1.77 gal pico log

[afromage5000]

Here are a few pics of my preparations for this small crab and shrimp tank I am building. This is my first salt tank so bring on the comment!

[/IMG]
My sandbed almost ready for water!!

is it deep enough? (about 2 1/2 inches)

[/IMG]
My 2-3 lbs live rock curing in a bucket. I have scrubbed and done a 100% water change afterwards twice this week

My 10 watt PC 50/50 fixture

Would this be enough for a couple corals if i ever get there?

Bring on the suggestions!![

 

[TonyGee29]

thats plenty deep enough for it

what filtration do you have in it?

 

[afromage5000]

for filter i just have the live rock you see above and a power head from one of those "zen" fountains you see at sharper image and stuff. I emptied a 1 gallon bucket in about minute so i think it has enough flow. i have a tiny bubble colomn filter that i could run carbon in if necesary.

 

[theop]

That looks like a cool idea for a tank. I would imagine you could keep some zoas, polyps, and shrooms in there with no problems. Be careful with anything that is known to put chemicals in the water (e.g. lobophyton aka devil's hand leather) or has sweeper tentacles (many LPS).

My main concern is that this is your first tank. The smaller the tank, the more difficult (because you don't have alot of room for error). While just having inverts will simplify things greatly, you still need to be extra-diligent with water parameters: temp stablility, pH, alk, salinity, and nitrates. However, it would be easy enough to just do a 50% water change every week, which should reduce what you need to worry about to temp stablility and salinity changes (from evaporation).

That seems like an awful lot of sand. Unless you are trying to crease a DSB (in which case it doesn't look deep enough), I'd put about 1" of sand as a substrate.

Are you planning on heating the tank?

Remember that you will need to feed your shrimp/crabs.

 

[afromage5000]

yeah it does seem a little risky as a first tank but im taking it slow and keeping it as simple as possible. I plan on weekly water changes at the least and daily top off as necesary. I wasnt planning on heating because when i had this tank set up fw it stayed around 74 but i have seen a micro heater if i need it. I was planning on doing a DSB is that necesary? What are some good crab foods?

 

[theop]

I have never kept a DSB, so I am not the person to ask. I usually read that you need really really fine sand and that you need at least 4" of unstirred substrate. The purpose of a DSB is denitrification, which you should be able to accomplish easily with your live rock, especially since you won't have any fish.

Crabs will eat the same things as shrimp: anything (any flake or frozen food).

 

[afromage5000]

Update

The live rock has cured for a week and i moved it into the tank. I added 2 more lbs of sand to create a better DSB but lost some when i rinsed it. Im not sure if i like the sand, it took a whole 24 hrs for the water to clear and it is coating everything including the acrylic but i wont change it just yet. I broke one of the LR peices so now i have 3 chunks to work with. What do you think? Gotta get a cocktail shrimp to help the cycle but there is still a little die-off still which will get those bacteria going soon.

Pics

front

from the top

that sand is on everything! I wish crushed coral came in less than 10 lb bags.

 

[ShY]

Are you using RO water if not you may run into some algea problems. This is a big mistake that i made on my first tank just trying to save you a headache later on. Looks great so far. Goodluck in this wonderfull hobby.

 

[afromage5000]

i am NOt using RO water GASP!!! I made this choice because I tried to work out an easy, affordable way to get it and in my opinion there isnt one. I may switch later but for now I'll take my chances. And when I switch you all can say "I told you so!"" haha!

 

[ShY]

You are right there really isn't an "affordable way" to get it. The BEST way is to just bite the bullet and spend $150 to have purified water from an RO system. You could buy it from a LFS if they use it or a local supermarket but i wouldn't trust that water.

 

[afromage5000]

Still thinking about ti but its tap for now. Im done with this SAND! I went to gently brush off the rock and it clouded the whole tank again. I gotta fix this now before its too late but its going to involve mixing and wasting a bunch of saltwater and by the time im done my rock wont have anything left ALIVE! :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: Well, live and learn i guess. Ill have to get the 10lbs of crushed coral and just save the extra for my next tank!

 

[Jordan55]

You are always going to have a sand storm when adding new sand to a tank. It just depends on well you rinse it. I have rinsed sand for 15+ minutes before and still have had a dust cloud. I must say, you have A LOT of sand in that little tank.

You could try shutting off the pump to the tank as long as you don't have anything living in there. Let it settle for about a day.

It will take a few days for it settle completely. Also, if you are running a hang on the back filter, you can run some carbon and sponges to help collect the sand that is floating in the water.

Also, inverts are very fragile creatures. Crabs and shrimp being one of them, you may want to get some RO water. Wit hthe tap water, you are getting a lo of metals and unwanted nutrients. In such a small tank, it is possible to kill off everything.

Just go to your local grocery store and see if they have a unit. With a 2 gallon tank, you could pick up like 3 gallons. That should last you on top off and a water change for atleast week.

 

[afromage5000]

Ive decided to go get some crushed coral and im looking into the availabitity of RO water at my grocery store. I trashed the sand, a dsb is probably not necesary in this tank and may have not even worked given the small space.

 

[afromage5000]

So here it is with the new crushed coral. I've heard that this could cause Ph swings but this didnt seem right since it is well buffered. Is this true? I got low nitrate and nitrite readings which may indicate that there isnt enough ammonia present to start teh cycle but we'll see what i get tommorow.

 

[oddiseus]

I have used crushed coral with no detectable pH shifts, so you should be ok. Let me tell you from experience that I went from RO to tap during a move and destroyed a 3 yr old tank. It was a sad thing and now I will never run SW without an RO or RO/DI unit. You can get a good one from Marine Depot and it is definitely worth the money, and the wait if thats the case. I suppose you could go with distilled water until you can afford an RO unit, but I wouldn't skip out on it, especially on such a small tank. Good Luck.
-Odd

 

[theop]

While RO/DI is certainly the best, I can understand that it is going to be hard to swallow that ~$200 it costs to get a good unit when you are dealing with such a small tank.

You may want to consider this Tap Water Purifier which is a DI / carbon unit. Unless your water is super-hard, it should last you ~60 gallons and the replacement cartridges are less than $20. I had one of these from my FW days and added it to a bare bones RO unit to make a cheap RO/DI unit.

 

[fishbabies]

Hello afromage5000.

I have two 1.75 gallon tanks. My sandbeds are 1"-1.5" with a nassarius snail. that works for me. I would get a filter with carbon just in case any foreign substance from your hands or from whatever gets in such a small tank. This one is only $6 and has flow control. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9821&N=2004+22769

here's a small heater that looks sleek and is about the size of a Sharpie Pen. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=13966&N=2004+113767

you may want to upgrade the lighting as 10w 50/50 is kinda low. 10w 10,000k is higher if you want to avoid any DIY. i use this light, 18w 50/50 and you might be able to take it apart and fit it into your hood. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=11382&N=2004+113345

i find pico tanks easy cuz you can do major algea cleaning with a toothbrush....and water changes amount to about 1/4 gallon. you should get forceps to work on a tank this size as you hands can displace a lot of water when you reach into the tank. you do want to use RO or distilled water as algea problems from tap can overwhelmsmall tanks in a single day as opposed to weeks for a larger tank. It takes me about a month to go thru 1 gallon of Distilled water per tank.

I have been able to keep mushrooms, zoos, candycane, pipe organ, brain, sun, ricordia, and xenia corals successfully in my small tanks, but i do have slightly more lighting. with just shrimps and crabs your water perameters should be good....pay close attention to the health of snails ... if they perish they can easily pollute the tank....nassarius snails are hardy and will consume anything the moment it dies.

 

[Pico Keeper]

My first SW tank was a 1.6g hex as well.

My experience: stick with the 10w 50/50 unless you can find something absolutely better, the 18w doesn't fit the good. Use an ACmini powerfilter, I used it to hide my 25w mini heater, my carbon and purigen, some minor modification is required to the top tank trim. This tank was actually more stable than my 5.5 gallon pico. I never had any probs maintaining salinity or temperature. Here is a pic of mine and a pic showing how the acmini fits. You have to notch the trim and use the canopy backwards to make it fit.

 

[dime079]

nice tank pico, makes those zoos look bigger than normal how much was your start up on that tank? thinking about a 'nightstand' nano for the bedroom.

 

[afromage5000]

wow, its cool to see a successful tank that is literally identicle to mine. i have a little internal wisper filter that i might use. I got some good nitrite readings today so the cycle has begun it seems. temp seems to be staying ok. What about a britta pitcher would that be clean enough for water changes etc?