Twin Desktop Pico's

[afcajax73]

7 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I do like my little work station now. 

 

Anyways, onto the main reef. 

 

Zoas still looking poorly, haven't shrunk in size but only open a limited amount. They don't seem to have that faint brown film on them, that seems to have been replaced by GHA. 

 

Hoping the Snail mailing experiment works, will find out tomorrow

 

 

hope so!!! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

These zoas remind me of my previous AOG zoas. Was doing very well until it decided to close up & shrink one day. Could never figure out what exactly was wrong because none of the other zoas were affected. Zoas are beautiful, but they can be a pain sometimes, IMO. 😕

[Ratvan]

5 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

These zoas remind me of my previous AOG zoas. Was doing very well until it decided to close up & shrink one day. Could never figure out what exactly was wrong because none of the other zoas were affected. Zoas are beautiful, but they can be a pain sometimes, IMO. 😕

Yeah I'm trying to work out what's wrong with them. Did you try and dose anything? I'm thinking trying this stuff

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

38 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Yeah I'm trying to work out what's wrong with them. Did you try and dose anything? I'm thinking trying this stuff

 

I would caution you against dosing anything, especially if you aren't/cannot test(ing) for it. 

 

I generally dose kH (Alk), Ca & Mg only. I do it because those three elements are depleted very quickly in my system. But I do add 2x drops of Amino Acids (Brightwell) & 2x drops of Vit. C (Brightwell) to my reef. Mostly to keep the corals healthy and reduce the chances of them developing pox (might need to double check this). 

 

I do full 100% WCs per week though, so I *think the trace elements are replenished this way, so I don't dose any trace elements atm. I don't dose iodine for the pico either, but I do it for the 60G because I run that tank differently and only WC it once every 4 to 5 weeks. 

[banasophia]

19 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I do like my little work station now. 

 

Anyways, onto the main reef. 

 

Zoas still looking poorly, haven't shrunk in size but only open a limited amount. They don't seem to have that faint brown film on them, that seems to have been replaced by GHA. 

 

Hoping the Snail mailing experiment works, will find out tomorrow

 

 

Love your setup! And the rainbow!! 🌈 

 

It always amazes me that zoas are recommended as beginner corals; between the palytoxin and all the diseases, pests, and special care they seem like kind of a pain to me, even for experienced reefers. They sure are beautiful when they are open and healthy though, hope you get yours sorted out. 

[Ratvan]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

Love your setup! And the rainbow!! 🌈 

 

It always amazes me that zoas are recommended as beginner corals; between the palytoxin and all the diseases, pests, and special care they seem like kind of a pain to me, even for experienced reefers. They sure are beautiful when they are open and healthy though, hope you get yours sorted out. 

Thank you I am currently waiting on the post man at the minute, I am hoping that it is just some form of algae that a herbivorous snail will eat, or I added them too early during the diatom phase. I agree some of the ones that i have had previously were open and beautiful all the time, any of the sump zoas seem to have a real issue with light. I wonder what would happen if i switched to a mostly red channel

 

I love the rainbows too, its gorgeous when the sun hits the Freshwater Tank like that

[Ratvan]

@afcajax73, they have arrived. Also the size of that Astrea! I only have two tiny tanks mate 😂

 

The pots worked perfectly, no leaks what so ever. They are a little chilly at the moment but waking up as they reach temperature (the Ceriths at least) the Astrea is in the Spec V.

 

One for the little desktop pico, and one for the Spec V Hotel Del Clownfish

 

I shall name him Tiny for he is Huge, I'm going to have to glue things down with this one

 

The size of the thing in the tank😂

 

Ceriths warming up

[debbeach13]

So nice they arrived safe and sound.

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

So nice they arrived safe and sound.

The two Cerith arrived perfe tly safe if a little slow due to the cold, both awake now

 

Will check on the bigger one in a bit, only just fit in the pot 😂

[afcajax73]

Haha sorry! They were all the same size mate. I did think at the time, he might be a bit big, and I asked for as small as possible! 😂

Glad the pots worked though, they were £1.50 for 4! Bargain! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I wish we could get ceriths here! The only pico-snail I can think of are stomatellas. 🤔

[Ratvan]

21 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I wish we could get ceriths here! The only pico-snail I can think of are stomatellas. 🤔

Those along with phyto, pods and maybe some micro bristle stars are my next order to be placed Friday for the little 2.5g Pico

[Snow_Phoenix]

9 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Those along with phyto, pods and maybe some micro bristle stars are my next order to be placed Friday for the little 2.5g Pico

I actually have tons of microbrittles which I could give you for free if we were in the same country. My fuge is full of them - they stay small and they're beige in color. 🙂 

[Murphs_Reef]

55 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I actually have tons of microbrittles which I could give you for free if we were in the same country. My fuge is full of them - they stay small and they're beige in color. 🙂 

Try and catch them though.. you would easier sending the rock 🤣

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I actually have tons of microbrittles which I could give you for free if we were in the same country. My fuge is full of them - they stay small and they're beige in color. 🙂 

Much the same as what I'm doing, someone's doing a Caulerpa and cheato trim and posting it to me. Going to sort through it all and keep the stuff I want

[Ratvan]

Well in the end I left the Ceriths in the Pico working happily away and the Astrea in the Clownfish Hotel. Seems like a wise choice as the Fluval looks a little too clean today so i need to find some Nori that I have around here somewhere, in a box i just packed up most likely. 

 

[Ratvan]

Decided that the work station looked a little one sided, so today I evened it out

 

Also made the first order for the reef

[Ratvan]

Moved in some plants that were not doing well in the larger tank

[debbeach13]

Your too funny. How many tanks are wet now?

[Ratvan]

12 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Your too funny. How many tanks are wet now?

5.

RSM 130D in office - just about wet 

15 Gallon Freshwater - Sold Pending Collection

5 Gallon Spec V - keeping going for now

2.5g Reef

2.5g Betta Tank

[Ratvan]

[Ratvan]

Morning all, so completed a small water change on the Mini Reef this morning as nitrates had risen above the 5ppm that I want to keep the tank at. It seems that the diatoms have now burned themselves off and I see small sections of GHA and what could possibly be coralline algae on the rock surface. Also getting a small amount of green algae on the sides of the tank which the Ceriths seem to be working on slowly. 

 

The tank should be ready for corals at the end of this month, I am going to try the Montipora only tank once again so will look for some cheap caps and maybe an encruster

 

Opal is settling in nicely to her new tank, colours are becoming more pronounced

[sr2z]

Very nice tanks 👍

[afcajax73]

Looking good. Glad the CUC are actually working 😂

[Ratvan]

14 minutes ago, NanoReefer5gal said:

Very nice tanks 👍

Thank you, hopefully these will stay up longer than my usual attempts 😄

Just now, afcajax73 said:

Looking good. Glad the CUC are actually working 😂

Yeah it is a relief, just a few more to get which should be arriving in the coming days (Stomatella, Nassarius, Micro Brittle Stars, Bristle Worms) as well as the Phyto and Pods so I can start getting some more life into the reef before i start stocking with corals