salteacup October 21, 2017 Share October 21, 2017 (edited) My first saltwater tank is an old betta tank! I had a lot of help, and a few crashes, but now it is filling out! They said that picos would be hard, but this sucker is on auto pilot now. Before it that it was a cup water change once a week. Much easier than betta water changes. The tank is a Marrineland Contour 3 Gallon UV HOB (filled with Chaeto!): Aquatop PF15-UV Light: Niello 18W Fixture: Ikea Media: Chemipure Blue, Phosguard, and Purigen in the stock filter area. Stock List: 1x Emerald Crab 1x "Assorted" Damsel Fish (It used to have a yellow tail!!) 1x Snail 4x Mini hermits 9 million bristle worms - I can throw a hand full of food every day and there will never be leftovers or parameter spikes! Planimals Random zoas Small Sun Coral frag Blue/Purple Sponge Random mushroom Xenia forever surviving chunk of Red Macro Cheato in the HOB Other a graveyard of the many...many..many things that I have killed. Desk view Lovely Xenia Stairs! They grew like that naturally. Another View! The two greedy guts of the tank. The sun coral eats and opens during the day, but I can't say if it's growing... Bonus waterline shot! Edited October 21, 2017 by salteacup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM October 21, 2017 Share October 21, 2017 Nice tank! Do you have more details of what you are doing with your HOB filter and the chaeto? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salteacup October 22, 2017 Author Share October 22, 2017 I chucked the plants in the filter area and poke at it every few weeks. The UV light always stays on. Since it is clear, I guess it gets enough light from the overhead...can't say if it is doing anything though! That being said, parameter are always perfect, even if I throw a hand full of pellets in every day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM October 22, 2017 Share October 22, 2017 OK. I thought maybe you replaced the UV light with a chaeto growing one or something, heh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salteacup October 22, 2017 Author Share October 22, 2017 You can change out the bulb, but most of the UV is shielded from view and wouldn't reach the chaeto! Only a tiny sliver is view able to see that the light is on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schg October 22, 2017 Share October 22, 2017 This is a sweet little pico! I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite October 25, 2017 Share October 25, 2017 When you first put the xenia in, was it low and then it travelled up, or was it high travelling down? I'm guessing the stair effect growth pattern was an effort to either reach more light or get away from too much light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salteacup October 26, 2017 Author Share October 26, 2017 I threw a few pieces of it free floating into the tank! Some of it attached to the back wall (as well as the glass, but I scraped that one off and gave it away). One attached to the middle of the rock, another in the dead plug grave yard. The damsel keeps tearing pieces of it off and they reattached wherever they can stay put. I think it's not anywhere else because the fish will kill/bury/move anything in the sand. He will knock plugs off the rock at least once a week, dig holes, spray sand, and is strong enough to pick up a small frag plug. The colorful zoas had to be dug up every day until they grew enough past the sand to not be completely buried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salteacup December 3, 2017 Author Share December 3, 2017 The tank is trucking along super well! I did a huge trim of Xena, and was gifted a lovely Neon Green Sinularia frag. I have fragged the purple sponge three times, and it is still a good size. Sadly, I think the emerald crab is dead. I haven't seen it in a long time and have more algae on the rocks. A lot of new polyps since the last update! Before, they zoas would be alive, but not getting bigger with longer lashes and making new ployps. The Orange face polyps were at only 1 for MONTHS. Now I have THREE of those. I've even been able to frag off some from the big mixed color colony. I'm not sure what changed... I love the way they look on the rock. The Sun coral is still there, but very grumpy from the trim and harassment from troll fish. The zoas are starting to cover it too.... There is also some pink sponge now. I've heard it can grow over corals. I haven't had any issues like that yet. Here is a side view. Neon Green Sinularia and button polyp are little grumpy, but add a nice green. The Xenia is still grumpy from getting trimmed. Some of the chunks haven't pulsed for a few days. I was not very gentle with it... Here is a shot with the button coral open. It's been opening up now that it is no longer covered in Xenia. There are some brown mushrooms in the pic too, but they blend in with the dead frags really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM December 3, 2017 Share December 3, 2017 That's great! It's looking really good. It's funny to see tiny xenia in the crevices of each picture 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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