Starting a Pico

[soundcrd]

Hey All

 

First of all, let me say that I've been looking over the site and I really enjoy all the discussion and everything I've seen. Some of the DIY projects are a little (OK, a lot) over my head, but I hope I can come at least a little close to some of the tanks I've seen here.

 

So a little background: I graduated from college in August and moved to Corpus Christi in September. Since then I'd kind of wanted to set up a tank, but when my dad brought down some of the crap I had stored at his house, including my two tanks (35g and 60g), I decided I really needed to set up a tank. So I called my apartment's front office to see what their policy on tanks was, and was told that because I lived on the second floor, I couldn't have anything over 5g...

 

After cooling down for a little while, I decided that instead of viewing this as a problem, I would see it as an opportunity to dive into the world of picos. I will admit, I am a little hesitant because while I do have some reef experience, it is fairly limited and not entirely successful. I am hoping that with some guidance, though, I can have some better luck.

 

Anyway, now I need to pick a tank. I was thinking either the JBJ Pico or the Tom Deco 2g. I was also thinking about possibly picking up both and switching the lights, cuz the Pico's seems decent but not great and the Tom's seems extreme. Thoughts on either/both?

 

Also, so far I haven't been able to find jack in the way of a good pet store here. My LFS seems to have a decent selection of corals and fish, but squat for rock. Any suggestions? If anyone is familiar with the stores in San Antonio, Austin, or Houston, I would appreciate some input.

 

Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward to the responses.

[lakshwadeep]

to nano-reef.com!

 

If you want some info on local reef clubs and post, or look through a few pages, a question on finding a good LFS, then I suggest looking here (you will have to register with Reefcentral to start posting):

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay...amp;forumid=537

[airangel]

Hi & Welcome

Other small tank options besides Toms (acrylic isn't it?) and JBJ would be Finnex 4g (comes with 13w lite for 64.99 shipped) and Jalli 4g (comes with 18w lite 38.99 & s/h) Both are curved glass tanks and under the 5g you need. I've been looking into Pico's as well and was going to go with one of those 4g till I decided to use a 3.6g glass tank I already had.

Do browse around & check out members tanks and PICO forum, you'll find a wealth of info here & folks willing to go the extra mile to make sure you have the knowledge to set foot on this journey. Whatever info your LFS tells you, come here and ask before you buy anything.

[soundcrd]

Another tidbit: Unfortunately, my LFS does not carry small tanks, so I will definitely need to shop on-line for one. For a while the only two sites I had seen were Drs. Foster and Smith and MarineDepot. The more I look around, though, the more sites I am finding, and it's getting kind of difficult to keep track. Any good ones you can recommend? Not only for tanks, but especially for rock and sand, since my LFS does a bad job at both.

[Dadoboy]

Another tidbit: Unfortunately, my LFS does not carry small tanks, so I will definitely need to shop on-line for one. For a while the only two sites I had seen were Drs. Foster and Smith and MarineDepot. The more I look around, though, the more sites I am finding, and it's getting kind of difficult to keep track. Any good ones you can recommend? Not only for tanks, but especially for rock and sand, since my LFS does a bad job at both.

Dont forget (egads, do I say it?) Petsmart/Petco/Pet supermarket... My only suggestion is that you stick w/ glass... I have my 5 gallon acrylic tank for 2 months, and its hard to see some things due to scratches...

 

I hear good things about MarineDepot (will be ordering from them soon!) and the Dr's have 'shipping' issues (myself included).. (check out the threads on here about that). You can also visit the "Sponsors" page for good deals & great people.

 

HTH

Dave A.

 

p.s.

[el fabuloso]

Picos are not as hard to maintain as you might think. If you're looking for a good 3g tank, the JBJ Picotope is your best bet. It's made of glass and won't scratch. The stock light may be weak but you can easily upgrade it and use the stock light over a moded HOB fuge. As airangel mentioned, the 4g Finnex and Jalli tanks are another good options that are under 5g.

[Gerber77]

I agree with fabuloso, I used to have a picotope and it was awesome. I upgraded the light and was able to keep a lot more options and the only thing you have to worry about are small daily top offs.

[soundcrd]

Ok, so I like the suggestion of the Jalli 4g. Now I need to figure out the filtration situation. I have two options so far:

 

I found a cool little power filter that has a skimmer on the inlet tube (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3579+16729&pcatid=16729). It comes with a sponge and some filter floss stuffed with carbon, but I figure I'd ditch that and just fill it with filter floss. I like the skimming action, and I like the clamshell filter casing, so I can easily keep filter floss in place.

 

I also saw this guy on another thread (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~protein_skimmers_taam_rio_nano_skimmer.html). It seems like a great idea to have a compact little protein skimmer like that. The only downside is it doesn't have (as far as I can see) the surface skimming capability of the other one. I'm not sure how much of a problem surface scum is going to be... thoughts?

 

Whichever one I go with, I'm thinking I'm going to mod it into a fuge, add a little light over (probably 9w or something like that). Cheato algae seems to be pretty big on the forums, but I haven't found a whole lot about it elsewhere online. Should I run the fuge light at the same time as the tank light, at night, or 24 hours?

 

Anyway, thanks for the help so far, and I hope to see the good ideas keep coming!

[airangel]

I just ordered the Taam Rio skimmer for the 3.6g Pico Reef I'm working on (was going to get the Jalli 4g), actually skimmer sold by same place (also got the Tahitian Black Moon sand).....another option is the AC filter, not sure if AC 30 or higher, most folks mod that to be a fuge and you can probably rig up a palm light for it as well. The LR in the tank is your filtration system.

[gulfsurfer101]

I would stay away form the toms deco, it scratches very easily and requires lots of cleaning due to coraline algea growth. I have on and I just use the light over a fuge on the back of my 12g aquapod and use the tank to move stuff between tanks and store wet supplies. I replied to your PM but wasn't shure which tank it was youwere looking at. I would go with an all glass and do the uprading on the light.

[soundcrd]

I was thinking about the light that comes with the Jalli 4g (18w PC), and comparing that to some of the lights some of the other members on this site run, and I was wondering if that light would be sufficient. I have done enough searching around to know that there is no real straightforward answer. So really what I want to know is this: is an 18W PC 50/50 sufficient for a 10" deep tank growing shrooms, zoas, and maybe a softie or two? What about candy canes?

[el fabuloso]

If you only plan on keeping softies then 18W will be sufficient. But don't count on some of the more colorful zoas to keep their colors under that bulb. You can easily upgrade your light to 36 watts for less than $100 and you'll be able to keep candy canes and under LPS which is something you're gonna want to try your hand at sooner than you think.

[soundcrd]

Alright, so I'm thinking about going in a little bit different direction.

 

I'm thinking I'll take a 5.5 gal tank from Petco and mod it to include a fuge. The tank is 16" long (which I discovered is a pain to find light for), so I'll take 4" of that and wall it off for a sump. I'll have a 2" overflow section onto some eggcrate supporting filter floss. Then underflow to a 3" overflow leading to the fuge area. Then I'd have a 6" overflow into the pump return area. I haven't quite figured out how to properly place a powerhead for return.

 

As far as other hardware, I'm thinking a 36W 12" Coralife Aqualight with an attachable moonlight. For the fuge I'd use this cool little light I found on Marine Depot.

 

Here's a diagram showing what I'm thinking:

 

Thoughts?

[soundcrd]

Ok, so I just found Sandeep's thread about his 5.5 AIO tank, and realized I'm about the 35th person to try a setup like this. That's alright, at least I know I'm on the right track. I'm going to keep going, will keep updating.