julianp
New member
Hi all,
I’ve been a lurker on ReefCentral for many years, but this will be my first attempt at a reef tank. I had a 90 gallon aggressive FOWLR system ~8 years ago, but have been out of the hobby since then. Still, I found myself occasionally browsing the RC build threads throughout the years and daydreaming about attempting a reef tank. Living in a tiny apartment with a fiancée and two small dogs as well as school and work had kept me making excuses for not starting a tank until a recent trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium left me convinced that I should give it a try. Space is at such a premium in our apartment that a pico tank on my 15” wide bookshelf was the only option.
The biggest lesson I learned while keeping my FOWLR system was to never rush things -- and I hope to follow that mantra with this pico tank.
After initially purchasing a 5 gallon Zen Nano tank which turned out to have a minor leak, the tank I’ll be using is a “Petco” brand 3.7 gallon 10” glass cube with an acrylic false wall separating the filtration area at the rear.
The equipment list below outlines the specifics, but in general I’m designing the tank to incorporate high, variable flow patterns, lots of light, and water kept as clean as possible through lots of biological filtration (and possibly a little macroalgae). Nitrate export will be accomplished with carbon filter floss, 90% water changes weekly, as well as a bag of Purigen in the filtration compartment.
The tank began cycling July 11th, though there was a slight interruption after I decided to switch to a coarser sand mix yesterday. The pink Oolite I was using initially was blowing everywhere.
The tank is now sitting at 1.025 salinity, 8.4 pH, steady 80.2 F day/night, 0.40ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and 0ppm nitrate. I’m expecting the tank to cycle for another few weeks at which point I’ll begin adding some small invertebrates and possibly a few hardy corals.
Equipment:
Biological & Filtration:
Supplementation & Feeding:
Stock List:
I’ve been a lurker on ReefCentral for many years, but this will be my first attempt at a reef tank. I had a 90 gallon aggressive FOWLR system ~8 years ago, but have been out of the hobby since then. Still, I found myself occasionally browsing the RC build threads throughout the years and daydreaming about attempting a reef tank. Living in a tiny apartment with a fiancée and two small dogs as well as school and work had kept me making excuses for not starting a tank until a recent trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium left me convinced that I should give it a try. Space is at such a premium in our apartment that a pico tank on my 15” wide bookshelf was the only option.
The biggest lesson I learned while keeping my FOWLR system was to never rush things -- and I hope to follow that mantra with this pico tank.
After initially purchasing a 5 gallon Zen Nano tank which turned out to have a minor leak, the tank I’ll be using is a “Petco” brand 3.7 gallon 10” glass cube with an acrylic false wall separating the filtration area at the rear.
The equipment list below outlines the specifics, but in general I’m designing the tank to incorporate high, variable flow patterns, lots of light, and water kept as clean as possible through lots of biological filtration (and possibly a little macroalgae). Nitrate export will be accomplished with carbon filter floss, 90% water changes weekly, as well as a bag of Purigen in the filtration compartment.
The tank began cycling July 11th, though there was a slight interruption after I decided to switch to a coarser sand mix yesterday. The pink Oolite I was using initially was blowing everywhere.
The tank is now sitting at 1.025 salinity, 8.4 pH, steady 80.2 F day/night, 0.40ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and 0ppm nitrate. I’m expecting the tank to cycle for another few weeks at which point I’ll begin adding some small invertebrates and possibly a few hardy corals.
Equipment:
- 3.7 gallon Petco cube - glass, 9.75”w x 9.75”d x 10”h
- Hydor Pico Evo-Mag 180gph pump
- Hydor Flo Rotating Water Deflector
- Aquatop 25 watt Nano Heater
- dimmable LED lighting built into bookshelf: (still deciding between Coral Compulsion 24 watt Par38, RapidLED 19w Par38, or Coral Compulsion 14 watt Par30)
- digital probe thermometer
Biological & Filtration:
- 4.8lbs cured “Real Reef Rock”
- 3/4” sandbed – Nature’s Ocean Premium Special Aragonite Reef Sand (seeded with some “live” Oolite)
- Started with Nutri-SeaWater “live” boxed saltwater to help seed beneficial bacteria. Switching to Instant Ocean Reef Crystals for water changes.
- Carbon-infused filter floss
- Purigen
Supplementation & Feeding:
- Feeding heavily (mysis/cyclop-eeze or similar) followed by a filter floss/carbon change and a 3 gallon (~90%) water change once per week. Target feeding as needed.
- Light dosing with C-Balance two-part as needed.
Stock List:
- no fish planned
- branching frogspawn, zoanthids, acans, palythoas, possibly SPS as the tank matures.
- possibly a shrimp or two
- small snails and crabs, etc
- micro brittle and asterina stars
- possibly some dragon’s breath macroalgae
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