Twin Desktop Pico's

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

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

That SW pico is really cute! 

[afcajax73]

Awesome... look forward to seeing it 🙂 

[Ratvan]

So decided to test my parameters mid week, I want to try and keep the system as close to 5.0ppm Nitrate and 0.03ppm Phosphate as possible.

 

Nitrates look to be slightly under 5 

Phosphates looks to be 0.03 

Ammonia is 0

 

The Ceriths have been keeping the sandbed and rocks clean, I do have a small amount of green film algae now in the rear corners of the tank. I assume this is from the reflection and refraction of the light in the tank, also gives me a couple of places where I could potentially grow something from the sandbed up. So I will be looking to add Corals this month and plan to hold off livestock (Shrimp and Nano Goby) until after I move house in the new year.

[debbeach13]

Glad the snails are helping. I think waiting on the livestock till after you relocate is smart. Why stress them out with a move. I would even go slow with the corals. Be very picky and just get specimens you really love.

[Ratvan]

5 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Glad the snails are helping. I think waiting on the livestock till after you relocate is smart. Why stress them out with a move. I would even go slow with the corals. Be very picky and just get specimens you really love.

Thanks, yeah I'm going to give the Monti only tank a go again. Can get some decent sized frags for cheap. Just working out what to add where and when, I definately want some caps on the glass and one of the rocks as a Digitata island. 

 

Should have the rest of my CuC shortly, also might have to move the clowns as the Spec V is being weird. Soooo much detritus on the bare bottom this morning

 

[debbeach13]

Can you put a pump down low in the tank and get the detritus up into the water so it can be filtered out?

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Can you put a pump down low in the tank and get the detritus up into the water so it can be filtered out?

Temporarily yes, it's the one I use for the water mixing. It will mean that I have a hydor pico return, hydor pico Powerhead and additional pump in the tank 😂

 

I have the return pointed at the surface for agitation and oxygenation and the Powerhead focused on the bare bottom. I think one of them has become blocked or has packed in

[Murphs_Reef]

On 11/3/2020 at 10:43 AM, Ratvan said:

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

I have a nice yellow Monti. As soon as it grows out some more I will send a frag up 👍🏼

[SaltyGallon]

Looks like you're off to a good start mate. How often are you thinking of doing water changes to start with? Bare bottom is definitely the way to go with these little tanks 😎

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, SaltyGallon said:

Looks like you're off to a good start mate. How often are you thinking of doing water changes to start with? Bare bottom is definitely the way to go with these little tanks 😎

I've been doing weekly 25-50% changes, funny you should mention the bare bottom. I have been thinking of adding sand so it doesnt look so shoddy. Each tank I have started bare bottom has had serious issues starting out. I blame my lack of live rock 

[A.m.P]

10 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I've been doing weekly 25-50% changes, funny you should mention the bare bottom. I have been thinking of adding sand so it doesnt look so shoddy. Each tank I have started bare bottom has had serious issues starting out. I blame my lack of live rock 

BB is so rough until your rocks are old, or at least that's the prevailing opinion and my own experience.

[Ratvan]

1 minute ago, Amphrites said:

BB is so rough until your rocks are old, or at least that's the prevailing opinion and my own experience.

It certainly seems that way. I've had these submersed in heated water for best part of a year but still little to no natural growth on them as far as I can see. 

[SaltyGallon]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I've been doing weekly 25-50% changes, funny you should mention the bare bottom. I have been thinking of adding sand so it doesnt look so shoddy. Each tank I have started bare bottom has had serious issues starting out. I blame my lack of live rock 

Could it just be more of a live rock issue than a sand issue? I let the pico rock cycle in a stocked tank for a few weeks before it went into the pico. Helped I think, but think I've been lucky!

[Ratvan]

3 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

Could it just be more of a live rock issue than a sand issue? I let the pico rock cycle in a stocked tank for a few weeks before it went into the pico. Helped I think, but think I've been lucky!

Possibly, although the two reef I have I have set up differently. The Fluval was 1 year cycled rock on barebottom, lots of issues. The 2.5 pico was live sand and dry rock and no issues 🤷‍♂️

 

Both filled with tap too

[Ratvan]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVCdKwrVA5/?igshid=1wehrw7wt2t8l

 

Pico feeding time

[afcajax73]

How's it progressing pal? 

 

I hope all is well!

[Ratvan]

Ticking along, some issues with the FW as I forgot to soak the bog wood and got some sludge/cyano but other then that all rosey

 

The Spec V is still running but I don't like how the filtration or flow is functioning so it's just keeping the rock cycled at the minute

[afcajax73]

looking good 🙂 nice to see some good updates 🙂 just to prove it's not all doom and gloom! 

[Ratvan]

Just now, afcajax73 said:

looking good 🙂 nice to see some good updates 🙂 just to prove it's not all doom and gloom! 

So I shouldn't show the Spec is what you're saying? 

[afcajax73]

you definitely should! It's looking much better than mine! 😄

[Ratvan]

7 minutes ago, afcajax73 said:

you definitely should! It's looking much better than mine! 😄

I will get around to sorting it out sooner or later, it isnt that bad I just cannot keep detritus out of the display in it for some reason. I think i need to undo the modifications and potentially try them again, mainly the fluval surface skimmer. I also didnt do the greatest job on the media rack. Also thinking of adding a second pump for the back chamber, i might need a hot object for that idea to work

 

I am now turning my attention towards stocking and the different types of Montipora Corals, trying to work out what's an encrusting species compared to branching or plating.....

 

Plan is to copy an amazing idea that I saw on here and completely forgotten whose tank it was, essentially the rocks were completely encrusted by a Monti (or Cyphastrea or similar) and they had used the encruster as a base to add more frags on top, so with digitata's and Elkhorn Monti in my case. I have taken a masonary drill to one of the rocks for this purpose. So in theory i can add a frag on plug, wait for it to encrust the rock, remove the plug and trade for something else  

[kimberbee]

Why does the Spec filtration suck so much? These are such popular tanks... How do people have the patience to run them for so long!?!

[Ratvan]

39 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

Why does the Spec filtration suck so much? These are such popular tanks... How do people have the patience to run them for so long!?!

I saw you set yours up as freshwater again, how's that coming along?

 

I might have an idea how to resolve the issue, it will mean that i need to find a different heater.

 

I just cant get the detritus to lift, the rocks on the bottom just means that I have dead spots all over the bottom of the tank, I dont want to position the powerhead on the other side as that exposes a cable that bunny can chew on and i dont fancy going through that issue again. So that leads me back to the Floating scape, I know i would want to have something fixed to the wall (acrylic bracket if you will) on which to place the rock. I also somehow want somehow to turn the filtration upside down so that detritus is sucked through a bottom intake as well as surface skimmed from the water column. I just cant figure out how i would go about doing that 

[Ratvan]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHfjMKvD-le/?igshid=12i0ku7sbp7xm

 

Short video of the detritus in tank

[kimberbee]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I saw you set yours up as freshwater again, how's that coming along?

I had shut it down because of algae and moved my betta into a smaller tank with only a heater and decor (no flow). 

 

Winter means the house is kept cooler,  and lack of flow meant the heater wasn't keeping the water warm enough. So back into the Spec, so that at least a little water movement would keep the temp up. It's working, but the tank is much bigger than I need for one betta, a few rocks, and a single almond leaf.