Office Tank on a Whim - 3gal Picotope

[ange062]

I was walking through the office earlier and saw a lot of people growing plants in their offices, gave me a whim to look into a pico tank for my desk. A little bit of research and a couple of phone calls, and I have a JBJ 3gal Picotope along with sand, water, and LR on hold at my LFS for $55 total.

This should be a fun little project. Goal is to keep it super simple, my only plans are to frag some zoa's, rics, and GSP out of my 28g. I'll either stock a couple of sexy shrimp OR a small goby/shrimp pair.

Will post pics once I smuggle all the stuff into the building and get it setup

 

[Batreef]

should be cool keep us updated. no you wont get any work done. you will be to busy staring at the tank.....

 

[ange062]

should be cool keep us updated. no you wont get any work done. you will be to busy staring at the tank.....

I'm more afraid of other people stopping by to stare at the tank, bugging me in the process

 

[BlueChip]

Any people ever have people complain about it, of call it "unsafe"

I would love to have a mini one...

What are your plans for the weekends?

 

[ange062]

Any people ever have people complain about it, of call it "unsafe"

I would love to have a mini one...

What are your plans for the weekends?

A couple of people that I talked about the tank to were like "is that allowed?!?!"

I am not technically sure if it is, but I am going to bring it in and see what happens. If they tell me to take it home I will.

For the weekends, an autofeeder and light timer should get me through. Hoping there is no need for an ATO if I top off on Friday before I leave the office.

 

[Drag Racer]

Build a cover for it for the weekend. As long as the water temp doesn't get too high that will keep evap down to a minimum over the weekend. I don't think an auto feeder will be necessary. I leave my 4 gallon 3 days at a time on the weekends with no issues. Use the light timer all the time. Not just weekends.

 

[john miller]

You know we want pics.

 

[Batreef]

i put a 150G in my work a few years ago. most everyone was for it except for one. saying its a liability and what not. after a day he loved it. they are just trying to be haters

 

[Drag Racer]

As long as it doesnt distract you from getting your job done they shouldnt have a problem.

 

[ange062]

Build a cover for it for the weekend. As long as the water temp doesn't get too high that will keep evap down to a minimum over the weekend. I don't think an auto feeder will be necessary. I leave my 4 gallon 3 days at a time on the weekends with no issues. Use the light timer all the time. Not just weekends.

Light timer is for everyday of course, much easier that way. 8a-6p The cover is a really good idea for weekends, I'll definitely rig something up. Probably just head to my local hobby shop and get a sheet of lexan to cut to shape. Office temp always stays at a constant 74f, so no worries on temp.

You know we want pics.

Had technical difficulties due to a storm related power outage and can't pick it up until tomorrow! Will post pics stat though!

 

[Bunnylicked]

Can't wait to see the photos! I've had a JBJ pico up since August. It's a cute little tank, and it's fun to take care of. I'll definitely be watching this thread.

I'd highly recommend getting/building a small ATO if the tank will be alone all weekend. My open-top tank's specific gravity will go up by as much as .001 per day if I don't top it off, which could raise it from 1.026 to 1.029 in three days. Might be because of the fact that it's next to a window, though.

 

[barry_keith]

+10 on pics

 

[ange062]

Well here you go! Spent a little bit finding nice pieces of cured LR for the look I wanted. I may end up taking some out later, but I like this for now. My LFS gave me live sand out of their invert tank for free and I ended up with 4 hermit hitchhikers. It was interesting "smuggling" all the stuff into the building :lmao::thumbsup:

I haven't gotten in trouble, but have had 3 people say they want to put stuff in there already and it's been a non stop show-and-tell session in my office all afternoon. Hopefully the novelty wears off quickly so I can get some work done!

View from my chair:

Still cloudy FTS:

 

[Bunnylicked]

Looks great! It's neat that you got some hitchhikers. The only hitchhikers I got from my rock and sand were feather dusters, hydroids, and a tiny zoanthid. Hermit crabs are fun little inverts.

 

[g35mike]

Awesome tank i might have to do this!

 

[john miller]

You'll now be known as "that fish guy" at work.

Cool little tank though.

 

[ange062]

You'll now be known as "that fish guy" at work.

Cool little tank though.

People keep making "you have crabs" comments because the only thing in there is 4 hitchhiker hermits. They don't understand the whole "cycle" thing

 

[ange062]

Stopped by the office today to drop a frozen cube of mysis in the tank to ensure the cycle is getting started. I used sand and rock out of an established tank so expect the cycle to be negligable.

 

[ange062]

Evap over the weekend was only half an inch, not nearly as bad as I had expected. Bringing some water home tonight to check on the cycle.

 

[ange062]

All the organics are at 0 as I kind of expected, plan to add a CUC later this week of a couple small astrea and nassarius snails.