First Atempt at a Pico

[Sirex]

Please take a look and let me know if you see anything wrong. I am curious about the bubble things on the rock.

Also today I noticed little white bugs crawlying around?

Let me know what you all think.

I have thick skin so let it rip if you see something wrong I won't be affended.

Thanks

[funkman262]

Looking good. Is this your first SW tank or just your first small one? I'm not sure what "bubble things" you're referring to; all I'm seeing in the first picture is a couple groups of closed zoas. The "little white bugs" are most likely copepods which will multiply and become food for the corals/fish in the tank. Can you list some more info about the tank? i.e. size, lighting, corals, fish, etc.

[Cliff]

In the first pick you have bubble aglae on that rock. It can be a nasty form of algae.

You have to be really careful removing that stuff. It can release 100s of little spourse giving you a really big problem. I don't know of any snails that will touch that stuff, and your tank might be too small for a emerald crab.

I've never had to deal with that stuff, but I read about what others have done. They had used two buckets of tank water. They removed the rock into the first bucket to pick off the bubble algae then rinsed the rock in the second bucket.

You might want to look into that.


Also, is that coral in the front-center of your tank some type of clove polyp ? If it is, you should keep a close eye on it. Some types of clove polyps can grow extremely fast and are very invasive in a marine tank. You might be fraging that one often.

[Sirex]

Should I take the rock with bubble algea out and just get rid of it? The tank is only 3 gal.

[Cliff]

I would

You could remove the zoas and glue them to a different rock

It's a pain, but it can be done

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

That coral in the front looks like Xenia to me. The scale of the tank makes it somewhat difficult to identify which species. Those can still take things over in a hurry.

[gem]

Very cool. My first reef tank was a 2.5 gal pico. Everyone told me it was a bad idea. It actually thrived.
The bubbles, as said, are bubble algae. You do have to be very careful not to pop them when removing them. If you leave them, they'll eventually pop on their own. You can scrape them off the rock out of the tank, but you have to make sure you get it all and rinse the rock really well.