Haha damn Tapatalk!

Have they taken any food yet? I have tried Panda gobies twice before with no luck.

I was asking on R2R about getting them to eat, and one guy replied that had first-hand experience. He said he kept them with Pygmy Seahorses and never saw the Pandas feeding. He said he also never saw them until he shut the tank down. Haha. I haven't seen mine feeding, but when I add live brine shrimp they become more active, so I think they are eating. The smaller one that got stuck in the Zoa polyps isn't doing so well. This morning I thought it was dead - on its side - but when I went to grab it with tweezers it jumped up, and looks fine. They are so weird. I've been feeding thawed PE Calanus too, but I don't see any action when I feed that. I'm going to start up a Tigger Pod culture - can feed my "big" reef that too.

I added a couple more zoa frags, added a Poccilopora frag for the Panda gobies (I might remove it, not a fan of Poccis and the gobies like the rocks better anyway), removed the Toadstool Leather, and added a few Rock Flower Anemones. I still need to put something right in the middle where the Toadstool was. Hmm...what to add??

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I found the smaller Panda Goby dead this morning. This is the same one that almost got eaten by the Sunny D polyps, and has been all dazed and confused ever since. I think he got stung. The other one I saw a streak of this morning, so he's still kicking. I'm feeding the tank twice a day with a live baby brine shrimp and PE Calanus mixture - maybe 30 BBS and about 12 pieces of Calanus. The LFS is getting Catalina Gobies tomorrow, so I hope to score a couple! I missed out on the super cool Periclimenes anemone shrimps. They are SO cool!


The diatom bloom is over, and now coralline algae is growing like mad! It's sucking all the calcium and alkalinity out of the water! I am doing 2-gallon water changes 2x per week. This is super easy though, and only takes me about 6 minutes. I keep a 5-gallon pail running with saltwater and a heater, so it's ready to go whenever I have 6 minutes to do a water change (usually while I'm cooking supper).


I can't remember if I mentioned that I got the 1/2" glass lily pipe, but apparently the Fluval is 5/8" hose. Dangit, I even did The Google. Apparently The Google doesn't know everything! So I need an adapter to get the pipe on - this weekend's project! The lily pipe is bigger than expected even though measurements were provided (everything is big when you're talking about a pico tank), so I may try to DIY something different. I really like the Innovative Marine Spin Stream nozzles, but they are kinda bulky for the pico, and not sure the mounting would work out.

Sorry about the Goby, tank (jar) is looking nice.

Is your cooking any good?

@Warren Cooking?? Wha?


New little buddies added yesterday! Two Catalina Gobies.

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...

Focus Warren. F.O.C.U.S.

Pics from just now. I moved the corals around a bit. Still not sure what to put in the middle.

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I put a PAR meter on the tank yesterday and checked everything. The settings I was running on the Prime were putting 200-250 onto the Acros, so I turned it up a bit so the Acros are now getting 300-350. The one RFA (red center) is getting pretty high light too - 300, the others sit more around 250. Out of entertainment, when I turned the Prime up to 100% on all channels the sand was 800!! HA!

I added a Blue Lagoon Acro frag yesterday, and finally decided on placement for everything I think. I have two more spots that could use something - one at the very top, and one just above the Frogspawn. There is also a spot below the gorgonian that something could go, but that is a VERY high flow area and lowish light, so I'm not sure I'll be able to find anything that will be happy there. The Acros are all growing - encrusting the epoxy, and polyp extension is always good.

The canister is getting air build up in it, and releases a big gust of bubbles every once in awhile which irritates everything. I'm hoping to find an answer to that problem. Not sure what to do about that.

The 2nd Panda Goby died. I found his little body when I was rearranging corals. :( I thought he was doing well, but I found he was much more elusive when I added the Catalina Gobies, so maybe they were harassing him.

The Catalina Gobies are entertaining - they lazily chase each other a few times a day. Apparently they are hermaphrodites, and any two could breed. Maybe they'll start laying eggs at some point.

I'd like to add a fish that swims around, but not sure there is anything suitably small. I do plan to add a Porcelain Crab and a Pedersen's Shrimp. Maybe a couple Sexy Shrimp.

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Check out how much the ORA Chip's Acro and the RR Orange Passion have encrusted the epoxy already! Today is exactly 30 days since clipping the 3 original Acro frags. Not bad growth for a brand new tank. Now...to get some orange polyps on that OP.

I took photos of each Acro the day I cut and installed them. Check out the comparison. It's clear the Chip's Acro has grown quite a bit!

ORA Chip's Acro Feb 10:
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ORA Chip's Acro today (30 days lapsed):
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RR Orange Passion Feb 10:
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RR Orange Passion today (30 days lapsed):
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CM Purple Polyp Nasuta Feb 18:
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CM Purple Polyp Nasuta today (22 days lapsed):
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Nice to see quick growth in a short period. This little globe is coming along nicely.

Time for an update on this bad boy.

Solve your canister air issue?
I had the same problem years ago with a reactor and found I needed to restrict the outlet instead of the inlet. The back pressure allowed the pump to push the air out.

Good idea! I will do so this weekend, and take some pics! The Frag Swap is coming up in which everyone is supposed to be bringing their picos for the contest. I'm not sure how many other ones are actually still running. I think they all thought picos were easy. Well, they are, they require daily attention though. :lol:

Interesting, thanks for the tip Greg! It seems to be a self-correcting problem right now, but I will keep this idea in mind.

So how is this little tank doing Mindy?