CTARS Community Pico Reef Thread 1-8 gallons

DLANDINO

DLANDINO

D.L. Heritage Rings
Since it doesn't appear that RC has a dedicated Pico reef forum I figured I would start a thread that, if the mood strikes you, we can all contribute our personal experiences. I have an office reef that I am just now after 6 or 8 months getting under control. I have lost a few fish to this experiment and for now have sworn off of them and am going to focus on inverts and coral.

My tank specifically is a Fluval Spec 2. The "2" stands for two gallons. I have about 2.5 cups of carib sea sugar sand and 1 piece of live rock. As for animals I only have the following so far -
1 nas snail
1 large turbo snail
1 cerith snail
1 emrald crab
a white lightening GSP colony
small pulsing xenia colony
purple death zoanthids

For equipment I am running

stock filtration system
Boyd's Chemipure media
Rite Size C filter floss (changed weekly)
Rio + 50 pump for flow
Small heater meant for a 10 gal tank
Boost LED high intensity lamp

My weekly maintanance is to do a large 1 gallon water change, insert new floss and wipe down the glass.

I feed sparingly to avoid excess nutrients buildup and don't dose anything to the tank.

Attached is a recent pic and I hope to add more coral soon. I use my home tank to grow out frags and then bring them to work. I hope others contribute to this thread so that we can all learn as we reef. Thanks for reading!

picomay2013_zps7e5b59e3.jpg
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btw, the iphone doesnt take great pics due to the light and the new saphire lens on the camera.
 
Looks pretty. Im starting to consider doing a bookshelf tank for the top of my dresser in the bedroom. We already have plans to add a 29g FOWLR to the BR but id really like something pico sized in the house. I do believe we will hold off for a while - one project at a time. But this will be a cool thread to follow so i can learn a bit more before i take it on.
 
If everyone thinks its a good idea I can ask that it be stuck to the top. I know there are folks out there that are running a pico or have wanted to and maybe we can all find some success together. I mentioned it in the RC feedback forum and I think I was laughed at for some reason, not quite sure why but I have learned my lesson.
 
Blitzie said:
That has to be a pain in the ____ to keep stable

Good job
Click to expand...

Its not terrible to be honest. Keeping up with water changes makes it simple as long as you are not running SPS that have demanding chemistry needs and strict dosing regimen. I jot my pico up and running for about $150 which includes the $100+ Boost LED lamp. There are DIY instructions on how to retrofit the stock light for the "spec" with a cree led bulb for about $50.
 
It's not a bad idea to make this a sticky. This is an inexpensive form of reef keeping which is becoming more and more popular. Granted that it is a bit scary thinking of a newbie trying to keep up with a 5g reef.. lol. Scary enough BEING a newbie with a 29! But i think itll be cool for ppl to understand how they can make it work instead of being so scared of it. Im just scared of everything! lol ;)
 
Stepho725 said:
It's not a bad idea to make this a sticky. This is an inexpensive form of reef keeping which is becoming more and more popular. Granted that it is a bit scary thinking of a newbie trying to keep up with a 5g reef.. lol. Scary enough BEING a newbie with a 29! But i think itll be cool for ppl to understand how they can make it work instead of being so scared of it. Im just scared of everything! lol ;)
Click to expand...

Go out tomorrow and get a pico for 46.00, cycle it and slowly add animals. You will get the hang of it in no time. It will make your 29 seem simple in comparison! Post pics !! ;)
 
Lol i have some more purchases to make for the biocube first. Then we were gonna be setting up a FOWLR. THEN i can do the pico! lol. Unless i find a really good price somewhere first. But i want AT LEAST a 5g. I could never do anything less! Im thinking of getting a bookshelf 6.6g its nice and long. Nice footprint. Maybe i want a half moon though....idk we shall see! Ive got some time. lol
 
I will be setting one of these up soon as well. Dave, what do you think of a Goni only pico? Seeing as mine like the dirty dirty water.
 
^ great! Lol, I am thinking of upgrading my 2 gal to an 8 rimless in my office. I happen to have one sitting here not being used for 2 years now.
 
I think with intense light and heavy flow and goni only tbsk would be very interesting. Also, since it would be a species tank you could really concentrate on the specific needs of those animals. Heavy water changes would be key to defeating nuisance algae and cyano though but comparatively speaking in regards to our large tanks, a heavy wc on these small displays are child's play.
 
To be honest, running purigen, chemi pure elite and small water changes coupled with LED lighting, algae has a hard time growing. JME
 
Since my return to reefing was a 15g nano, I did a lot of reading in that fourm and saw a suggestion for sub 2.5g picos that they where doing 90-99% water changes. That was of course matching SG and temp as closely as possible. I may try this way soon.

With current HA problem got going on may try it in the 29 :(
 
I had a TERRIBLE ha problem in my pico. It was so bad I nearly have up but adding one turbo and one emerald crab cleaned it up in about 4 days. There was not a hint of algae left except in the return chamber but I'm not sweating that. It renewed my interest in the tank and prompted me to start this thread.
 
I may try the 1.5 gal half moon with the remains of a solara led light. Hum what to do for that....
 
I wanna do something around 3-4 gallons prob. Is there anything else for coral besides LEDs for our pico tanks?
 
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