1 gallon pico water change

[Androctonus]

Hi i have started a 1,5 gallon pico reef

From the live rock of my one year old nanocube and the water. d'int want any cycle maybe i will have a small cycle ?

 

Its have 2 lbs of cured live rock

Small hob filter with activate carbon

Ecoxotic reef led light not sure wich one

The question is how much water change

I have planned for 50% every week and change small amount everyday i want it to last long ...

I did a lot of research before but i am still not sure for water change thanks you

[Androctonus]

I dont want more than 2 hermit crabs and maybe a small emerald crab ...

And gsp

[brandon429]

for 16 yrs that's all ive kept, the exact system you describe plus several corals. this is how water changes work in gallon reefs:

 

-if you did 100% every day it would help, not harm your reef because that would allow you to spot feed every coral before the change. the constant feeding would bulk up corals, and then be exported before it rots as waste in your tiny tank. just match temp and specific gravity, no other params need to line up. corals adapt just fine. crabs and shrimp too

 

-most don't want to do that work, so weekly is good enough.

 

the longest lived pico reefs in the whole world do some sort of weekly work. mine is 100% changed once or twice a week.

 

AndrewK gets by on smaller water changes because he uses some GFO to take up po4, all options exist. my post is only that you cant overchange, you can only underchange and starve things too much. El Fab's link up top is a three gallon pico, three years on only 50% water changes nothing else. weekly

[Androctonus]

Thank you for the help .Did a small water change today add gsp frag parameter are the same than yesterday

[brandon429]

and its nice to know even if the params other than temp and salinity change, it wont hurt!

[Androctonus]

i think i will do 100% every week two 50% water change

 

and brandon your vase inspired me to do this project

[brandon429]

Thank you! I'll tell you what I just completed this weekend, the hidden trick of all long term pico reefing

 

 

 

I did a blast run. changed my water four times just this past weekend. It's not that I have to repeat that anytime soon. Or I can. Or not. It's a matter of how much coral mass do you want, and when.

 

I bought two stressed sps frags at big discount. Pure shipping stress, they rtn at the base and I got an orange sps with green polyps to rehab cheap, and these hyper feeding runs are literally all it takes. Many of them. In three mos I can back off

 

Corals are rarely put into tanks other than sparse feeding ones who concern about nutrients endlessly, their corals walk the line between positive and negative nitrogen balance. The already stressed frags get some kind of dip, then they are put into a system where the export metabolism is every two weeks. In picos you can reverse that, blast feeding corals and changing water when you have some free time, just to see them brighter next week. I have literally been filling each of my Lps with living brine shrimp and the amount of roti pods that would feed a twenty gallon tank. Literally bathing each coral in a cloud of roti pods. Do that over a weekend in an average tank, it will have a three month cyano issue to deal with if not a small ammonia spike. We can stack these picos with feed grossly, and then rip it all out clean. And then rip water again tomorrow to get the leftovers and you have absolutely stuffed corals that will poop for three days. Sorry for crude example but that's literally the biology of getting steroidal coral growth, it's easier in a gallon tank than any other size.

 

Heterotrophic feeding amplification is more important to coral growth than exacting calcium and alk. It's the best trick I know. In three mos your corals will have covered much ground with party weekends lol.

 

That rock looks awesome. I expect no ammonia will ever become due to the quality and age of that live rock. Only a lost fish or major waste store would get some ammonia those are handy to watch out for. Sometimes those tests can indicate low level ammonia, causing concerns, when there is none. They are helpful for mid and high level warnings.

[Androctonus]

thanks for the information it will be very usefull for me

sorry i am frech my english is not perfect..

 

i put a 5 year old rock with green mushroom and zoa

on the picture they are close but i will take photo when all the coral are open

also planning from seing your video you have a coral banded shrimp wich i have two in my nano tank

maybe in 1 week if everything ok i will try

 

[Androctonus]

i change everything its now a 1.5 gallon cokies jar

 

with only a air pump and a heater

[Androctonus]

I know i have copying you brandon

But your vase is an inspiration. i put live rock rubble instead of sand i dont know if this ok

One time a week i will feed the coral and do 100% water change 1 hours after

 

http://youtu.be/R3kbcMQLBDs

[brandon429]

All I did was copy what the large tankers did but in a cheap container ha! We all share ideas. That crushed coral is just fine. It's a problem in larger tanks because they can't take apart to clean, but we sure can. At any time you want you can take that whole reef apart, rinse it out, and put it back together brand new with no cycle

 

That means any substrate you choose won't matter long term, all the same. It's the hands off big tanks that must choose carefully while we are just free to zip clean whenever needed. In that video the rocks are purple and algae free, water is laser clean, no waste in the system and healthy corals. Perfect pico!

[Roshan8768]

Thank you! I'll tell you what I just completed this weekend, the hidden trick of all long term pico reefing

 

 

 

I did a blast run. changed my water four times just this past weekend. It's not that I have to repeat that anytime soon. Or I can. Or not. It's a matter of how much coral mass do you want, and when.

 

I bought two stressed sps frags at big discount. Pure shipping stress, they rtn at the base and I got an orange sps with green polyps to rehab cheap, and these hyper feeding runs are literally all it takes. Many of them. In three mos I can back off

 

Corals are rarely put into tanks other than sparse feeding ones who concern about nutrients endlessly, their corals walk the line between positive and negative nitrogen balance. The already stressed frags get some kind of dip, then they are put into a system where the export metabolism is every two weeks. In picos you can reverse that, blast feeding corals and changing water when you have some free time, just to see them brighter next week. I have literally been filling each of my Lps with living brine shrimp and the amount of roti pods that would feed a twenty gallon tank. Literally bathing each coral in a cloud of roti pods. Do that over a weekend in an average tank, it will have a three month cyano issue to deal with if not a small ammonia spike. We can stack these picos with feed grossly, and then rip it all out clean. And then rip water again tomorrow to get the leftovers and you have absolutely stuffed corals that will poop for three days. Sorry for crude example but that's literally the biology of getting steroidal coral growth, it's easier in a gallon tank than any other size.

 

Heterotrophic feeding amplification is more important to coral growth than exacting calcium and alk. It's the best trick I know. In three mos your corals will have covered much ground with party weekends lol.

 

That rock looks awesome. I expect no ammonia will ever become due to the quality and age of that live rock. Only a lost fish or major waste store would get some ammonia those are handy to watch out for. Sometimes those tests can indicate low level ammonia, causing concerns, when there is none. They are helpful for mid and high level warnings.

 

Great information! What foods do you feed in these blast feedings other than live? What would you recommend for a LPS/zoa dominated pico? I was thinking frozen cylops? And maybe spot feeding frozen mysis to candy canes and duncans? Very interested to hear your thoughts on this. Sorry OP, not trying to hijack thread

[brandon429]

In my opinion its just an amplification of the feed you already use, its all protein in the end, and digested bits. some elicit a better feeding response than others, I use the refrigerated roti feast only due to being part in this study below and because my corals like it. I used to blast feed with standard cyclopeeze and they ate well off that too. its the CPR tactic of heavy in, wait a few hours, heavy out and fat corals that matters. even after the initial water change, we need an extra the next day to handle the coral waste expulsion but this CPR activity has put on several new nodes from my little sps frag that was rehabilitating

Any of these other mentioned are prob just as good but my lfs has rf so I bought it and love it during my blast feeding runs. It is for sure causing every coral to grow faster I've been using this stuff a few yrs now when they get it in stock. https://reefbuilders.com/2012/03/07/coral-farming-science/