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Cultivated Reef

0.8g Refugee Pico


MrAnderson

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My 6g eclipse recently crashed but I was relieved to find some nice bits surviving. Because last week the lights were on the whole time, all the coraline (rocks and a LOT of glass) bleached, Xenia wilted (the SPS went way before that, when 2 powerheads seized), and the tank looked cooked in general. I don't think I could salvage the tank itself, when I scrape the acrylic it gets very bad fast (maybe vinegar).

 

So I got out a 6" cube (0.8 gal) I got a while back from F2B (First Class Aquatics) and set it up, and put the refugees in. They're doing OK.

 

Luckily I found really nice coralline on the dark sides of rock and most zoas survived. Also, my gorgonian is bulletproof, it's survived everything, and I trimmed the tips to fit it in. GSPs went in too, as well as 2 Astreas and 4 or 5 Stomatellas. However, what you see really is most of what survived, there are only one or two really small colonies of zoas I still want to get.

 

sorry the pics are poor

 

nice colored rock though...

 

purple_rock.JPG

 

 

small

 

pico_whole.jpg

 

 

my favorite zoas survived

 

zoos_gsp.JPG

 

I'm trying to get better pics, more to follow...

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The rocks were badly coated with a variety of macroalgae. I picked off as much as I could, and the snails just got them reasonably clean, except for the rock in the lower left, they're just getting around to that, lazy bastages. The newly revealed coralline is gorgeous. I should've taken before/after shots, it's unbelievable how bad it looked before.

 

nice_rocks.jpg

 

 

This has been set up for two days, and things are settling down. Creatures are emerging like this tube worm with a funny horn-like appendage. What is that thing??

 

tube_worm.jpg

 

 

corner shot

 

pico_corner.jpg

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So here's my crashed tank. This is after salvaging the above, so it's a bit tossed around. As you can see though, it doesn't look good. Most of the rock bleached, there's tons of dead coralline on the glass, brown kelp macro all over everything, and the only corals that made it are above.

 

BUT, all the stuff above came out of this tank 2 days ago, so at least it isn't a complete loss. I'm really happy with the pico so it doesn't hurt so bad... until I think of the green, purple-rim Ly Seng Monti cap I lost... ugh.

 

Did I make lemonade or what?

 

crashed_eclipse.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

lemonade for sure on this one.

zoas are actually suprisingly tough, they are often found at the top of reefs and get exposed to air during low tides often. harty little guys, which is why they're a great starter. I like the variety they come in though, I'm trying to let a garden grow inside my 45g cube. (mac daddy size of Anderson's =)

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  • 1 month later...

Latest Pico pics, it's been about 3.5 months since I set it up with surviving rock and softies from the crash of my 6 gallon eclipse.

 

The corals have been growing slowly but still look good. Although I have 18w over it, it's still lacking intensity. Pterogorgia has grown a bit at the tips, and the star polyps have probably doubled. The zoas are growing slow though.

 

I've had some banana-bubble algae that I've pruned some, but the bit in the front is staying for now, I like it.

 

I have yet to do a waterchange, just topoff so far; sort of a little experiment. I'll probably try a constant change totaling 50% soon, just to see if it perks up growth.

 

The pics aren't reversed, I moved the pico to a different corner and moved the rock to the other corner, also to hide the powerhead on the bottom. No heater, powerhead supplies plenty.

 

Thanks for looking :)

 

fts21.JPG

 

fts13.JPG

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It's looking very cute. You mentioned in the beginning that you had a few more zoo colonies you wanted to pull from the 6 gal. Were they worth saving?

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It's looking very cute. You mentioned in the beginning that you had a few more zoo colonies you wanted to pull from the 6 gal. Were they worth saving?

 

Thanks :)

 

No more zoas, I had most of my strains covered. When I originally pulled apart rock I left a few polyps behind here and there and gave the rock to my cousin. I don't think anything else survived.

 

Makes me wanna set up one on my bench at the lab! Paul does great work!

 

Doesn't he? The little cube is so neat.

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BTW otf, I also got perfect fitting black acrylic for the back, or I could partition and drill it for a sump. Right now it's flush against the back for a black background. It fits so well, very nice work.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

LOL - that's what you were talking about!

 

Thanks for asking-

 

It's a coralife mini-aqualight with one 10K bulb and one 03 actinic, total 18W. The light sits on a wire clotheshanger bent into the shape above, with some black electrical tape wound around the wire for grip. It's a little "springy", but I like it because it allows a little peek into the tank from above.

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definitely lemonade. nicely done. i really like the little tank.

 

Thanks Carinya... :blush:

 

I guess I'm not on your ignore list! :)

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kiltboy1675

i just got my tank from first class aquatics, is 2 inches bigger than yours. hopefully with a lil work mine will be looking like yours in no time

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  • 7 months later...

good save! i wish mine didnt crash either.....lost most of my snails, hermits, i got almost no coraline left....just a bunch of calurpa.....

i keep a 3 gal pico "hospital" now for just such a disaster...

 

why were the lights on for so long??

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oh hey! wow.

 

i took down this tank a few months ago, it didn't grow much but didn't crash either. i just got sick of the intensive topoff schedule.

 

I'm selling the pico tank, it's pretty clean with a few minor scratches from the rocks, but a vinegar soak got it spotless, I had an ad in the classifieds recently.

 

I had a coralife mini-aqualight (2x9W, 10K and actinic) on the pico, and a coralife 96W quad over the eclipse. I went on vacation and for some bizarro reason the timer got stuck on... hence the fried tank. If anyone's interested the powerquad is for sale too... make an offer, i don't want it anymore.

 

thanx for looking everyone. i'll be setting up a new tank this spring or summer.

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