So I decided to start a new thread for my pico since things are now going well. Here it is now:
It's an old tank, set up in 2017. I got it a year ago and being a total noob it ended up with a massive cyano/dino outbreak and some coral die off (mostly the ugly brown paly I didn't care about and a bunch of hitchhikers).
For reference, this is what it was looking like in February 2020 when I got it:
and in March this year when I decided I needed to do something to fix it:
I started a thread asking for help and thanks to this forum I was able to do a rip clean and bring it back.
Tank specs:
It's an old tank, set up in 2017. I got it a year ago and being a total noob it ended up with a massive cyano/dino outbreak and some coral die off (mostly the ugly brown paly I didn't care about and a bunch of hitchhikers).
For reference, this is what it was looking like in February 2020 when I got it:
and in March this year when I decided I needed to do something to fix it:
I started a thread asking for help and thanks to this forum I was able to do a rip clean and bring it back.
Tank specs:
- Tank: glass cube 24.5x24.5x28 cm (9.6x9.6x11 inches), about 15L (3.5 gal), no lid
- Lights: Leddy Tube 6W Marine (10000K) and Actinic (20000K)
- Filtration and flow: Eheim aquacorner 60 and an additional small cheap pump just to add some water movement
- ATO: one of those cheap hang-on bottle caps thingies from Amazon (this one)
- Temperature: Aqualighter aFAN cooling fan and Tetra HT 25 heater (adjustable, 25W)
- a bunch of mushrooms (Discosoma, Rhodactis, Ricordea florida)
- yellow cabbage leather coral (Sinularia dura)
- GSP (Pachyclavularia violacea)
- duncan (Duncanopsammia axifuga)
- green zoa/paly
- light blue zoa
- feather duster worm (Sabella sp.)
- noid pistol shrimp
- one trochus snail
- Daily: scrubbing rocks and glass with a soft toothbrush, blowing rocks with a turkey baster, sand stirring
- Every other day: AA dosing and Reef Roids spot feeding
- Weekly: 10-25% water change, cleaning the filter sponge in old saltwater
- Salinity (SG): 1.024
- NO2: 0
- NO3: 0.2 - 2.5 (struggling to keep it up)
- PO4: 0 (hopefully Reef Roids will help)
- Alkalinity (dKH): 8-8.3
- Temperature: 76-79F (I know...)
- Ca: 430 ppm
- Mg: 1500 ppm
- faulty heater, I've been struggling to keep it at a constant 77. Might have to change it if I don't figure it out soon which is too bad because this one is quite small
- too much GHA, I can scrub most of it away but some places are impossible to reach with the toothbrush. The Trochus snail I got a couple of days ago is helping
- Mg a bit too high, should fix itself with another couple of water changes
- get a new light since this one is ugly and sucks
- fix or replace the heater
- get more CUC, I'd like to get some Cerith snails (they do stir the sand right?) and probably another small Trochus. I need help to get GHA under control.
- get some shrimp! Sexy shrimp! Yes I am aware that they might munch on corals and that I need to keep them well fed. Since the nutrients in my tank are always so low it shouldn't be a problem
- Last but not least, get more corals! I want to get a nice zoa garden going on that rock. My LFS (not so local, it's a half hour drive :|) promised me some Sunny Ds, and I'd really like to get some popping orange ones (Bambams or Fruit Loops) and hopefully some Watermelons but they only keep noids so I'll have to wait and see what they get from their suppliers.