Hi,

I got the JBJ Picotope on May 27, 2009 and set it up June 5, 2009 .

Equipment

• Tank: JBJ 3 Gallon Picotope
• Lighting: 13" 24 watt Odessey Compact Flouresent Light
• Fuge Light: JBJ 9watt Picotope Light
• Filtration: AquaClear 50 with Fuge Mod and Filter FLoss
• Heating: Marineland 15watt Stealth Heater
• Other: Back Wall painted with Krylon Fusion Spray Paint
• 5lbs of Live Rock
• 8lbs of Live Sand

Livestock

Fish

• 1 Blue and Yellow Damsel
• 1 tailspot blenny

CUC

• 1 Red-Legged Hermit Crab
• 1 blue-legged crab
• 1 Astrea Snail
• 3 Nassasaurus Snails
• 2 Bumblebee Snails

Inverts

• 1GBTA (hitch hiker)
• Ball Anemones
• 1 feather duster

Corals

• Ricordias
• Mushrooms
• Zoas
• GSP
• Kenya
• Green Leather

cool

I have a bumble bee shrimp and he's rad. Everything I've read said they eat starfish and I'm sure they do but mine is a total pig for mysis. Hopefully, there won't be competition between him and the harley.

yeah thats what i was thinking.


i got LR and LS today. heating up water as we speak. i have already found lots of brittle stars, mysis shrimp, and stomatellas that hitchhiked with the rock. pics when everything is setup

Dont do the torch!

yeah, i know i am risking my othe corals. however it will go in my nano once it gets too big

Thats like saying "I got a tang in my X gallon but im putting it into my XXX gallon when I build it"

Might as well save the headache of LPS in picos with sweepers and keep it in your nano. I just dont see the point.

ok thanks. so no torch.

well look at el fabs pico its got lots of lps and is doing great so i say go for it just place it in the right place.

are you painting the back only? have you done your other AC mods yet then?

i may not paint the back wall.

i did the mods, except the U-Tube pipe i messed up on.

water is in the tank woth LR and LS. Pics when it clears up

sweet.

how are you doing the light? putting it on the side? I was wondering if the ac50 would let you still center the light on the back.

i put it on the back of the AC and you can adjust its height and angle so it is over the center of the tank.

i will include pics of the set-up

half the reason why people fail in this hobby is by trying to emulate what an experienced reefer does when they lack said experience. If someone new to the hobby tried to emulate my tank I'd bet a a stack if would crash within a month.

with the stock arms I don't think it will reach the center of the tank. I ended up buying a second light, and using the arms from the second light to reach out, and up to do that with an AC70. I will be interested to see if it works with a 50 thought,

FTS day 1


and for Ldogg:


soon to go in the tank in a week or two:

Got enough HOB?

nice, let me give you this suggestion. Cut a notch in the lid of the 50, then you could make the arms go straight out and rest on the lid. Then your bulb will be closer to the water. Just a thought. Looks great!

ok thanks. yeah i adjusted the light so it is closer thanks.

Kraylen-Whats HOB?

Hang On Back

oh yeah ha ha i kinda do lol

I give Kraylen two cool points for that statement. one must know their level of exprience in order to suceed in this hobby.

Dang I havent been on in a minute, congrats on the new pico Nanobuds.
Its cool you stepped up to the pico club.

thanks!!

going to test water tomorrow... and mabey more LR

whats a good CUC for a 3 gallon pico? i was thinking 2-3 blue-legged hermits, 1 scarlet hermit, and 2 cerith snails...

Nanobuds, PAINT IT! it looks so much better! You can see the before and after with mine tomorrow.

I've got 6 blue legs and one margarita snail and one nass. in mine. I could use another snail prolly, I might tank a few nerite snails from my 29gal to help clean my halimeda cleaned.

How do you like the AC50, I thought it was too much flow, I bumped back down to a off-brand HOB for a 10gallon tank, everyone seems happier.

I was planning on a couple trochus snails, pulled from my DT, and a blue leg or two. maybe an emerald instad of the BL's, but not sure. I need to see if I can find a tonga fighting conch, those are sweet too. I painted the back and bottom of my JBJ, and it looks sweet. the AC70 running on mine doesn't seem to be to much flow, but I did cut the tab off to slow it down. with my rock work it disperses pretty well, but doesn't blow the sand around.

Ldogg: for what ever reason the AC50 doesn't seem to have that fabled tab. I should also mention that it was too much flow for my large mushrooms, the current would sneak up under then and flail them all around

ok thanks!!

yeah i really need to paint it

how should i since it is already setup?

Not true. Elfab did a really nice job with his post on how to set up a nano tank. If you follow it to the T you have about a 98% chance of your tank looking just as good as his.

ok thanks!!

el fab inspired me to make this!!

Id take out all the water and rock tape it off and spry it.

yeah thats what i was thinking... just put rocks in a bucket , leave some sand and water, and cover with newspaper and spraypaint. thanks.

CUC, i have 2 small turbos 2 blue legged hermitts, and a lettuce nudi.
Nanobuds, here is an idea for you, only because its already set up, and i wouldnt recommend painting with water in it (condensation might be an issue)
But i used a black piece of vinyl to cover the back of mine, yes i shouldve painted it first and when i stick a piece of cardboard behind it it makes a really bad reflection. so try to slide a lil piece od black or blue to your color choice and it should be easier than painting

Are you using the stock light? If so you might want to reconsider painting the back. It will mess with the reflection percentage of the back wall and suck up a small but substantial part of the already somewhat underpowered stock light.

Cardboard or plastic taped behind there will give measurably higher PAR throughout the back half of the tank. For a lot of tanks it doesn't matter all that much but in a borderline situation it could be a make or break difference.

i am currently using the light i that came with the pico, but soon i am going to switch to the 36 watt dual sattelite light that el fab has before i get any corals

Also if you do get over spray any place you dont want it I have found that a little bit of isopropyl (rubing alcohol) on cotten ballworks well for removing it.

I got the replacement part today and the Aquaclear is up and running

pH-8.1
Salinity-1.025
Nitrate-5
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-off the charts
KH-12

I figured I'd hop on for this Pico.... it's only fair, you've been following my BC29 ^_^

Looking nice so far.

good stuff, following along

thanks guys!! i am hoping to start adding livestock in a week or two

just need the nitrites to go down

FTS 6-5-09

Well done, I like the scape. I added a yellow coral banded shrimp a friend donated.
did you figure out what your gonna do with the backglass yet?

i think im gonna use cardboard first like you are then paint it later...

You could also use black silicone for the back....if worse comes to worse, scrape it off. I love black silicone as long as you spread it nice and even. Just use a putty knife or even a bondo card(for body work on cars....the bondo cards are like 2 bucks at an auto repair store.

ok thanks!

No problem. I worry that your cardboard back may get wet and look like...well, monkey spooge at best.

hopefully i can transfer my YCG sometime next week... he just killed one of my montiporas in my nanocube

now im down to 1 acro and 1 dying montipora (thanks to him)

Yeah i wanna see the video of you fishin the YCG out of 24 gallons. good luck with that one.
How did your YCG kill your MONTI? mine perches on the digitata i have and now all i do is worry about it, i read here somewhere that a YCG will eat the polyps, so now every 20 mins im checkin it out to be safe, all polyps are opening and i dont see the fish hurting it in anyway.
but i am sorry to hear bout the BSJ and your Monti...

the YCG wouldnt stop picking on it, and it was pretty small in the first place. so it just about ate 80% of its polyps and it couldnt recover. so it bleached, then died...

dang that sucks. ive been watching my hermits, they climb on it too. they are both suspects in the damaged tissue on my Acans too. i had to move them to the NANO , i hope they come back , their tentacles still come out and they still grab food, its just a lil a damaged tissue around the egdes...