First Pico Reef, Aqueon Evolve 4

[hirschy75]

Weekly or every other tends to be the normal around here from what I've read.

 

Kinda depends on what you wanna keep, certain corals like zoas even like a little dirtier water from what I've read

[Reret10]

wow your tank went up fast and it looks nice but are you at your work all week because you should check your tank every day and feed whatever needs to be fed

[JamieSheffield]

I have the same tank in my classroom at school, and love it!

 

Jamie

[Reret10]

so you go 2 days without seeing it so no fish i am guessing not that you would have anything bigger than a small goby but wow do you have any corals

[wiskey]

wow your tank went up fast and it looks nice but are you at your work all week because you should check your tank every day and feed whatever needs to be fed

 

no not all week there are, Wednesday and Sunday i am not with the tank.

 

 

I have the same tank in my classroom at school, and love it!

 

Jamie

 

So far i do too!

 

so you go 2 days without seeing it so no fish i am guessing not that you would have anything bigger than a small goby but wow do you have any corals

 

I wont be getting any fish anytime soon. Like you said maybe a goby or a damsel down the road. I would like a somewhat established reef before i add a fish.

 

I have a 3 small zoa pollups. nothing more till i get the light

[harleychic]

I think that tank is too small for a damsel. I wonder if your peppermint shrimp will be happy there long term. I have a 3 gallon with a trio of sexy shrimp (more entertaining than peps imho), and a yellow clown goby with loads of personality!

[harleychic]

Sorry, forgot to add this, smaller and more frequent water changes are the ideal, especially in a pico, I try to do 10% twice a week, unless I get too lazy.

[gimptastic matt]

In my 2 gallon pico i do 2 water changes of 250ml a day 6 days a week and 30% on a Sunday

and my parameters are really stable and everythings growing well

 

I personlly have had no problems with alot of water changes

[blaksheep67]

This is my Evolve i went with the boostled

 

 

 

With Nano Evolve frag rack

 

 

FTS (clown gone)

 

[gimptastic matt]

This is my Evolve i went with the boostled

 

 

 

With Nano Evolve frag rack

 

 

FTS (clown gone)

 

Nice tank dude!

Is the lamp 15w?

Cheers

[BGJ223]

I like the lines of the evolve, good choice. It is a pretty tank.

 

Pretty much what everyone has said is on point, take it slow and let the tank mature before adding life to it.

 

As for water changes, the more the better. Just try and make sure the water parameters match the parameters of your tanks water.

[wiskey]

TIME TO UPDATE

 

FTS

 

Livestock as of 5/8/12

-porclian crab

-small hermit

 

-watermelon zoa

-babboon nipple zoa

-frogspawn

-gsp

-candycane

-red cap monti

-blue xeina

-nuke green polyps

-a few small mushrooms

 

I had to take the peppermint shrimp out due to his constant munching on coral, yes he is a "true" peppermint and yes i'm sure he wasn't just cleaning or removing dead tissue. I guess from what i've read that the peppermints will tend to do work on LPS espically but was also grabbing some of the xeina as well. I would love some replacement ideas as the tank is rather boring with out him

 

I also replaced the stock pump with a hydor pico 800 (200gph over the stock 90 or so) I'm still running the stock plumbing so I would assume the flow is still restricted.

 

I added a 20k par38 w/ 60 degree optics from Ledtric and have to say i'm pleased. The bulb is almost cool to the touch even after being run all day.

 

I ordered a hydor mag pico powerhead to help with some flow issues. I tried the nano style but that thing is huge in this tank and could only really point it in one direction. I also tried the Hydor flo adapter on my return line and IMO that thing is junk.

 

The temp is stable at 78-79, all parameters seem to check out well. I do water changes at least once a week and daily top offs. I have been adding reef code a and b a few times a week just to get my alkalinity up slightly.

 

All photos are taken with my Samsung galaxy s2 phone.

 

FTS showing the ledtric 20k

 

 

 

 

[BGJ223]

Tank is looking good. I see you have some algae forming in there, keep up on your water changes and you should be able to keep it at bay.

 

As for replacements, Glass shrimp, Emerald Crabs, porcelain crabs, pom pom crabs, bumble shrimp. I think any of these would look nice in there.

[mike c]

Looking pretty good! If I can suggest, maybe bump up your CUC. Add 6 assorted snails, and a couple more tiny hermits. I think a harem of Sexy shrimp would look sweet. 1 male and like 4 females.

[wiskey]

Looking pretty good! If I can suggest, maybe bump up your CUC. Add 6 assorted snails, and a couple more tiny hermits. I think a herem of Sexy shrimp would look sweet. 1 male and like 4 females.

 

id like to put a few snails in there but when I had added some snails the hermit murdered them immediately!

 

any snail suggestions?

[mike c]

id like to put a few snails in there but when I had added some snails the hermit murdered them immediately!

 

any snail suggestions?

Is the hermit your everyday scarlet or blue leg? Or is he a big hermit? He was probably just hungry. Throw some food his way once in a whlie and he should stop. Im thinking 2-3 Nassarius snails, 2 Ceriths, and 2 Margarita snails. Maybe get rid of the standard size hermit, and buy 3-4 micro hermits. They stay pretty small.

[wiskey]

Is the hermit your everyday scarlet or blue leg? Or is he a big hermit? He was probably just hungry. Throw some food his way once in a whlie and he should stop. Im thinking 2-3 Nassarius snails, 2 Ceriths, and 2 Margarita snails. Maybe get rid of the standard size hermit, and buy 3-4 micro hermits. They stay pretty small.

 

 

its an everyday scarlet, i do believe that it is a micro, I was told he will stay small. thanks ill look into some options

 

thanks

[BGJ223]

I would only keep 2 hermits and 2 snails in that size tank. No need to increase the bioload just for snails.

[121a]

Tank looks good, can I trouble you for a picture of the filter compartments with the lid off? I am looking into purchasing one to get back into the hobby.

[wiskey]

Tank looks good, can I trouble you for a picture of the filter compartments with the lid off? I am looking into purchasing one to get back into the hobby.

 

yes ill take one tomorrow

[wiskey]

I just finished making a DIY pico fuge out of an old penguin 110 bio wheel.

 

Had this from an old fresh water tank i had set up years ago.

 

before

 

Inside view

 

I used the old filter cartridge, removed the pad and cut it into the size i need.

 

almost threw this piece away before i saw how perfect it fit!

 

Finished product. I have the cover over top and plan on using the stock light my tank came with to grow cheato. I cliped half the blades on the impeller to reduce flow. Ill let it set up over night and put some cheato, Ls and LR and call it a day. 20 min and got to recycle old junk, WIN!

 

[wiskey]

well its been a while since my last update,

 

I added a new pistol shrimp yesterday and so far its awesome to watch! so awesome I decided to add a video,

 

hope you enjoy, i think the second video is pretty neat!

 

 

[wiskey]

figured it was time for a new update.

 

pistol shrimp is awesome! moves stuff around a lot but its fun to watch espically due to such a small tank.

 

downside is my LedTric Par38 bulb died It doesn't turn on, I suspect It is the driver but we will see i guess. I contacted them yesterday morning and still have not heard anything back so am still waiting for some instructions on what to do next. they have a 3 year warranty so hopefully it should be getting fixed. I do have my original led unit that came iwth the tank ok now but the par is just really lacking. but surprisingly some stuff looks like its likes the light, I had often thought that the par 38 was too intense for some of the LPS.

 

FTS

[wiskey]

ledtric update:

 

Two separate emails over two days and still waiting on any type of response. Hopefully day 3 is different!

[wiskey]

ledtric update:

 

Two separate emails over two days and still waiting on any type of response. Hopefully day 3 is different!

 

 

As of now... Day 3 is no different... sent my 3rd email! I sent 2 with the "contact us" link on the website and 1 using the "support" tab.

 

3 days, 3 emails, 0 response.

 

I know this sounds like a rant but i loved that it comes with a 3yr warranty, a big selling point for me. But that is worthless unless i can get in touch with the people honoring it.

 

I'm a pretty patient guy...however my corals are not and are starting to decline, especially my frogspawn. I'm going to wait until this weekend, then I'm going to hack this bulb up and repair it myself.