FuEl's 5 gallon pico reef

[MarcoVan]

great pico fuel!

mind sharing more on your daily regime? (:

Happy Reefing,

Marc J.

[FuEl]

great pico fuel!

mind sharing more on your daily regime? (:

Happy Reefing,

Marc J.

Siphoning of detritus daily, water volume changed daily is around 2L. Ca and kH maintained by dosing equal parts of C-balance Part A & Part B, 2x daily. I have a pail full of aged seawater for water changes anytime.

[gerrard_boon]

Bro, how do u store the sea water to prevent it from going bad?

[peacemaker]

What's in your HOB filters? NP pellets?

[gerrard_boon]

hey fuel, i'm using Np pellets on my Hob as well. i understand that Np pellet does produce Co2 so without running a skimmer to increase the o2 level in the water how is yr livestocks reacting to it? from the pics though, its seems the Sps is not affected. great Pico!!

[poomoon]

Took some videos.

Part 1:

Part 2:

nice bro ... can also really see the shimmering effect.

[gerrard_boon]

by the way from the swaying of the xenias, yr wave seems pretty gentle....is it enough for yr sps??? then again, that the amount of flow i was trying to achieve!!!!

[yikai]

by the way from the swaying of the xenias, yr wave seems pretty gentle....is it enough for yr sps??? then again, that the amount of flow i was trying to achieve!!!!

if im not wrong, the waves were turned off for the video purpose....

i remember the xenias were swaying more when i saw it.

[FuEl]

I use artificial seawater. I mix it to 1.021 and leave it in an enclosed bucket with aeration. I leave it for at least 24 hours after mixing before usage. This is to bring the pH down to normal levels. All salts I have tested do not mix to the normal seawater pH immediately after mixing.

I place NP biopellets and biohome in my HOB filters. The HOB filters provide enough flow for the SPS. In the later part of the second video, I switched the HOB filters back on if you notice the xenia swaying more. I tried not using a skimmer but my SPS turned brown, then again it might have been due to inexperience. Now I am running a simple airstone skimmer if you look carefully. I might considering taking it down again when my husbandry is more or less perfect.

[gerrard_boon]

u mix sea salt with seawater????

[FuEl]

u mix sea salt with seawater????

Sea salt with deionised water. I use the deionised water as long as the TDS readings are between 0-10ppm.

[FuEl]

Sps always look better from top-down.

There are some pieces that I can keep in this tank, which I am unable to do so in my main system with chiller and CR. One such piece is the sunset millepora. I have 2 montis which came from the same colony, the one in my nano tank has colored up rather well while the other pc had been kept by a friend under MH and all it did was stay brown. It's rather hard to explain why.

[iskay]

Nice. I like the green pocci. Cute Tuxedo with 3 stomatella snail shells.

Algae growing on the wall.

[gerrard_boon]

stomatella??? where is it???

[FuEl]

stomatella??? where is it???

I introduced 4 pcs into my pico tank and soon I had 30+ of them. The numbers are much lower now, due to a scarlet hermit crab which was feasting itself on them.

[iskay]

stomatella??? where is it???

Stomatella shells on urchin, Post #137. 3rd photo. In this photo, you'll also see a very well-fed tail spot blenny posing for the camera. It was playing hide-n-seek on the first photo.

[gerrard_boon]

oh...okok..where can u get those anyway?

[gerrard_boon]

hey, bro fuel... i juz got a bird rest frag to try out from a veri friendly reefer ....wat were the issues u encounter initially while running without a skimmer?

[Terryz_]

I think the main problem, might be the frag turning brown due to nutrient level...

[FuEl]

One of my favourite montiporas.

Ca and kH consumption is so high that I am topping up around 13 ml each of C-balance part A and part B every day..

[MarcoVan]

One of my favourite montiporas.

Ca and kH consumption is so high that I am topping up around 13 ml each of C-balance part A and part B every day..

wow what monti is this? cannot really see its base colour :X

woah 13ml?! gawd! that's really alot! hmm how about going your own DIY 2 Part? (:

[FuEl]

wow what monti is this? cannot really see its base colour :X

woah 13ml?! gawd! that's really alot! hmm how about going your own DIY 2 Part? (:

The base color is purplish blue. It's either a rainbow monti or a pokerstar monti, I cannot be sure.

I have to split the 13ml of each part into 5 separate doses to prevent spiking my pH too much.

[FuEl]

1 of the 2 new grumpy occupants..

[MarcoVan]

1 of the 2 new grumpy occupants..

woah aren't they suppose to be poisonous? nice catch! heh

sadly I cannot go down to see! :S

[FuEl]

Some growth shots. Montiporas and Seriatoporas seem to do better in my tank, they are more forgiving of my careful neglect.

Favourite pink birdnest, has more than doubled in mass since I got it. Just added a pink Poccillopora for my panda gobies. Time will tell if it can do well.