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

[SeaFurn]

Day 54

 

The digi is back to normal. I didn’t mess with the tank and I didn’t even test the water again. So I guess the lesson here is that it will just do that. 

 

@Amphrites - thanks for sharing the above. It resonated with me. I do enjoy learning and I do like challenges so there’s that. It’s just tough sometimes because they are living things as you as mentioned. But I’m going to keep on plugging away because I’m fascinated and amazed by these little tanks (systems) and these little animals. I appreciate your continued help on my journey. 

 

And one pic for today of a coral I’ve got tucked in the back that I don’t give much attention to. (It’s hidden in a back corner) It’s a frag from a coral from my 100 Days of Nanos contest tank. I got it from @Weetabix7. Some of you may remember her. Wish she was still around. Love the color on this one - but the pic doesn’t do it justice. 

 

[debbeach13]

Yes I remember her tanks and outlook were so much fun. I also miss her.

[A.m.P]

Glad it was just pouting, corals are weird.

[SeaFurn]

Day 55

 

Thinking about one of these to replace my shark nose goby. What do y’all think? 

 

Although I kinda wish I had another shark nose...

[yoshii]

Oh wow I didn't know anyone was even breedings Trimmas! I think Trimmas are great, although they can be pretty shy.

[Ratvan]

12 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 55

 

Thinking about one of these to replace my shark nose goby. What do y’all think? 

 

Although I kinda wish I had another shark nose...

Gorgeous little fish, I had Benny (Trimma Cana) for about a year. Really cool little fish. I still want to find more and have a small group

[SeaFurn]

18 hours ago, yoshii said:

Oh wow I didn't know anyone was even breedings Trimmas! I think Trimmas are great, although they can be pretty shy.

Yes - Biota - but found these at Algebarn. I’d prefer a fish that wasn’t shy. My shark nose would come see me whenever I came into the room! 

[Ratvan]

1 minute ago, SeaFurn said:

Yes - Biota - but found these at Algebarn. I’d prefer a fish that wasn’t shy. My shark nose would come see me whenever I came into the room! 

Had to google Biota. Lol.

That's cool. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 56

 

A couple of behind the scenes pics today. Clearly I’m not very organized...yet.

 

Gonna try and take out those damn aiptasia tomorrow! 😡☠️💣🗡🔨⚙️🧨

[devaji108]

23 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Yes - Biota - but found these at Algebarn. I’d prefer a fish that wasn’t shy. My shark nose would come see me whenever I came into the room! 

 

must of missed it but  what happened to the shark nose? 

[SeaFurn]

Day 57

 

I think I got ‘em! And I pissed the zoas off in the process. No surprise there I guess. They didn’t open up at all today.  I’ll wait a day or two to see if the aiptasia somehow survived the citric acid needle attack before gluing the zoas back down. 

 

I also took the opportunity to try and change out the acan’s frag plug. That turned out to be a bad idea. As I thought, because the acan started off as just a tiny little nub, it had meshed with the frag plug. So I wasn’t really able to get under it and pop it off. Unfortunately, during the process, one of the heads split in half. The good news is that I got it glued down on a small frag plug and I think it will grow back. 

 

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, devaji108 said:

 

must of missed it but  what happened to the shark nose? 

He jumped - a couple of weeks ago. Such a bummer. 

[devaji108]

1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

He jumped - a couple of weeks ago. Such a bummer. 

 

oh I think I remember that now. sorry so many  build threads to fallow.

yeah just a bummer I like those guys.  some might just end up in one of my tanks 😄

[SeaFurn]

Day 58

 

Today was a family day and not so much a tank day. We spent about 3 hours on various Zoom calls with family in Ohio, Indiana, and Florida. It was nice to get caught up and see how everyone is handling things. Lucky for us, everyone is healthy...but all are ready for things to get back to normal.

 

I did invite everyone to crazy GA to go bowling and get matching tattoos commemorating this historic time - because, unbelievably, we can do that now here- but there were no takers. 😂

 

I did change a little water, filter floss, and refresh the carbon tonight though. 

 

Hope everyone is well! 

[SeaFurn]

Day 59

 

Took a long look at the rocks today. They look a little less red - but the red algae problem is still persists. I assume it’s cyano. 

 

I think my CUC is pretty substantial and should be taking care of it. But they aren’t. I have a ton a dwarf ceriths, a couple of Florida ceriths, a trochus, 2 nerites, and 3 little hermits. Should I make any additions or changes? 

 

I don’t really want to slack off the feedings as I think that’s what keeping the nutrient levels measurable - and the corals growing and fairly healthy....but probably contributing to the problem.

 

Just feel like some kind of change will be needed to get this algae to turn green or to go away. 

 

Will post a FTS this week so you’ll be able to see what I’m talking abut. 

[GtownSalty]

Have you tried changing up your lights to help with the algae? It may sound silly but we had a huge problem a tank at home and discovered that there was to much red in the lights and once that was fixed it took a while but it slowly went away. And who knows maybe the lights had nothing to do with it, it was just the only thing I could correlate to it

[SeaFurn]

Day 60

 

It’s been fascinating watching the frogspawn begin it’s recovery. Fingers crossed it’s going to continue its positive progress. However, I’m not sure I know what’s going on. Hopefully someone can validate what I’m seeing. 

Back on day 35, I posted a picture of it after I dipped it and it was pretty much a skeleton. It has since grown back some tissue within its skeleton. In some places it seems overly thick.  Recently, some tentacles have literally started popping up - or popping through the tissue. I think they may be forming below the tissue and then forcing their way through it - like breaking through. 

However, could the tentacles actually be forming directly from that tissue? That’s what I’m not exactly sure about. It’s hard to tell. 

 

In the first picture below, you’ll see the thick tissue still above tentacles - like it’s not been forced back all the way yet. Will the tentacles grow back enough to force that tissue outward - or will additional tentacles form directly from it? 

 

 

 

Nonetheless, I’m happy to see tentacles again! 

[SeaFurn]

12 hours ago, GtownSalty said:

Have you tried changing up your lights to help with the algae? It may sound silly but we had a huge problem a tank at home and discovered that there was to much red in the lights and once that was fixed it took a while but it slowly went away. And who knows maybe the lights had nothing to do with it, it was just the only thing I could correlate to it

That’s interesting. I know red is good for the chaeto in my sump on the 45! I have a grow light for it that’s predominantly red. 

 

On this tank, I haven’t really played around with the lights yet. I’ve been letting them acclimate from the PAR 38 bulb to the Nanobox that I changed to several weeks ago.

I’ll have to check my program but I don’t think I have much red included. 

[Ratvan]

7 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 60

 

It’s been fascinating watching the frogspawn begin it’s recovery. Fingers crossed it’s going to continue its positive progress. However, I’m not sure I know what’s going on. Hopefully someone can validate what I’m seeing. 

Back on day 35, I posted a picture of it after I dipped it and it was pretty much a skeleton. It has since grown back some tissue within its skeleton. In some places it seems overly thick.  Recently, some tentacles have literally started popping up - or popping through the tissue. I think they may be forming below the tissue and then forcing their way through it - like breaking through. 

However, could the tentacles actually be forming directly from that tissue? That’s what I’m not exactly sure about. It’s hard to tell. 

 

In the first picture below, you’ll see the thick tissue still above tentacles - like it’s not been forced back all the way yet. Will the tentacles grow back enough to force that tissue outward - or will additional tentacles form directly from it? 

 

 

 

Nonetheless, I’m happy to see tentacles again! 

I was under the impression that the tentacles would form from the oral disc of the coral, i think that you will continue to get tentacles forming and eventually will push that fleshy area back to the skeleton. My thoughts at lease

[SeaFurn]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I was under the impression that the tentacles would form from the oral disc of the coral, i think that you will continue to get tentacles forming and eventually will push that fleshy area back to the skeleton. My thoughts at lease

Yeah, that's what I thought would happen too!  What's confusing is if you look at that top picture you'll see those little tiny tentacles near that mass of tissue and they look like they are coming up from underneath. And none are forming on that tissue itself (at least not yet) - which you'd think they would be.   Either way, it doesn't really matter as long as it's growing! I was just trying to understand what was happening!  Thanks for your reply!

[SeaFurn]

Day 61

 

A few days ago I wrote about what happened to my acan as I was trying to remove it from its frag plug. Wanted to document what it looks like now so I can track its recovery. It definitely looks bad but I think it will recover. Once it grows back some, I’ll remove it from the frag plug I put it on and glue it to the rock. 

 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 62

 

April FTS

 

I’ll add some commentary tomorrow. 

[Ratvan]

9 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 62

 

April FTS

 

I’ll add some commentary tomorrow. 

Looks gorgeous, those Rics are looking lovely at the front.

On 4/30/2020 at 3:01 AM, SeaFurn said:

Day 61

 

A few days ago I wrote about what happened to my acan as I was trying to remove it from its frag plug. Wanted to document what it looks like now so I can track its recovery. It definitely looks bad but I think it will recover. Once it grows back some, I’ll remove it from the frag plug I put it on and glue it to the rock. 

 

 

This is the one you split its head?

[SeaFurn]

11 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Looks gorgeous, those Rics are looking lovely at the front.

Thanks!  That one is a monster when it spreads out like that.  I can't decide if I'm going to cover the bottom with them or pull them out to make it look very clean.  Thoughts?

11 hours ago, Ratvan said:

This is the one you split its head?

Yes.  I was afraid that was going to happen - and all because I wanted it off the thick frag plug.  I think it will recover though.  It already looks better after a week. 

[Ratvan]

12 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

I can't decide if I'm going to cover the bottom with them or pull them out to make it look very clean.  Thoughts?

I'll be honest, I think I have only ever seen shroom piles before so a carpet of rics does sound cool.