My Lil Pico Project

[steelhealr]

Don't worry wuv....I didn't move your post thread....YET!!! LOL. Just teasing. SH

 

[wuvmybetta]

It's fine here, thank you, please drive thru, and come again

I just made my first post in the nano forum. It was a groundbreaking event!

 

[wuvmybetta]

Two weeks old and finally cycled I added three blue legged hermits and they shot my ammonia through the roof. I put two in my big tank so now this only has one which is much easier on the bio-load. I did some rearranging last night and my gorgonian, which has been doing wonderfully, is upset with it's new position so I plan to move some things around again today. My mushroom is not too happy so close to the light either
Anyhoo,

 

[karen84]

Wow very nice

 

[scotto]

Looks awesome mate, I wish I had the courage to start a nano tank. Keep the great pics coming.

 

[Synirr]

Looking good!

 

[lljdma06]

So tiny, so cute! I love it! It's great to see some picos here. Now that is a challenging tank. Keep us posted.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thanks guys. It's a slow but sure process. I bought a lil piece of zoanthid the other day and it's gorgeous, yet hesitant to open all of the way. And the guy threw in a few sand polyps that are doing very well. I moved the mushroom to a happier spot and it looks quite content and I put the gorgonian on the back wall close to the light and it's doing even better there.

I bought a small green tentacled mushroom which was quite an experience. I was like a bumbling idiot with it the first day. It wasn't attached to anything so it kept blowing around and I finally glued it to a piece of rubble. Then I realized the current in the tank was just too much, so I moved it to my 100g. It looks great in there, although it's hardly noticable in such a big tank But still, it's doing much better not being blown willy-nilly.

 

[bunjiweb]

Looks good!

Are you gunna take the dead acroporas out as you stock it with other corals or what?

Also that lighting REALLY doesnt look like a 36W. I have 11W lamps over my 2 5G picos and it appears to look much brighter than your tank.

Ben

 

[Luke_e]

Very nice tank there, i love the little cave bit, bottom left. I bet that will be made use of by what you put in it .

 

[wuvmybetta]

I only have been using one, Ben. It's just too much light for the shroom when they're both on. I think I'm going to ditch the second and just stick with 18watts for the tank permanently. Aaand, I have another 5 like this so maybe someday....
And yes I plan to take rock out as I replace it with nice pieces of shroom covered rocks. Just not yet. I'm too nervous to buy anything expensive just yet.

I dunno Luke. My master plan is to someday have dwarf seahorses. Someday . I just can digest the idea of keeping a marine fish of any kind in anything less than a 50 gallon. It seems a bit harsh to me. Thankfully the dwarf seahorses do best in smaller spaces. But I doubt anyone will ever take up residence in that sweet little cave.

 

[steelhealr]

Good approach wuv. I wouldn't put any fish in a pico. I agree with bunji re: the acropora skeletons. What sea salt are you using and what have you set your s.g. at ? SH

 

[wuvmybetta]

I'm a brat, I buy my water But really only because I haven't come that far (as far as extra space to mix water, my fishroom is full!). So I use Kent salt, it tests out at the norm 1.025. There's another lfs not-so-near me that sells pre-mixed Ocean Nutrition water ( I believe that was it). A friend of mine uses that and swears her tank has never looked better, so I'm thinking of making the drive for now until I upgrade to mixing it myself.


Anyway, the tanks a month old tomorrow! I moved the green mushroom to my 100g last night because it was getting blown willy nilly in the small tank, and I couldn't help but notice the difference in it's behaviour compared to the relaxed,beautiful shroom in the big tank. I've decided to go with zoanthids, and lots of them I went to a newer lfs to get my green zoas last week, and I love them so much that I went back today for more. He didn't have any little pieces at the moment but he had just got back from picking up tons of boxes, so I dunno what he has. He said he'd save me little crumbles of zoas and even make me a few

I've decided that I'm going to *try* to avoid buying show pieces. I want to start with very small frags and watch them progress and grow That's such a satisfying feeling to watch itty bitty things evolve into glorious adults. So this tank will take awhile before it's beautiful, but I hope with time it will be one of my favorites (like it's not already!)

Also, so far so good with the background And I removed that pokey (?) skeleton the other night when I did some slight rearranging. I'll update with a new pic tonight. I need to get one of those nano magnet scrubbers. There's some green algae in places that I can't reach

 

[steelhealr]

Wuv...do some water tests on the sea water that you buy. Some have been found to contain nitrates...not much..but..it varied between bottles. SH

 

[wuvmybetta]

K. I also heard that the alkalinity with Kent has been poo lately.