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My New Manta Ray, Evil's Par 38, and whatever else comes along

TonyMontana

By TonyMontana,
in Pico Reef Journals

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everl0ng

everl0ng

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yeah no kidding. i really like that setup, period. i am saving up for a tank from them. i want that light holder for sure! please post where you got it! i LOVE the all in one design of the picos they have. nice and clean rimless look, with the black background, and built-in filtration at the perfect size. i'm following this thread, so keep updating :D

 

sorry, just posted after you posted the link. thanks!

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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Holy crap $104 and out of stock. Thats alot for a light bulb holder.

 

Agreed but its clean and that's part of my goal in this tank.

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Stephensx04

Stephensx04

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I agree it looks killer. How high off the water line does it put the light bulb? And how far forward is the bulb center from the arm mounting? I really like it.

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everl0ng

everl0ng

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yeah, that $104 will be well-spent on the aesthetics of a tank. if you're going rimless for the sleek look, might as well pop your wallet for a sleek fixture (especially if it's going to be attached to the tank)

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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I agree it looks killer. How high off the water line does it put the light bulb? And how far forward is the bulb center from the arm mounting? I really like it.

 

Well the total height is just over 15 inches and its about 3 inches of overhang. So depending on the bulb you use it would put it at slightly different heights over the water. The nice thing is that you can toggle the bulb both forward and backward and left to right so you can really point it to whatever part of the tank that you want it.

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Stephensx04

Stephensx04

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Cool thanks. I have a rimless and have the same bulb. I have a home made temp fixture till I either build or buy something nice. This might just fit the bill. With the heavy par38 think it stresses the tank at all?

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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Sweet setup...you obviously are looking for a clean look and not trying to cheap it out.

 

Looking forward to seeing what goes in it!

 

Exactly...It's part of my house. Trying to make it a sleek addition. Ill keep the pictures coming as I add things. I will do so as quick as I can.

 

This is a good time to give chris at picoaquariums.com the proper thank you. He was easy to get in touch with and his service was extremely quick. The tank is perfect and exactly what I was after. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for a sleek design. I understand his price might be high for some but for what you get I feel it is well worth the extra cost and if you have to save well worth the wait. It's well made and I have no doubt that if I had an issue his customer service would be spectacular. Plus its like helping out your local reefer. The price may not compete with an online megastore but I'm willing to spend a little extra for somebody working in their free time to build a quality product for those in the hobby.

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Clavius85

Clavius85

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This is a good time to give chris at picoaquariums.com the proper thank you. He was easy to get in touch with and his service was extremely quick. The tank is perfect and exactly what I was after. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for a sleek design. I understand his price might be high for some but for what you get I feel it is well worth the extra cost and if you have to save well worth the wait. It's well made and I have no doubt that if I had an issue his customer service would be spectacular. Plus its like helping out your local reefer. The price may not compete with an online megastore but I'm willing to spend a little extra for somebody working in their free time to build a quality product for those in the hobby.

Thanks. Good to know.

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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Drool.. Nice setup! What are the dimensions and gallonage on that? Stocking plans?

 

Hey,

 

It's 12x12x9 for a total of 5.5gallons. The display volume is 4 gallons per picoaquariums.com. As for stocking I'm not really sure to be honest. I feel there is going to be a lot of impulse corals in this tank. Right now just waiting for a few more items to show up and then it'll be time to get this tank started.

 

I do appreciate all the replies...I really enjoy reading about others tanks on here and hearing other ideas.

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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is this your first reef tank? or second? the only reason i ask is because you said impulse corals :lol:

 

This is my first reef tank...so I'm doing my best to go slow and do it correctly. As I said still waiting on a few key elements in the mail before I can get this tank up and running. So again any pearls of wisdom and such would be wonderful. Just trying to make a nice looking tank for my house and hopefully share it with you all to perhaps give others some ideas.

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.Newman.

.Newman.

Posted
Posted

ok like you said go slow. If you take a look at my reef tanks, be aware that I am the classic example of someone who cannot resist some things and I stocked my tanks very quickly and wound up with tons of issues.

Here is what I advise you do:

 

1. setup the tank with everything, running with LR and maybe a little bit of light on a timer. Leave this running for at least 2 weeks or so, and make sure you test the water because it is important to know where you stand.

2. after you are sure that you're past the cycle, get your CUC members. if you plan on getting quite a few, you may want to add one half of them and then another half a few weeks later to make sure you don't throw your tank into a mini cycle by adding too much at once.

3. Run the tank with your CUC (feed them if they dont have much to eat) for around 1 month. more is even better but 1 month should be safe enough. Again keep testing the water and be sure that your tank stays perfectly cycled with your CUC functioning.

4. After that period youre ready to try out either your first corals, or a fish, or inverts outside of the CUC category. Go slow, add a little at a time with around 2 weeks or more period in between additions.1 month is even better and will ensure everything stays stable.

 

And now for some questions:

Do you like tanks with a lot of different types of coral?

What kind of fish are you planning?

What kind of non-CUC inverts are you planning?

What members of the CUC have you chosen?

What are your favorite corals of all time :lol:

Do you value crowded and dense coral scapes over scapes with coral but mostly live rock?

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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ok like you said go slow. If you take a look at my reef tanks, be aware that I am the classic example of someone who cannot resist some things and I stocked my tanks very quickly and wound up with tons of issues.

Here is what I advise you do:

 

1. setup the tank with everything, running with LR and maybe a little bit of light on a timer. Leave this running for at least 2 weeks or so, and make sure you test the water because it is important to know where you stand.

2. after you are sure that you're past the cycle, get your CUC members. if you plan on getting quite a few, you may want to add one half of them and then another half a few weeks later to make sure you don't throw your tank into a mini cycle by adding too much at once.

3. Run the tank with your CUC (feed them if they dont have much to eat) for around 1 month. more is even better but 1 month should be safe enough. Again keep testing the water and be sure that your tank stays perfectly cycled with your CUC functioning.

4. After that period youre ready to try out either your first corals, or a fish, or inverts outside of the CUC category. Go slow, add a little at a time with around 2 weeks or more period in between additions.1 month is even better and will ensure everything stays stable.

 

And now for some questions:

Do you like tanks with a lot of different types of coral?

What kind of fish are you planning?

What kind of non-CUC inverts are you planning?

What members of the CUC have you chosen?

What are your favorite corals of all time :lol:

Do you value crowded and dense coral scapes over scapes with coral but mostly live rock?

 

Wow thanks for the information...I do plan on going slow--but do plan on keeping pictures up-to-date. Threads are pretty weak without pics for sure. As far as your questions..

 

1) I prefer tanks with many types of corals---sps are great but im reef retarded so i think Im going to shy away from those for some time until i get a handle on things.

 

2) Probably no fish in this tank---ill wait to get a bigger tank before i jump into that arena.

 

3) The only thing I'm pretty sure I want is a some sort of hermit crab...just find them fun to watch. I thought about contacting reefcleaners and seeing what they could put together for my tank.

 

4) I really want a GSP, although simple and weed like, i like them. I kind of want to put together a ric and zoanthid garden as well. Otherwise like i said just impulse shop for things things that will round out my tank.

 

5) I think I want part of my tank to be crowded. I like the tanks I've seen that are crowded in parts of them but open in others...we'll see how plausible thatll be in a pico tank.

 

Probably some pretty generic answers for you but I'm trying not to get to ahead of myself and just take it one step at a time. I think a big thing on this tank is the aesthetic look. I want to avoid making it look like a threw a bunch of randomness in there just to fill it and keep everything looking sleek.

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plantman1028

plantman1028

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I was thinking about getting the same tank....I likey! The lamp holder is sweet,definately goes great with evils par38. What i'm tryin to say is....NICE!!!

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.Newman.

.Newman.

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Posted

ok I see where you stand based on your answers.

If you ask reefcleaners for the list of CUC (which is a nice idea) they would probably recommend more than one hermit crab. It is up to you to choose what you like. Just a word of caution though, more than one hermit means that they will fight. If you do get a hermit get the dwarf types only. this means no Electric blues or anything larger. Also this means they will hunt snails. try not to get a snail type that will be perfect size for the hermit to take its shell. dwarf ceriths are snails that are often too small for a hermit to bother with so i think they leave them alone.

 

Based on my very smooth experience with my one blue leg hermit in my 3 gal pico, I want to say that having only one hermit is good for the hermit itself. and having small snails with a hermit is good for the snails. I tried owning an astrea snail, but every time that would flip over the hermit would be there trying to excavate it. So it is something to keep in mined if you want snails and hermits. though everybody's experiences are different. I bet there are people who keep many hermits in a 5 gal tank with many snails and dont have a problem.See what works for you, and work around what you like.

 

I know this is going to sound odd, but can you post up a pic of some reef tank that you think looks awesome, and you would love to replicate a similar look in your pico?

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TonyMontana

TonyMontana

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ok i see, how about a larger reef tank that you like?

Sorry for the delay...Im working nights at the hospital this week and its been extremely busy. Ill look around for one that I like and get back to you on that. Currently I am patiently watching the shipping info for fedex waiting for all my new stuff to arrive. Can't wait to get this thing off and running.

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