My pico is 100 days old today. I'm not entirely pleased with the progress I'm making. It seems like it's going slow. I cannot get the rocks in an arrangement I like. I would also like to get more corals. I also do not have any fish yet. I'm okay with that, but my roommate and other college friends would like to see at least one fish in there. Part of the reason I don't have any fish in there yet is because I'm not sure what I want, or even what I can have in this tank.
The current stock list looks something like this:
-Frogspawn (I never intended on putting this coral in this tank. It wasn't doing well in our 55, so I moved it in hopes of saving it. I think I figured out what was wrong with the 55, but I'm not ready to trust it with this coral quite yet.)
-Mushrooms (More than I wanted. I have a green mushroom, two red mushrooms with blue dots, a blue mushroom, and a couple hairy mushrooms. I'm planning on adding a purple mushroom from the 55 too.)
-Zoas and other polyps (I have some zooanthids that are green and red, like watermelon, and I did have some that were awesomely green, but the rock they were on got flipped over while I was on vacation, and I don't think they're coming back. I also have some purple button polyps which also got messed up while I was on vacation, but seem to be coming back. I also have some purple/red/blue polyps that I got last week. I've yet to see them fully open, but they are opening a little, so I know they're alive.)
-Kenya tree (This started out itty-bitty, like a centimeter tall. It is now about two inches tall.)
I don't have any decent pictures right now, as my camera is at home and my tank is at school. Here are some phone pictures:
Frogspawn (still recovering, but looking better):
Green mushroom:
FTS:
Kenya tree and mushroom:
I moved back to school Sunday. I took my pico down that morning right before leaving home, and I set it up after getting here. It spent about three, maybe four hours not put together. Everything is looking good, except the zoanthids and button polyps aren't opening (they were already doing that for a couple days before the move).
If you're curious, this was my method:
1. Wait until last possible minute to tear apart the tank.
2. Wrap each piece of live rock in wet newspaper, except the pieces with corals attached to them. Place the newspaper-wrapped rocks in a styrofoam cooler. Place another piece or two of wet newspaper over the rocks.
3. Remove all (or as much as possible) of the water from the tank. Keep as much as you can in buckets (I was able to get all the water in two small buckets). Put frogspawn and rocks with corals attached in one bucket, and put the loose corals or small rocks with corals in the other bucket.
4. Drive one hour to school. Unload all of my belongings from my car and my mom's car, including aquarium, buckets, and cooler. Place aquarium on desk where it belongs.
5. Start putting the water back in the tank. As soon as there is enough water for the rocks, put them in. Once most water is in the tank, add the corals. Do not worry about layout right now; water very cloudy from sand getting stirred up.
6. Allow sand to settle, arrange rocks and corals.
7. Enjoy tank.
Also, a very good friend of mine had her baby on Sunday. I drove to Louisville yesterday to see her and the baby. He is adorable, and she is doing well. I'm very happy for her and her fiancee.
Before selling him back to the store, I put the filefish in the pico to eat some aiptasia. I left him in the tank for a few days, and did frequent water changes as the tank isn't quite stable. He hasn't started eating the aiptasia yet, but I'm sure he will soon.
Current params:
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: between 0 and 0.25, closer to 0
Nitrate: 10 ppm
pH: 8.2
Here are a couple of pictures.
A couple of days ago:
Today:
(You'll have to excuse the quality in these pics. They were taken with my phone.)
I'm working on a new tank, a 5 gallon nano reef, and I'm totally stoked about it. It will be going back to school with me in the fall in place of my 10 gallon planted freshwater (which may or may not stay set up--I'm debating putting the shrimp and plants in my 20 gallon planted). I made my mind up a couple months ago that the tank I was taking to school in the fall was going to be a reef tank, but until this week, I was planning on doing a 10 gallon reef. However, after putting much thought into it, I decided I'd use my empty 5 gallon. It has a smaller footprint, which is always a plus in a dorm room. It will also get about 7.2 wpg, which will allow me to have some corals I wouldn't have been able to have if I had done a 10 gallon. Because it's smaller, it will also be easier to transport it to and from school when necessary.
So, a few days ago, I started working on this tank. I want to get it established before going back to school because I've yet to find a good fish store in Lexington (if anybody has suggestions, let me know!). I also need something to keep me busy over the summer. I purchased about 6 pounds of live rock and some dry sand, which I seeded with some sand from our other reef tanks. I've been monitoring the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates levels. Yesterday, the ammonia was almost at .50 ppm, the nitrites were between 0 and 0.25 ppm, and the nitrates were too low to be detected.
Current equipment for this tank:
Filter: Bio-wheel (either 100 or 150, can't remember; probably not the best for this tank, but I was working with what I had)
Heater: none yet (tanking staying at 72.5 F during the day with the lights, drops to 70 F during the night)
Light: Nova Extreme HO Light Fixture - 10,000K-460nm - 2 x 18W - 18 in. - T5 (same one I had on my 10 planted; I never switched out the actinic light like I planned)
Today I spotted two shrimps that were berried. I'm not so worried about them anymore. :)
It's been two weeks since I upgraded the lighting and added some new plants to this tank. I've noticed significant growth in the Rotala indica and the stargrass. The other plants don't seem to be growing as fast as those two, but I can see some growth in the dwarf sag and a little bit of growth in all the plants.
I'm getting a bit worried about my shrimp though. I fed them today so I could count them. I think I have just over 30. What worries me is the fact that the females don't seem to be reproducing. None of them are saddled and none are berried. The last time a female had babies was three or four weeks ago. I checked the water parameters today. Ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is about 7.5, and pH was about 8.0 (I've never seen it that high before).
This is my 10 gallon shrimp tank in my dorm room at school.
It has an unknown amount of red cherry shrimp. It is planted, no CO₂, no ferts. The light is this one, with the bulbs that come with it. I'm planning on replacing the actinic bulb with one more appropriate for a FW planted tank. Plants include Hemianthus micranthemoides (baby tears), Heteranthera zosterifolia (stargrass), Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag), Microsorum pteropus (java fern), and Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (microsword).
Here are some pics. You'll have to excuse quality as they were taken with my phone.
