Seafurn's Old School Pico Gets An Upgrade - 365 Day Challenge

[SeaFurn]

Day 101

 

Dammit. The stylo is RTN’ing. 

The other corals are fine and the parameters are fine so I’m guessing it’s due to the delayed effects of the salinity swing. Thoughts? Is there anything I can do to stop it?

 

20 hours ago, Tired said:

but do NOT put silicone in your tank wet.

Thanks! Good to know. I may try superglue. I’d almost have to do a temporary tank transfer to resilicone it.

 

15 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Remove the ABS and place it under the glass if you still want the look without much of the bother of cleaning? 

The cabinet it sits on is white so I may not need to use it at all. But I worry that the glass on the bottom would make it like a mirror instead and it may not look white at all.

[SeaFurn]

 

Day 102

 

Not much tissue left on the stylo. Such a bummer. It’s so crazy to me to see the polyps completely open while at the same time pulling away from the skeleton. I wish there was a way to stop it. 

 

Some good news - I’ve seen a couple new zoa polyps sprouting on some of the older ones. Hopefully their metabolism is picking up. I’ve been feeding almost everyday so it should be. And with all that feeding, I’m still surprised that nitrates and phosphates barely register. 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 103

 

So it looks like the acro may be growing over the super glue I got on it this past weekend. Fingers crossed it stays healthy. 

The digi, though, hasn’t been showing much PE the last couple days. 🤔

Definitely need to get the nitrates up just a bit I think. 

 

[Wingy]

I keep hearing about how sponges are nutrient factories, so how about adding a sponge to one of the chambers.  

[SeaFurn]

Day 104

 

Started adding aminos when I target fed today. I only used 2 drops but let’s see if that amps up the growth over time.

 

I also changed out two cups of water today. Will probably pull the stylo tomorrow. It’s done. 

 

Digi still looks white as a ghost (no PE).

23 hours ago, Wingy said:

I keep hearing about how sponges are nutrient factories, so how about adding a sponge to one of the chambers.  

I’ve heard that too - when they are used instead of floss and for lengthy periods. I may try putting one in the second chamber (after the floss) so it doesn’t get as clogged. Probably going to dose nitrogen and phosphorus again as well.

[SeaFurn]

Day 105

 

Fridat night acro! Documenting its size and health before I eff it up completely.

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 106

 

The hammer is back in its spot as well as a couple more zoas glued down!  I also glued the Skittles Bomb cyphastrea to its own rock. It just needs to color up now.

 

 

 

[Ratvan]

Looking good, how's the ric carpet idea coming along? 

[SeaFurn]

Day 107

 

Did a little closer inspection of the digi and the cyphastrea. They both are in a lot worse shape than I first thought. Both have lost some tissue and part of the digi’s skeleton is showing. No wonder there’s been no PE over the last couple of weeks. Salinity swings sure are brutal. 

Parameters have held steady over the past week so that’s good! 

23 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Looking good, how's the ric carpet idea coming along? 

 

I’ve got a bunch of them up front as you can see. There are two in the rear of tank recovering. They all just need to get healthy and grow. Its gonna take time. 

 

[Ratvan]

That's an impressive amount of snails upfront too. Wow

[Tamberav]

Still looks good 🙂 A salinity swing took out some of my corals awhile back too, SPS that is. I like the little zoa garden you got going 🙂

[SeaFurn]

On 6/14/2020 at 6:27 PM, Ratvan said:

That's an impressive amount of snails upfront too. Wow

Ha! Yeah I’ve got an army of them. You kind of need a bunch when you use the small ones. I’m finding they are pretty good cleaners. 

 

On 6/14/2020 at 6:27 PM, Tamberav said:

Still looks good 🙂 A salinity swing took out some of my corals awhile back too, SPS that is. I like the little zoa garden you got going 🙂

I’ll probably jinx it by saying this but what’s got me baffled is how the acro made it through it unscathed. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 108

 

Most of you know this but for those of you who don’t - when I’m not convalescing my pico, I’m tending to this - my 45 gallon shallow tank breeding RFAs and raising babies. I don’t have a thread for this tank so thought I’d share a photo here. 

 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 109

 

This is what stability looks like. Just need to keep it that way.

 

[ECLS Reefer]

29 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 109

 

This is what stability looks like. Just need to keep it that way.

 

All the colors 🤩🤩

[SeaFurn]

Day 110

 

I have a nerite snail in the tank who is about an inch in diameter. He’s not moved in over a week. He’s on the bottom of the tank but not attached. (See pic above - he’s on the left next to the rock) 

I decided to check on him today so I pulled him out of the tank to see if he’s alive. He is - at least he doesn’t smell like a dead snail!  So I put him back.

Do they take extended breaks (go dormant)? I think there’s enough algae in there for him to graze on. 

What’s the longest anyone has had them go on hiatus? 

[Ratvan]

9 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 110

 

I have a nerite snail in the tank who is about an inch in diameter. He’s not moved in over a week. He’s on the bottom of the tank but not attached. (See pic above - he’s on the left next to the rock) 

I decided to check on him today so I pulled him out of the tank to see if he’s alive. He is - at least he doesn’t smell like a dead snail!  So I put him back.

Do they take extended breaks (go dormant)? I think there’s enough algae in there for him to graze on. 

What’s the longest anyone has had them go on hiatus? 

My Astrea seems to take about half the week off

[Tired]

If it doesn't stink, leave it in. It's possible it has moved and has come back to the same spot, or it's just chilling there for some reason.

[SeaFurn]

Day 111

 

My poor digi. I had to frag it today due to the delayed impact of the salinity swing. I had seen some skeleton appearing over the past few days and have been monitoring it. Today it became clear it was getting worse. Rather than watch it deteriorate like the stylo, I fragged off that piece that had been growing downward. It looked like it hadn’t been affected by the STN yet. Time will tell if that saves it, but I just had to do something. 

I also took a close look at the cyphastrea and it too looks like it’s lost a bunch of tissue. I didn’t really realize it when I glued it down last weekend - mostly because I’ve never had one of these corals and thought it might be normal. It’s not. 

Time will tell on this one too.

The acro still looks fine (as I knock on wood). 

[SeaFurn]

Day 112

 

This pic is from yesterday after fragging the digi. You can see all that’s left of it sitting on the bottom center of the tank. It’s completely beached. The polyps made a brief appearance today though. The rock it was on looks so empty without it.

You can also see how little skin is left on the cyphastrea.

Better days are ahead I keep telling myself. 

 

[Tamberav]

I don't know why digi is so pissy. I can't get one to be happy in my Pico but other SPS are growing and just looking great. I stuck another piece of it in tonight to give it another shot but I am not too hopeful. 

[SeaFurn]

20 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I don't know why digi is so pissy. I can't get one to be happy in my Pico but other SPS are growing and just looking great. I stuck another piece of it in tonight to give it another shot but I am not too hopeful. 

Mine seemed happiest when the nitrates and phosphates were high - at least high for my tank at 2 and 0.3!  😂

Otherwise it’s color diminished and the polyps retracted. 

Hope yours does well this time around. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 113

 

Water test day:  

1.026  78 degrees

NO3 - 0.5

PO4 - 0 (undectable; Salifert)

KH - 9.6

Ca - 460

Mg - 1500 

 

I’m going to recheck the Mg. I’ve never had a reading that high. I’m not dosing Mg and I don’t think my salt even mixes that high. 

 

It’s hard to tell, but I think the cyphastrea may actually be growing tissue back and not losing it. That would be nice if it pulls through. 

The soft corals and LPS are looking good. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 114

 

RIP digi. Had to pull the remaining frag this morning. It was losing tissue fast. Bummer.

 

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads! Hope it was a good one for you. Mine was great! I spent the afternoon playing games and having pizza with my 3 kiddos.

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 115

 

I may have mentioned this before but I am going to order some ESV nitrate to reliably raise my nitrate levels. I’m still a little wary to use the Seachem Flourish Nitrogen I already have. Has anyone had any side effects from using Flourish nitrogen?

Below is from ESV website: 

———————-

We are proud to introduce B-Ionic® Nitrate which is a concentrated source of nitrate in the form of a highly purified calcium nitrate solution. Maintaining nitrate concentrations slightly higher than natural reef levels has been observed by many aquarists to be beneficial to coral health and coloration. This may be because higher levels of nitrate compensate for the lack of planktonic food organisms and particulate organic nitrogen available to corals in the wild. Biological assimilation and denitrification converts the nitrate added into carbonate alkalinity, so there is no accumulation of sodium or potassium, which are difficult to test for. Higher nitrate levels may also assist organic breakdown and prevent hydrogen sulfide in anoxic/anaerobic areas of rock and sand. When phosphate levels are already high, increasing food input can be problematic when trying to raise nitrate levels because food also imports phosphate. B-Ionic® Nitrate provides a solution by raising nitrate without increasing phosphate. 1ml/20 gals. of aquarium water adds 1 ppm nitrate.