Dymax IQ3 8.2L Pico

[henZa]

Hey everybody... So this is my first foray into Saltwater aquariums. I have kept a few freshwater tropical aquariums in my time but was inevitably drawn in by gorgeous marine life! I probably would have taken the plunge earlier except the upkeep, cost and various other factor previously kept me at bay.

 

Anyway, I saw at my local LFS (in Melbourne, Aus) one of these little Dymax pico tanks set up with a single anemone and clown. I was amazed that such a small (and great looking!) tank could support such a delicate ecosystem like this.... so i did some reading and landed here.

 

So, at any rate after plenty of reading I picked up the following:

 

• Dymax IQ3 8.2L tank
  
• Extra Dymax Robot LED light (modified with Blue LEDs)
  
• Hydor 7.5W Heater Hagen Marina C17, 17W Heater
  
• API Saltwater Master Test Kit
  
• Hardness (GH + KH) kit
  
• Marine Buffer
  
• Red Sea Calcium +3
  
• Assorted other kit such as thermometer, hydrometer etc.
  

 

 

To start off the tank my LFS recommended that I get good cured LR. This is inline with what I read on here in relation to live rock selection. In addition to this I grabbed some coral sand (fine and slightly courser grade that I mixed) and a small piece of macro algae that the guy threw in to start me off - possibly caulerpa? I also grabbed some saltwater and RO water from them as well.

 

After putting it all together here is what I have:

 

 

and from the side...

 

 

I am thinking that given the size of the tank I might frag the rock down a bit at the back and the bottom just to help maximise the water in the tank. I really like the look of it though and don't really want to change its shape. Any thoughts on this?

[Dustin11]

That looks great!!! Good luck with it! The real kicker with these super small pico's is the freshwater top off. If you leave it uncovered you'll probably need to top every or every other day. If you put an airstone or more macro algea in their with a cover the system will be much more stable

[henZa]

To follow up, I am currently on Day 5 ( 6 daily measurements taken including readings taken directly after set-up) of the tank being up and running as shown in the image. During this time I haven't really done much except for add some RO water to adjust the salinity. No buffer added yet, but my pH is currently at 8.2, which I think is fairly okay.

 

Now, the thing I am a little confused on (and would love if someone could clarify! Or maybe just confuse me more! ), but so far I haven't really seen indications of cycling - in that my readings have stayed fairly consistent:

• Ammonia: 0
  
• Nitrites: 0
  
• Nitrates: 5
  

Now, the guy at my LFS said I may not see a cycle, but didn't say whether or not this was a bad thing; but I should see something right? Basically I started with good cured liverock, water from them and a 'cured' filter sponge that had been floating in their liverock tank. Does this mean I should already have some bacteria in there? Or do I need to do something to spike the ammonia in my tank such as a piece of raw shrimp meat or something so that I know that my tank is ready?

 

I plan on doing weekly water changes at this stage, but might add a mangrove to the refuge at the back later as I have seen others do to help pull the nitrates out of the water. For the moment I am just running the sponge and floss that came with the tank, but I have heard that sponges aren't great for SW tanks. I am also planning on adding an additional light like the LED one that came with it before adding corals. I might possibly look at upgrading the flow in my tank (mostly to get some cross currents), although the current pump in there puts out 200-300L/hr.

 

Oh, I forgot to outline my plan for the tank! Essentially I am going for a reef tank with possibly one fish (maybe a green clown goby) and a couple of clean up crew such as sexy shrimp or similar, or maybe a small crab instead? Corals will be whatever is smallest, so zoo's, and some small discs to begin with. Any suggestions here?

 

That looks great!!! Good luck with it! The real kicker with these super small pico's is the freshwater top off. If you leave it uncovered you'll probably need to top every or every other day. If you put an airstone or more macro algea in their with a cover the system will be much more stable

Thanks :-) Yeah, I have been thinking about some sort of cover. Already in the last week(ish) I have had to add around 600ml of RO water A cover would also help prevent any fish from going for a carpet ride

[ReefDreamz]

give it another week or so before you see the cycle... gotta remember its micro bacteria, so it takes a while for it to be seen by the human eye

[Mr. Microscope]

Wow! Cool find. Don't stick a clown and nem in there like the LFS though. Haha!

Can't wait to see the progress on this one. Good luck!

[ParanoidObseshun]

Cool looking tank!

 

I think your rock looks good the way it currently is. A green clown goby sounds good but idk if you will need a lid to keep him from jumping. I have a goby and take the lid off frequently and I dont have a problem with him. The one problem I had with mine was his constant disappearance from the display, and then finding him sitting in my fuge/overflow. As for the crab I am not sure, with a tank that size they might have to much fun knocking all your corals over causing nothing but problems. I think zoas would be a good way to go with this, get a nice variety of colors with a small footprint.

 

Looking forward to the progression of this tank.

[andrewkw]

Glad to see another Dymax tank. You can see my build thread here http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=240866

 

You will need at least one additional light. I'm still thinking of adding a 3rd one. The flow will also need to be upgraded. I jammed a mini jet 404 in the return section and I'm currently using the return pump as a powerhead in the tank. I would like to move it to the back chamber eventually but that will require drilling a hole in the false wall so the flow can reach the display and the powerhead stay out of sight.

 

The open top is working out fine for me. I top off daily. I just keep a cup of RO/DI water beside the tank and refill it every couple of days. I'll eventually add an auto top off but if you're home almost everyday you should be ok.

[gabe_j]

thats so awesome i almost got that tank for my daughters room.. but she's only 4 so i'll keep her on FW tanks till she can handle a SW on her own. do you have something you can place near the tank to get some reference as far as size goes? i'm surprised how bright that small of a light is.

[Dustin11]

About your lost cycle. You won't see a cycle until something in the tank decays. Since you only have well cured live rock right now you will not see a cycle. I would suggest that you could put in a small fish (goby) right now and it would be fine. The only thing I would wait for is to make sure that the tank stays relatively stable in salinity and temperature.

I second the motion to not put a clown in there except if it is very small and young and you have another tank to trade it up to when it gets larger

About the filter-floss and sponge. Get rid of them. Everyone has their own theories of successful filtration but here is what I've found works best from my experience. You need some light-fed macro algae somewhere in the tank. This can be either in the back or in the display if you like how it looks. No filter-floss or sponges anywhere. Some Chemipure elite. And done. Occasionally I recommend putting some filter-floss somewhere in the back, turkey baste your rocks, leave the filter-floss in place for another hour, then remove it and throw it away. Do this about once a month.

Once again, the tank looks awesome! I didn't even know about this IQ3 dymax until this post, but now I'm going to check them out

[Solarflare8806]

that is a really cool tank! Very sleek looking!

[.Newman.]

do like 100% weekly water changes on this thing once you have it stocked(after your cycle) and youll skip major algae problems

 

much easier to do in small tanks like this. how many gallons is this again? around 3?

[henZa]

Glad to see another Dymax tank. You can see my build thread here http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=240866

 

Actually your thread was a bit of an inspiration when some of the guys at the LFS were telling me it was impossible and couldn't be done. I did finally find a more experienced guy who supported me :-) ...So thanks!

 

You could fit a mini jet 404 in there? I thought it would be too wide?

[henZa]

About your lost cycle. You won't see a cycle until something in the tank decays. Since you only have well cured live rock right now you will not see a cycle. I would suggest that you could put in a small fish (goby) right now and it would be fine. The only thing I would wait for is to make sure that the tank stays relatively stable in salinity and temperature.

Thanks for the advice. So is it necessary to 'see a cycle' (ie. NH3 spike -> NO2 spike -> NO3 up etc.) or should I be good to go in terms of slowly adding some corals and a small fish? I think that is the main thing I am confused on as I have heard and read a few differing opinions!

[.Newman.]

i didnt see anything aside from a random reading one day of .25 nitrite when i started my pico. i started to stock with a hermit and a few snails first, then some corals, then a shrimp, then more corals and finally my emerald crab and that brings me up to now in my 3 gal.

 

in terms of my 10 gal, I did see an ammonia reading of around 1ppm then some nitrite of around 1ppm for a few days, and then nitrates around 20ppm when ammonia and nitrite dropped to 0. this lla too karound a week to complete and once the nitrites were 0 the next day I bought two clowns lol i know i was being rash, but theyve been doing fine now for at least a week. added some corals to that tank even tho nitrates were still around 15ppm when i added them. added some snails a day ago. will do a water test tonight, and see how it goes but am expecting good parameters.

 

my advice to you is to start with a CUC once your ammonia and nitrite read 0 and nitrates are reduced via water changes.

[andrewkw]

Actually your thread was a bit of an inspiration when some of the guys at the LFS were telling me it was impossible and couldn't be done. I did finally find a more experienced guy who supported me :-) ...So thanks!

 

You could fit a mini jet 404 in there? I thought it would be too wide?

 

 

I took the top and bottom covers off the mini jet to jam it in. It's no longer adjustable but its on the highest setting anyway. It's a real tight fit but when you take the covers off its possible to jam it in.

[henZa]

Okay... Update time :-) A few things have happened since I last wrote...

 

Firstly, I decided that the rock was slightly too big so decided to pull it out and frag it down a bit. Mostly I just knocked off any protrusions on the 'back' and a big piece from the underside that was stopping me burying it any deeper in the sand. I also decided to move my little bit of macro algae toward the back - Anyone know what this one is precisely (see my first post for pic)? Caulerpa something? It had attached itself to the rock quite well too and I could see it becoming a bit of a pest if left unchecked :-) Also due to disturbing things I discovered that I have a fair few copepods darting around in there too.

 

I didn't take and pics of the tank right after all this, but I have some I just took now from after the next stage - Livestock!

 

Today I decided it was time to introduce a fish and some corals so headed off to the LFS. I had a green clown goby in mind but they were out but then a Firefish caught my eye. The guy told me that this one was fully grown and would be suitable for my tank so I grabbed him along with a green fungia disc and a small zoo frag. Again not sure on the exact one so if someone knows...

 

Anyway, here are some pics (which were a little hard to get on account of the new guy being shy and hiding around back!)

 

 

The polyps on the zoo seem to be opening up nicely. You will notice that I have strapped one piece down with some cotton because I was fresh out of super-glue. I hear that they attach themselves at any rate so this is just to stop the current knocking him off his perch in the meantime ;-) I also have a piece of acrylic sheet over the top now since I heard Firefish are not very big swimmers, but great jumpers!

 

In other news, I have a second light on its way so that should help things along nicely. Already though I can see I want to replace some of the LEDs with blue ones since things aren't as cheerful in the white light ;-)

 

Finally here is a side shot to show how much of the rock I took off. Not the same angle I know, but you get the idea! Not much, but helps things fit a bit nicer!

 

[Rince]

I had been wondering if you could use an IQ3 as a marine tank, but seeing this, I can now see I am going to get one or two of these to dot around

 

Andy

[.Newman.]

firefish looks way too big for that tank =/

[henZa]

Just a quick update... Firefish is doing well and seems happy enough. Had made himself a little home (or dart-hole) in behind the LR. And the good thing is he is eating pellets :-) He seems a little shy at the moment and likes to hide if he sees movement, but hopefully as he gets used to it he will show himself more often :-)

[henZa]

I had been wondering if you could use an IQ3 as a marine tank, but seeing this, I can now see I am going to get one or two of these to dot around

 

Andy

 

Great to hear! The main thing with a tank this size is water quality. Because there is such a small amount even small things can adversely affect your tank. Frequent water changes and monitoring is vital with a pico tank like this! Good luck and keep us posted with how you go if you do take the plunge with an IQ3 :-)

[Dustin11]

Looks great! Definitely take the advice that firefish are jumpers though. I lost one of my firefish when i had my lid off for just 5 minutes while doing some maintenance

[henZa]

Quick update. Tank seems to be doing okay. I am getting a proper top cut today since the piece of acrylic I have over at the moment is tinted and the corals probably aren't so happy. In fact on that note I hope my second light arrives soon! Zoos are stretching out to the light

 

My firefish is also still really shy and dives behind the LR anytime he sees movement outside the tank. I was hoping he would settle in a little better. I wonder if another small fish (maybe a green clown goby) might help him to relax a little? :-) I also want to add one or maybe two sexy shrimp to form my CUC.

[andrewkw]

Another fish would be a bad idea imo. The firefish is also pretty cramped in a tank this size. Maybe replacing him with a green clown goby is a better idea.

[henZa]

Another fish would be a bad idea imo. The firefish is also pretty cramped in a tank this size. Maybe replacing him with a green clown goby is a better idea.

 

Yeah, that would be my concern... I might see how the tank copes with the current bio-load for a bit and decide then. Firefish seems okay since they don't really swim. He kind of just hovers in the middle of the tank looking for food and darts back to his 'dart hole'.

[henZa]

Hooray! My second Dymax LED light arrived today!

Before putting it into full normal use I might modify it with some blue LEDs. Check out my thread on that if you want all the gory details