Lula Mae's 2.3 gallons of whatever I want to put in it...2.0

[Lula_Mae]

When I started posting here actively almost 3 years ago, I had started up a little pico tank in an Up Aqua tank I'd found in a local shop.  After a bad crash the tank went through a couple other iterations, then I moved 800 miles and set up the 5.5 that I had for a while which basically became a holding tank for my planned upgrade, my 15 long that became the Innovative Marine 14 gallon peninsula that I took down after a dino infestation. I also had a couple other picos during this time, including a 2.7 gallon Penn Plax Vertex which was set up on my desk.  I took that one down in June and set this up with the smallest rock that came in my KPA order (for the 7.5 gallon Mr. Aqua bow front) and dipped all the coral from that tank in hopes of getting rid of the coral munching asterinas and pods, and put them in here. I had planned to keep the bow front tank going for a long time but haven't made use of it at all since it was set up and so I took it down this week and put everything in the jar to keep it alive in hopes I can set the tank back up some time when I'm able. 

 

I don't know exactly what day I set it up, but it was sometime in mid-June. The earliest picture I have is from late June and it looks like there's algae already growing on the walls then.  I believe this was from the day my Reef Cleaners order came in and got split between this tank and the bow front.

June 28th, 2019

 

The tank sat on the back corner of my desk and largely got ignored except for occasional water changes and picking out bubble algae that would appear (past remnants from previous tanks). The next picture I can find is from September:

Sept. 13, 2019

 

The next day I was shocked to discover an urchin! It must have hitchhiked in on the rock!

 

I think this is when I started to pay more attention to the tank. Little things like finding the snake polyps open in the morning sunlight or watching my two hermits (from Reef Cleaners) blundering about the tank caused me to take more interest in this tank. I've been thinking for months about what to do; I honestly debated about shutting it all down and getting out of the hobby because I've been so discouraged with all the issues I've had in my tanks the last couple of years (cyano, dino, coral eating critters) that I wasn't sure I wanted to continue. I realized I didn't really want to get out entirely, because when things are going well, I really enjoy this hobby which has been part of my life for so long. I decided to shut down the bow front and focus on this as my main tank. It's pretty messy at the moment: there's a few frag plugs that need to be removed since the frags on them have perished (probably thanks to the stupid pods that like to eat things they aren't supposed to) and some of the new stuff I got last week from Black Friday sales was just plunked in there and needs to be rearranged, but I've always liked this little tank and had wanted to set it up as a pico again for a really long time before I actually did it.  I am looking forward to this little tank's journey, and to reigniting the passion I had for this hobby before all the setbacks and problems got to be so overwhelming. I know this was long, so if you made it to the end, kudos to you! I hope you'll stay and tag along.

[Lula_Mae]

I had typed up something about my equipment, livestock etc. but my computer crashed and I am too tired to re-type it all and put in the pictures and such lol. I will try to remember to edit this post and do that tomorrow.

 

Edit two months later (I'll start this tonight but probably won't finish):

 

Equipment:
2.3 gallon rimless "white glass" tank from UpAqua

Azoo Mignon 150 filter with filter floss

AI Prime (non-HD)

Archaea 25 watt heater

1 piece Florida live rock

 

Current livestock:
scarlet hermit

blue legged hermit

pencil urchin

green banded goby

 

Current corals:

green snake polyps

red snake polyps

pinkish fat bubbled ricordea

green polyp toadstool

green and purple acan

red acan

petroglyphs

blondies

branching GSP frag

purple star polyps

purple anthelia

pinkish gorgonian similar to Grube's

 

Current macroalgae:

halimeda sp. eaten by hermits

Caulerpa sp. not doing great

dragon's breath DOA

 

[WV Reefer]

5 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

When I started posting here actively almost 3 years ago, I had started up a little pico tank in an Up Aqua tank I'd found in a local shop.  After a bad crash the tank went through a couple other iterations, then I moved 800 miles and set up the 5.5 that I had for a while which basically became a holding tank for my planned upgrade, my 15 long that became the Innovative Marine 14 gallon peninsula that I took down after a dino infestation. I also had a couple other picos during this time, including a 2.7 gallon Penn Plax Vertex which was set up on my desk.  I took that one down in June and set this up with the smallest rock that came in my KPA order (for the 7.5 gallon Mr. Aqua bow front) and dipped all the coral from that tank in hopes of getting rid of the coral munching asterinas and pods, and put them in here. I had planned to keep the bow front tank going for a long time but haven't made use of it at all since it was set up and so I took it down this week and put everything in the jar to keep it alive in hopes I can set the tank back up some time when I'm able. 

 

I don't know exactly what day I set it up, but it was sometime in mid-June. The earliest picture I have is from late June and it looks like there's algae already growing on the walls then.  I believe this was from the day my Reef Cleaners order came in and got split between this tank and the bow front.

June 28th, 2019

 

The tank sat on the back corner of my desk and largely got ignored except for occasional water changes and picking out bubble algae that would appear (past remnants from previous tanks). The next picture I can find is from September:

Sept. 13, 2019

 

The next day I was shocked to discover an urchin! It must have hitchhiked in on the rock!

 

I think this is when I started to pay more attention to the tank. Little things like finding the snake polyps open in the morning sunlight or watching my two hermits (from Reef Cleaners) blundering about the tank caused me to take more interest in this tank. I've been thinking for months about what to do; I honestly debated about shutting it all down and getting out of the hobby because I've been so discouraged with all the issues I've had in my tanks the last couple of years (cyano, dino, coral eating critters) that I wasn't sure I wanted to continue. I realized I didn't really want to get out entirely, because when things are going well, I really enjoy this hobby which has been part of my life for so long. I decided to shut down the bow front and focus on this as my main tank. It's pretty messy at the moment: there's a few frag plugs that need to be removed since the frags on them have perished (probably thanks to the stupid pods that like to eat things they aren't supposed to) and some of the new stuff I got last week from Black Friday sales was just plunked in there and needs to be rearranged, but I've always liked this little tank and had wanted to set it up as a pico again for a really long time before I actually did it.  I am looking forward to this little tank's journey, and to reigniting the passion I had for this hobby before all the setbacks and problems got to be so overwhelming. I know this was long, so if you made it to the end, kudos to you! I hope you'll stay and tag along.

Yay! 

 

 

ive always wondered why snake polyps get no respect........I love mine but rarely see them in other tanks. 

[CD_Scapes]

On 12/9/2019 at 7:28 AM, WV Reefer said:

Yay! 

 

 

ive always wondered why snake polyps get no respect........I love mine but rarely see them in other tanks. 

Where would one find snake polyps?

[WV Reefer]

23 minutes ago, Northwoodsreefer said:

Where would one find snake polyps?

I found mine on eBay. 

[billygoat]

A pencil urchin! That's great! 😁 What an amazing hitchhiker.

 

I like this little tank already. I'll be following along for the ride. 👍

[Ratvan]

On 12/9/2019 at 1:28 PM, WV Reefer said:

Yay! 

 

 

ive always wondered why snake polyps get no respect........I love mine but rarely see them in other tanks. 

Quite a few Corals that seem to have fallen away as they're not Ultra Popular, shame really I would love some of those. I guess my Wanted Ads on UK forums are going to get more in depth

[WV Reefer]

5 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Quite a few Corals that seem to have fallen away as they're not Ultra Popular, shame really I would love some of those. I guess my Wanted Ads on UK forums are going to get more in depth

They are also very slow growers so that may have something to do with it as well. 

[Tired]

Huh, I'd never heard of them before now. They look like what would happen if you exposed a cucumber to some sort of fictional radioactive material. 

[billygoat]

36 minutes ago, Tired said:

Huh, I'd never heard of them before now. They look like what would happen if you exposed a cucumber to some sort of fictional radioactive material. 

I also had never heard of them before! Super cool though. They look really very striking! I might have to make some space in my tank for some of those. 

[Lula_Mae]

Wow!  Thanks for all the replies!  Sorry I have not been on in a bit.  I tend to come and go these days. The tank is still chugging along, I got a few frags for Black Friday, tried dragon's breath again (DOA...my luck with this stuff is terrible lol), and currently have a healthy crop of algae growing. I'm hoping Reef Cleaners will get virgin nerites in stock soon as I've had them previously and loved them a lot.  Tank is still chugging along, currently growing an impressive crop of algae on the glass. I probably need to shorten the photoperiod and change my DI filter as I think it's in need of it, but haven't tried to figure out either lol. I replaced the heater with a brand new one of the same model a couple months ago as the old one has been going 3+ years and was looking weird, almost like the glass was getting something under it? Not sure but I didn't trust it so out it came. Things seem to like the AI Prime although I'm not sure if it's too much light or not (changed from the Lumini Asta as I wasn't getting any growth although color was nice).  I spotted a giant bristleworm not too long ago and have had no apparent coral losses from pods since introducing the goby. There's a dead ladybug in there right now (we had a proliferation of lady bugs locally recently and a few have drowned in my tanks, sadly).

 

The rock from the 7.5 bow front is in my old 3 gallon jar with a light on it (Kessil A150 I bought for the 5.5 and took off because it was too much for the tank...I have it on a split 4 hour photo period on the jar for the GSP). I see the mithrax crab on occasion and I think there's an urchin in there too.

 

Last week  the southeast got hit by a line of nasty storms. I spent an hour or better watching clouds from two different directions moving towards each other, then a sudden gust of strong, loud wind sent me scurrying to the bathroom with pillows and blankets. After giving me a good scare the winds stopped, but the National Weather Service confirmed an F1 tornado hit less than a mile from my house! Damaged several houses and positively flattened a patch of woods. Thankfully there were no injuries reported.

 

On 12/9/2019 at 8:28 AM, WV Reefer said:

Yay! 

 

 

ive always wondered why snake polyps get no respect........I love mine but rarely see them in other tanks. 

They're so cool but so understated, probably aren't super popular because they aren't flashy and neon like other corals.

 

On 12/11/2019 at 9:02 PM, Northwoodsreefer said:

Where would one find snake polyps?

I found one frag from Legendary Corals a year or two ago (green ones) and the other (red ones) in an LFS I don't visit often (I've also seen St. Thomas mushrooms there, another favorite of mine).

 

On 12/11/2019 at 10:31 PM, billygoat said:

A pencil urchin! That's great! 😁 What an amazing hitchhiker.

 

I like this little tank already. I'll be following along for the ride. 👍

Thanks! The urchin is HUGE!!! I'll have to get a picture of him. I'm actually considering finding a store to take him as I am really concerned he won't find enough food in my tank and I don't want him to starve! His spines are nearly an inch long now! Same with my hermits, I think they don't get quite enough to eat so I may take them to a store and get smaller ones.

 

On 12/12/2019 at 4:11 AM, Ratvan said:

Quite a few Corals that seem to have fallen away as they're not Ultra Popular, shame really I would love some of those. I guess my Wanted Ads on UK forums are going to get more in depth

They're really interesting looking, especially if you can catch them open! Mine don't do that much but it's neat when they do!

 

On 12/12/2019 at 9:37 AM, WV Reefer said:

They are also very slow growers so that may have something to do with it as well. 

For sure, I am not sure if mine have done much of anything, although that may have been my lighting. Not sure if they have grown since I put the AI Prime on here lol.

 

On 12/12/2019 at 10:51 AM, Tired said:

Huh, I'd never heard of them before now. They look like what would happen if you exposed a cucumber to some sort of fictional radioactive material. 

Haha they are pretty weird looking! They have these "bumps" near the end of the polyp but I have no idea what the purpose of them is.

 

On 12/12/2019 at 11:30 AM, billygoat said:

I also had never heard of them before! Super cool though. They look really very striking! I might have to make some space in my tank for some of those. 

If you can find them, you totally should! I like having weird things in my tank. If your tank is large enough, look into a walking dendro. One of the coolest things I've ever had!

 

Thanks for reading along, everybody!