Shifting Dullness, (PicO III)

[William]

FTS. 02/2015

 

 

 

FTS 9/27/13

 

FTS 9/14/13

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FTS 8/6/13

 

 

Full Tank Shot 7/23/13

 

 

Tank: PICO III low iron glass, clear seems, with filter cover.

Stand: Black marineland stand

Light: Maxspect razor nano -> gen 2 radion with wxm

Skimmer: Tunze 9004

Water movement: MP10 Wes

Sand: Seachem gray coast (Removed) now bare bottom

Controller: Apex lite

2x BRS dosers, dosing 2 part

BRS doser dosing red sea N03/P0x

System Pump: Stock, for now.

Aquascape: Vida-Rock Bonsai

 

Livestock:

 

Coral:

1 pineapple favia

1 green Christmas tree favia

sunburst zoos

Green chalice

Orange Setosa

Green monti cap

Hammer coral

aurora chalice

red digi

nuclear candy cane

red scoly

watermelon chalice

 

Inverts:

Clean up crew (crabs and snails)

purple and green rock anemone

RBTA

blue corcea

black and white tear drop maxima

Pin cussion urchin

2x mini maxi anemone

Yellow body cbs

 

Fish:

ORA Spotcinctus Clownfish

2x pj cardinals

Bicolor blenny

Pink skunk clown

 

[Deleted User 4]

Good choice! Looking to be.

[JR!]

The gnome skimmer will be perfect for the tank BTW

[TristanC]

Nice choices in equipment! Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Akiowalt]

Good plan, are you sure 34 gallons to pico tank? this is very big change! I can't wait to see

[William]

To clarify, the tank will be a PICO aquariums III ~22 gal

[BadCrab]

Welcome to the party! The pico iii is a great tank, and the equipment you have listed is going to make a beautiful build... Gnome skimmer will be perfect (airstone skimming ftw)

[William]

Well, order placed, it is on it's way

[Akiowalt]

Sorry, I can't access to PICO website in my country. Can't wait to see!

[William]

So im trying to decide if I want to go with an Aqua-texture rockscape or build my own out of BRS pukini.

 

BRS:

Pros-

can make it whatever shape i want it in

cheaper

will be able to buffer the water should it need to

 

Cons-

i will have to make an aquascape

I will have to cook it, and that takes time

I am a Medical student and I dont have alot of time to cook rock.

I would have to cook the rock for at least 3 weeks and im impatient

 

Aqua-texture:

Pros-

no need to cook rock

no need to worry about creating a rockscape

no need to wait

 

cons-

price

ceramic nature of the rock

aesthetics? (some pieces look good, others not so much)

 

 

Any one want to provide their input?

 

 

If i went with Aqua-texture, i would probably get something like the following:

 

http://aqua-tecture.com/?wpsc-product=arch-vidarock-at339

 

Or

 

http://aqua-tecture.com/?wpsc-product=bonsai-vidarock-at332

 

Also contemplating skimmers (depending if i am going to carbon dose or not, as im not sure my gnome will be able to handle it): Hydro slim skim, Tunze 9004, IM Skimmate.......

[CMac07]

So im trying to decide if I want to go with an Aqua-texture rockscape or build my own out of BRS pukini.

 

BRS:

Pros-

can make it whatever shape i want it in

cheaper

will be able to buffer the water should it need to

 

Cons-

i will have to make an aquascape

I will have to cook it, and that takes time

I am a Medical student and I dont have alot of time to cook rock.

I would have to cook the rock for at least 3 weeks and im impatient

 

I'm new to nano-reefing myself, but I thought I'd share my experience with BRS Pukani rock. We decided to give it a shot even after reading all of the posts mentioning phosphate leaching. I wrote up a little section in my members' reefs thread, but here's the tl;dr version: I didn't have any such problem. I started at 0 ppm phosphates which climbed to 0.25 - 0.5ppm over 48 hours, but I'm not entirely sold on the fact that it was leaching from within the rock. The Pukani i received seemed to still have a bit of life on it, and 0.25 - 0.5 ppm over 48 hours is a very manageable phosphate level with phosphate removal media and a fuge with some Chaeto in it (or at least that's my understanding). Your mileage may vary, but that's my two cents.

[TristanC]

Honestly I'd make my own, the vidarocks are super cool no doubt, but nothing beats making something stellar with your own imagination.

[jcusmarine]

I think either option on rock is fine. With such a small space for my PicO the Vida Rock was a good choice so I could get the 'perfect fit' for such a small scape. I have used Marco Rocks and LR in previous setups so it's just matter of preference. Look forward to seeing your build and good choice on the equip so far!

[William]

I used marco for my last setup (34) and liked it, and i have used "live" rock in the past. just looking to try something new.

 

Honestly I'd make my own, the vidarocks are super cool no doubt, but nothing beats making something stellar with your own imagination.

I agree and generally feel the same way, but if i can get something as good as what I would make and not have to spend the time making it, im all for it. I emailed them the display specs and they said they would get back to me with suitable scapes. If not ill just order some pukini when that BRS group buy starts on the 21st.

[BadCrab]

I can't recommend VidaRock enough. That stuff is gold, I don't think I'll ever use another type of rock in my tanks. It's literally built for optimal frag placement (some even have drilled holes.)

I've gotten several pieces, I really like them. While Aqua-tecture (Not texture, lol, they are doing a play on the word Architecture) is the only authorized online retailer, pretty much any LFS can order the stuff directly from CeramEco for cheaper. Unfortunately, you don't get to pick WYSIWYG pieces that way usually. Aqua-tecture rotates new pieces frequently so if you don't see exactly what you want, I'd wait.

[TristanC]

I can't recommend VidaRock enough. That stuff is gold, I don't think I'll ever use another type of rock in my tanks. It's literally built for optimal frag placement (some even have drilled holes.)

 

I've gotten several pieces, I really like them. While Aqua-tecture (Not texture, lol, they are doing a play on the word Architecture) is the only authorized online retailer, pretty much any LFS can order the stuff directly from CeramEco for cheaper. Unfortunately, you don't get to pick WYSIWYG pieces that way usually. Aqua-tecture rotates new pieces frequently so if you don't see exactly what you want, I'd wait.

Their "bonsai" one is freakin sweet.

[BadCrab]

Also your FTS makes me uncomfortable.

[William]

So my ETA is 4 weeks , so it looks like i will be waiting for a while. But that does give me time to find a better stand than the biocube one that fits the tank (i think they are too short, and are ugly)

[Josh125]

I used a solana stand for my MR 18 and will be using it (or a new one) on the Pico III I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on. This should give some idea of what it looks like. I used for just over a year without a single issue. It is laid out well for this size of tank. I was easily able to keep a 5.5 gal. tank in it for top off and all of my electrical connections were on the top shelf inside the cabinet.

 

[Tripwyr]

Pukani leeching is caused by the collection process. They simply collect the rock from underwater and allow it to dry out. This means there are many dead organisms present on the rock, and their decomposition (especially from within the rock) causes the phosphate leeching. Their Reef Saver rock is land-based, so it will not have this issue. If you are concerned about the leeching found in the Pukani rock, try their Reef Saver rock.

 

P.S. This is why Reef Saver is the only rock shippable to Canada, even dead rock is considered "livestock".

[William]

Pulled the trigger on a vida rock piece. ill post pics in a bit.

 

Has anyone had any experience with Starboard bottoms? Im considering getting black starboard cut for the bottom of mine, and epoxying black sand to it..... ? thoughts?

[William]

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[BadCrab]

Sick.

[TristanC]

Nice piece! I've seen a tank somewhere that had a starboard bottom with sand glued to it, in my opinion it didn't look that great at all. To me having no substrate just makes the tank look like it belongs in a fish store somewhere full of frags, again that's Just my opinion. I also think you would run into issues with detritus getting stuck in the space between the glass and the board leading to nutrient issues. You could silicon the sides but that might look like shit.

[William]

I just hate how my crabs and such have a hard time walking on the slick glass bottom. But I also hate sand, so........ I did see a tank that put small u fired ceramic tiles on the bottom..... Maybe that will work