Jamo Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Three days ago, i was on the internet and facebook wasn't providing as much entertainment as usual so i decided to do my usual trick which is look for a bargain on ebay (rare these days to save much on ebay but its easier to search than classifieds). I then stumbled upon a small 3g pico tank. I was instanly intregued. I then found this forum and also a few others. I got reading and instantly thought, besides a small mechanical filter which didnt seem too necessary, i had some kit that i could use to house some attractive corals and maybe a single fish. I read on for a while and got really into pico tanks and saw somebody was using an 11w light like in a spare tank i had which was 6g which seemed a little larger, but i thought the added water could only help. So yesterday i got really fed up of seeing everybody having amazing aquariums and me not being able to afford to set up a large aquarium without selling my tropicals, which i love. So i decided a pico was possibly a way to begin and once some money finds me i may be able to expand. I went out to the outhouse which has a 3' long tank on a steel angle frame, retro i know! I store all my fish stuff in it, test kits, substrates, planting stuff, old filters new media etc. I Just moved back to my parents after moving home from uni and moving out of a shared house so i don't have a cupboard for it all. I found: Aquastart320 Power head for old undergravel filter 400l/h Eheim intake Strainer Filter Sponge Elite 25w Heater I Quickly sketched out plans to add an overflow and i went to the lfs to see what he thought of my plans. He approved my powerhead plans but said the overflow was unnecessary if the tank was going to have a high turn over of water via changes as i wouldn't need to store media. So i made a few purchases and rushed home in excitement, the road works and replanned route seemed to take for ever! I Stocked the tank with: 6kg Crushed Coral Substrate 3kg Live Rock (lots of hitch hickers also) Salt water too... Whilst i washed the sand i filled the tank and scaped and then rescaped then removed all the rock and scaped and rescaped some more... continued... Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 cont... I wanted to form an arch/pyramid how ever came up against issues of space and height so i settled on using the rock that i had just got and formed this... That photo was taken after i had added the sand. I let my little brother have a go, and i think he was a bit eager and what had been slightly cloudy soon became what looked like a sandy soup. As the tank water become more visible i noticed small creatures moving about, spotted a zoa, about 10 small star fish, a few feather dusters opening and closing, a clump of bistly arms, i am assuming from a star fish, how ever these could be bristle worms. The next photo shows how the tank looked this morning. cont. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 The powerhead that i made from the eheim inlet, a sponge and the undergravel pump looks like this: With the powerhead having a sponge and with the cloudiness of the water lasting so long i decided to add the powerhead and see how half an hour would go in terms of helping or hindering the settling. I hoped the sponge would trap the sediment and this worked to my relief! I'm still trying to do some water tests. How ever i've had quite a busy day and as i'm happy with the way the tank is going atm i shall do them when i can later this evening. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 There are a few things i am looking for online. Need a digital Refractometer also. Don't like the hydrometer, not very accurate. Def going to get a digital thermometer, i may get a couple as i have noticed the surface water is 3 degrees hotter than the water at sand bed level. Thats a big difference for a small area, i feel. Need to work out how to wire a pc style fan, any help would be greatly recieved. Link to comment
BlueAbyss Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Just wanted to say +1 on pico being a method rather than a size. My 'pico' will be 6 gallons of useable space before the 1" sandbed, making the actual water volume more like 5.5... blah I'm sidetracking... The point I'm trying to make is that you don't have enough flow so your tank water is stratifying into warmer and colder layers. Pretty sure that most marine tanks have pretty high flow... I've had people say no less than 12x turnover an hour, 15x is better. For sure though, you need more flow. Mine will have 50x turnover. Oh, and taggin' along too Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 20, 2009 Author Share Posted February 20, 2009 Just wanted to say +1 on pico being a method rather than a size. My 'pico' will be 6 gallons of useable space before the 1" sandbed, making the actual water volume more like 5.5... blah I'm sidetracking... The point I'm trying to make is that you don't have enough flow so your tank water is stratifying into warmer and colder layers. Pretty sure that most marine tanks have pretty high flow... I've had people say no less than 12x turnover an hour, 15x is better. For sure though, you need more flow. Mine will have 50x turnover. Oh, and taggin' along too I think my issue was the powerhead output was in the middle region of the tank and when i did my tests it was after the light had been on for 10 hours. raised the powerhead a little higher so it rippled the water surface and the temp dropped within 15 minutes. I think the fact the light unit is so close to the water was causing problems. I have a couple of other powerheads i may have a look at modding. I think after sand and rock displacement i am hitting about 20l water. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 20, 2009 Author Share Posted February 20, 2009 I went to the lfs today to get an ammonia and a high range pH test, as i hadn't realised my master kit didn't have ammonia tests for salt water Came back had some very good results considering the tank has only been running for 3 days. My LFS said to take a container of water and they will test the water next wed, 7 days post set up and see if they find it acceptable for livestock which was reassuring. The zooanthids that snuck in on the rock seem do be doing well, and i think it has grown, not too sure on their growth rates but appears a bit larger and is becoming more responsive to light in terms of opening and closing. New feather dusters are appearing all the time too and the star fish on the rock are all pretty active. After bringing the power head to just below the surface i have found the temperature has become stable. I will replace this for a koralia, as they look much more professional, how ever this tanks aim was to see if a pico could be achieved and kept using stuff i had lying around so...I think i may wait till next month for the koralia, will wait and see after some zoo's go in next week. I jumped the gun a bit earlier and got a live rock with a few zoo's off ebay, its from a local so i can go collect it myself. I would never buy livestock and have it posted and i would dissagree with others that do. I know it all comes via some form of postage, but i think its best left to the professionals after all its in their interests to provide a good level of transport! Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 welcome to nr. Pico's are a lot of fun. Every tank is different but to have long term success you can not rush the cycle. Besides have the live stock die you could spent a lot of money and not have the tank you were hoping for. I would not get any more corals yet. Koralia are nice pump but if you have several power heads already save your money for corals and use what you have. Can you get a close up of some of your hitchikers? Good luck with your new tank. Link to comment
fallenlordz Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Nice looking live rocks - hope I get some hitchhikers when I buy live rock next week. Waiting for delivery of my new 3gal Pico tank from fedex. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 welcome to nr. Pico's are a lot of fun. Every tank is different but to have long term success you can not rush the cycle. Besides have the live stock die you could spent a lot of money and not have the tank you were hoping for. I would not get any more corals yet. Koralia are nice pump but if you have several power heads already save your money for corals and use what you have. Can you get a close up of some of your hitchikers? Good luck with your new tank. I won't be collecting the coral until the tank is ready. I've had a few people look at my water and they said it looks ok but i am going to keep it as it is till wed. I haven't got a decent camera atm. May invest in one this week. How ever there are a few blueish black starfish approx 2mm squared , two bristle starfish that i have seen, a few red coloured feather dusters a redish brown zoa which opens and closes with light and as i have mentioned appears to have got a little larger. Can be seen here but not amazingly close up. Could you possibly i.d. it or is that a nigh impossible task? Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 One peice of live rock has developed a growth of green algae, similar in properties to the purple algae on the rest of the rock. Is this anything to be worried about? I'm concerned it may be a pest algae. I'm enjoying the colour it is bringing, i'm just wondering whether or not to scrub it off. Link to comment
fiction101 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Looks like a rock anemone. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 Looks like a rock anemone. Really? the light band around the red colour looks more like the 'tentacles' of a zoanthid. I'm not sure though to be honest as I'm the beginner. Would you recommend getting rid of this rock anemone? Just tested my tank. Current conditions are after 5days. pH 7.9 NH3 0 NO3 <5mg/l NO2 <0.1 (there was a pink tinge to the test, but nothing similar to the 0.1 on the reference card I know its only 5 days, but after reading other threads i am thinking that my cycle may have been pretty small. The water quality has improved over the past three days from the last measurements i recorded on the thread. What do people make of these parameters? I am noticing some green hair like algae so i would like to add a small clean up crew, possibly a snail that will stir up the sand bed, a snail for glass cleaning and a crab to clean up the rock. I know that is a very basic view and i understand the demands of the organisms I'm just trying to simplify and keep the bio-load to a minimum. Could anybody recommend a good small clean up crew. Obviously the tank isn't going to be biologically diverse enough for large organisms at the moment so i will be looking for small specimens. Your opinions on a clean up crew are very much wanted! I will be changing some water tomorrow maybe 5l which would be around 25% water change, although i am thinking maybe just 2l instead. Any thoughts on this too please? Thank you all for your help so far! Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 Just went to turn the light off on the tank. I've decided that after looking at the pH to leave the lid off the tank tonight to allow a larger surface area for gaseous exchange. I noticed a face in my live rock so thought i would share a pic! Its the top rock, see if you can see it! Also i managed to get a photograph that you can roughly make out the star fish on the rock. Its in the center of the photo. I have god knows how many of these little dudes on my rock. Will have more pics tomorrow. I've been monitoring what i think is some new purple coralline algae growing. Going to get my water tested in the lfs tomorrow and get some water to top up the tank. I haven't lost as much water i expected to dehydration i think this may be due to condensation building up in the lid and re-ntering the water as the lid cools of a night. Not too sure though but i don't think this can be good for the water with salts getting evaporated and water coming back into the tank :S Does anybody think i could get a hermit or two tomorrow as i am getting worried about the rate that some algae is growing. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 Quick Update! Just got up and got my priorities in order, tested the tank straight away! pH has moved to 8. I think this was because i left the lid off allowing for better air/water surface movement. pH: 8 NH3: 0 NO3: 0 NO2: 0 Temp 26c Am off out for the day so going to take a sample of my water and go to a few shops see what they think. Hopefully they will agree that a small CUC can go in. I'm not 100% but think i can see some very small apistasia growing! Will a dancing/sexy shrimp eat these or is it only a true peppermint that eats them? Link to comment
fallenlordz Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Freaky face in those live rocks LOL - its alive Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 Freaky face in those live rocks LOL - its alive I should hope its alive for the cost haha. Hows your pico going? Got water in it yet, i think you said it was coming on friday earlier in the thread. Link to comment
BlueAbyss Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Hmm 8.0 seems like it's pretty low pH. Crazy face in that rock... I wouldn't worry about the algae unless it sticks around for a couple months. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 23, 2009 Author Share Posted February 23, 2009 Hmm 8.0 seems like it's pretty low pH. Crazy face in that rock... I wouldn't worry about the algae unless it sticks around for a couple months. I'm a member of ultimatereef.net. and people on there have told me its acceptable as long as its stable and not fluctuating. I think my problem is air circulation to the surface having a lid prevents a good level of gaseous exchange. I am moding my lid to get past this using fans. For now water changes will keep the pH high enough to support a cuc whilst i wait for my fans to arrive and be installed. I have a friend who is a systems engineer who is employed to keep things cool and working efficiently. He is going to help me improve air circulation on the weekend. Other than the pH the other readings seem cool yes? Link to comment
BlueAbyss Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Yeah I'd say as long as your parameters are stable you're pretty safe. I'd be careful when you stock your tank though, at night the pH might drop unacceptably low depending on how much of your tank is photosynthetic... remember that pH is not only a function of buffering but of CO2 and gas exchange also, and will change during day / night cycles. But that won't be an issue until the tank is stocked Just to be safe, you might want to test the pH right before you first turn the lights on, and right before they go off 12 hours (or whatever) later. There may be a major pH swing going on through the course of the day. This will depend on what's living on your rock mind you... the swing might be minor or nonexistent if the majority of hitchhikers on the rock are non-photosynthetic. As far as I know, only Peppermint shrimp can be counted on to feed on Aiptasia... but I wouldn't expect one to remove any of the larger anemones, these you will have to deal with personally. Also, they will feed on other foods in preference over the anemones so you would probably want to feed them pretty sparingly. Why not deal with the Aiptasia with a little blob of kalk paste (calcium hydroxide I think)? Every time I look at your tank I see that face... creepy But your rock looks really good, seems to be some good encrusting growth on there. Hope you get a good crop of 'hikers! Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 Yeah I'd say as long as your parameters are stable you're pretty safe. I'd be careful when you stock your tank though, at night the pH might drop unacceptably low depending on how much of your tank is photosynthetic... remember that pH is not only a function of buffering but of CO2 and gas exchange also, and will change during day / night cycles. But that won't be an issue until the tank is stocked Just to be safe, you might want to test the pH right before you first turn the lights on, and right before they go off 12 hours (or whatever) later. I always test before i go to bed and when i get up. and the pH has been 8 for three nights and two days so i'm happy its stable. The majority of the hitchikers that i have found from the hours of sitting staring are stars, lots of different types of stars. The proposed anemone has grown a bit, but the whiskers aren't as large as the anemones i've seen on the net. I have noticed a couple of rather small snails also but no crabs Lots of copepods too. Here is my largest hitch hiker, currently only with 4 legs, though it appears to be healing up nicely. Off to the lfs in an hour to see what they think. For reference i use API high pH, Sera NH3/4, Nutrafin N02 NO3. Readings remained the same as yesterdays on using my kit. we'll see how the shop finds my water compared to what i get here. Do you think the shop will sell me 5litres of water, if they wont, how long can i keep saltwater in a bucket for? Would a power head and thermom help me keep it until i need it? Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 So yesterday i got distracted on the way to the lfs and attended a lunch with a few of my dads customers instead , we had just dropped in on the way to the lfs to say hello and ended up being invited out. To cut a story short, i needed a lie in this morning. So have only just measured my tanks parameters as i am due to visit the lfs this afternoon. As i mentioned the other day i was going to leave the lid off to see if the pH would improve. I've found this to be the case. Mum always turns the light on when she gets up at 7 and i always shut the lights out at about 9pm so having the lid off didn't affecting lighting. I think i am going to have to find some acrylic to raise the lid. This way i will add two fans to the rear of the lid allowing for an airflow against the current, this should enable the longest amount of air to surface contact allowing for a better evaporation rate and allow for good gaseous exchange. Todays measurements are: pH- 8.3 (has been like that all day, i tested when i woke up before i returned to bed ) NH3/4- 0 NO2- 0 NO3- 0 I've noticed a tint of red appear in the opposite corner of the tank on the sand, could this be algae? I aim to get the first installment of the CUC today so we shall see how long this red lasts. Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 Just got back from the LFS, purchased a red hermit crab and two astrea snails. They are having a delivery later this afternoon so he is keeping some ceriths for me. Also i spotted a nice fan coral. I've never seen one so purple as this one. In the carribean where i have dived they tend to be orange and red, decided i am going to have to get it. Reserved it so i could order some food for it how ever i am going away for pretty much a week so i thought i will wait till then to add it as i will be able to give it better care. The parents are going to look after the crab and snails whilst i am away. I'm in the middle of a 20% water change and as i said earlier the water is fine for everything so i don't forsee any problems whilst i am away. I've decided acclimation officially sucks! The room isn't light enough for me to take any pics of my phone whilst the start of the cuc is bagged up. Guess its better though to have a long acclimation for both myself and the cuc. Can't wait to see them later though, hope they like their new home! Link to comment
fallenlordz Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 I should hope its alive for the cost haha. Hows your pico going? Got water in it yet, i think you said it was coming on friday earlier in the thread. Its coming in today via fedex. Got some free cured live rock from a friend who works for wholesale fish company I will take pics of the whole process. Where are you fedex!!!!! LOL Link to comment
Jamo Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 Its coming in today via fedex. Got some free cured live rock from a friend who works for wholesale fish company I will take pics of the whole process. Where are you fedex!!!!! LOL I think this is a hobby that is definitly going to improve my patience! been acclimitising the crab and snails for 3 hours. Wish i had brought two more crabs and another snail now so i could have got them in together, damn the lfs and their delivery men! Link to comment
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