Soon-to-be Dorm Pico

[Jigsaw]

Hey everyone, I just came back to nano-reef after a year at college and such. I kept up a 10 gallon which initially was supposed to be a reef but because of lack of local lfs and plentiful cash funds it lacked and proved to be almost a burden (my roommate suggested putting it on his fridge and somehow rust got on his fridge and he hated me, long story), so I'm downgrading. The travel back and forth for a 10 gal. is a pain so I'm bringing back my one gallon pico I had long ago.

 

Tank Specs:

 

1 Gallon "ocean free" Glass Tank

Modded in-tank fuge

 

Hardware:

Satellite 18 Watt 50/50 Power compacts (took legs off that go to 2.5 Gallon)

Small Zoo-med powerhead (not sure what make/model)

Submersible heating pad (black, flat, not sure what brand)

 

Live Things:

Live rock

Live sand

Caluerpa and Chaeto in fuge

Predominantly zoa tank

Ricordeas and various shrooms

some type of small goby (maybe a clown goby)

possibly sexy shrimp

hermit crabs (2 or 3 small blue legs)

1 snail

 

I don't have an ATO or anything, so I plan to just do a half a cup water change 2 days every week and top it off with RO water.

 

I set the tank up today, here are some pics....its not beautiful yet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you guys think, I'm up for any ideas that are within my budget haha.

[dmagrath]

if you're doing a mostly zoa tank, perhaps the sexy shrimp might become a problem. More often than not, they annoy polyps and keep them closed. Especially in such a small tank, might be a factor. my 2cents

[circusordie16]

watch out for heat with the light laying right on top and that heat pad. i bet its not controllable so be sure it wont raise your temps too high.

[Jigsaw]

yeah, I'm keeping that in mind, right now its at about 73 degrees with the lights and heater on. If I have to I'll elevate the lights with the legs; not too aesthetically pleasing but its what's inside that counts haha. And dmagrath, thanks for the head's up! I forgot about that haha. Oh well, I guess I'll hold off on them, dang

[Lizzie1324]

Cool tank!

I Pico's, haha.

[Jigsaw]

Thanks Lizzie, as do I haha! So I'm not sure when to add livestock because I took the sand in it from my 10 gallon and the LR is dried out rock, but I'm going to add a bit of it from my 10 tonight. I have some zoos and such in my 10 I want to put in there, but my question is, how soon is too soon?

[clownfish1124]

wow i love the tank! what are the dims???

[Jigsaw]

its about 8 inches long by 8 inches high and its about 6 inches in width... I think I got that straight.

[Jigsaw]

Update:

 

Well its at 80.4 degrees right now, the AC is on in my house...at college there is no AC, so that could be bad, may have to elevate the lights (dang). I put some LR in the display part from my 10 gal, so hopefully it'll be a little to no cycle.

[Jigsaw]

Update: Well the temperature stayed around 80 last night with the heater off and the lights on, I turned the lights off until about 1:00 today and it has stayed a prime 76 degrees so far. I think what happened is that the heater+lights w/o legs really heated things up, but it cooled overnight (hopefully it stays this way). Like I asked before, most of the LR and the LS are from my established 10 gal, as well as 1/4 of the water I put in there.

 

Chaeto I ordered should be coming today, so that will all go in the fuge; when should I start adding livestock?

[Jigsaw]

Updated Pics:

[debbeach13]

Hi Jigsaw

That is a cute little tank. I have heat issues with a 5.5gal. My lights are in a canopy which must trap the heat in there so when they are on I run a external fan aimed at the tank it really helps. You really should raise the fixture up a few inches it will help keep it more stable.

As far as putting livestock in of course the best way to know is to test. If you do not have any test kits take a water sample to the LFS and they will test it for you. If you start putting live stock in with out knowing the water parameters you risk killing your livestock.

Hope it all works out for you and keep us posted.

Also if I had to pick sexies are much more intertaining than zoa.'s. All if this is JMO

[Jigsaw]

debbeach, thanks for the input! Yeah, I came back from college awhile ago with my test kit, but I have no idea where it went (its really weird, all of it just disappeared, somewhere still in my house haha). The temp. has settled to 77.2-77.3 degrees, but I think I'll pick up a little external fan just for safe measure. My chaeto did not come in the mail today unfortunately, so it should come tomorrow or Thursday, I hope. I'm not in a big rush to add livestock, so I'll test the water possibly Friday, or if I find my mysterious test kit, a whole lot sooner.

[debbeach13]

Those temps are not high mine is 80.7 right now time to turn the fan to medium

[Jigsaw]

Update:

 

Well, the Chaeto for the fuge should be here today; I added one zoa polyp yesterday to kind of test the waters. It opened right away, much to my surprise! I am very optimistic about how long this will take

[Longinus]

First off, I really like the tank, nice and small, a cool little tank. One option though if you are concerned about heat is to look into some of the 2.5g and 5g DIY AIO Picos on here, some of them work great and the extra water volume make everything a little simpler to keep in control, especially when exams come rolling around and time for the tank drops. Both would be almost as easy to move (I think) and the light you have right now would work just as well. Granted, I cant comment on ease of moving, I am moving my 2x30g system into the dorms again this year

 

Just something to consider, but I do really like the little tank, I just know its harder to keep that small of an amount of water in a good range.

[MiddReef]

Longinus is right, exams will soak up otherwise valuable tank time!

Tank is coming together, cool idea/design.

[Jigsaw]

haha thanks for the advice guys! Longinus, I figure if I need to upgrade due to temp or unforseen problems, I will as I have an extra 2.5 in my house, but the temp is stable now and I have the maintenance down to a system... 2x30 gallons, wow dude that's bravery haha. I'm not too worried about my exams, the thing is my college gives us like 5 days in advance to study w/o classes, so trust me I'll have PLENTY of tank time haha.

[Jigsaw]

Update:

 

In my house, temperature holds at 78.2 constantly during the day (lights on) and 76.0 at night (lights off). I added a few polyps (one zoo, a few shrooms) as well as 2 small blue legs. Everything is doing well. Chaeto is added (there's a TON), I'll post pics tonight perhaps.

[Jigsaw]

Picture Update:

 

Tested the water! Trates are still a bit high at 20 (ppm?), but my hermits are doing fine and the chaeto, like I said is in. Ammonia and Trites are at zero which was a relief to me, but then again I wasn't surprised. Thinking of getting a little clown goby or something, maybe a cleaner goby.... still got aways to go yet. Anyway, here are some pics

[Jigsaw]

Update:

 

Hey everyone, its been about a week since I last posted and almost 2 weeks since the tank has been up and running! The tank levels are all at zero (ammonia cycle I meant haha) and corals have been slowly added to the tank. I got my chaeto like I said and I got so much I had to take some out! Anyway, here are some pics for you guys.

 

...tell me what you think!

 

Also, I purchased a few additions in the mail, that should be arriving soon:

 

5 Red Mangroves (maybe in fuge? or I thought of in the back portion of the tank....also kicked around the idea of attaching a little fuge/sump thing somehow...any ideas would be awesome, I'm bad at plumbing stuff haha)

 

4 cerith snails

 

Halimeda plant (probably going in 10 gal)

 

 

I just added the orange zoos today from my 10, they're great, but the rock is a bit big, oh well, they'll cover it I'm sure!

[Jigsaw]

2 more pics, trying to get better with my mom's Kodak haha, anyone know how to get good macro pics?

[jewbilee]

with my canon powershot that is 3 years old, I manage to get some pretty good pics just by messing around. What I've found is not to zoom at and just get close to the glass. The camera is basically in full manual mode with the maco setting on, F3.2, auto-white balance before every shot, exposure set to -1/3. Thats how ive snagged my few good pics.

[Jigsaw]

yeah, I noticed that the zoom is more of a hinder than a help! My tank lights have a tendency to essentially "wash out" my FTS, which is really annoying. My brother has 2 really nice cameras, I'll have to borrow his while I still can, but I'll mess around with what I am working with now.

[Jigsaw]

More pics, some new coral!