Azzy's LifeGard 2.65 Cultivated Reef's Mandarin Orange Clove Pico Aquarium

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Azedenkae

Azedenkae

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No not yet, really like Picos. One day in the near future, I’ll be starting one of my own. If I stare at something long enough, it seems to end up in my house. It’s like a magic trick lol.
ROFL. XD

So far I do think I like it. Seems like the circulation is great. Only issue is getting a heater to fit in the 'sump'. Currently my heater does not fit so is outside. Still finding one that is both smaller but is also reliable. Probably has to be about 6 inches or so would be best.
 
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Azedenkae

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Yeah that definitely sounds like a bad bottle. But, as long as you can drop ammonia below ~4ppm, you shouldn’t have to dose any more, just add a presumably live bottle of bacteria, and then let it do its thing. But honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you just wanted to start fresh lol.
You might be interested in this update specifically:

So my bottle of FritzZyme Turbo Start 900 arrived yesterday and as I was pondering water changes, a dumb thought crossed my mind. What if I just dose FritzZyme now even when ammonia still reads as 8ppm? FritZyme is raved about a lot, allegedly they are super good products. Let's try, why not, the bottle is big enough that I have plenty leftover anyways in case I need to redo everything.

So I calculated that I can dose 15ml of FritzZyme (5x normal dosage), so that was what I did. I measured ammonia at 4:37pm yesterday and it was still 8, dosed FritzZyme at 4:55pm. I did measure nitrite and nitrate at 5:42pm, just to make sure there was no nitrite nor nitrate to start with. I usually always check both nitrite and nitrate concurrently with the ammonia check, but I forgot.

Anyways I did not expect much this morning, and when I measured ammonia at 10:47am this morning, it was still reading around 8. I measured nitrite and nitrate at 10:57am and well. Nitrite read 5ppm and nitrate 40ppm. Nitrate is of course likely a false reading because of the interference from nitrite, but the nitrite reading... well that was likely true.

In case anyone else wonder why I do not measure all parameters at once, I do serial dilutions to be surer of my results. So I use all four test tubes to do a 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 dilution and that's why nitrite would be measured slightly later than ammonia.

Back to the story. Given that I did actually measure nitrite over the entire period ever since the 16th of March, I can say with quite a lot of certainty that the FritzZyme nitrifiers are already converting ammonia to nitrite, and at an impressive rate at that, especially considering ammonia read to be 8ppm.

Tldr; added FritzZyme when ammonia was 8ppm, ammonia oxidation happened nonetheless, and pretty quickly.
 
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Azedenkae

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Thread title change!

Despite never being able to keep sps successfully, I am getting 3x Krypto Monti Caps from Cultivated Reef: https://cultivatedreef.com/product/item-208/

Not yet because the tank is cycling, but I am set on it. Have done a lot more research, but still quite a bit more to do.

Any recommendations welcomed.
 
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Azedenkae

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Another update. Ammonia reads 0 now, nitrite reads 1. I have yet to read nitrate.

I dosed 2ppm ammonia. Or rather, 8 drops of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride, gonna check in a lil' bit if it is 2ppm.

On an unrelated note, rip one of my test tubes. T_T Or rather, rip the cap on it. I have four caps that fit snuggly, and unfortunately I have now lost one. Three left. There goes my 4 tubes each serial dilution. T_T
 
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Brady4000

I just wanted a Mantis Shrimp.
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1617650301770.gif
 
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20210405_150947.jpg


Whoops, forgot. XD So here it is. I presume one can just have a piece of live rock in the center and have corals on it and it'd look great.

I'll have three monti caps that I will add to the bottom, and try not to disturb the tank at all. Hope the montis encrust and take over the tank.

Still have yet to figure the best lighting options for montis though.
 

Brady4000

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20210405_150947.jpg


Whoops, forgot. XD So here it is. I presume one can just have a piece of live rock in the center and have corals on it and it'd look great.

I'll have three monti caps that I will add to the bottom, and try not to disturb the tank at all. Hope the montis encrust and take over the tank.

Still have yet to figure the best lighting options for montis though.
There she is! Can’t wait to see it develop!
 
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Azedenkae

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Update: I killed all the monti cap. XD

So rather than tossing the experiment, I moved a piece of live rock over, tore off some clove polyps I had growing and tossed it in the tank, and see if I can turn this around. Moved all the biomedia out of the filtration chamber, allowing not blockage of circulation so I can add brine shrimp directly to the tank and just let them float around and around as food for the clove polyps.

20210425_165147.jpg
 
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Azedenkae

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if you need a smaller heater, this one is super tiny and works great.


Thanks! Someone else recommended an Aqueon Flat Heater, which should defo fit in the back chamber. Only issue was that it did not seem like I could adjust the temperature. I checked out the Hygger you linked and it is controllable, so that's great, and it is at 5 inches. I think it should fit too, but gotta measure to make sure. Even though the tank is not exactly short, surprisingly the way the filtration system is set up there is not much height available in the filtration chamber for a heater.
 
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Update:

I am shutting this aquarium down. I don't know what the issue is, but I keep on getting bacterial blooms in the aquarium no matter what I do. The pH also keeps on dropping despite plenty of aeration, and even when there is absolutely nothing that is supposed to be occurring. So something is significantly wrong even if on paper everything is right. Regardless however, it is not able to sustain life.

Even something as simple as clove polyp corals that started to grow in the tank, then dies after a bacterial bloom that comes out of nowhere after everything has stabilized.
 

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Sorry it isn't working out!
for the curious....
You are getting repeating waves of cloudy water bacterial blooms.
You started the tank with these these "gems" as substrate. Your bacterial inputs have been fritz turbo start, MB7, and whatever came in on a live rock (what kind/source of the rock?)
 
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Sorry it isn't working out!
for the curious....
You are getting repeating waves of cloudy water bacterial blooms.
You started the tank with these these "gems" as substrate. Your bacterial inputs have been fritz turbo start, MB7, and whatever came in on a live rock (what kind/source of the rock?)
Thanks Taricha.

Yes, you are correct with everything, though just want to clarify - the live rock came in much later, from my other tank that has been set up for five months now. It was originally dry rock from KPAquatics, i.e. sourced from ancient dead reefs on land.

Bacterial blooms started out very early on, when I dosed the tank with MB7 initially and even before adding any carbon source.
 

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