NZ 2 Gallon Pico Reef

[baj]

Great pico! Is that a subwoofer next to your tank
Do you top off the evaporated water with water and additives, or just plain water? And what is your water change schedule. Sorry for being nosy, but I just started a pico myself and am soaking up on information.

 

[Mork]

baj - Thanks for the compliments.

For topoff I use RO/DI water, and I'm just starting to adding Kalk to it (1/2 teaspoon plus 5ml of white vinegar to one quart) so I can boost the growth of the hydnophora.

As for water changes - 2 litres every week with NSW. I wouldn't recomend this unless you live on an extremely clean coastline, but in NZ the majority of reefers use it.

 

[CamBarr]

wow thats one cool lil reef
keep up the good work
cb

 

[proboscis]

nice little tank,NSW man your lucky, sweet vacation pics i want to do something like that someday, got to get me scuba cert. first, how large were the acro colonies in that pic from vacation? what kind of camera was used? just curious thanks

 

[Mork]

proboscis - There were huge SPS forests on the other side of the reef, which was amazing - but it wasn't as diverse as I thought it might be. They get battered from the storms that come in.

The camera was an Olympus Stylus.

I'm glad you liked the pics!

 

[chocolateblnt]

Cute Pico! :lol:

Nice wood stain!

 

[tankslave]

nice little tank,NSW man your lucky, sweet vacation pics i want to do something like that someday, got to get me scuba cert. first, how large were the acro colonies in that pic from vacation? what kind of camera was used? just curious thanks

What pics? where? i want to see!

 

[Mork]

These shots from Rarotonga

 

[Mork]

The tank is slowly filling up, and everything is doing pretty well. The most recent noticeable addition is the SPS frags I have in the centre of the tank. It's going to be a little bit of an experiment to see how well these guys do.

Over the past few months I've been keeping close tabs on how stable I can keep the tank in the temperature, salinity, and nutrient content of the tank, and so far it's been quite steady. I hope with the close proximity to the lights and increased flow from the HOB filter I can at least keep the monti's happy. I'm now adding Kalk and starting to measure the CA and Alkalinity levels.

 

[tankslave]

those some digitatas? how are they doing under the PC's? those were 9w each bulb?

 

[jasutton]

did you make the tank itself? or did you buy it premade? In other word did you silicome the glass together??

darn you! now i hve another project to start on top of graduation !!!

 

[Mork]

To early to tell, but I think they'll do ok. It's only 18 watts, but the distance from the coral to the light is short - plus they have some great flow.

 

[Mork]

jasutton - the tank I got made to size, mainly to get as big a size as possible for the 18 watts of lighting - to be honest the mushrrom and zoos find it too much light, I could have made it bigger.

 

[jasutton]

Mork, I PM'ed you with some questions

 

[kaserpick]

Awesome setup, love the corals!

Thumbs up!
Kaserpick

 

[tankslave]

so no skimmer, just HOB filter?

 

[Mork]

No skimmer, just HOB. IMO there's no need for a skimmer on a tank with a bio load as small as this - it would remove as much good as bad. There's no algae problem, and since the cycle, it's tested zero for everything.

I just do a 20% water change once a week without fail (with natural seawater), and it's been running a treat.

I will be starting to feed the corals soon with Reefbooster, and I have a blood red shrimp on order. So I'll keep you posted on the effects of doing this.