System update before I forget what's happened:
I set the cooling fans aside because they never come on, but I set the high temp alarm at a lower tolerance on the controller so I can monitor it more closely. I've still been using a goose-neck lamp and small grow led for the refugium; will be until other projects let off required funding.
Oct 28 After noticing brown algae starting to accumulate in the display, I added one dwarf (or tiny) cerith snail to the display. Also introduced one blue-leg hermit crab to the refugium. I was relatively confident that this thing cycled already (start-up: Oct 12) being that it is ~1250 mL volume. I found out that the diversion line from the pump (made for water changes) is clearly awesome for drip acclimation.
I have been working on adding a second chamber to the "calcium reactor". 1st attempt I broke the 1st chamber's test tube, remade everything. 2nd attempt sprung a leak, which was kind of a big deal; luckily I caught it before the salinity was greatly affected. I disassembled the system, rinsed the outside of each section, reassembled and remade the faulty rubber insert. It's running with the additional chamber now; it's still in testing and still in test tubes.
Nov 1: More brown algae in the display. Since the hermit and dwarf cerith were still doing well, I went out for another dwarf cerith, but couldn't find one. I did introduce one nassarius snail to the refugium and one burrowing brittle star to the display, though. I was thinking that something should be photosynthesizing in the display to start competing with algae at this point; I want to try cryphastrea or maybe montipora when I have a better influence on most elemental parameters. For now, I decided to try something "tolerant" - found a 2 polyp frag of rasta zoas that seemed appropriate as the guinea pig. Dipped with diluted H202, placed in display:
Everything is still well today - watching the zoas closely; they were fine day 1, but have been temperamental since day 2 - skirts usually only peaking out. It could be that I haven't really fed the system in a while, so I'm going to try that today. It may be light intensity. It may be the change in light cycle... this pico's light cycle is unique to this system. I have been theorizing one of the reasons that micro volume aquariums (especially reef) are difficult to make low maintenance and near self sustained/contained because of the attempt to keep them in tune to acquainted circadian rhythms, which on these scales should probably be much different. With the fuge and display lights alternating the standard 12 hours each, I was concerned about the fluctuation potential of the pH in this volume because there might be a high capability for organisms to excrete or consume a plethora of elements in too little of an area given too ample of a time period. My theory is that by limiting the amount of time that all organisms are subjected to photosynthetic light, I may be able to avoid this threshold accumulation. So, the pico circadian rhythm is like this: light over display from 1-5:15am, 9am-1:15pm, 5-9:15pm ~ light behind refugium from 5-8:20am, 1-4:20am, 9pm-12:20am. Fifteen minute wake up period for the chaeto, a shorter cycle for the it to keep over-consumption (competition for nutrients) less likely, and a short all-lights-off period because the algae will finish off its photosynthetic exhaustion for a little while after light isn't present. There's a display/fuge lighting overlap for extended coral photosynthesis, plus this thing looks good with both lights on lol. Trying not too move the zoas, just going to see if they adjust in 2 weeks or so.
