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.
The frogspawn is actually looking better!
See how the heads in the bottom of the picture look, how they're all retracted and you can hardly see the polyps? When I took this coral out of the 55, it all looked like that. But, now look at the heads at the top of the picture. They look so much better. I hope it will continue to improve.
Because the frogspawn is improving, I decided my tank is ready for more corals. I went to the LFS and purchased five "nano frags". These tiny frags are cheap and perfect for this tank. I bought a green mushroom, some green zoanthids, some red and green zoanthids, some sort of tiny leather (I think...it's almost to little to tell), and some purple button polyps. They're looking good.
Sadly, both of my rams ended up dying. :( I have completely emptied and cleaned and sterilized my 45 gallon aquarium. And when I said completely emptied, I meant it. I took out the sand that I loved in this tank, but I wanted to be sure whatever killed my fish won't strike again. I cleaned the tank first with vinegar, then I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, then cleaned with bleach, then rinsed and rinsed some more.
I will be moving my angelfish out of the new fish quarantine tank to this tank. I'll be moving the filter from that tank over as well. He will be all alone in this tank for a while until I know the new rocks are infested with good beneficial bacteria.
Also, some of our corals in our 55 gallon tank are looking bad. I think it's the water, but all the params are fine. Our flowerpot is dead (I know, they aren't easy to care for and can sometimes suddenly die), the finger leater is looking bad (but it looks like it can recover), and our frogspawn looks like it is past the point of no return. In an effort to save it, I moved the frogspawn to my pico. I hope it will do better, but I don't think it will.
I haven't been doing much with my other tanks recently as I've been focusing on my pico.
The diatoms I've been dealing with for the three weeks or so are nearly all gone. I added two small mushrooms and a small green star polyp frag from our ten gallon nano. A couple of the aiptasias have reappeared. I used Aiptasia X to get rid of them.
Most aiptasia are gone. We returned the filefish to the store and got some new waving hand polyps for the 55 gallon.
Current picture (poor quality again...):
I've been thinking about what my maintenance and eventual feeding schedule will be like for this tank. I am thinking about using a pet water bottle for an auto-top off. Provided that works, that will take care of top-offs. Maintenance and feeding can't be something that require a lot of work, especially when fall comes and I'm back at school. I really want a sun coral, but that will require daily or near daily feedings, and I don't stay at school during the weekend. I'm thinking about twice weekly, one gallon water changes. During the first week or two after any changes in livestock, I will test all levels daily. I'll probably do the same following the move to school and back.
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)