Lifegard 4.1 pico tank

danieyella · Oct 26, 2020

Everyone made it though the vacation! Started mixing water last night so I can do a water change tonight. I'll get another photo up soon. I've been slacking. I have everything I think I want to put in there already in, so it's just growout at this point.

danieyella · Nov 1, 2020

Things I did not do before uploading this photo: clean the glass. OOPS.

and a top down for good measure.

danieyella · Nov 8, 2020

Had to pull out buddha, the coral on him was starting to brown and stopped growing so I moved it to the big tank tonight. When I picked him up the water that came out smelled baaadddd so he's out for good. Thankfully I did that right before water change. Everyone is grumpy because they were exposed. Not sure what to do with the empty space now though??? Ideas??

SMSREEF · Nov 9, 2020

danieyella said:
Had to pull out buddha, the coral on him was starting to brown and stopped growing so I moved it to the big tank tonight. When I picked him up the water that came out smelled baaadddd so he's out for good. Thankfully I did that right before water change. Everyone is grumpy because they were exposed. Not sure what to do with the empty space now though??? Ideas??

That is such a bummer because it looked so cool!
Maybe you can find a reef safe ceramic one with some holes in it to allow water flow on the inside.

danieyella · Nov 9, 2020

SMSREEF said:
That is such a bummer because it looked so cool!
Maybe you can find a reef safe ceramic one with some holes in it to allow water flow on the inside.

I was contemplating taking my Dremel and trying to see if I can drill some flow holes without destroying the whole thing. Right now it's sitting aside, I haven't thrown him out.

danieyella · Nov 9, 2020

It looks so empty without him

SMSREEF · Nov 9, 2020

danieyella said:
I was contemplating taking my Dremel and trying to see if I can drill some flow holes without destroying the whole thing. Right now it's sitting aside, I haven't thrown him out.

Maybe that’s all it needs is some flow through it...it actually could be pretty cool if one of your fish and up hiding in him.
Unless you think the plastic is leaching something.

danieyella · Nov 9, 2020

SMSREEF said:
Maybe that’s all it needs is some flow through it...it actually could be pretty cool if one of your fish and up hiding in him.
Unless you think the plastic is leaching something.

I didn't consider it was leeching anything, it's meant to be an aquarium ornament but saltwater definitely affects things differently than freshwater. I keep chemi-pure blue nano in the back so I would hope the carbon in that helps negate anything in the tank. I also do about a 90% water change weekly so nothing has long term time to brew as long as I can get flow through it. All of my corals and fish/inverts have been fine with the exception of the cyphastrea which I honestly think just wasn't a fan of the bright/direct light.

SMSREEF · Nov 9, 2020

danieyella said:
I didn't consider it was leeching anything, it's meant to be an aquarium ornament but saltwater definitely affects things differently than freshwater. I keep chemi-pure blue nano in the back so I would hope the carbon in that helps negate anything in the tank. I also do about a 90% water change weekly so nothing has long term time to brew as long as I can get flow through it. All of my corals and fish/inverts have been fine with the exception of the cyphastrea which I honestly think just wasn't a fan of the bright/direct light.

That’s the answer that makes the most sense then.
A couple holes to get better flow inside and you will be back to the gorgeous tank with Buddha.
Your tank is honestly one of my favorite tanks on R2R! So peaceful and such a good vibe. That’s a good tank to come home to.

danieyella · Nov 9, 2020

SMSREEF said:
That’s the answer that makes the most sense then.
A couple holes to get better flow inside and you will be back to the gorgeous tank with Buddha.
Your tank is honestly one of my favorite tanks on R2R! So peaceful and such a good vibe. That’s a good tank to come home to.

Awh thanks, I was actually about to take him and get to drilling. Hopefully that will solve the problem and I can find a nice encrusting monti that likes the brighter light for him instead.... I'm really pleased with how this tank is coming along. I was expecting a much bigger challenge with it being so small but its been pretty smooth so far!

danieyella · Nov 9, 2020

SMSREEF said:
That’s the answer that makes the most sense then.
A couple holes to get better flow inside and you will be back to the gorgeous tank with Buddha.
Your tank is honestly one of my favorite tanks on R2R! So peaceful and such a good vibe. That’s a good tank to come home to.

Well, that was also way easier than expected. Tiny stone cutter tip on the dremel and multiple holes are in. He's soaking in some RODI to be safe before I put him back into the tank.

danieyella · Nov 11, 2020

He's back in. We'll see if I added enough holes or not.... Couple new little frags coming in today for the tank too.

danieyella · Nov 12, 2020

Newbies arrived LATE yesterday (should have been before noon but got here after 5pm), but they seemed happy still. Here's a photo, they're still adjusting I'm sure, but I do see polyps out on most of them. Hopefully this goes smooth. I'm nervous.

danieyella · Nov 14, 2020

Settled in a little better. Really wish I could encourage the mushrooms to pop off the frag plugs....

danieyella · Dec 1, 2020

Ordered a couple very tiny reactors from https://makerofthingsdesign.com/printed-aqua pretty excited to get those in and running in the next few weeks (looks like a 3 week turnaround right now so christmas present for the pico residents). I plan on running clear fx pro in one instead of the chemipure elite because I felt like I had more success with that in the big tank. Probably run just carbon in the 2nd to change it out more often. No big changes in the tank itself. That bright green acro is starting to encrust further on the plug though so, success.

danieyella · Dec 11, 2020

Got a new tool to help with that TERRIBLE hard algae speckling on the front glass. Not sure what species it is but the little magnet cleaner just couldn't keep up, and the snails made little trails through it. This thing is nice and compact, and it retracts in for storage when you're not using it. It's also short enough I could get in the curves of the front with minimal issue.

Made by Seachem, if you have a pico and need glass scraping tools I can definitely recommend it. Everyone's a little antsy from me scraping so I'll post an after photo once they settle down.