and Twitch, too), so I switched off the CFL for a pinktinic finale:

 

 

You cannot see any modifications well, but I'll take some more photos tomorrow when there is more time    :]

[Wonderboy]

Okay - there's a lot of photos on the menu today...

 

 

Appetizers

 

The GSP is starting to go places:

 

The hermits are very thorough at finding any algae starting up, anywhere (they partially burry themselves often):

 

The xenia is doing more stretching than pumping or growing - it may have to be relocated possibly out of the pico...

 

I was trying to take a shot of the space under the rock (you can see under to back wall), but then this bomb came bursting out from under the rock as well - he's always watching me or the lens closely:

 

 

Entrees

 

Ricordea stuffed into the largest depression on the rock:

 

Sector 001 favites nub:

 

A chip of Hollywood stunner chalice beside favites:

 

A half-chip of Hollywood stunner chalice with side of palys n zoas:

 

Whole hairy mushroom (there is half of a different hairy mushroom added as well, sorry no pic):

 

 

Salads

 

Brown gorgonia:

 

Purple gorgonia:

 

 

Sides

 

How're these for side-dishes! 

 

 

Refreshments

 

Water with extra salt (no substitutions)

 

 

Desserts

 

FTS with fish:

 

FTS without fish:

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!      

 

 

*sorry, I didn't feel like removing the DT to check on the UGF chaeto - will soon though, promise!

[Wonderboy]

On 6/24/2019 at 6:33 PM, billygoat said:

I have one in my system as well; it's not quite as big as yours but it's still the largest animal in my tank. It's sort of a terror (it ate all the feathers off my beautiful feather duster worm

BTW - I have had a duster in QT for a little while now intended for this pico; I was thinking that it would be a fun old school addition, but now...

[Wonderboy]

I took some photos to share some of the happennings in the the rear 'fuge (rearfugium?):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been thinking of creating an instagram profile just for some of the extra photos/vids I keep collecting of this pico....

 

[billygoat]

I love all the beautiful colors of those mushrooms! That's really a huge variety all jammed into one spot; it looks amazing. And honestly those... rearfugium? pics look awesome too! I seriously hope I can get such a wonderful variety of microfauna going in my tank some day as well. You've got all kinds of stuff growing in there!

 

6 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

BTW - I have had a duster in QT for a little while now intended for this pico; I was thinking that it would be a fun old school addition, but now...

I think that the reason my brittle star went to town on the duster was because the worm's feathers had a tendency to get covered in delicious morsels. The brittle star probably smelled the food on them and decided it would be easier to just pull the feathers off and eat them as well. 🙄 That said, your sea star is clearly a different species than mine, so it's possible that it wouldn't be interested in the worm at all. There's definitely a risk of predation there though.

[Wonderboy]

10 hours ago, billygoat said:

I seriously hope I can get such a wonderful variety of microfauna going in my tank

Thank you for all of your positivity! I'm sure you have a bunch going on in yours; I feel often that smaller quarters force a lot of typically undetectable critters into observational places.

 

I've seen your brittle star - it almost seems to be some type of bio weapon set lose in your tank 😆 it really looks like it could tear up your delicate algaes, but I am always impressed at how gently they move around despite all of their spikes  :]

 

I might try adding the feather. I feel I feed crazily enough that plenty food will be in other places; that feeding video I keep referencing should be up soon. I also now want to make another because I have changed the routine slightly 😅

[billygoat]

On 7/2/2019 at 6:55 AM, Wonderboy said:

I've seen your brittle star - it almost seems to be some type of bio weapon set lose in your tank 😆

Not only does it look like a bio-weapon, sometimes it acts like one too! 😂 That thing has certainly caused its fair share of problems. My original plan was to rehome it, but after awhile I decided to just build my system around it instead. It's just so alien and cool.

 

On 7/2/2019 at 6:55 AM, Wonderboy said:

I might try adding the feather. I feel I feed crazily enough that plenty food will be in other places; that feeding video I keep referencing should be up soon. I also now want to make another because I have changed the routine slightly 😅

I think you should try adding the feather duster, just keep an eye on it. The only reason mine ended up going downhill so quickly is because I only have one system and had no alternative tank to move the feather duster into once it started to get picked on. Even if your star decides to go after those succulent feathers, well... brittle stars don't really do anything quickly. I think you'll have plenty of time to take note of the aggression and intervene to protect the worm.

[Wonderboy]

Okay sold - I'm going to add it when it's ready. I have feeling they should be fine together, too. There's something else in QT that I plan on introducing (that will need supervision, too)...

 

 

Some more dirty photos:

 

Added this stomatella to help clear things up a little; it was getting a little ridiculous, but I won't scrape it  :]

 

 

Pleased to see munnids taking off - these guys do serious damage to small algaes anywhere they go - look at the size compared to a tisbe:

 

 

The top-off float:

 

These are popping up in many places:

 

 

The better half:

 

[Wingy]

You have quite the clean up crew there.  

[Wonderboy]

Some updates - trying to get the feed vids up.....

 

The hair algae crashed (or melted to reproduce lol - but I don't typically see it come back after this stage):

 

 

I did a large water change after noticing this. Going to leave the sludge for other species to populate from.

 

If anyone wants to know - I witnessed the stomatella sucking down hair algae like spaghetti before it started to melt.

 

Yes, those are dead bugs - I probably can reduce the amount I feed to the microfauna back there.

 

I always guage the amount that I should feed based off of this though:

 

 

If I see any more than aproximately this amount of algae growing on the DT glass, I don't scrape, I cut rations and wait until it's not as prominent - WC if it grows more apparent, wait for a reduction and begin light feeding. The trochus snails are usually quick to take almost all of it off when it slows down though.

 

FTS:

 

 

OH, I discovered yet another CUC member lol:

 

 

I need to encourage it to move closer to the rearfuge light though...  

 

And almost unrelated - a peek at a secret experiment I've started that will be utilizing the DIY ATO this old school pico once used:

 

[ef4life]

It’s like a mad scientists lab up in here

[billygoat]

6 minutes ago, ef4life said:

It’s like a mad scientists lab up in here

That's exactly what I was thinking. Every time we get a wide-angle shot I am always curious about the stuff I see in the corners. 😄

[Wonderboy]

 lol, I might have to post more unrelated tid bits now and then...

 

----------------

 

I recently caught Audrey II cleaning the overflow again; I actually noticed it starting to gunk up a bit more than before and was thinking maybe I'll need to go in there and clear it up, but...

 

 

...guess not 

 

 

Finally got some auto top-off action going; I had plans to do it differently, but then I figured why spend too much time with it if nobody really looks up? I figured that this was the perfect opportunity for some precision jank:

 

 

 There's just enough line so I can bring it down to the shelf behind the system to refill. A rubber band both holds the line safe from the fan and brings it back into position when putting the res back up, and I didn't have a gate valve but found that a propped butterknife, in the spirit of jank, holds the float up very efficiently during WCs. The fill-hole has a DIY slidey cap/cover and is located where water won't spill if the container gets turned upright. I don't want the water level to get too low in the top-off res because I am worried that calculated additives (soda ash, iodine) could concentrate over time from constantly increasing evaporation rates (not very sealed container) inflicted from volume reduction while the pico drinks. So, there's that red line to indicate aprx when I should add new top-off water a few times before sterilizing/rejuvinating. I have not added anything to it yet because I am still charting consumptions - the evaporation rate is still an unknown aspect of the equation - and I'm kind of not in a hurry until there's significantly more biomasses in here lol; manual dosing iodine and WCs (recorded) every 3 - 8 days are keeping things stable enough for the time being. I put foods high in calcium and magnesium into the podfodder that I feed weekly, but I will eventually track and dose those necessarily. Thanks for reading along! ...I try to keep things concise, but yeah...

 

[billygoat]

What sort of additive do you use to dose iodine? I am curious if this is something I should be doing for my own aquarium but I am unfamiliar with all of the different products that are available. It's possible that it's not even something I should be worried about, but it sure seems to be working out well for you so it's got me interested!

[Wonderboy]

To answer your question in short (or address your concern): I don't think you need to dose iodine.

 

My reason for using it has to do with aquarium volume and a couple other system characterics; I'll explain those reasons when I have extra time. In the meantime, I use Brightwell Iodion, their bottle explains one major reason I dose iodine in my systems: "Presence of iodine is vital to hermatypic invertebrates (i.e., corals, clams, and their allies that harbor zooxanthellae) because it is used to detoxify excess oxygen produced by zooxanthellae. This oxygen irritates sensitive tissue. Corals and clams that appear to shrivel or close under intense lighting are attempting to shade their zooxanthellae crop to reduce the rate of oxygen production. Iodine (as the iodide ion) essentially bonds with oxygen to form non-toxic iodate, relieving the need to shield zooxanthellae and enabling the host organism to open fully. The predominant form of iodine in seawater is iodide. The natural seawater concentration of all iodine species combined is approximately 0.06 ppm, classifying it as a minor element. Even in this small concentration, iodine is required for survival of fishes, crustaceans, macroalgae and kelp, and hermatypic invertebrates alike."

[A.m.P]

Don't most tanks get enough iodine through waterchanges and through trace amounts found in essentially all foods to maintain elevated levels compared to natural seawater? Swear I read an article where they tested that before....