Jims 3gal temprate pico

[squishifishi]

Hey! I'm in the cycling process for my new pico! it is a 2.5 gallon so I'm interested to seehow yours turns out! what do you plan to stock this with?
it's kind of funny that you have a 2 page thread and mine only has a few responses...I wonder what the difference is.
Anyway,I absolutely LOVE your rock setup. very nice and unique looking!
Let me know about your stock!
good luck!

 

[flightjunkie]

That is one NICE looking tank!

 

[fullmonti]

We've had some better weather so I've been working on a project that requirers warmer temps. Would have had pix by now, but weather is turning cold again, so should get some pix to morrow. Any way what I have so far was in my last post. The Catalina goby hardly ever comes out still. The three shrimp all took up residential in the back chamber along with a porcelain crab. Finally took the extra rock out of the back chamber so I could catch them all & put them back in the front. I glued some plastic needlepoint grid across the overflow to keep them out of there.

I hope to get a few more kinds of nems & some cold water corals from the UK (or Canada maybe) when Coldwater Marine Aquatics gets some other orders in. Mostly just see what becomes available. Toss in how much money I can spare when it does.

A good update is over due, I'll try to take care of that!

 

[fullmonti]

OK finally took some pix!

If you've ever taken tank photos under the normal blue & white LEDs you were probably disappointed with the color, as I have always been. This FTS was taken with the full spectrum little 8" build my LED fixture (sorry no pix of it yet). Didn't mess with the color at all!!! Just auto white balance on the camera. It looks just like that in person too!

The rest of the photos were taken with a off camera flash, so no movement blur & more depth of field.

I've been rubberbanding some nori to a the big barnacle shell for who ever likes it, mostly the snails.

I think it's pretty obvious what every thing is, but if you have any question let me know.

The Catalina Goby came out today for the first time in two three days. No photos of him cause as soon as he sees me he's back in his cave under the rock. There are two small decorator crabs that weren't out when I was taking pix, but they are very small & not easy to see anyway.

That's it for now
Jim

 

[wlyon]

As far as the built in HOB filter goes, do you use media, live rock, or a HOB filter pad? I didn't see anything but the chillers and return pump in the pictures.

 

[stackrat]

That is beautiful. A truly unique scape.
Nicely done.

 

[fullmonti]

As far as the built in HOB filter goes, do you use media, live rock, or a HOB filter pad? I didn't see anything but the chillers and return pump in the pictures.

Just some live rock & 3-4 micro brittle stars from the CUC. I feed a lot of small foods & didn't want a filter pad to catch & hold it. Besides there isn't room for much in there but the iceprobes & pump.

 

[fullmonti]

That is beautiful. A truly unique scape.
Nicely done.

Thanks, one rock seemed the way to do it since the tank is so small. Do you have a cold water tank? From what I understand there is a lot of good livestock in the waters around England. I hope our supplier here will be getting some nems & corals form your area soon. I would love to be able to collect my own livestock.

 

[AquaticEngineer]

Looking good! Let me know when that Orange Metridium Senile starts slpitting, I still only have a handful of them I've been able to find so only the cool kids get them for now

 

[kalgra]

That is super cool! So excuse my ignorance, this is a cold water tank?

 

[fullmonti]

Looking good! Let me know when that Orange Metridium Senile starts slpitting, I still only have a handful of them I've been able to find so only the cool kids get them for now

Is that the orange nem in the 6th photo? I like that one very much & wondered what it was.

Not sure i have ever been in the cool kids group before!!!

Again, I am so pleased with my first order from AquaticEngineer. He put together a great CUC & nem order for me. Can't wait till they get some more UK livestock in for next order.

Thanks Stu!!!

Jim

 

[fullmonti]

That is super cool! So excuse my ignorance, this is a cold water tank?

Yes, 55 degrees.

I checked the nitrates just before the last WC. I feed these guys several times a day & have been doing a 1 gal WC every week. I was concerned about nutrient build up with only live rock for filtration. Was relieved to find nitrate at 10, which I think is pretty good in a filter feeder tank. Also the Catalina Goby is coming out a bit more now.

 

[AquaticEngineer]

Is that the orange nem in the 6th photo? I like that one very much & wondered what it was.

Not sure i have ever been in the cool kids group before!!!

Again, I am so pleased with my first order from AquaticEngineer. He put together a great CUC & nem order for me. Can't wait till they get some more UK livestock in for next order.

Thanks Stu!!!

Jim

Yup, its an orange morph of the same anemone that is in front of it. I only find maybe 1 orange one for every couple thousand white ones I see. There is a larger species of Metridium called Metridium Farcimen that the oranges are much more prevelant, but they get REALLY big, upwards of 39 inches tall fully extended. So getting these orange Metridium Seniles to people is super cool for me, especially when they can thrive and reproduce in a nano

 

[tommer725]

So what's been happening to this tank lately?

 

[fullmonti]

I had some water quality issues. I was & am still feeding a good bit. I did several 2gal WC & started syphoning out the back camber & bottom off the tank with ever WC and stopped feeding Phyto & Osterfeast. Every thing seems happier now, they all stay open most the time. I took the macro algae out because it collected so much gunk (nems poop a lot). I have settled on alternating feeding 4-5 times a day two kinds of cyclopeeze & mysis now. Also took one of the lager greenish nems out (not in one piece sadly) because he moved right in the meddle of the strawberry nems and was killing them.

The goby still only comes out to eat. A shame too because he is really pretty. The porcelain crab only comes out at night. I got some tigger pods & seem to have a good colony of them in the gravel.

I am about to start building a stand for the tiny tank so it can come out & live in the living room. Can't wait!

Other than all that, the tiny tank is doing great! About ready for a few new critters.

Jim

 

[fullmonti]

Well was still getting gunk build up in just 2-3 days. I can't get over how much waste anemones put out. Decided some kind of filter was needed. Thought about a small canister filter but all seemed to be way to big & temp control was an issue, plus I really want this to be a AIO. After some research I settled on a tiny internal filter in the back chamber. That way it could be turned off while feeding & temp would hold OK since it would be in tank water. The trouble was they were too big or too small, so I made one.





Just a box that water from pump comes in one side overflows into a media chamber & out the bottom.



Bucket test. The box goes in one side of the back chamber & pump on the other side. The back chamber now has two iceprobe probes, a temp probe, filter box & two pumps. No more room for extra rock in the back any more. Put a sponge in the very bottom, a couple table spoons of carbon & topped off with floss.

Have to wait & see if this keeps the gunk from getting out of hand for more than a couple days. I am still amazed how much gunk anemones put out. There really are quite a few of them in only three gallons of water though. I still wanted to get a least a couple more kinds so looks like some filtration will definitely be needed. Have to wait & see how this does!

Jim

 

[fullmonti]

Looking good! Let me know when that Orange Metridium Senile starts slpitting, I still only have a handful of them I've been able to find so only the cool kids get them for now

White Plumose babies have been popping up and now a couple of them have gotten big enough to tell they are orange.

 

[fishouttawater]

So frickin cool. Well done. and "My hope is, after I have some nice live stock established my wife will say That's so nice you should put it in the living room. Dare to dream." cracked me up haha...so true

 

[Moort82]

Amazing little system, subscribed.

 

[Kataro]

Awesome tank!

Quick question for ya, how do you do the water change? Do you chill the water after mixing it before pouring into the tank?

I got a 15G, and I was planning on mixing water and pouring into 1g jugs, and just storing in my fridge til it's cold enough.