an endless source of stress and debt: my first reef tank- jbj 28g cube

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wow, long time. the tank is doing good, nothing very notable to report but i'm curious if anyone knows what this is: it came on this zoa frag and now is getting bigger. it's pretty squishy. sponge? tunicate? the picture is not amazing but it's kind of a tan/cream colored thing that is growing in the recesses of the rock

 

[MnFish1]

If you can get some of those furniture sliders you would be suprised at how well they work. When you change the water the whole thing might be light enough to get them under it.

Empty the water down to about 2 inches - it will be easy to move - it won't take long to empty and refill - nothing should be harmed.

 

[chopdrop]

Hey guys, tank is still going pretty strong! I had as documented elsewhere a bit of an elevated nitrate/phosphate issue but have regimented my feedings and am good again.

I have become fascinated with the idea of having a fuge; a real one, not just a chamber in my media basket with some chaeto in it. My main interest thereof is that it increases biodiversity within the tank. I don't think I am up for plumbing something at this point, although I have only begun to research building a DIY pvc overflow thing. We're moving into a new place in, well, 10 months so I am of two minds over how much work is worth putting into this, especially given that I have my sights set on a much larger and properly plumbed tank when we move.
Is there any logic at all to just setting up a real small little tank in my stand with chaeto, live rock rubble etc and just introducing the desirable hitchhikers I find within it into my main tank? If nothing else, it would be kind of fun to just do a hitchhiker pico tank. I have a 6 liner and she eats pretty much everything that I try to put in there and I know that will continue in perpetuity but it might be nice to have a place to restock from. Thoughts?

 

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Hey everyone, I'm still toying with the idea of this stand alone pico "fuge" and wanted to kick some thoughts around. Hopefully someone can tell me if I'm being crazy.
I believe a 5.5 gallon would be more than enough for this experiment, 2.5 would be ideal. I feel like a (comparatively) large HOB filter would be good for water movement and additional volume. I was thinking of tossing some additional live rock rubble in there. I would be doing weekly water changes as well. Would an airstone also be beneficial? I would like to try and find some sort of top for the tank to minimize evap and am concerned that might limit o2 exchange.
Obviously a heater would be used as well.
No ATO, just manual topping off (this is how I also do it on my main tank because ATO's do not like me, apparently)
For a light, I am currently using the JBJ mini-refugium light () on my chaeto in my filter basket. It's not doing much good at the moment and it's my understanding that there really isn't a point to so little chaeto anyway. Would that light be an option for my proposed tank? It would be shining the light across laterally instead of top down so I would have to be mindful of that in some regards. There would certainly be darker regions of the tank but maybe that might yield interesting results? I'm not trying to grow any coral in here!


EDIT: I think this would actually heat my tank in a displeasing way. I'll probably just get some little bulb in an desk lamp

As previously stated, I basically want to cultivate the creatures that live in a refugium and add them to my DT if they're good. Plumbing something isn't particularly feasible for now so I guess we could consider this a grow-out tank for pods, worms, etc.
I would seed this with live rock from a variety of LFS's as well as my own tank because I want to grow as much different stuff as possible- no such thing as bad hitchhikers in this one.

Am I missing anything? Is this a dumb idea that I will come to regret? Who can say- perhaps... YOU!

 

[chopdrop]

I'm just going to keep replying to myself forever, who cares: major WCs, even to something as small as 5g, would begin to add up(I currently buy pre-mixed).. I keep my DT pretty clean these days as detailed above, would it be crazy to do water changes on a little dirtbag hitchhiker pico with a mix of like 60/40 fresh/DT discard? i.e. save the water I siphon out of DT and use it to finish off pico after using remaining fresh salt?
Seems like there would be some usable organics for what's primarily gonna be filter feeders, detritivores and algae eaters right? Is risk of toxins from corals in my DT not worth it? Are these even good questions???