Jar of Rocks

[Highway reefer]

Just looked it up thats a cool looking fish. Not for $100 beans though lol i am way to cheap for that. Would love to put a clown goby in there or a war paint. Maybe a blenny of some kind but my LFS hasnt really had anything of the nano/pico variety lately. Really dont think i can fit a hippo tang in this tank

Yeah there not cheap, 100$ , that’s a bargain, back then they where in the 200 € a piece range if you could find them, I bought them because the lfs had them sitting for a long time. In Europe nano tanks where considered impossible to hold ,for newbies anyway. Got them all three for 100€ , strong litle fish
hope you find your goby
and I keep following, I find it very interesting

 

[Tokash23]

Have to do my water change a day early this week since i wont be in the office tomorrow but thats ok. I am pleased that everything has reacted well to the light alteration. This is the longest period (6 days) in months that things actually are looking up. Took some top down photos before i fed this morning.

 

[Tokash23]

Did a feed and 50% water change yesterday things have been looking great ever since i taped off the light. I have some hair algae going now i want to add some snails to help take care of it and more corals. Thinking also a rock flower nem as well. Next project tho is to find a new jar i like the foot print of this one but the glass is too hazy i cant see anything clearly unless its right on the glass toward the front.

 

[Tokash23]

Been awhile since i have posted anything here i let the tank go for a but due to some work related issues but i finally had time to clean it up last week and made some new additions. I switched back to the smaller jar and went bare bottom. I liked the bigger jar alot but the glass clarity made everything fuzzy. Couldn't make anything out unless it was right on the glass.

Went to my shop on Friday grabbed a bright orange frag of zoas no clue what they are but they are very bright. Also grabbed an orange ricordea and some green star polyps. I alos took the time while it was apart to super glue all the frags down since i have had problems with things falling down. Along with the frags i grabbed 3 margarita snails hoping they can help keep the algae down.

The gsp wont stay where it is i tried to glue it up higher and it fell down and i cant reach it without the jar over flowing so itll stay there till the next water change. Thanks for taking a look!

 

[Teen reefer]

Make sure it has oxygen and flow in it.

 

[Tokash23]

Make sure it has oxygen and flow in it.

Plenty of both. Has a small air pump to keep it moving and bring in some oxygen. I was using an air stone but took that off as i was getting to much foam on the top. Straight bubbles seems to move more water anyhow. Thanks

 

[brandon429]

it looks so sharp! we have another friend who did a rip clean 2 days ago/tank is rebounding back up it was nice to have pics and several mos outcomes logged here to show them trajectory

 

[Tokash23]

Have a link to the thread? I like seeing what others are doing! Hopefully i can keep it this clean and maybe ill start to see some growth. Things look good but havent really noticed any growth per se (although i slacked on the feeding and waterchanges for a few weeks), but happy with how it looks though.

 

[brandon429]

Beginner in need of help with a picoreef

Thank you @brandon429, of course feel free to share this post. I'll keep posting updates, I'm curious to see if and how much algae will grow back in a week and how the corals will do. Just for reference, here's another couple of pics of the kind of algae that was growing in the tank...

www.reef2reef.com

they did a good thorough job just like yours, both well done.

 

[Tokash23]

I am a bit perplexed today. I did my regular feed and waterchange last thursday and friday i noticed my torch shrinking and come into the office today and this is what i have. I did nothing different and i know the water was correct salinity and temp i double checked everything. Its almost like i am back to square one before i taped off some of my light. Frustrating to say the least. I am contemplating another waterchange just to see what happens.

Other than the zoas right above the torch everything else looks the same...

 

[Tokash23]

Not sure what has gone wrong here things were looking so well since i had made the alterations to my light. Now for 2 weeks things went from looking awesome to rather bleak. My torch is closed up like it was when it was getting too much light. My green zoas are barely open and the gsp frag is closed up tight. Other stuff looks ok but still a head scratcher. The only i can think of that i did different was when i spot fed 2 weeks ago i mixed in some reef fuel with the rods i used. Maybe i over did it, but you would think after 2 weeks and 2 water changes things would have bounced back by now. Hate this hobby sometimes....

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Aw Tokash sorry to hear that. I read that zoas can be pretty random at times and torches sound like they aren't that easy to keep. Maybe it was the feeding, did you check ammonia/nitrites/nitrates?
At least the other corals are doing well...

 

[Tokash23]

Yea its tough sometimes i see other pico tanks looking outstanding with virtually the same set up and here i am having issues periodically. Im not sure what would have changed to make this dang torch coral shrivel up like that. On Friday i actually put some tape over the lid of the tank to give it some shade and left it over the weekend. Here were are Monday morning the lights have been on for about 45 mins or so and things actually look better so far so fingers crossed it was just getting too much light. Weird though that it was gettting the same amount of light the weeks prior and things looked fantastic why the sudden change.

 

[Tokash23]

Quick update i have decided to change my tactics a little hopefully not for the worse. I will be doing a mid week feed of rods coral blend to each of my lps corals as well as the zoas. Then do a feed and water change a few days later. This week i fed on Wednesday then just fed again today (with reef roids) then and then just did about a 50% water change. My thought process is to raise nitrates just a touch to give my corals so nutrients in the water. I will gove it a test for a few weeks see how it goes. I still currently ha e part of the lid taped off to reduce light over my struggling torch coral. I did do a few cool top down shots before hand (as cool as an outdated phone will take anyway lol).
We will see what happens...

 

[Tokash23]

Second time this has happened but my air line was plugged up with precipitate. Plugged up to the point there was no air coming through. Had to take the tank apart and clear it out cant have no flow in the tank for the day. Happy Wednesday

 

[Tokash23]

Bout had enough of this little fella. I believe he is the on going reason this torch doesnt fully open.

 

[brandon429]

100% agreed I can not keep thors exactly due to that.
recommend: the yellow bodied blue micro banded shrimp may be the best replacement, I had one live 5 years in my vase and then too much 35% peroxide testing did zap him. Not the standard white red boxer shrimp those get huge, these yellow/blue bodied ones never got much bigger than a quarter for five years. He never bothered or picked anything, was perfection.

 

[Tokash23]

Ill have to see if i can find one around. This guy is getting bounced its worth it to see if that helps the torch out a bit.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

If you still have the sexy shrimp, try feeding it small bits of fish.

I currently have 5 in my pico. They seemed to find plenty to eat on their own at first but after a while I guess they needed something more meaty and they started bothering the zoas. I started feeding them frozen fish and they stopped, and now everyone's happy.

If it's hosting on the torch that's another matter though. :| How's your flow? I heard that torches need quite a bit of water movement to be happy.

 

[Tokash23]

If you still have the sexy shrimp, try feeding it small bits of fish.

I currently have 5 in my pico. They seemed to find plenty to eat on their own at first but after a while I guess they needed something more meaty and they started bothering the zoas. I started feeding them frozen fish and they stopped, and now everyone's happy.

If it's hosting on the torch that's another matter though. :| How's your flow? I heard that torches need quite a bit of water movement to be happy.

Flow is ok nothing crazy this torch has been up and down since it has been in the tank. When i first put it in it puffed way up and looked great for like 2 months then went through a phase of it not opening hardly at all. Narrowed it down to a light issue then all was good for a month or 2 again it looked great now its back to barely opening again with no real changes.

I guess you could say the shrimp is hosting the torch it spends a lot of time chilling on its base. I worry about feeding too much due to excess nutrients. Currently feed rods coral blend once a week (target feeding my corals and spraying a little extra around for the hermits and the shrimp. I have through about adding an extra feeding in the middle of the week to see if that helps.