2.5 Gallon Caribbean Pico

[Ohmegg]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

Normal bristleworms won't eat coral, unless the coral is dying or they're starving. Fireworms eat coral, but fireworms are pretty rare. Normal bristleworms may eat some soft macroalgaes, but other than that, all they do is eat otherwise uneaten food and serve as a reminder not to put your bare hands on any of your rock. Besides the bristleworms, it can have some really nasty bacteria, and that coupled with potential hidden sharp spots is a bad thing. 

I wear elbow length yellow industrial hazmat PVC gloves for any tank work (think Breaking Bad). I think it's why I've had such success with such small closed systems with no protein skimmer and lazy water changes. I don't think we fully know how harmful all the dirty things on our skin is. Soaps, grease etc. 

[Tired]

Ha, I have probably those exact gloves. Also long tweezers that are meant for aquascaping. Those are great for flipping frags over. Besides everything else (contaminating the tank, germs, sharp things), I hate the feeling of salt drying onto my skin. 

[FishProblem]

Did some research and my bristleworms definitely aren't fireworms so they get to stay! I don't mind critters if they're willing to clean up around here.

 

So far, I'm pretty obsessed with my r. florida, even though it's a cheapo basic green one. It looks super cool and I'm excited to add maybe two more to the tank. I saw a really great rainbow ricordea at OSA this week. It was just a tiny baby for $40 - the full sized one was $100. Both were out of my budget though... I'm spending a lot of money on my planted tanks rn. The new zoas haven't opened yet, but they did get stuck in transit for an extra day when the UPS plane broke down, so I'm not worried. Yet.

 

(my new green ricordea and my pandora zoas in mixed light.)

 

I've been doing research on growing zoas. Mine are getting cozy and opening up pretty nice, but they aren't growing and I really want them to! I need to get off my butt and start testing and keeping track of my parameters. Shooting for phosphate at .03 or less, but present. Nitrate at 10ppm, and I want to start testing for iodide and consider dosing if needed. I also don't have enough flow in here. I thought the spin pipe output would make for a wavemaker type flow - and it does - but it also slows things down too much. I have a jet style lily pipe on the way to replace it and get some more water movement going on.

I've been target feeding everything in the tank with Reef Roids every 2-3 days for the last two weeks and the feeding response is great (no growth though!). Hoping to mount my blue eyed girls to the rockwork this week and then I'll just have to place the caribbean blues and kiss of death zoas somewhere.

 

 

[Tired]

You actually want phosphate at 0.03 or MORE. You generally never want less than that. Many people have tanks with much higher phosphate, and perfectly happy corals. Softies in particular don't mind, and may outright like, high phosphates. 5-10ppm nitrates is a good number for most tanks. 

 

The zoas may just need some time to settle in before they start growing. Target feeding anything that responds is a good idea, but not necessarily needed for soft corals, mostly just for LPS. 

[FishProblem]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

You actually want phosphate at 0.03 or MORE. You generally never want less than that. Many people have tanks with much higher phosphate, and perfectly happy corals. Softies in particular don't mind, and may outright like, high phosphates. 5-10ppm nitrates is a good number for most tanks. 

 

The zoas may just need some time to settle in before they start growing. Target feeding anything that responds is a good idea, but not necessarily needed for soft corals, mostly just for LPS. 

More, huh? That's good to know. Is there an upper limit on phosphate I should keep an eye on? I know (or I think I know) that high phosphate levels can cause algae blooms, at the very least.

[Tired]

There's a couple people on here with phosphate around 1-2ppm, and perfectly healthy corals. It can negatively effect the colors of some corals at high levels, but phosphate doesn't seem to be toxic to reef life at any level you're likely to achieve by reasonable methods. 

 

High nutrients in general can cause an algae outbreak, though that's less likely in established tanks. You don't generally have to worry about phosphate too much, and watching the tank itself is a better method than watching the phosphate level. If you have lots of algae, even with an appropriate cleanup crew and reasonably established rock, you might want to lower nutrients a bit. If your corals are happy and your algae is behaving, your phosphate is fine. 

 

But, yes, you want more than 0.03ppm phosphates. Low phosphates can allow dinoflagellates to bloom, and those suckers are arguably the worst pest in this hobby. They're toxic to all sorts of marine invertebrates, and can be incredibly stubborn once established. They're in every tank in small amounts, and are harmless under normal circumstances, but surge if nutrients get too low. It weakens their competition and lets them get an upper hand. Plus, photosynthetic organisms need phosphates to carry out basic life functions. Without phosphates, they die, and they can die fast. 

[FishProblem]

15 hours ago, Tired said:

There's a couple people on here with phosphate around 1-2ppm, and perfectly healthy corals. It can negatively effect the colors of some corals at high levels, but phosphate doesn't seem to be toxic to reef life at any level you're likely to achieve by reasonable methods. 

 

High nutrients in general can cause an algae outbreak, though that's less likely in established tanks. You don't generally have to worry about phosphate too much, and watching the tank itself is a better method than watching the phosphate level. If you have lots of algae, even with an appropriate cleanup crew and reasonably established rock, you might want to lower nutrients a bit. If your corals are happy and your algae is behaving, your phosphate is fine. 

 

But, yes, you want more than 0.03ppm phosphates. Low phosphates can allow dinoflagellates to bloom, and those suckers are arguably the worst pest in this hobby. They're toxic to all sorts of marine invertebrates, and can be incredibly stubborn once established. They're in every tank in small amounts, and are harmless under normal circumstances, but surge if nutrients get too low. It weakens their competition and lets them get an upper hand. Plus, photosynthetic organisms need phosphates to carry out basic life functions. Without phosphates, they die, and they can die fast. 

Oh yeah, I am unfortunately very familiar with dinos. I think I'm finally beating them back, but my tank is still very low nutrient. Nitrates today were undetectable, and I've yet to test for phosphate but it always is as well. I'm going to continue dosing neophos and neonitro. Otherwise I don't know what to do! I feed my corals, I have snails and hermit crabs in there living their lives... how can I naturally dirty up the water?

[Tired]

Feeding the hermit crabs may help, and will be appreciated by the crabs. Plus, it's fun. They learn that you have food and get excited when you start doing food-related things. 

 

If whatever you're currently dosing isn't doing the job properly, you could always try dosing more. 

[sadie]

I had to dose a lot before my Phos would register.  It was like 30ml for a bit.  I started with 10ml and went up until I got a reading.  I used both the NeoNitro and NeoPhos.  You have to keep increasing the dose if it doesn't register.  I was using a Hannah Phos checker and the Salifert NO3 test kit.  I did increase my feeding as well.  Now things are up w/o dosing.

[FishProblem]

18 hours ago, sadie said:

I had to dose a lot before my Phos would register.  It was like 30ml for a bit.  I started with 10ml and went up until I got a reading.  I used both the NeoNitro and NeoPhos.  You have to keep increasing the dose if it doesn't register.  I was using a Hannah Phos checker and the Salifert NO3 test kit.  I did increase my feeding as well.  Now things are up w/o dosing.

Super good to know. Looks like I need to set up my auto doser and start testing regularly!

[FishProblem]

 

Need my zoas to grow so the tank stops looking so empty! I got brave and dramatically increased the amount I've been dosing neonitro and neophos. Dosed .03ml for a hopeful .03ppm increase in phospate, and 3ml neonitro to hopefully get the nitrates up to 3ppm. I'll test in 24 hours and see where we're at!

 

I want more ricordea and I'm desperate to get some sun coral, but I'm trying to cool my jets and get the zoas growing good before I add anything else. I don't want to overcrowd the tiny tank.

[FishProblem]

Well, I significantly upped my dosing of NeoNitro and NeoPhos, and look at this! The first new polyp this tank has seen! Definitely not the kind of growth some people get from their zoas, but it's a start! Still dosing and testing to try to dial in the parameters, but I'm definitely encouraged (or this is just a coincidence lol).

 

 

The new polyp is at the far right of the colony. Hoping this is the first of many!

 

 

 

[Tired]

Nice! Always great to see growth starting up.

 

Your zoas should welcome having the nutrients cranked up. They're one of those corals that do best with a decent level of nutrients, and they're quite tolerant of what would normally be considered very high nutrients. 

[FishProblem]

Well! Last update for today. I mounted my blue eyed girls and my caribbean blues on the rockwork. The Caribbean Blues are annoyed but they'll be fine. Same for two of the three Blue Eyed Girls. The third got torn off the frag plug a little and I'm a bit worried about it.

 

My Kiss of Death zoas are sloooooowly opening up. They'll be the last ones to get mounted. Tank looks much cleaner without all the frag plugs in the way. I'll post a pic soon.

[jmcdaniel0]

any updates?