Tkpico's 3g reef

[Tkpico]

Hello everyone!

I am new to saltwater aquariums and most of what I have learned has come from other tank threads to find out what works and what does not. I have been lurking on these forums for about 6 months now and figured I would make a thread to keep a sort of timeline for my reef.

 

Everything I read online told me that the smaller the tank the more difficult it is to manage because small changes have big effects in tanks like these and that it is not something a beginner should attempt but I am up for the challenge. I will be starting out with cheaper hardy corals and slowly progress to more challenging ones as the tank ages and as I grow as an aquarist.

 

I am also creating this thread in search of constructive criticism and advice along the way. I am very new at this still and I have a lot to learn. On to specs and pics...

Current Equipment
Tank: JBJ 3g picotope
Filter: Modded AC70
Powerhead: Rio 50

Tank Light: Wave-point 8watt super blue /10k led Clamp light
Fuge Light: 5w LED (4red 1 blue)

Heater: Hydor 25 watt

 

Bio

5 pound of live rock

2-3 pounds of live sand

Filter Floss

Chemi Pure Elite

Chaeto

 

Current Inhabitants

Zoanthid's (2 flavors)

Green Star Polyps

Ricordea Florida

Acan Lord

Xenia

Blue trumpet coral

Candy cane

Astrea Snail

 

 

The First Week

 

Stock Picotope setup day 1 (3/9/15)

 

Decided to fill out the tank a little more by adding a small piece of rock in the front, my plan was to put a GSP there so that when it starts spreading I can easily contain it.

 

No idea what I wanted to do with the Rio at the time

 

Day 7 saw my first hitch hiker, an Asterina star

 

Month 1

 

On day 24 I still had not experienced any spikes in my parameters so I decided to throw in some bumble bee snails to test the waters.

 

On day 30 I decided to make some changes and slap on an AC70 and throw in some chaeto and Chemi Pure Elite.

 

Also tentatively added my first little frag!

 

FTS

 

Month 2

 

Day 48: Diatoms everywhere!

 

I did some research and learned that tap water was my enemy. This coupled with the fact I was running my lights 10 hours a day seemed encourage them. Made the switch to Ro/DI or distilled water if I was in a pinch and switched to a 6" 8 watt LED clamp on and reduced lighting hours to 7. the diatoms began receeding overnight. My bumblebee Snails kicked the bucket.... RIP

 

 

 

Towards the end month I made a trip to one of my LFS to browse and ended up walking out with a couple tiny frags..

 

A little Acan with two other really small heads.

 

And a GSP on a piece of LR with a couple cool hitch hikers. Some feather dusters, a stomatella, what looks to be some sort of tiny button polyp colony, and a few bristle worms.

 

After a couple hours of settling in everyone began reaching for light.

 

 

Day 60

 

 

 

 

 

 

FTS

 

Month 3

 

I decided to try my hand with more snails so I decided to place an order on Reefcleaners and received the following

 

2x Nerite

3x Nass

3x Florida Cerith

1x handful of Dwarf Ceriths

 

The nerites would climb out of the tank, fall off, and roll across my floor almost nightly about 30 minutes after the lights would go out, I read that they like to skim the water line so maybe they just kept falling off I have no idea.

 

A week later after a trip to my LFS I had a nice little Florida Ricordea in the Pico.

 

Day 90

 

Over the past week my Zoa frag has been acting odd, I can see new polyps growing but some of them look rather unhealthy. The deformed looks ones never really change, the others look fine but retreat back into themselves often. Can anyone provide some info on this?

 

I found the smallest Xenia I could get my hands on and set it front and center to see how it responds to the lighting and will adjust accordingly, I'd like to keep it somewhere in the back of the away from everything else since I hear they grow pretty quickly.

 

The Ricordea seems to be doing well

 

 

 

The GSP is starting to spread onto the other piece of rock just as I had hoped.

 

 

The Acan

 

 

FTS

 

I will be posting monthly updates or as changes occur!

[jlangtree]

Looks good mate!

[HarryPotter]

Looks really nice! I love how you wrote it up and took us through the tank's development

[JR!]

looking good so far.

[k4ndyk1ng]

looks great good job!!

[Tkpico]

Hello again!

 

It has been about one month since my last post and a few things have changed so I figured it was worth posting an update.

 

I am having issues growing Chaeto, it is possible that I just may not be producing enough nitrates to grow the stuff but I thought it might be due to my stock picotope lighting so I decided to purchase a cheap LED bulb on ebay. The light contains four red LED's and one blue LED.

 

All the chaeto I had left before the bulb was swapped.

 

I use the bulb paired with a basic clamp on lamp I picked up at home depot.

 

 

 

On to the corals!

 

My Florida Ricordea has split and now I have two new additions.

 

 

Day 112

 

I made a trip to my LFS and picked up a small Zoa frag along with a Blue Trumpet coral.

 

 

My watermelon Zoas had been looking pretty sickly the past couple weeks so I gave them a 5 minute 4:1 peroxide/SW dip, after a couple days everyone was happy again!

 

 

 

I also started spot feeding the corals mysis every three days, I'm curious to see how much faster the corals grow. My Acans are still small but taking steps in the right direction, the feeding should help.

 

 

My GSP hasn't been happy for about three weeks, I can't seem to figure out why.

I believe that is a small white sponge growing up from below in the picture.

 

Day 120

 

I picked up a purple candy cane coral, I really like the color combination so I couldn't resist.

 

 

That's all for this month, thanks for viewing!

 

7/11/15

 

 

[NinjaReefer]

Great tank. I like your setup.

 

I have a small sugestion. I think your tank would look even better if you took all the corals off the frag plugs. Your corals all look great and you have a great rock layout. It looks interesting and natural, but it gets ruined by all the hockey pucks. hehe

 

Normally its pretty easy to just pry the whole coral off the plug, but if its encrusted on you can actaully cut the plugs into smaller natural shapes using wire cuters. They are brittle and easy to cut.

 

I really do like your tank. I will be following along.

[Tkpico]

Next time I have everything out of the tank maybe I will play around with that, I agree the hockey pucks aren't very pleasing to the eye.

 

Thanks for your suggestion Ninja.

[Tkpico]

I made a short clip of my newest additions to the Pico, a Shrimp and Goby pair.

They paired up almost immediately.

 

https://youtu.be/u6rqQnj2iDg

[Tkpico]

I had been losing snail after snail every couple days and for the longest time and I thought it had to be me doing something wrong but all of my params checked out consistently. I decided to stake out the tank that evening and fashioned a small spear just in case something nasty decided to show its face.

 

At about 1:45 in the morning I turned my red light on over the tank and what do I find? A massive Polyclad Flatworm, like something out of a nightmare it slowly slithered across my rocks. I attempted to pin it with my spear to no avail, the leviathan just tore itself trying to get away into the rocks. I'll admit I panicked slightly and grabbed the rock out of the water and placed it in a bucket. I used my turkey baster to pump fresh water into the crevasse he was hiding in, I then proceeded to suck the whole worm back up into the baster itself.

 

About a week later my girlfriend and I swung into a local LFS and picked up another Zoa frag to add to the start of the zoa garden I have been planning. She found a cool little blue spotted goby and I just couldnt resist getting a tiger pistol to go along with it.

 

The small zoa frag

 

The Goby always keeping a watchful eye out for danger.

 

 

The pistol made his home right up front under my GSP

 

Speaking of GSP this is about the most I have gotten out of it in a month, I'm not sure what to do about it.. The mat is still growing onto the other rock but the polyps never fully extend.

 

 

I took Ninja's advice and removed all my frags from the plugs to give the tank a more natural look.

 

And as of yesterday I finally got my hands on a single Duncan frag.

 

Top down

 

Can anyone tell me if this looks like too much flow for it?

 

The zoa glued on

 

A couple shots of the tank as it sits now.

 

Left side

 

FTS

[Tkpico]

It has been some time since my last post so I figured an update was in order.

 

Have been considering a light upgrade to increase growth, mine seems relatively slow even with feedings.

 

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the current set up.

 

 

Removed my old GSP and replaced it with what I thought was a different GSP but it may be an encrusting gorgonian.

 

 

 

Does my duncan look like he is over extending?

 

Removed most of my watermelon zoas and transferred them to a frag tank, plan on expanding my zoa garden soon.

 

Basto Wellsi looking good

 

Protector of the realm

 

A couple new additions, Multi colored Rhodactus, Darth maul Paly, Electric oompa Loompa

 

 

And my Utter Chaos paly

 

Hopefully more to add soon, thanks for looking.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Looking good!

 

There is a natural tendency to want to push growth, but in a Pico, especially, you will run out of room in a hurry. Your corals look healthy and colorful (whch is something that many novice reefers would be very happy with!), and there is growth, so you might want to consider maintaining the system as is and simply let it mature as you continue stocking.

 

BTW - The Ricodia is a R. yuma, not a R. florida (R. yumas have the tentacle 'bumps' right up to (and usually on) the mouth cone.

[NinjaReefer]

Very nice! I love the goby.

 

I agree with Nano Sapiens, dont mess with a good thing. based on the pictures it looks like your corals are getting plenty of light. I doubt that is the limiting factor in their growth. You may notice an increase in growth(and algea) now that you have a fish to feed. I would let things settle in for a couple months at least before thinking about changing lighting.

 

The duncan looks alright to me. I dont think it is reaching for light. As for the flow its really hard to tell from just pictures, in most the pics it looks fine, but in that one where it is folding over on itself a little bit it looks like the flow might be a little on the strong side.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Tkpico]

That makes sense, I will stick with this for now, I appreciate the advice. I'd like to get my hands on a par meter to get an idea of what I am working with.

 

Great to know about the ricordea. He's been doing some growing.

 

This fella seems to have been a pretty good fit in the aquarium.

[Reefkid88]

Nice little tank you've got going on here. How are you liking the Wavepoint light so far ? They've always looked promising for small tanks like this wish softies and some lps. You've got a nice little zoa collection going on too !!!

[Tkpico]

Thanks a lot. The light has worked well enough, especially for the price. I wish it had a switch for just blues and obviously a dimmer would be great, but you get what you pay for I suppose.

[Michelos]

That rodacthus!..nice tank

[Tkpico]

That rodacthus!..nice tank

Thank you! I'm very eager to see what he looks like down the road as it continues growing.

[picozoa]

Nice tank.

 

I just started with the same tank and was looking at much of the same upgrades and have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

 

How is the flow with only the AC70 mod? Does it add any flow? I'm mostly looking at doing zoa's in mine with maybe an odd ball softie or 2. Do you feel the Rio is needed?

 

And how big is the Rio? That's the only reason I want to avoid using it if possible. I have a maxi-jet 400 for mixing water and I tried to see if I could get it to work with even the tiniest configuration and it was just a monster in the tank. I'm wanting the AC70 mostly to get heaters and such out of the display and I hate the idea of putting more stuff back in. Worth it?

 

Thanks!

[Anden]

Nice setup, im lovning the maul zoa.

[Tkpico]

Nice tank.

 

I just started with the same tank and was looking at much of the same upgrades and have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

 

How is the flow with only the AC70 mod? Does it add any flow? I'm mostly looking at doing zoa's in mine with maybe an odd ball softie or 2. Do you feel the Rio is needed?

 

And how big is the Rio? That's the only reason I want to avoid using it if possible. I have a maxi-jet 400 for mixing water and I tried to see if I could get it to work with even the tiniest configuration and it was just a monster in the tank. I'm wanting the AC70 mostly to get heaters and such out of the display and I hate the idea of putting more stuff back in. Worth it?

 

Thanks!

The flow from my AC70 at the max setting is far too powerful for what I have going on, I have it cranked all the way down and then some, I use the rio to deflect that flow partially into a different direction.

 

I would say that the Rio is probably not necessary but it is great for taking care of any dead spots on the tank. Its pretty small but I could see some people saying its an eyesore, but it definitely has enough power.

 

The AC70 is a great addition to the pico, not only do you get the extra flow and heater storage but you can also establish a nice little refugium if you ever decide to go that route, I also use filter floss and chemi pure elite back there for filter media.

[Tkpico]

Took a few shots under the blues, hope they aren't too dark...

 

 

 

 

[picozoa]

 

The flow from my AC70 at the max setting is far too powerful for what I have going on, I have it cranked all the way down and then some, I use the rio to deflect that flow partially into a different direction.

 

I would say that the Rio is probably not necessary but it is great for taking care of any dead spots on the tank. Its pretty small but I could see some people saying its an eyesore, but it definitely has enough power.

 

The AC70 is a great addition to the pico, not only do you get the extra flow and heater storage but you can also establish a nice little refugium if you ever decide to go that route, I also use filter floss and chemi pure elite back there for filter media.

 

 

Thanks, I think I'll try just the AC70 and see how it goes.

[NinjaReefer]

lookin good! I like the goby.

[Anden]

Nice tank and choice of polyps corals.

 

Full tank shot.?

 

It has bin to long plz post fts every 3-4 weeks.