Charting the longevity possibilities of the pico reef

[brandon4291]

as the years pass I have made little changes other than to add corals and I also modified my feeding and water change schedules, tripled them... as with any reef there's evolution...the torch fell over on vacation and died, my acan has killed about 6 frags so far w more to come surely...but the frogspawn, caulastrea, zoanthids, and xenia have lived to ripe old age and been fragged, sold or dumped out many times. The frogspawn was cut back to one tiny head, relocated to the rear of the display and the rest sold off so I could use that vital space to see how many genera of coral I could support long term in this unskimmed, unfiltered vase. I would guess I'm up to $1500 worth in this gallon alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOsitYh ... re=related

I've added
hydnophora
duncanopsammia
dendrophyllia
acan x2 varities
blue monster zoanthids and yellow sunbursts
boxer crab
boxer shrimp
6 small brittle stars
about 20 asterina stars to keep the display lively
small dictyota patch for biodiversity
alveopora
blastomussa x3 variants
ricordea (in rear of the display, hidden along w frogspawn due to coralline overgrowth)

my favorite coral is an alveopora that is absolutely, undeniably thriving in this pico. Its 16 months old, and has doubled in size from the eraser-size nearly dead frag I got for $5 from the LFS. A doubling in biomass is an ideal outcome in the husbandry of alveoporids.

Notice in the video, if you can see through the scratches 39 months has left behind, the detail in the rockwork structure. Much can be discerned when spirobranchs and other tubed or fluted worms dot every square millimeter. This is the result from heavy heavy feedings of corals, which is detailed in this newer video. I do water changes now once or twice a week because of obvious export needs, and the corals are as healthy as I could want. I have previously fed sparingly, spaced water changes for max convenience and kept densities of corals that go about 80/20 on the heterotrophy/photosynthesis scale, but that gets boring so what I've done is aim to try a frag of every single genus I can find small enough. even the ones I used to never feed ever, like blastomussa, have grown phenominally on the settled particulate matter that is leftover from voracious acan, hydno and duncan feedings of mysis, reef eggs and cyclopeeze

a core facet in my reef tanks are that no nuisance algae is allowed to be present, and at the rate I've stepped up my water changes this amount of pure protein into the system has not caused any blooms, that's my #1 pet peeve in pico and nano reef designs, no algae!everyone gets lazy over the years and for the times I did, a red slime film grew on my heater and airstone so once I noticed that I simply ripped them out and replaced them with new ones. Cleaning them misses pieces, and disperses cells and spores back into the system to regrow whereas removing them is considered medically a "universal" approach, and it is surely the best. when you notice algae in your pico, if you are going for serious long term balance, take out the item in question and replace it, don't try and clean or remove the algae. Then, fix what caused your bloom!

Over the years I have tested reefbowls on various types of feeding and water change regimens. I have found the aggressive side to work the best, and my water changes are much simpler than on other tanks. You'll see the vase is positioned just above my sink. Changewater is kept heated and ready under the sink...on change days, I pull out a cork from the lid of the tank, stick in a formed plastic tube and siphon the water in to my sink with the tank still sitting under the lights. I pick up the gallon of ready water and dump it in, my water changes would make Kyle Petty's crew salivate.

B

 

[Anonymous]

Wow. Crazy. 8O

Very impressive the way you're pushing the boundaries and a lovely collection. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Awesome Brandon!