365 Day Challenge: 1G Office Ocean

[SaltyGallon]

Update as of 22/07/2020

 

Feeding day today - the tank will be getting a good hit of reef roids! Everything's looking happy except the rasta zoas - I'm not sure what their issue is to be honest. No sign of pests etc. It could be that they're repeatedly annoyed by the shrimp or are irritated by some other water parameter. I need to get around to checking the nitrates again to make sure they're not too low, but everything else seems nicely extended and happy. Not sure, but not going to sweat it.

 

I'll post the final July FTS in a week's time, I'm hoping the GSP on the left will have hit the overflow by then. Likewise I'm hoping to swap out the middle mushroom with a super bright uranium bounce shroom which is resting in my nano, but I need to get it to attach to some rubble first (and it's taking it's sweet time!) 🙂 

[SaltyGallon]

It's been two weeks since the tank had it's last water change and the shrooms down the bottom are starting to look a little grumpy, so it's probably about time they had some of the fresh stuff! The rastas continue to be pissed off (as well as the goblin's fire zoas, on and off) and I've decided it's probably down to tank temperature, as other params are spot on - it's so warm in our little flat that even in the cooler weather the tank consistently runs around 29 degrees C (84 F for you Americans out there). No doubt the tank will be glad when some cooler autumn weather finally arrives.

 

All good otherwise - the tank's had plenty of phyto and reef roids this week and it's got a nice copepod bloom as a result. Nitrates sat at 7.5ppm, which is pretty choice I think!

 

 

[debbeach13]

Sounds pretty warm. Looking forward to the FTS

[SaltyGallon]

Very warm Deb! Here's the end of the month FTS 🙂

 

[Ratvan]

5 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

Very warm Deb! Here's the end of the month FTS 🙂

 

I had the same issue with my Pico, at the end i just left it at 28C (82.5F) seemed to work well. Fairly sure that the consistency of the temperature is more important then the temperature itself, to a certain degree anyway

[SaltyGallon]

On 7/30/2020 at 1:29 PM, Ratvan said:

I had the same issue with my Pico, at the end i just left it at 28C (82.5F) seemed to work well. Fairly sure that the consistency of the temperature is more important then the temperature itself, to a certain degree anyway

Yeah I think you could be right there mate, the shrooms and GSP have definitely just adapted to a warmer temp. The zoas have oddly enough cheered up in the past few days, not really sure why but I've been adding phyto this week and I've got plenty of algae on the glass now - maybe they just like it dirty!!!

 

 

[SaltyGallon]

Update as of 19/08/2020

 

All tickety-boo in the pico. I've switched to doing 100% water changes every two weeks and the tank doesn't seem to mind, if anything the shrooms look happier for it! The zoas are still being fussy but in fairness I think they also get regularly trampled by the sexy shrimp. Glad to see the back of the recent hot weather though, pushing 29-31 degrees Celsius in the tank was not cool. 

 

I reckon I'll pull the scape out give the tank a bit of loving this weekend, look at the state of the glass!!!

 

[SaltyGallon]

Crappy phone pics, but some outrageous shroom extension today! Always happiest 2-3 days post feed up 😊

 

 

[debbeach13]

Those are some happy looking corals.

[SaltyGallon]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Those are some happy looking corals.

Thanks Deb, even the zoas have cheered up today - the shrimp haven't been trampling them quite so much!

[SaltyGallon]

End of August FTS 😊

 

 

[Ratvan]

On 8/31/2020 at 12:16 PM, SaltyGallon said:

End of August FTS 😊

 

 

Looks great, love the mushrooms

[SaltyGallon]

5 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Looks great, love the mushrooms

Thanks mate 🙂

 

I've got a nice green uranium bounce to go in there but I can't get the bugger to stick to rubble - and I bet when it finally does stick it'll unstick when it goes in the new tank!

[Ratvan]

1 minute ago, SaltyGallon said:

Thanks mate 🙂

 

I've got a nice green uranium bounce to go in there but I can't get the bugger to stick to rubble - and I bet when it finally does stick it'll unstick when it goes in the new tank!

Yeah and end up all snotty under a rock, i remember those buggers

[SaltyGallon]

... I'm not sure why the GSP on the left is so grumpy, but everything else is happy! Its cool to see how much the mat has spread though. The tank went a good three weeks between a water change this month, so it could be that! The bottom middle green rhodactis split too, so we've got three of them now 🙂

 

[Aqua Splendor]

This is looking very lovely!

 

[SaltyGallon]

14 hours ago, Aqua Splendor said:

This is looking very lovely!

 

Thank you! Looks nice when it's clean...! 😅

[SaltyGallon]

Tuesday evening photo sesh. All well - the sexy shrimp have been busy irritating the zoas, but what's new! The shrooms are all super fluffy and extended.

 

 

[Ratvan]

That angle really shows how small the tank is. Looks great in there though

[SaltyGallon]

8 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

That angle really shows how small the tank is. Looks great in there though

It does doesn't it haha. The FTS is deceptive - it's not much bigger than a teapot in real life 😂

[SaltyGallon]

... All good in the pico as usual - we went away for a long weekend and the tank is just as I left it! Now the temps have dropped we're back to the old once a week top off routine, which is nice. Some maintenance inbound this week as there's a few very minor clumps of turf and bubble algae about, but nothing really to worry about - the red Gracillaria out competes everything! The shrimp and coral are doing well, apart from the cloves, which are getting shaded by the Gracillaria... I should probably sort that.

 

Pics to follow later in the week when the tank is looking respectable 😄

 

[This guy is extra salty]

Still digging this little tank,

makes me want to build things

[SaltyGallon]

6 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

Still digging this little tank,

makes me want to build things

Thanks mate haha! Anything is possible with these small tanks if you stick to softies only I think... They really do thrive on neglect.

[SaltyGallon]

... Still kicking! A bit of a golden age for the pico, no real pests or nuisance algae, happy corals, clean glass - what more can you ask for!

 

I thought I'd lost this sexy shrimp for a few days but it turns out he'd been spending some time in solitary confinement i.e. in the AIO chamber! You can see him sat on the heater - he's only just moved back to the main display after hanging out there for a couple of weeks. The heater's plugged back in now the weather's gotten colder and the tank's sat at a steady 26°C.

 

 

[gabe3eb]

Fantastic! For perspective, seeing the power cord for the heater makes it look so tiny!