ADA 45-f

[Mr.zissou]

bump

[adinsxq]

do frequent water changes and feed sparingly

[gabe_j]

no sump then get yourself a subcurent overflow and gut it and use the shell to hold an mj 1200 and use that to feed a brs media reactor. you can still use a prefilter to catch small particles but you don't have to worry about overflows. i mean overflowing your tank.

 

Edit. oops

[bobmonkey11]

hey so i am planning on doing sps in my ada 45-f and in my honest opinion, there is no way you can do sps well in a 4.6g tank. I plan on drilling mine and plumbing it to a sump and running a small skimmer in there, i say you make a pico skimmer out of pvc and wood air stones.

 

i had thought about pretty much making an all in one fuge/skimmer out of my AC50 by compartmentalizing it, making a 2 led fuge light and a wood airstone skimmer, but it is definitely easier said then done.

[SnakPak]

hey so i am planning on doing sps in my ada 45-f and in my honest opinion, there is no way you can do sps well in a 4.6g tank. I plan on drilling mine and plumbing it to a sump and running a small skimmer in there, i say you make a pico skimmer out of pvc and wood air stones.

 

i had thought about pretty much making an all in one fuge/skimmer out of my AC50 by compartmentalizing it, making a 2 led fuge light and a wood airstone skimmer, but it is definitely easier said then done.

 

I would have to disagree with the SPS comment. It can be done, it's just a little harder considering the small volume of water. Plenty of pico's that have been successful in keeping SPS.

[bobmonkey11]

I would have to disagree with the SPS comment. It can be done, it's just a little harder considering the small volume of water. Plenty of pico's that have been successful in keeping SPS.

 

im not talking about pico's not being able to keep sps im saying that for them to grow and thrive your water parameters have to be really good, which in turn means having either proper chemical filtration switched out often or a skimmer, preferably both. i have personally been part of the build of probably the nicest sps pico on these forums so i know what it takes. if you didn't read my comment fully im going to be doing my ada 45-f as an sps pico so of course i think its possible.

 

so if you add "without a skimmer" to the end of my first sentence it would make more sense

 

what i meant to say is that for sps to do well in a pico you need a skimmer in such a small water volume, i also think that an auto top off is crucial to hold the salinity constant as well as the proper amount of lighting.

[.Newman.]

i have personally been part of the build of probably the nicest sps pico on these forums so i know what it takes.

 

you mean fuel's? there was one other member who had another SPS 5 gal with a clam and bunch of other stuff. looked great too. i forget the name though...

[Squared]

thesmallerthebetter has a 1/4g SPS pico...and obviously you can't fit a skimmer in that. but i think he does daily water changes.

[Mr.zissou]

thank you for all the great feed back really helpful if i did run a a sump however how much would it be to drill or should/can i even drill and ada i feel its sac religious

[bobmonkey11]

i dont know how much it would cost, people at my local reef club charge anywhere from 10-20 a hole, i am drilling mine myself. personally i wanted to drill the bottom and build rocks around an offset center overflow which would be really unique and cool so i could have a weak return having water spill back down the rocks. Then add like a sally lightfoot crab which from what i understand will spend some time out of the water!!

 

i think the point of an ADA is to have an extremely clean look and by drilling and adding a sump it would ultimately take most of the equipment out of the display and leave you with a completely rimless setup

 

I was talking about kthehun89's pico check it out its awesome, pics dont do it justice

[SnakPak]

im not talking about pico's not being able to keep sps im saying that for them to grow and thrive your water parameters have to be really good, which in turn means having either proper chemical filtration switched out often or a skimmer, preferably both. i have personally been part of the build of probably the nicest sps pico on these forums so i know what it takes. if you didn't read my comment fully im going to be doing my ada 45-f as an sps pico so of course i think its possible.

 

so if you add "without a skimmer" to the end of my first sentence it would make more sense

 

what i meant to say is that for sps to do well in a pico you need a skimmer in such a small water volume, i also think that an auto top off is crucial to hold the salinity constant as well as the proper amount of lighting.

 

I read your comment fully. You said that you couldn't do SPS well in a 4.6gal tank, which according to your comment above means having either chemical filtration or a skimmer, preferably both. Not trying to start an argument, just trying to state a difference of opinion.

 

There have been plenty of builds where SPS has been kept successfully without a skimmer. Most of the pico members run chemical filtration and do frequent water changes. Parishilton for example has a very nice tank, with many SPS specimens. I'm not sure what his tank is currently running, but at one point all he had was a chiller.

 

I don't think a skimmer is a necessary piece of equipment to be successful in keeping SPS, and that's demonstrated by numerous tanks on this forum. Granted, it certainly helps, but I wouldn't say it's a necessary item to have. Frequent water changes, IMHO, are way more crucial for the success of a pico tank.

 

I've always been a fan of the KISS method. The more variables introduced, the more potential for something to go wrong. I think a lot of people get hung up on what they think they need to keep a successful tank versus learning the basics of this hobby and adding equipment when they know it will be beneficial to their particular ecosystems needs.

[.Newman.]

yes paris's tank is something (its still running as far as we know, with nothing but a chiller and HOB. not even dosing.)

 

ill check out kthehun89's pico, sounds awesome!

 

EDIT: I have seen his build before. I do respect his choice of running only two SPS species in the tank, I think thats the best choice a small sps tank can make to look good. But still parishilton's SPS, fuEl's SPS and some other guy's sps tank (who i still cant remember lol) are better looking for now. They took small SPS frags and grew them into impressive looking corals (paris's pico is getting there) which proves that their methods are just as good. their corals are very healthy and their tanks look incredible. I think fuEl is the only one who uses the skimmer method, but im not 100% sure.

[kthehun89]

I think that everyone makes a good point here, but a few distinctions need to be made.

 

Firstly, there is allot of proof that sps can be kept in picos or small tanks. But that's a very general statement since montis and digis can thrive where as, say a hoeksamia or a abrotanoides will not do well just based on hardiness. I think there is a huge distinction between fuel's pico and my tank since his is dominated by easy sps, whereas I keep and grow an insane tenius and efflo colony, which are relatively more difficult to keep happy.

 

Secondly, skimming in picos is usually determined by size constraints in our small tanks. I use an aquaticlife mini skimmer that pulls lots of gunk. But, I dont accredit my sps success to that skimmer. I do weekly %30 water changes with a high quality mix (red sea coral pro), as well as running a very healthy fuge and dosing prodibio. Using a skimmer in no means spells success, but good husbandry practices and using various methods to ensure success is the key.

 

Lastly, as my grandpappy would always say, "there's more than one way to skin a cat". The good thing with picos is that we can apply techniques on a small scale and experiment better compared to big tanks. By choosing to focus on sps,we set the bar high, but there are allot of nice examples out there, and there is no set way to do it. This ain't reefcentral, we wont blow up too much to a new idea!

[phattypeeps]

Beautiful looking tank, you are off to a good start. I am keeping sps in a 17 G without a skimmer with moderate success so far, so I think growing sps in small tanks skimmerless is possible. I have a large clean up crew which I think helps, and do regular water changes. I have found that a purple digi is one of my fastest growers even compared to zoas and rics which everyone told me would be fast growers.

[Mr.zissou]

As far as using a high quality salt ive been using tropic marin pro-reef sea salt

ive read alot of good things about it.

is there something else better suited for my 45-f could the salt be to much?

 

And for lighting iam going with leds for a couple reasons main reason being heat because the tank is so small.

 

as for stocking plans

 

1 superman monti

1- http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemD...amp;ddid=128367

 

1 tabling acro which i still have to do research on as far as specific needs and on that note whats a great acro for pico reef aquaria ?

 

and i guess zoa and or acan frags

 

i have a toms mini canister filter that i might run on it using chemipure elite

but i might break my mini s down and try to make that a sump or just sell it because i cant have any more gallons of water .

 

 

 

If i ran a sump id be terrified of water overflowing because i have carpet there can not be room for error like that id be in big trouble.

 

and then id have to get a return pump and drill and probably since i have a sump have to make a custom stand so then iam looking at another $300.00

 

its a very costly route for a 4.6 gallon pico reef

[kthehun89]

"1 tabling acro which i still have to do research on as far as specific needs and on that note whats a great acro for pico reefs"

 

No such thing. Sps are not categorized by tank size specifications. That's why its difficult to keep these acros since you need to tailor your tank to the specific water chemistry, light, and flow requirements. There is no acro that suits picos, but rather picos that suit acros.

[Mr.zissou]

by "suit" i meant how hardy and or which type has had most success in pico aquariums

[bobmonkey11]

i would assume that those easier sps such as montipora species, birdsnests, poccilipora.....acros are going to be more tough but some are pretty tolerant. to a certain extent color of the coral will also matter as some colors are much harder to keep like reds(not monti cap) and blues(but there are many many exceptions of course)

[Mr.zissou]

New aqua scape got bored with the old one plus it was blowing sand all over the place.
Tank has finally cycled just trying to get some extra coin to get those LEDS in place .
l

[Mr.zissou]

fish stocking i think i want a yellow tail damsel or 1 blue chromis

[castiel]

Liking the new scape a LOT.

[Mr.zissou]

Thanks man i looked at the ADA website for a little fishy inspiration .

[Squared]

Liking the new scape a LOT.

[teamschreiba]

Great looking scape!!

[Mr.zissou]

He or she is looking great a few days in a healthy tank did this guy wonders already starting to color up alot!
i have it on mysis and pods