[CUSTOM] Ann

[aquaman7]

<drool> Nice updated shots... keep it up .

[Ann]

Aquaman, thanks!

 

Tiny, he he! Yeah this tank is just like one of the tanks I saw a few years ago at the Birch Aquarium in San diego. It was enormous and contained a mass of kelp that reached right up to the water's surface. To really compare though this Pico needs a dozen or so orange garibaldi fish to be seen swimming in amongst the fronds of algae.

 

One of the Blastos was doing well, certainly in regards to growth it was, but it just wasn't expanding as much. I've had it (the rest of it this coral is presently in the sump of my big tank, keeping out of the way of a hungry Angelfish) since 1996 and during that time it has always puffed up really nice and fat.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ecotoxlady]

Looks beautiful as always Ann! I love your blue zoas!!

[fish n' pets]

I love your tank! Im trying to find zoo frags that small, but all of the ones at my LFS won't fit in my tank. Cool zoas.

[FateX9]

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L

[sandlot13]

freakin awesome! i love the "kelp forest" type of a feeling that sargum gives it! keep up the good work ann

[Ann]

Thank you so much for the kind words everybody.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[kinetic]

hey ann, your tank looks great! It's still my idol tank!

 

my little tank, which is twice your size, looks so much smaller! It's crazy.

 

I'm having a bit of a problem with growth and polyps opening. Sometimes one or two of my cloves will retract completely for a day, and then come back out. Then I have a new paly frag that hasn't opened since I put it in my tank, and it's been almost a week.

 

Did you ever have zoanthids that didn't open up for awhile? And do you think there's a lot of chemical warfare that could be going on, ie. with all those mysterious palytoxins and what not?

 

I'm asking you because your tank is small and filled with zoanthid sp.'s. I'm thinking my tank might be going crazy with a high concentration of toxins or something.

[Ann]

Hey there,

 

Aww shucks! Thanks a bunch.

 

Funny you should mention the chemical warefare thing because I think that it's the biggest difficulty with smaller tanks. Something I hadn't fully appreciated when I set this tank up, I was concerned about temperature, evaporation blah blah but never really a secret war thing.

 

There was definitely something going on with the Seriatopora hystrix and the zoanthids. When they were in together the zoas wouldn't open up fully and would look worse with each passing day but when the SPS was removed they were almost back to normal within a day.

 

I pulled the Blastomussa corals because there was something not quite right with them. That could have been down to a chemical thing too but it could also have been related to some other tank parameter, lighting etc. To test the theory I would have had to take out the other corals one by one and leaving the Blastos in, not something that I was particularly keen to try under the circumstances. I went for the easier option.

 

Having said that the zoanthids themselves seem to be fine mixed with each other in that they are nicely expanded for most of the day with the occasional retraction when a hermit or amphipod comes blundering by. I don't think that there is an invisible war going on between them or if there is they are not overly affected by it... yet!

 

With regards to your Paly frag, what does it look like at night? Any signs of opening up? I have found with my new polyps that they have taken to extending beautifully at night but shrink down as soon as the lights switch on. I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to get round that little 'problem'.

 

Do you find that there are any obvious changes to the corals when you perform water changes and are you running carbon?

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[kinetic]

hey ann,

 

Thanks for the info! I currently only house zoanthids, cloves, this one paly, and a xenia stalk. I only know of zoanthids and palys having that palytoxin.

 

The paly never opens up, even at night.

 

I run activated carbon and phosban, and after water changes there isn't any changes.

 

I'll keep trying =)

[Ann]

My goodness I can’t believe it’s the end of the contest already, time sure has flown by quickly. This Pico is actually only 5 months old since I left it till the last minute to set up a tank for this contest. It has a long way to go before it looks it's best I think.

 

It has been and continues to be a great tank to keep. I’ve tried my hardest to keep the number of corals down to a minimum so that I can allow what I do have to spread, as a consequence I still think that this tank looks a bit empty.

 

To recap the specs of the tank are:

Standard UK glass tank (12” x 8” x 8”)

DIY glass ‘refugium’ (12” x 4.75” x 8”)

Micro-jet 450 pump

50W Hagen Tronic Heaterstat

Fluval 1 plus internal filter (containing carbon and polyfilter)

Lighting: 2 x 18W 50/50 compact T5 tubes (over the main tank) + 1 x 18W Daylight tube (over the refugium)

50mm case fan to keep things cool

Aquadoser set on a timer for freshwater top off

 

Livestock consists of:

Various zoanthid/Palythoa colonies

2 colour morphs of Ricordea florida mushrooms

Ricordea yuma mushroom

Red Discosoma sp. mushroom

Blue Discosoma sp. mushroom

Fungia sp.

Bubble coral, Plerogyra sinuosa (still residing in the refugium)

2 dwarf blue-legged hermit crabs, Clibanarius tricolor

2 Dove snails, Euplica sp.

Stomatella sp. snails

Hitchhiker crab

Sargassum sp. algae

Chaetomorpha sp. algae in the refugium

 

Growth of the corals has been slow but seems to have speeded up recently now that they (the zoanthids particularly) have settled in properly. Not all of the corals however have shown signs of growth yet, there are one, possibly two, small colonies of zoanthids that stubbonly refuse to do anything at all.

 

The tank has been easier to maintain than I thought it would be. The nitrates and phosphates have remained undetectable even though a skimmer is not employed which I assume must be due to the presence of a rather large amount of algae in the system. Problems that I’ve encountered (apart from frags being knocked off the rocks all the time) have been an above normal pH which was rectified by switching the refugium to a reverse lit cycle and some chemical warfare issues which were resolved when the Seriatopora hystrix was removed. There was also a possible problem with the Blastomussa corals, I’m not sure what it was but I decided to remove them rather than watch them struggle. Unsurprisingly I lost the lovely pink hitchhiker tunicates that came on the live rock.

 

Here are the monthly photos showing the how the tank has progressed to date:

 

13th Nov 05:

 

 

9th Dec 05:

 

 

4th Jan 06:

 

 

13th Feb 06:

 

 

16th Mar 06:

 

 

5th Apr 06:

 

 

 

 

Here are a few of the first coral additions showing growth and how the colouration has altered under the new lighting (and tank?) conditions. In most cases the colours are lighter now than they were when they were kept under metal halides (and larger tanks no doubt ).

 

Left: 9th December 2005, right: 5th April 2006

 

 

Left: 9th December 2005, right: 5th April 2006

 

 

Left: 9th December 2005, right: 5th April 2006

 

 

Top: 20th November 2005, bottom: 15th March 2006

 

 

Many thanks for taking the time to look at my thread and for all the encouragement you have given me over the last 6 months. It's been great fun!

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[debbeach13]

Really super job Ann Good Luck

Debra

[Maxvan1]

One of my favorite nano tanks... I am thinking about getting some sargassum myself...

 

Hope you win,

/\/\ax

[ecotoxlady]

I'll definitely be voting for you Ann! This tank is fantastic and an inspiration never mind the fact that whenever I look at the pictures of your zoas I drool uncontrollably with envy

[tinyreef]

suuweeet! i love the before/after color pics.

 

sargums are probably going to be very popular from now on because of this tank. i think they do make the tank 'look bigger' plus they're more aesthetically pleasing (imo) than chaeto and they seem less invasive than racemosa.

 

overall great job!

[adinsxq]

whoa.

[ZooGirl]

Ann, I just love your tank! You've done such a great job of documenting everything. The tank looks beautiful. Good luck!

[brandon429]

I can not tell you how impossibly impressed I am with this setup. That sargassum is truly amazing and yes, I'd be sold on it due to the effects on your aquascaping. The live rock diversity is stunning huh tinyreef, it only gets better in this tank apparently. We usually see it even out into coralline and macro, but this time it looks like the ocean. If you told me you were using ocean water I'd believe it, hard to achieve this on artificial mixes in the pico reef. I still need to go re-read your feeding habits, but I truly agree DT's eggs and phyto do wonders in my picos and I think this is driving your diversity. The fact that it works this well so far means keep it up! Love to see how it's doing in another few months, what a staggering display. OOOOHHHHM. (as in a meditation chant )

[tinyreef]

agreed, brandon, it is an amazing tank and i especially like the aquascaping. often the most difficult aspect of nano'ing imo.

 

btw, congratulations!

[titus_oates]

Hi Ann very nice tank, i'm just starting my first pico and reading yours and others posts have convinced me to go for it, i'm thinking about filtration and i would like to ask how did you design your DIY glass ‘refugium’ , making the tank i can do; it's the plumbing i'm not so sure about, can you point me in the right direction for any diy help, or diagram of yours, PLEASE. I too am from the Midlands NOTTS

[Cam barr]

any updated FTS Amazing nano

[halfpint]

I don't know if you still check this for posts, so I'm still going to say it.

 

Your Pico is the nicest one I've ever seen! I wish I could see it in person because we all know that you can't capture a tank's beauty in a thousand pictures. It's absolutely amazing.

 

I guess I missed it, but what happened to the sea spider that you found? Did you return him to the tank?

[KOFP]

nice tank...wowee. any updates?