Toombs

The fun begins with the FW brother 🤫 Quick pics of both tanks today, and after getting some of my stones for the FW tank! And as always everyone happy reefing!

Yep, one little snail, but today things are happier and debating on even doing a water change since everything looks stable. I knew sps was going to be a gamble but I know not to try it again, at least in this tank, and have decided to make it a lps and softer tank, leaning more towards lps, and then getting like a 15g or something a little larger for sps and such lol. And the other pico and my patio ponds should quell the feeling's of discouragement incase something else happen's with the pico reef.

Wow, what 10 days can bring in the hobby. So the little pico had its first huge hurtle right after the last post on the 6th. I came out to a little tank that was crashing and I didn't know why or how 😓. I lost all the pieces of sps of course, and now I am trying to save 3 other LPs😣. After about 2 hours of water changes, maintenance and dosing more Dr tims and adding another pump I found the culprit to the crash. The smallest astrea snail had gotten stuck between a literal rock and hard place and was being eaten by the hermits and the shrimp. But it was twice as large as the biggest hermit so the decaying snail nuked the tank in less than 7 hours 😢. I was so heart broken I almost threw my hands up again and was going to tear it down and just give up again. Then after another day of waiting I came out to a piece of coral that I thought was dead from day one had opened 😲?! I had gotten the red goni piece from a PetSmart, I know I know, but I didn't buy it, it was given to me bc they thought it was dead, and it was open and fluffy😗. I slapped myself out of the funk and started to do water tests and another small water change and prayed. Skip to today and things are "ok", not great but open and happy. I'm going to just leave it be now and not add anything new for a few weeks. I love this hobby so much and I despise the downs of it so much, but when I think I at least saved one coral that was dying just because of the lighting and water and maybe give it a chance to grow and look as beautiful as it should then I'll stay up till 4 each morning and grit my teeth 😤. On a lighter note the pico has a brother now, a bowfront brother 😗, and I know this is a salt water forum but I had to do a contrasting freshwater planted tank, and since the SW tank is black background I got the FW as a white background. I'll throw in some updates on it when I update about the pico reef so don't worry 👍. As always everyone thanks for reading and enjoy a couple of quick pics I took, nothing amazing, just to show the tanks, and happy reefing everyone!

A quick update on the the pico and a DIY I'm doing for it over the next couple of days. I ordered a couple of frag racks thinking they would be small enough to fit into the tank and make a couple of nice ledges and over hangs I could glue some rubble onto, turns out the two racks are almost the same length as the display part of the tank 😅 so after about an hour of pondering and thinking of just returning them I started to plan out a DIY since this tank is basically just a testing ground for everything 🦐! I ended up taking one of the racks and cutting the edge off it leaving the back part with the suction cup, still too big for the tank 😩, soooooo I took the other piece that had two frag holes in it and saw it was tiny enough to make a floating ledge! Then I realized I didn't have enough rubble rock to decorate it 😂. So about 5 hours into the DIY I finally got things kinda settled and happy, especially after a 25% water change since it was only the second time the tank has had my hands in it. Also started dosing continuum coral exponential to supplement feeding reefroids, less bio load and gives the coral variety, at least that's my take on it, but I will keep everyone updated on what the supplement does in the tank! And moved the mousepad out of the way and let the natural wood desk show instead, kinda like it ☺️. As always everyone thanks for stopping by and enjoy the pics and happy reefing!

Oh yes, Gene's brought a tear to my eye, and my room mate came along with me and she was just mesmerized lol. Said she wouldn't be apposed to a bigger tank to look at maybe lol 🧐 and the new frag islands are going to be dedicated to mostly montis lol, i'm in love with the rising phoenix and minions!

Thanks Emerald! Going back to Unrivaled Reef's this weekend after diying some frag rack's into floating rock islands for some more space for a few more frag's lol. And going be resetting up my old 5g Cube build from a few year's ago 😅 and setting up a few patio ponds as well 😬

When your bumblebee shrimp can't get along eating on one piece of fish 😑

Had to share a quick pic of the pico plate coral in a pico tank looking all happy and fluffy, thanks again Unrivaled Reefs for this little beauty and the others👍

Been a week now, big things in store for the pico! After last week's new additions I have been busy with water changes and aquascaping to get things just right. I have also stocked the tank a little 😅 and yes a water change will be done in the next 2 days with all the new stock to keep fluctuations too a minimum 😬 but couldn't help myself when I went back to Seattle Corals and picked up one of my fav corals, a lobo with just a little GSP on it so I can maintain where it grows lol, along with a psamacora, another favia and a gorgonian which brought some good color to the tank! Then today I ended up going to Unrivaled Reefs and Gene just blew me away! His little frag store setup brought back memories of my small shop and actually brought tears to my eyes 🥲 and just seeing the look on my roommates face who finally understood how beautiful show tanks are and wanting one makes me hopeful to convince the wife 😂! But I ended up breaking down and I bought 6 things 😗, I know I know, a lot of coral at once for such a small system but I concur, my water changes will now be done more often for the next few months and also daily testing and feeding will keep everything stable, along with a crap ton of supps on the way, with a plan for a diy Cal reactor 🤨, but that's for another time! I got a better app for photos and got some decent shots tonight, and I will be taking more over the next few weeks as all the coral gets acclimated and used to the new tank. Once again everyone thanks for taking the time to come and see the pico and I hope the next few weeks brings some excitement and amazement for not only me but for you guys and gals as well! And as always happy reefing everyone!

How goes it fellow reefer's! Been a few days since I've updated on the pico and it has come a long way! It now has its first tank inhabitants which will be listed below and 2 new frags that came from Seattle Corals. Good thing I was on a budget lol but anyways here are a few pics! Sorry for the bad quality, cell cam's definitely don't like blue light lol. As always everyone happy reefing! 2x bumblebee shrimp 4x blue leg hermits 2x Astrea snails

🤤 So pretty! I'll have to see if anything catches my eye on their web page since I live pretty far from them. Also thought I'd show off the new chaeto ball in the ZooMed algae reactor with its custom light panel 💡

I'm actually going to call them about a specialty plate coral, also to talk to them since I used to work for them and then just disappeared and moved to WA. lol 😅 and one of monti's I want to grab again is my seasons greeting's monti. Still have yet to set foot in any coral shops up here except Denny's Pet World so i'm excited to find what's up here!

Definitely a feet in it's own but monti's and digi's should do fine since the main focus is going to be a button scoly and a plate coral. Along with 2 water change's a week will keep the fluc's down to a minimum. SPS was my specialty back in SD and AquaSD still has some of my old monti's and acro's growing and being sold which i'm happy about 🤩, but you are right, picos are very prone to tank swing's so being at my desk almost 16 hour's a day I should see and catch anything before it happens, hope's and pray's to the all mighty coral god's🐡, only time will tell what this tiny tank will do lol.

Just a little hang ten happening, it's only on 20% power as well and ramps down to 5% with the mode it's on 😅so I think it might turn into more of an LPS and SPS mixed tank with a few zoas, but I think the flow will be a little strong for most softie's and even some LPS, but the stocking is going to be very limited as well lol.

Another quick update, finally got the aquascape how I like it, working with only 3" deep display is very challenging 😅, but after smashing the new rock into about 6 new pieces I picked the best pieces and got a semi blocked wave maker, last picture the wave maker was almost fully covered, and now makes waves at about half the power it was. This coming week I'll definitely have to post a vid trip to a salt water store and grab my first piece of coral! As always enjoy the pics and happy reefing everyone!