Going from Nano to Pico

[NanoKat]

Well, I've made the big (little) decision to set up a 2 1/2 gallon pico. I had been looking for a deal on a small glass tank, saw one at the thrift store for $15 (passed on that one ) and just got one from a friend. I wanted to get it running with the filter for a while, then add liverock and lighting later. I picked up a little Aqua Tech filter for $10 at WalMart...it's nice and a good size, but may be a bit noisy for the bedroom...we'll see. This is rated for a 10g, but I thought more flow would be helpful, as I won't have room for any other sort of power heads.

Here it is in all its glory...with a cat for size comparison...and yes, he actually did drink some of the water...he's a weirdo cat!

I am still debating lighting. I could use a refugium light, or they make a "Mini Aqualight" that looks nice (with half 10k/half actinic bulbs). I'm figuring on only softies, inverts, and maybe one tiny fish, so it should be sufficient.

 

[Ryanqk]

I will be watching since i'm at about the same stage as you in setting up a 2gl hex tank. Would love to see how you handle temp swings and salinity changes....

 

[Ding2daDong]

I would recommend getting a bigger filter like one of the aqua clear ones so that you could actually stick a small heater in the filter and still have filter media along w/carbon or what not. Thats a cool little tank, makes me want to start one... well actually almost everyones tank makes me want to start another one. lol Lighting I would go with the small clip on ones ment for pico tanks, they are usually really cheap. Hope this helps and keep us posted.

-Matt

 

[compulou]

Yeah I've been wanting to do one as well, I'll be following your updates.

 

[Ludwigia73]

Can I suggest going to Reef's edge or All Sealife (preferably the former) and checking out barnacle blennies? Reef edge had a few last time I was there. They're cheap, tiny, and really cute. All Sealife generally has a neat little selection of nano sized fishies.

 

[NanoKat]

Thanx guys! I'm looking at lighting right now...saw the Mini Aqualight yesterday (9w 10k/9w actinic). It looked nice, but had no way to mount it on the tank...I would have to engineer something for it. I'm also checking out some refugium lighting like the ones on the Eco-Systems.

I need to pick up some nice base rock...tiny pieces, of course next. I just want good coralline coverage and maybe some surprise critters. If anyone has seen this anywhere let me know...I'll also be redoing my base rock in my 15g, so I'll probably pick that up at the same time. I've heard that the liverock and lsb will cycle the tank pretty quickly, so I think I'm gonna try that.

As far as temp swings, I can see where it would be an issue, but if I have a decent heater, I think I may be able to control it pretty well. The filter actually does have room for a small heater inside, but I would be afraid of it making contact with the plastic and melting it. For now, I'll just place it inside the tank and try to conceal it will rocks and stuff.

 

[NanoKat]

I have temporary lighting now in the form of the hood off of my Eclipse 6...not that it's really necessary at the moment, but I just wanted to see what was going on. The heater is in and keeping pretty steady at 80. I'm headed to Reef Life today to pick up some "pico sized" liverock (and at a 15% discount to FMAS members today!). I'll have pics when I put that in later today.

 

[Ryanqk]

cant wait to see some pics ill bet itll look great!

 

[NanoKat]

Okay, here's a "before" pic for today...I'll post the "after" when I get the liverock in later on. This one certainly isn't too thrilling...the cat just didn't want to pose this time...probably because I covered the top.

Thank goodness the filter quieted down a bit...it sounded horrible for the first couple of days...had to put it on a timer so that it wouldn't keep us awake. Now it hardly makes any sound at all. The only sound from the tank now is the timer (old school), but I have a spare digital I can throw on it anyway.

 

[NanoKat]

We Have Liverock!

We Have Liverock!

Okay, here it is in all its little glory...got the liverock at Reef Life today. Put in a tiny ricordea and two small red mushrooms to see how they do with minimal lighting. Used a good mix of new water and water from my 15.

I had also put my new little frogspawn in there, but it didn't seem to like the idea too much right now, so I'll get it in there when I have better lighting.

Now it's nice to have a place to put all of the zoos and shrooms I find drifting around my 15...right now they're all in a frag basket!

 

[Ludwigia73]

A small tank like that makes a wonderful shroom only tank... I saw one once, can't remember where, and it had a couple of pipefish that swam in and out of the shrooms. It also had quite a few blood shrimp, and a slipper lobster. Really cool tank... now if I could just remember who had that one.

 

[jessp]

ok i want one, now just to convince my fiancee. any ideas on how i can convince her? i got her the rock to get permissiion to move my existing tank into the house. Now i got her convinced to upgrade to a 90 gal probably as a x-mas gift.

but she just won't let me have two tanks go figure even a pico.

 

[Ryanqk]

ok the bulb is a 19w 6500k commercial electric brand bulb, model edxo-19 L.P.F. It screws in like any normal lightbulb. thats what i am using nanokat there is a pic of it on my blog site: http://patchreef.blogspot.com/
Ryan

 

[NanoKat]

That's funny, I have that exact same little hex tank. It was my first "aquarium" about 12 years ago to house a betta. I never thought about it as a pico...hmm...maybe it's worth digging out of the closet. I think I'm becoming a pico fanatic.

 

[NanoKat]

I'm still working on lighting for this little one...does anyone out there have any leads? I looked at the "Mini Aqualight", but wasn't sure how I could mount it. There's an interesting one on eBay also that is sold for a refugium...it has adjustable mounting legs. I'm thinking somewhere between 18-24w should be in the range that I need. Tried my spare 96w Aqualight, but that was a bit much :eek1: !

I welcome any thoughts on this matter...wanna get that little frogspawn of mine in there before it zaps any more of the corals in my 15.

 

[CraigG]

Coralife makes a 2x18w 20" fixture, found on both marinedepot and drs:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=13733&N=2004+113345

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium..._coralife_aqualight_deluxe_linear.asp?CartId=

On mounting legs it should be a good fixture for the tank. If placed directly on top of it, it may be a bit too much.

 

[NanoKat]

Actually, I have the more powerful 20" Aqualight with the 96w quad. Not only was it too powerful (more so than the aforementioned fixtures), the size is way too big...the tank is only about 13" across, so it would hang off the ends too much for my taste. Here's the one I am leaning towards:

I really like the looks of something like this, cause it looks like a perfect miniature of the larger fixtures...I think the tank would look cool with everything in miniature like that. This one has adjustable legs and is 24w which I think would be perfect for what I want to keep in this tank right now.

And here's an updated shot...not much new, but the water is clear and everything is looking okay considering minimal lighting...so far have 2 small red mushrooms, 1 tiny ricordea with feather duster on same rock, xenia, and a few little zoos.

And this one was on one of the rocks I got...don't know if it'll survive, but it's kindof cool (it's very tiny...only about 1/8" in diameter w/ three heads)...

 

[ek9vboi]

looks good so far kat! just take the big rock on the left out for something smaller or branchy like and ur golden. that little thing on the last picture looks like a blasto frag b/c of the tenticles.

 

[NanoKat]

Yea, I'm not totally sold on the rocks yet. My hubby said I needed a good bit, but I think the top ones are a bit "bulky". I'll try some rearranging/swapping with rocks from the 15.

Today I would love to work on the tanks, but our a/c is not working, so I don't want to mess with them too much for fear of heating up the water too much. I'm not running lights right now for the same reason. The condo is at about 82 now and that's where I keep the tank temps, I can only hope it doesn't get too much hotter in here until we get someone to fix this thing!

 

[compulou]

Nanokat, do you have the link to that light you showed a picture of? I'm actually setting up a very similar setup to yours now and wanted a light with legs, as the aformentioned aqualight doesn't have any legs and would be floating above the tank which I'm not cool with. Look forward to hearing from ya.

Thanks