Twin Desktop Pico's

[debbeach13]

Just checking in - how you doing?

Come out of the lounge and update your thread. LOL 

[Ratvan]

6 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Just checking in - how you doing?

Come out of the lounge and update your thread. LOL 

I updated Thursday? What you want daily? Hourly?  😁

 

I'm doing okay thanks, this lockdown doesn't seem as bad as the first, maybe because people knew it was coming or had prepared better 🤷‍♂️. Aside from that still dating through lockdown 

 

The Reef is still ticking a long nicely, I top off automatically a couple of times a day, water change once a week to keep nitrates at 5ppm (between a 10 and 20% change) and a weekly scrape of the glass. Clowns are fed multiple small meals a day. Oh yeah floss changed every 3-5 days or when looks dirty. 

 

The little Betta tank is clearing up well, whatever the algal growth was I seem to be on top of it with daily maintenance. Regardless Opal seems to be happy and healthy and settling in nicely to her little puddle. I do want some more plants and will be keeping my eyes open. 

 

[SaltyGallon]

Looks like things are going swimmingly mate!

[Ratvan]

Delivery day

 

Phyto, rotifers, pods and micro cleaners (bristle worms and brittle stars) 

[debbeach13]

Glad you are well that is mostly what I want to know. 

[A.m.P]

It's cool that you can mail order micro brittles over there, hard to come bye stateside.

[Ratvan]

55 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

It's cool that you can mail order micro brittles over there, hard to come bye stateside.

Yeah this one shop does really cater for the true nano and pico reefers. I also ordered some Stomatella but alas they were out of stock on this occasion, will try again in a couple of weeks

[A.m.P]

That's another lucky hitchhiker across the puddle, our vendors have some catching up to do once they stop price-gouging the same corals under different camera settings b/c merca'.

[Ratvan]

So made a new addition to the reef today, once I remove the stickers it should be a lot less noticeable. 

 

It wasn't a case of not enough flow, if I added to the sandbed at all the HOB filter blows it around the place. Rather, it was a case of unilateral flow. So I have added a small internal filter, with a wide output nozzle to blow across the flow with the HOB to create some random flow patterns. It was also laying around in my fish bits box which is never a bad thing that happen. Its rated 200LPH/50GPH so not expecting wonders from it but does make the area immediately above the rocks more turbulent. I'm saying HOB back to front flow and filter right to left flow.

 

Also the Clowns seem to now be exploring the whole tank rather than just their corner where they constantly sweep the sand out of the corner (and I come along and redo their hard work every morning). I am still thinking of corals and should be able to make an order at the back end of next week (27th November) plus with Birthday and Christmas coming up I might get this "full".

 

I'm still going to be going heavy with Montipora whatever happens but I have seen some affordable Acropora as well which I know from past experience can live in my tap water tanks, as well as some nice Pavona and Psamacora. Mixed SPS Reef with a heavy Monti Leaning?

 

While I'm waffling on, I managed to beat the ugly stage in the Freshwater Tank with multiple daily cleans and manual removal. I can now leave Floss in the HOB for more than a day without changing.

 

I also rescaped slightly by moving the sand so that it slopes from front to back, this means that the flow and gravity force the detritus to the front so that I can remove it via baster (different baster to SW tank). Opal loves swimming in and around the "roots" of the wood.

 

I aim to add some Buce plants and Crypts to the tank, roughly to the point where the Anubias is (furthest plant forwards) leaving the front section as a sandbed. Another case of plant and patiently wait. 

 

Finally the Spec, I have to admit defeat with the tank and shut it down. Either the heater or the pump is tripping the electrics to the house now so I have had to shut it down as I don't have the time, spare money, energy or patience to get that working correctly right now. Good thing I had the backup Pico running

[A.m.P]

Could go with bulletproof acros, blue slimer, green slimer, yellow if you can find it, purple is gorgeous.

Only problem is they grow tall and fast lol.

 

Pavona rocks, you could do an aggressive sps tank; hydnophora, pavona +maldivensis, leptastrea, cyphastrea (branching is awesome) down on the bottom.

[Ratvan]

I forgot to mention that with the internal filter I removed all the filter media (sponges) and stuffed it with rock rubble that i had previously stored in my HOB as an additional area that I hope could provide safety to the pods and rotifers that I am dosing the reef with lately. Much to the enjoyment of the Clown fish at the moment. 

 

6 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Could go with bulletproof acros, blue slimer, green slimer, yellow if you can find it, purple is gorgeous.

Only problem is they grow tall and fast lol.

 

Pavona rocks, you could do an aggressive sps tank; hydnophora, pavona +maldivensis, leptastrea, cyphastrea (branching is awesome) down on the bottom.

I have time to think and plan and replan a few times before I make any additions. Since essentially this is going to be a FOWLR tank until January I have started reducing the amount of salt I use in water changes to get close enough to 1.020. Once I have moved I will make the new additions (except Clean up Crew) once salinity is higher

[Snow_Phoenix]

I can vouch for the pavona idea - so far I find it easy to grow and it's very pretty when it ripples up. Montis are relatively easy to keep too, I think. 

[Ratvan]

Ok so I suppose that I better write about the Spec V really hadn't it? So I was unhappy that the detritus was not being suspended enough to get into the rear compartments to be filtered out. So once again I raided my bits box, some airline tubing and a spare pump (same GPH as Fluval) and we have a second pump lower down, I plan to aim this at the base of the tank to attempt to suspend the detritus. Easily done with a knife and drill bit.

 

 

I have removed the plastic that I had placed on the surface skimmer bars and have re plugged the hole in the lower filtration. I need to cut down the airline hose, it seems to be at the correct height for where I want to have the floating rockwork so may keep the hose at it current length and build it onto the bottom of the rockworks structure

[debbeach13]

Will this tank stay bare bottom?

[Ratvan]

13 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Will this tank stay bare bottom?

Bare bottom, or GHA bottom one of the two

[Ratvan]

So it has been roughly a week now and I have only spotted one Cerith Snail out and about, I have been testing parameters religiously and have not witnessed a spike in Ammonia. Also I have been stirring the sandbed daily as the A80 is on 100% on both blue and white for 12 hours a day in an attempt to burn through the diatom phase as fast as possible. So I think that the second may have perished at some point. I think the reef would benefit a scavanger snail so am on the look out for a Bumblebee or Dove snail as the Nassarius around are too large for the Pico.

 

 

I decided that with the addition of the new internal filter that my left hand rock was too close to the glass and the equipment at the back, so I moved it further towards the front and rotated it for a more interesting angle. I still need to remove the stickers from the filter which I plan on doing next water change this weekend.

 

In the Freshwater tank I still have a small amount of algae and bacteria being produced by the bogwood but this is now easy to manage, the plan is leaving this to see how long it takes to get out of hand. I might see if I can pick up a couple of amano shrimp or red cherry and see if the Betta tolerates the shrimp in her space. 

and yes also more plants, and superglue to fix the plants inplace within the tank.

[Ratvan]

 

Look at all those pods and rotifers, nearly ready for corals now. I think I see a few spots of coraline about too 🤞

[Ratvan]

@mitten_reef, @pokerdobe, @Cannedfishand any other Acro lovers. I want to try some Acro in this tank and have no real idea what is what when it comes to sticks.

 

I have found somewhere that sells small frags/nubs for a reasonable amount, but I would like to know which are likely to be more Hardy out of the following options. 

 

Bottlebrush Acropora, they have a couple of different colours, was thinking green, blue, purple

 

Acropora Granulosa, tabling Acro

 

Acropora Lorkani

 

Garf Acropora

 

Then nubs of purple monster, blue tort, miyagoi tort etc. 

 

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

@mitten_reef, @pokerdobe, @Cannedfishand any other Acro lovers. I want to try some Acro in this tank and have no real idea what is what when it comes to sticks.

 

I have found somewhere that sells small frags/nubs for a reasonable amount, but I would like to know which are likely to be more Hardy out of the following options. 

 

Bottlebrush Acropora, they have a couple of different colours, was thinking green, blue, purple

 

Acropora Granulosa, tabling Acro

 

Acropora Lorkani

 

Garf Acropora

 

Then nubs of purple monster, blue tort, miyagoi tort etc. 

 

I’ve had good luck with the tort’s.

If these are the exact frags you’re looking at, I’d skip the garf, it looks like just a piece of crust.  The first piece looks a little brown out, but flesh looks good. 

I’ve never tried lokani or ganulosa, so no thoughts there. 

[pokerdobe]

I thought I responded, but I guess it didn't save? 

 

Re-posting - so basically I agree with basically everything @mitten_reef said. I don't have any experience with lokanis or granulosas, so I can't comment on their hardiness. Skip this garf for the same reason mittens said, but if you find another frag, I say go for it. Bonsai is fairly hardy and has been a solid grower in my experience. 

 

I like the torts and the OG tort is pretty much a must have for any stickhead. I think it's relatively hardy, but it's also a really slow grower (at least for me). 

 

I will say, start off with the most colorful, healthy frags - if only so you know how well you are doing. It's always hard to tell with browned out frags if they're doing well until they start coloring up - whereas if you start off with something already colored up, you'll immediately know if something is wrong (or faster to tell). 

[Ratvan]

On 11/21/2020 at 1:17 PM, mitten_reef said:

I’ve had good luck with the tort’s.

If these are the exact frags you’re looking at, I’d skip the garf, it looks like just a piece of crust.  The first piece looks a little brown out, but flesh looks good. 

I’ve never tried lokani or ganulosa, so no thoughts there. 

 

On 11/21/2020 at 11:38 PM, pokerdobe said:

I thought I responded, but I guess it didn't save? 

 

Re-posting - so basically I agree with basically everything @mitten_reef said. I don't have any experience with lokanis or granulosas, so I can't comment on their hardiness. Skip this garf for the same reason mittens said, but if you find another frag, I say go for it. Bonsai is fairly hardy and has been a solid grower in my experience. 

 

I like the torts and the OG tort is pretty much a must have for any stickhead. I think it's relatively hardy, but it's also a really slow grower (at least for me). 

 

I will say, start off with the most colorful, healthy frags - if only so you know how well you are doing. It's always hard to tell with browned out frags if they're doing well until they start coloring up - whereas if you start off with something already colored up, you'll immediately know if something is wrong (or faster to tell). 

Thanks to you both, sadly @pokerdobe this will be all online ordering for the foreseeable future and the pictures were the WYSIWYG item so you can see my issues with making purchases.

 

I will make my order on Friday and hopefully get some healthy pieces  

[debbeach13]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I will make my order on Friday and hopefully get some healthy pieces  

Good luck it is a crap shoot.

[Ratvan]

Having just checked the websites it seems that Live deliveries are not going to take place after the 26th November (one day before payday) so that is out of the question, it looks like I will have to rely on Local reefers if I want to stock this before I move house in the new year!

[A.m.P]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Having just checked the websites it seems that Live deliveries are not going to take place after the 26th November (one day before payday) so that is out of the question, it looks like I will have to rely on Local reefers if I want to stock this before I move house in the new year!

Even though prices are frankly bonkers-low over there, your best and cheapest option is likely still to stalk people on forums who have what you're looking for an send unsolicited pms XD

[Ratvan]

8 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Even though prices are frankly bonkers-low over there, your best and cheapest option is likely still to stalk people on forums who have what you're looking for an send unsolicited pms XD

Haggling at the moment, the Clowns might go in the trade. Which would be for the best long term