Garrett's Sealed Pico. 0.9 Gallon

[garrettparson]

Okay yeah, Im using frozen cyclopeeze, Is there any fan big enough that you can think of that can hang off an edge or something? I will plan on keeping small piecies I believe the frags im getting are less then a inch. If still to small I could always try fragging. I want to get rid of the lps soon simply because I have no where to put them. and there just there for a temperary hold. I notice today my Acan didnt seem to happy, not totally flat but not real poofy. He might just be stressed because I accidently dropped it on the floor the other day and he landed on top/his polyps. The sand bed is not thick. and I have one real small piece of live rock in there i planned on maybe gluing more once the lps left. Anywho heres two pics.

[garrettparson]

heres the top

 

heres the front view

Edited June 3, 2011 by garrettparson

[Builder Anthony]

Loseing a few 10 dollar corals may not sound bad to the check book but if you develop a disease in your tank like brown jelly it will stay in there and may cause future problems.Creating a bigger hole in your pocket.I dont have much experinece with acan but mine seemed open.My problem with them is that they would get moved around .....damaged and die.They seemed like they were real close to hardy corals.Trumpets are a descent choie.If things look healthy and puffed up your doing well.A ricordea is also a very good choce you will be able to tell certain water parameters by looking at them.

 

Best of luck to the month ahead. Things should work out......You could even see some descent growth.

Edited June 3, 2011 by Builder Anthony

[garrettparson]

Loseing a few 10 dollar corals may not sound bad to the check book but if you develop a disease in your tank like brown jelly it will stay in there and may cause future problems.Creating a bigger hole in your pocket.I dont have much experinece with acan but mine seemed open.My problem with them is that they would get moved around .....damaged and die.They seemed like they were real close to hardy corals.Trumpets are a descent choie.If things look healthy and puffed up your doing well.A ricordea is also a very good choce you will be able to tell certain water parameters by looking at them.

 

Best of luck to the month ahead. Things should work out......You could even see some descent growth.

Well you see if something does die. I do a 100percent water change once a week cleaning everything. Thats how I feed the system like this and not get a big algea out break. After a hour of feeding I just do a 100 percent water change and its clean water again! Ha and I dose c balance which well balances the system!

[brandon429]

Garrett you know what, thats a clean build.

 

When sealed systems have a leak, they don't develop condensate evenly across the top, there's a dry corner. You truly have that thing sealed man, you took this further than any other sealed tank I think I've discussed online nice job.

 

Here's my questions, do you have a heater in the tank, I only see one incoming line (I presume is for the water pump)

 

have you broken that seal yet, or is the lid still stuck to the tank? These are good sized corals you have, I too have dropped an acan they will come back if the polyp didn't split down the middle. if you just cracked a side septal wall, itll be fine and heal if the tank is on track.

 

fans, I just used a wal mart desk fan sitting behind it nothing special, anything else was too small. To keep my sealed tank, half a gallon with 39watts pc power running 80 degrees max it hand to be fanned constantly, even at night. the water pump creates heat, and its all stored, no exchange.

 

any sized fan as an emergency would work, and a huge portion of poor polyp behavior is overheating, I promise you they did not come from 84 degree water. the reason you need a submersible heater is because the room is supposed to be as cold as possible at all times, or by fanning the tank, and you want it to try and be lower than 78 degrees all the time, where the heater has to fight to bring it up. There is no room that's ever too cold, but too hot is deadly hard to control on these sealed tanks.

 

You have the correct air space in between the lid and the water, looks like it should hold well. When you separate the lid from the tank do it in one fell swoop cut around the lid, don't take the razor out and start over, make it one swipe around the glue mark, that should give you a nice seal that will re seat easily. If you need to press back down on the lid, just get a couple pieces of clear tape and hook it on the sides where no one can see it, the lid will press down tight.

 

Garrett its important to note that the additives you are using are not c balance, they are no where near the same dosages, c balance is a completely different name brand than the dosers you are using. I do not recommend using the ones you are using, c balance is the only doser I know how to recommend without tedious testing for calcium and alk.

Edited June 3, 2011 by brandon429

[brandon429]

this is c balance:

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewitem.asp..._content=TL1191

 

 

Im ordering some now, last order was July of 2010. once a year is not bad lol, pretty cheap.

 

The blue bottle of c balance, and the alkalinity portion of your two part doser, are very high pH solutions, well above 9pH. To take the dosage I recommend for c balance and use it with another name brand means you could be adding 3x too much, or 5x too little, there's no way to tell unless you constantly measure your calcium to be 450-470 and your alk to be 9-11 dkh.

 

Your doser isn't so powerful that it will melt your corals or it would have already done that, but without testing we can't tell what the upper limits are. If you switch to c balance, we already know what the upper limits are for your tank because full export tanks are easy to predict, its the ones that store up waste with partial water changes you have to constantly tinker with.

 

an additional way we streamline dosages across tanks is by using the same salt brand, remember we talked about reef crystals always set to 78 degrees and 1.023? temperature greatly affects reef salinity, your 1.023 water is different if you heat it to 84. Its very important to keep the whole thing on track...

 

additionally, the salinity of your tank affects the calcium availabilities in the water, which affects how much we are adding as a doser. This is why its so important to have 1.023 reef crystals constantly at 78-80 if you want to replicate the setup without doing water testing.

Edited June 3, 2011 by brandon429

[garrettparson]

Yeah I want to show you side shots! Part one wall is black so I can glue corals to it and view it at the other side instead of just the front. the back part of the tank is half black to hide the pump and the other half has no paint just so I can view the chaetomorphia. I have not cut the silicone yet, which im worried about, doesnt your half a gallon have the black rim around it that your top glass lays on? because i would think sealing would be easier with that, I know my doesnt have that so im worried once I cut the seal it will not fit back in right. I do not have a heater at the moment. Thats where you saw that extra small cork. Thats where the heater will go, There is a store about 35 minutes away and it has the heater I want and I plan on getting to it soon! I will however buy a fan possibly tomarrow or saturday. My job is right next to a walmart. The Nano doser I am using is what i used on the vase. In three months of tank age I was getting coraline algae. I think it works just as well as C balance but like you said I do not want to fail and if you think its best I will go out to get C balance. When you feed your tank do you turn your pump off? Aswell do you often take your chaeto out and clean it? Just incase some uneaten cyclopeeze got stuck in it? Also should I go ahead and start dosing this tank? I have not added anything to it yet, but its only been running for 2 days now.

[brandon429]

if you had already used that doser for that long on the vase thats different, its somewhat tested insofar as not wiping out the corals, so that's a little easier to guess with.

 

Not meaning to discourage experimentation, but the more variables we change up the more I try and press the basics so that we can retain some element of control over the system, if you've already used it that long in the vase it won't hurt to try a small amount now. For 15 bucks though you can remove the headache forever and just order c balance, its a far better investment than any new frag thats for sure, no doubt we know the exact dosage for a tank that size, you will never have to test for calcium and alk with c balance and your ph will be spot on perfect the whole life of th tank. until you get the c balance I wouldn't dose, Id just do twice weekly water changes + feeding. if you do dose, just do a few drops, not much and wait a couple weeks to see if coralline starts.

 

I left the pump on for feeding, the corals catch some bits in their tissues and another portion is factored into the dissolved water as nutrient, they can access that with various transport mechanisms while feeding.

 

for the kinds of pico reefs that use large corals that are very hungry, and have lots of tissue to support, I turn off the pumps so I can spot feed cyclopeeze right into them and it won't get blown away. for this starting tank, just a little cyclopeeze is needed, not enough to clog the chaeto like you said.

 

This method of broadcast feeding will leave a few bits in the system, perfect pod food. This method will make huge pod populations in your tank, in my vids they are crawling over each other like fire ants after a couple years on this diet of feeding the tank only just before a full water change (but I usually do it twice a week)

 

the little bits of food are intended to keep the water nutrified to some degree, while these big water changes prevent the buildup. its okay just don't feed a lot until the tank is really full. add a clip of cyclopeeze, let it swirl an hour, then change it all out and wait for midweek to repeat lol

[brandon429]

regarding your lid, you gave me a really great idea I would have never had were it not for this thread, thats exactly what Im talking about when it comes to cross learning.

 

It might be ideal to put in all the base rock first, and water, then seal the lid and leave it sealed forever, using only the large access corked hole for 100% of the work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

this is a big deal, because in using acrylic its being pressed evenly on all sides, its nearly guaranteed to warp when you cut it free of the glue holding all sides down evenly. If it was glass, it won't warp, but then again a lid that's never broken free can't have salt creep...the idea you gave me is to never detach the lid, only drill a large enough cork hole I can get every frag I need into it...all the positioning inside the tank can be easily done with coat hangers straightened out, that's what I do now.

 

Garrett we need to look into not ever cutting free that lid as long as acrylic is your only option. can you access the chaeto from that port hole, like where we could pull some out through the hole when it starts to grow?

Edited June 3, 2011 by brandon429

[garrettparson]

The problem is, I do not know how you manage to fit everything like you do that vase! I had the hardest time getting corals glued right and getting my long tweezers down there just right. So that small cork hole would be even harder. lol I like the sealed idea just with me I might have to just cut the seal everytime I get some corals in. Which wouldnt be pain after the first year I guess since after a year into this I am pretty sure I would not be able to resist not stuffing it full as I can. lol

Great Idea though and I might have to try it out.

 

Aswell with the chaeto hole for now I could use where the heater is going to go, But I could always go to a glass shop and get them to make one with the few extra holes that I need and then I could easily add a big cork to the back like the one I have for the feeding hole.

[brandon429]

I spent good money here at dallasbonsai.com, they have the best 11 inch reef tongs (they call them bonsai clips) and cutting tools on extensions etc, but in the end bent coat hangers wins the day.

if you take a wire coat hanger and cut off just the straight bottom part, its a poker you can put a sharp bend at the end and wedge it into any pocket of the tank.

 

Don't forget about super glue lifting, something that saves my rear constantly in the vase. You dab a glob of super glue gel to the end of the wire, then insert it down into the tank and onto the base of your sps frag that is upside down in the dirt behind your rock scape. Leave it sitting carefully, untouched for about 10 mins.

 

when you come back, it should lift out, or carry nicely till it breaks and you can further move it from there. Even though your cork access hole is small, it can stock an amazing amount of live rock rubble (to add up) and a few frags, mainly it will let you manage whats already there. use two wires at a time as chopsticks.

also consider skewer pokers from the grocery store, these bendble wood pokers are very helpful as well.

 

I can truly see how it may be even ideal to set up the entire reef Garrett, then seal it after its done, then start the sealed tank method, you have given me really great ideas. You've reversed the idea of a liftable lid and just kept it sealed all the way, but occasionally unsealed to add animals or make major corrections like add another two pounds of live rock.

 

and as you said it can be cut open, filled up, and resealed its a simple job not done very often. Silicone is easy to work with. and this method most importantly makes acrylic a fine surface to use, whereas stand alone sealed lids have to be glass to avoid warping in bright/warm light.

 

always wondered if its stinky smell while curing was a poison, guess your tank says it isn't. Either way, a lid that truly does not come off the tank is such pure evaporation control it breaks 100% of the rules in reefkeeping. What you are doing in this thread, would be deemed impossible by any college professor of biology you approached with the idea verbally.

 

For sure I thought of something very important, you must aid the gas exchange when you crack the cork. Always give it a few minutes a day if you can left open, puff some quick breaths of air through it you won't have any CO2 in breath from quick shallow bursts, try and force out that waste gas that build up in that lid daily until we get chaeto growing strong under strong light. then you can back off the cpr on your reef, lol that's what it is.

 

So, the dynamics so far are that waste gasses, and oxygen, exist in the atmosphere under the lid and just above the water line. That's a mixture of good and bad gasses.

 

During the day, a reef tank with good lighting and clear water will almost always create an oxygen surplus, because so many microscopic/photosynthetic animals are in the system creating excess 02

 

but at night photosynthesis is not running, so the animals that emit carbon dioxide as a waste round the clock have a chance to build up too much bad C02 gas, that's why the night phase is bad. On your tank, if you light the chaetomorpha refugium, alot of chaeto in it, 24x7, it will suck up that carbon dioxide at night and pump out 02 right at the time your tank needs it the most. You can also get technical and put it on an opposite timer from your main tank lights, thats the ideal

 

The end dynamic is that the air under the lid ends up staying high in 02, low in co2 and its stable, the corals grow.

 

 

by blowing quick bursts through it and forcing an exchange, you can likely cap it off another 12 hours or so before another quick round, or just leave the cork out for a while until you get that bright chaetomorpha ready for long term sealing

 

With a bright refugium inside like you have planned, the tank can run possibly weeks sealed but I wouldn't go that long in between water changes. the longest I left mine sealed and running, the reef in my avatar, was about 2 weeks as a test. 1.023 water for two weeks, no topoff

Edited June 3, 2011 by brandon429

[garrettparson]

I spent good money here at dallasbonsai.com, they have the best 11 inch reef tongs (they call them bonsai clips) and cutting tools on extensions etc, but in the end bent coat hangers wins the day.

if you take a wire coat hanger and cut off just the straight bottom part, its a poker you can put a sharp bend at the end and wedge it into any pocket of the tank.

 

Don't forget about super glue lifting, something that saves my rear constantly in the vase. You dab a glob of super glue gel to the end of the wire, then insert it down into the tank and onto the base of your sps frag that is upside down in the dirt behind your rock scape. Leave it sitting carefully, untouched for about 10 mins.

 

when you come back, it should lift out, or carry nicely till it breaks and you can further move it from there. Even though your cork access hole is small, it can stock an amazing amount of live rock rubble (to add up) and a few frags, mainly it will let you manage whats already there. use two wires at a time as chopsticks.

also consider skewer pokers from the grocery store, these bendble wood pokers are very helpful as well.

 

I can truly see how it may be even ideal to set up the entire reef Garrett, then seal it after its done, then start the sealed tank method, you have given me really great ideas. You've reversed the idea of a liftable lid and just kept it sealed all the way, but occasionally unsealed to add animals or make major corrections like add another two pounds of live rock.

 

and as you said it can be cut open, filled up, and resealed its a simple job not done very often. Silicone is easy to work with. and this method most importantly makes acrylic a fine surface to use, whereas stand alone sealed lids have to be glass to avoid warping in bright/warm light.

 

always wondered if its stinky smell while curing was a poison, guess your tank says it isn't. Either way, a lid that truly does not come off the tank is such pure evaporation control it breaks 100% of the rules in reefkeeping. What you are doing in this thread, would be deemed impossible by any college professor of biology you approached with the idea verbally.

 

For sure I thought of something very important, you must aid the gas exchange when you crack the cork. Always give it a few minutes a day if you can left open, puff some quick breaths of air through it you won't have any CO2 in breath from quick shallow bursts, try and force out that waste gas that build up in that lid daily until we get chaeto growing strong under strong light. then you can back off the cpr on your reef, lol that's what it is.

 

So, the dynamics so far are that waste gasses, and oxygen, exist in the atmosphere under the lid and just above the water line. That's a mixture of good and bad gasses.

 

During the day, a reef tank with good lighting and clear water will almost always create an oxygen surplus, because so many microscopic/photosynthetic animals are in the system creating excess 02

 

but at night photosynthesis is not running, so the animals that emit carbon dioxide as a waste round the clock have a chance to build up too much bad C02 gas, that's why the night phase is bad. On your tank, if you light the chaetomorpha refugium, alot of chaeto in it, 24x7, it will suck up that carbon dioxide at night and pump out 02 right at the time your tank needs it the most. You can also get technical and put it on an opposite timer from your main tank lights, thats the ideal

 

The end dynamic is that the air under the lid ends up staying high in 02, low in co2 and its stable, the corals grow.

 

 

by blowing quick bursts through it and forcing an exchange, you can likely cap it off another 12 hours or so before another quick round, or just leave the cork out for a while until you get that bright chaetomorpha ready for long term sealing

 

With a bright refugium inside like you have planned, the tank can run possibly weeks sealed but I wouldn't go that long in between water changes. the longest I left mine sealed and running, the reef in my avatar, was about 2 weeks as a test. 1.023 water for two weeks, no topoff

Hm. Yeah this is very exciting news that I want to show to people. Maybe one day we can somehow incorporate this to more massive tanks. Which compared to mine a massive size tank would be a 10 gallon tank. lol Yeah another good thing is with this sealed tank, I can go on vacation for a week without worrying. I just make sure I clean extra, Do a bigger feeding then normal then do the extreme water change(100%) then leave. Not many pico reef owners can say they can leave a week on vacation and not have any top offs and there tank still be perfectly stable. Yeah like I said though for the first year with most of my stocking I will just unseal then reaseal, but once im stock and let things grow theres no reason to not have it sealed. It will only help me keep evaporation in and have a reverse top off. lol About the cheatomorpha I was planning doing a a reverse time schedual for it but the powerful light above my tank also lights up the chaetomorpha during the day, I know some people say they leave there refugium light on 24/7 but I feel like it should have a rest period like in nature for best resaults, I could be wrong though.

Edited June 3, 2011 by garrettparson

[brandon429]

you can work the chaeto either way it will be fine. reverse period is best because in the day we don't need more oxygen, enough is made up front display.

[garrettparson]

Ah also brandon, I dont have much experience with gluing sps frags so I have a few questions.

 

1. How sinsitive is sps to the touch of a hand? Can you just pick it up and place it?

 

2. When gluing it to its side do you actually put glue on the coral itself then place it down?

 

3. How did you get your acropora to plate across the wall of the tank? Did you glue it on it side to do that?

[brandon429]

it is very easy to train them to do that if they are in a tank that promotes growth, we are still checking on that part but things looked lined up well enough.

 

if you put glue on the coral outside tissue where the polyps come out, it will kill off that area and detach the frag from the glue point, won't work.

 

You have to break off the tips and glue only the underside where the white skeleton is. The way we know if your ions, feed and light is correct is to watch and by the end of the summer those frags should be bulging over the glue point with new growth, possibly even covering it up

 

for the ones that come attached to a frag plug, you can either snug it into the reef face and not detach it, or use a razor blade to slowly chip/work in between the frag and the plug and eventually it will dislodge, then you can glue the bottom.

 

To train for glass growth, simply decide where you want a big ugly patch of sps in the next year 5x the size it is now and glue that little frag from the bottom right on the glass. don't bump it...it will take a few months to plate over, but when it does its permanently bonded to the glass and will never come off.

 

they like being glued to the side of the glass, its high light, high flow, they love it. We will have to be careful not to overbleach yours with high LED light, that tunes differently than pc light which works all the time but runs bulky and too hot.

 

be able to raise your light higher up over the tank if your frags start to lose color and bleach lighter...they should get darker as weeks pass, not lighter, if so, raise the light a little.

 

touching the sps with fingers isn't usually lethal to them, but it makes them slime and there can be a little burned spot on the tissue from skin acids/local abrasions from handling. What I normally do is pinch the bottom of the frag with forceps and stick the glue to the base, then press that base into place on the reef or glass, count to 20, back off slowly, and in an hour it'll set. use duro super glue gel if possible, crazy glue gel in the green/white tubes is second best

 

don't use fast drying formulas, skin preventative formulas etc, just regular super glue gel.

[garrettparson]

I got a fan! Ha Im not sure if its doing anything though. I guess I will have to check in a hour or so.

[garrettparson]

BAD NEWS

 

Today I unsealed the lid for the first time. Like you said brandon the acrylic lid has became warped. It will not lay flat properly now the back ends bend up in the air.

 

So now im in a rush. Wednesday morning I have 2 corals coming in the mail. So by tomarrow night I have to have a glass lid made with the holes drilled or im just in a big mess. Aswell I need to get rid of the LPS corals that are currently being held in there. I might keep the favia brain coral but the trumpet and acan I want out. So I will have to see if LFS will take it.

 

Wish me luck.

[brandon429]

Hi buddy! I think you will be okay, I rapid stocked my reefs too and dealt with the unknowns (which are known now lol) it'll be fine

 

If you don't get the lid made in time, no prob, do the dot trick for salinity management even if you have to leave the tank open topped for a week,

 

set the freshly changed water to .023/78 degrees like normal and use a marker to put one dot on the outside of the tank, at the water line you selected that measures .023

 

anytime that water line falls below that dot, even a hair, add distilled water back up to the dot, it will always be 023 again you don't have to keep measuring salinity every time. This is how I run my vase that needs topoff twice a week, with the dot method

 

with this method of temporary salinity control, someone at home can watch the tank for you and topoff once or twice a day until you get a new lid, it won't hurt, you'll just have to baby it. now I can hear you saying "maa I said only to the DOT!!!"

 

 

happened to me too, my reef caregiver thought itd be okay to dose the tank with c balance at 3 pm because 8 am seemed an arbitrary time. It wasn't, I came home to a white dead reef lol (I said 8 am for a reason dangit lol)

 

dosing a tank is risky, but not if you follow the rules, and your coral growth will beat all others comparatively. Not dosing a tank is safe and boring and gets decent growth, but it won't spill sps all over your glass like you want, so now that we can see a few bucks won't hurt ya, get some c balance already man Im about to reorder mine its only $15 for the exact growth you want. I wouldn't use the nano stuff for this setup, you are too far in the mix to add new experiments just my two cents...

B

[garrettparson]

I bought C-Balnce like a few days ago. Im waiting for it to come in, im guessing it will be in the next few days. I was planning on the doing the just vase technique. I still have the lid on just sealed as much as I can. So evaporation still should be very limited. Im not to worried about it. But I just want my system up and going right before my corals came in but I can live. Ha fortuently I have all summer to carefully watch my tank before school. By then my tank should be little more stable. I added some live rock in today I might put a picture up if you care to see. I dont love it but its supper hard getting the rock right in such a small system. the live rock has opened up a few places that I can glue montipora pieces too. Im guessing im going to have to ask him to frag a piece the size of a quater for it to grow out right. Haha

I do see a couple of micro snails, amphipods and other little pods running around so I hope they liked todays feeding so I can get more babies from them! lol Im worried right now that a little to much feeding could be bad since I have very little life in there.

[brandon429]

yes I agree you can conserve your expensive food just make sure there's a little in there and then ripped right back out. Maybe a couple bits to land in the rock and in the chaeto, but mainly a clean scape a few hours later lol

 

the pods will thrive with this kind of feeding and when you add more live rock. A lot of live rock...I use so much people say it looks stupid but I dont care, it breeds more animals to watch. Not a problem with waste building up in them because we change water so aggressively on these small tanks...

 

Let me know when a light green or brown algae film develops on a rock surface, or around the midline of the tank this says alot about your nutrient balance and what the corals have access to. that brand new algae growth is a marker to start watching, its how we'll tune how often your reef needs water changes when its maturing etc

 

Since your tank is new and has low ion command I would dose the tank just barely, but lets wake it up! lets get it throwing purple coralline around, and white circular tubeworms with a little red fan in the middle all over the tank, this is a sign of calcification, and c balance + your feeding interval is fuel for that effect. prediction: first spot of coralline on glass or a new rock surface by july<c balance in a sub gallon tank is really powerful you w love it soon enough. especially with live rock in the system, it has enough coralline seed to paint your tank solid purple.

 

the dosing: monday, wed, fri mornings only, 3 drops each solution 25 mins apart, in the mornings before your lights come on in the high flow area of your tank. only 3 drops 3x per week for starters

 

If you forget a dose, skip that day it won't need it, catch the next round.

 

change water on wed nights after lights out and sunday mornings, after you chunk off some cyclopeeze in the tank for an hour before each water change. only feed this time, twice a week before the water change. This will run any 1 gallon pico reef indefinately in terms of ion and feed and water quality, Light source is the only variable of concern -the rest is documented repeatable.

 

As the tank matures we'll increase dose volume, my one gallon vase uses half a cap or more (Im not exact with it, I dump some in) after 70+ some odd months now, its a hungry beast but thats years of age and waste buildup at work, not just coral growth. 3 drops is max in a new gallon reef for starters. for this method to work the salinity has to be .023 and the temp 78 most of the time, 80 some of the time. in the summers with a bad home ac my tank runs 79 to 80 the whole summer but thats it. 81 is the max alarm then Im spending $400 on air conditioner work lol

 

 

Hows the fan working!?!?!

 

there is no magic to this dosing system, all it does is maintain/improve freshly mixed saltwater parameters within a system that selects against them via bioacid production and uptake by corals. nanos like 3 gallons and up don't have this as bad as sub gallon tanks do, but all these tanks seem really easy when new, its that 8 month mark that'll test ya. gallon systems crash most often due to natural causes (algae crash) by month 6-8, everything we've written so far is designed to postpone that impending doom

Edited June 7, 2011 by brandon429

[garrettparson]

Ha I know, Im hoping I dont get a diatom bloom even if its supposed to be a good sign. I hate the looks of it. Haha. Im thinking with water changes I shouldnt get it anyways. The fan works great cooled my tank down to much without a heater though. So I put that in and tomarrow im putting a new plug on it and that new glass piece so after tomarrow afternoon my tank should be ready to go! I think this tank could easily get past the 6-8 month mark. If you just keep up with everything and if you see the slightest bit of hair algae burn it. If film/cyno etc then just scrub/take out and 100% water change till its gone. The only reason I dont want to cram this system full of rocks is because I want plenty of room for my branching corals to well branch out. Ha and actually the rock that I transfered over to the pico is from my 3ish-4 year old biocube that has tons of those tube worms. It has them growing all down the refugium and all down the rocks and walls. so hopefully it will do the same in there.

[brandon429]

thats a great plan about the open space, my problem now is the corals are smashed up against the glass. hindsight is nice good call man

 

I keep forgetting you already have an aged reef, the intuit you w carry over to the pico makes the venture much easier, its how you are currently keeping it alive without a heater lol

Edited June 7, 2011 by brandon429

[garrettparson]

Yeah man Im not a total noob. lol I started learning the basics of the saltwater aquarium hobby close to 7 years ago(4th grade. lol salinity was a confusing thing back then). Never kept a tank larger then 14 gallons. Most sucessful has been smaller tanks. I just enjoy them more.

[garrettparson]

Aswell do you think once this gets to be past the 6-8month mark would you think it would be able to old a small creature. I thought about sexy shrimp but im a little scared to keep those polyp eating things. I would really like a bryaninop natans in there. That would be epic.

[brandon429]

I havent googled the b natans to know what that is lol is it a crab?

 

It can take a small boxer crab or a small shrimp as soon as you get the lid and heater set, the mass export in the full water changes makes the tank as able to hold as small animal now as it would ever be...the feeding etc is plenty for the creature we just want it within a stable, predictable tank so it won't die one night and stress out your tank. I say its ready for a new small creature mid june after we get the basics tuned up