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

[Ratvan]

5 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I tried to find one of those recently but no luck.

 

Try a home brewing store, I got one in the UK for a couple quid. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 140

 

My big green ricordea split! Not sure when that happened but last night when I looked into the tank when the lights were off, there were two distinct pieces. In the daytime it still looks like one big piece. How long does it take for that to happen? I’m surprised I didn’t notice it happening. 

 

I also spotted another one of those red spaghetti worms in one of the zoas. I was able to suck it out. 

 

Plan for weekend is tidy up the tank by scraping the algae off the glass. 

 

[debbeach13]

How big is big? Even when mine have 2 mouths they never seem to split. Good job with the spaghetti worm. I think they might be harmless but can over populate. 

[Tired]

I personally like spaghetti worms, but I've never had them be an issue. I've only ever had a few at a time. I know they can bother coral, if they grope over it too much. I had some lime green ones in my first tank- saw a couple out fully once, crawling around, and they looked really cool. Like any scavenger, they can overpopulate, but they're generally harmless if not overfed.

[Wingy]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:18 PM, debbeach13 said:

I tried to find one of those recently but no luck.

 

PetCo carries them.  I bought one a year ago.

[debbeach13]

I will check next time. They were out before. I just want it as a quick back up. 

[A.m.P]

Big but would most likely work

[SeaFurn]

Day 141

 

My Solar Flare zoas have now been closed up for 4-5 days now. Here we go again with only one colony being all pissy for no apparent reason while all the others are fine. The problem begins when this goes on for a couple of weeks (like it usually does) and in that time they will significantly shrink in size and their tentacles will virtually disappear. Then it takes weeks for them to recover. This is so crazy because these had been growing like fire - 3-4 new heads over the course of a few weeks. 🤔

On 7/17/2020 at 8:23 PM, debbeach13 said:

How big is big? Even when mine have 2 mouths they never seem to split.

It was probably 3 inches long and 2 inches wide when it was fully inflated. It’s been doing well - despite the salinity swing. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 142

 

Here’s the ricordea that split. I guess it’s more blue than green. The smaller ricordea in the pic are recovering. They really shrunk down after the salinity swing. I’m surprised they are still alive. 

The Solar Flare zoas are right above the Rastas and still closed up.😕

 

[Wingy]

I found a giant green spaghetti worm under the frogspawn.  The main part of the body was easily 1 1/2 inches long. The thin parts were easily 4 inches.  I thought I was growing algae there.  It was not algae.  I know I have a lot of red ones but this was the first time seeing a green one.

[Tired]

Lime/neon green? I had some little ones like that in my first tank. 

 

Might want to try to annoy it into moving. They're generally harmless, but the little feelers can irritate corals. 

[Wingy]

This was a dark green like the color of kale.  It was bothering the frogspawn and was probably why it started closing.  I evicted it and it is now on its way to the sewer treatment plant and eventually it will go over Niagara Falls, without a barrel.   

[SeaFurn]

Day 143

 

The hammer, frogspawn, and a couple of the zoas were looking a little off early this afternoon. They had been that way for a couple of hours with no changes. So, I decided to try a little experiment. I normally dose nitrogen and phosphorus later in the day but I decided to do it early to see if it had any affect. Sure enough, within an hour everything had perked up and stayed that way. Amazing. 

I’m still working on getting the dosing right but now I’m wondering if I should do more frequently rather than one time a day. 

I’ll repeat the experiment tomorrow if the corals look the same way. 

[Wingy]

Either I didn't  get all of that green spaghetti worm and the tentacles are not  bothered by the missing body or there is another one.  

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, Wingy said:

Either I didn't  get all of that green spaghetti worm and the tentacles are not  bothered by the missing body or there is another one.  

My guess is there’s another one! Post a pic here if you get it. 

[Tired]

The tentacles shouldn't be mobile without the body still attached, you must have another one. 

 

Do you have a fuge or whatnot to pop it in? If not, I suggest squishing it before flushing it- quicker death. Even if it probably doesn't feel pain, no sense in drawing things out.

[Wingy]

11 hours ago, Tired said:

The tentacles shouldn't be mobile without the body still attached, you must have another one. 

 

Do you have a fuge or whatnot to pop it in? If not, I suggest squishing it before flushing it- quicker death. Even if it probably doesn't feel pain, no sense in drawing things out.

It was thoroughly dead.  It was squished and then had a peroxide bath.  I am very aware of the importance of not introducing non native species to a waterway.  

[Tired]

I don't think they would survive being flushed, since they're saltwater. I doubt most freshwater animals would survive, either, all the chlorine. I was more thinking about not leaving it to be chemical-burned and hyper-hydrated to death. 

 

Get pics when you pull the separate one out, I've never seen a kale green worm.

[Wingy]

I will try and find it tonight.  I want it away from the frogspawn.  

[SeaFurn]

Day 144

 

Checked alk today to make sure it was still ok. It’s been stalled out at 9.9 dKH for some time now. 🤔

 

Just another observation - I don’t see much microfauna in the tank. I wonder if there’d be more if there was sand in the tank. 🤔

 

Finally tonight, I miss having a fish in the tank. I may start looking for one. 

 

 

[debbeach13]

10 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

I miss having a fish in the tank. I may start looking for one. 

 

I like this idea. I hope you can find one you like.

[SeaFurn]

Day 145

 

Here we go again. Went to check on the tank before I went to bed last night. The lights on the tank and in the room were off but even so I could tell the water looked extremely still. I thought to myself - damn, did I forget to turn the pump on after feeding the tank earlier in the evening? Then I remembered being In the room around 9pm just before the lights went out and the pump was running. So, I turned on the light in the room and couldn’t believe what I saw - the water level in the tank was nearly at the rim and the water level in the back chambers was at least an inch over the sensor. WTF!!  I grabbed the salinity checker and thank God it had only dropped to 1.025.  I was so pissed and worried. I have no idea why the ATO overfilled the tank. I have no idea why or how the pump even stopped running and didn’t completely over fill the tank - like over the brim. I tried to figure out why it happened but I have no idea. There are no snails in the back chamber, the sensor wasn’t covered with film or algae, it hadn’t been moved, there were no alarms, no blinking lights to say there had been a problem. I’m at a loss and paranoid it’s gonna happen again. 

 

I siphoned some of the water off last night then let the water evaporate today and it’s back to 1.026. Luckily, it wasn’t that much of a drop and the corals seemed fine today - better than most days actually. And the funny thing is, now it’s got me wondering if i should be doing larger water changes than I’m doing. 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 146

 

Was looking at some photos of the zoas from when I first got them several months ago. While there’s been growth in most of them in the way of new polyps, most of them are much smaller in size now. It’s like they are all deflated or have shrunk in size. I’m guessing it probably has something to do with my lack of nitrates and phosphates. Anyone have any other hypotheses? 

I’m still trying to get those parameters up but I’m just hesitant to dose enough for an immediate 5-10ppm nitrate readings or a 0.3ppm phosphates. 

The Solar Flares, one of the largest polyp zoas I’ve ever had, are still closed up. And my Utter Chaos is just so small every day - but has several new heads. 

[Tired]

It might be they're shrinking down because the light is high. Zoas will expand a bit in lower light. If they're multiplying, that would seem to indicate they aren't low on nutrients. More feeding won't hurt if you keep the parameters reasonable, though. Heck, try directly feeding them! My Rose Nebulas like Reef Roids. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 147

 

Just pulled out another red spaghetti worm. This one was probably 1 inch long and stretched out across the bottom of the tank. Where do all these worms come from? Do they really multiply that fast that they keep showing up? 

19 hours ago, Tired said:

It might be they're shrinking down because the light is high

I looked at my settings today and I’m not running the light at more than 50% on any channel - and I’m definitely skewing the spectrum more blue than white. I wonder if that’s not bright enough. I keep speculating that it’s water related though. Let’s face it, I have no clue. 

19 hours ago, Tired said:

Heck, try directly feeding them! My Rose Nebulas like Reef Roids. 

I do! I’ve been using Coral Frenzy a couple of times a week. I think that really helps.  I’ve often wondered if I hit them with too much if it then keeps them closed up for an extended period afterwards. 

 

I may do a big water change this weekend just for the hell of it to see what happens - to see if it helps or if there’s no change. Does that make any sense - do a water change and then dose up the nitrogen and phosphates?? But otherwise, it’s too clean.