Clarinet_Reefer Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Starting my very first nano! Here are some pictures and some info about the build! Tank - Micro Reef 2 Gallon Acrylic Tank Lighting - BoostLED Par 30 - working on how to mount it... Filtration - Small HoB with floss Heating - 15 Watt heater Birthday 5-11-15 Current FTS 5-12-15 Slowly working on getting a good white balance on my camera. Link to comment
Clarinet_Reefer Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Finally took the plunge and started a pico tank. Purchased two nice pieces of live rock and mixed up some reef crystals and set this little puppy up! I even had a nice little hitch hiker show up! A small pompom stowed away in the live rock! So first question, how to take care of a pompom... I will probably add in a few small corals such as some mushrooms and zoa's. Hope you all enjoy my little tank! Link to comment
brandon429 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 you had a $15 pom pom crab hh instead of algae, mantis, aiptasia. nice start. the crab is among the most suited for pico reefs and i had one that lived 5 years in one. this here the 150th example of an instant start reef. pom pom crabs will not tolerate .25 or any level of ammonia, so lets watch it live as yet another example of how to instant start a reef. we can see the live rock has benthics, coralline, and is fully aged therefore fully stocked with nitrifying bacteria off the pics alone. Your thread is a perfect example of skip cycling, how I do all my tanks. ill be linking this to other forums soon. the only insurance step needed to make sure this insta tank works for sure is to change the water 80%-100% today and then maybe on the weekend, that will guide any lost worms inside the rock into export as a worst case scenario ammonia export. lastly, if you could secure an API test kit and run it and let us know if it shows .25 we'll have it all set out for analysis. I think it may show .25, and there is no ammonia here per your little buddy. The wc needs to occur anyway as thats the intergral CPR action for a no cycle startup. Although that step could be skipped and usually is, when paired with no ammonia testing its unnecessarily putting the tank at risk. a nice giant water change is CPR and ensures its not at risk. I have been doing 100% wc once or twice a week for about a decade now. Link to comment
Clarinet_Reefer Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 First successful water change complete! Matched salinity and temp and preceded with the change! Our little pompom is still alive and kicking, albeit he/she is doing it safely hidden under a tiny ledge. Gonna be getting a test kit this weekend so for now we will keep up the WC's. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Nice start, and cool little "PomPom"! I would say get some cheap metal from HD or Lowes to mount the light- they have a gazillion solutions if you want up and down the aisles. Link to comment
Addinali Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I saw a pvc build for par bulbs the other day. I just can't find it know but it looked really good. Link to comment
Clarinet_Reefer Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Have some sort of algae growing on my rock. Wondering if I should remove or let it grow and become a part of the tank. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 the truth is you have the ability to decide since your tank isn't stacked, locked in place and inaccessible. all you have to do is lift out that rock, leave the crab in tank, set it on a towel next to the sink, and use a blue jet flame windproof cig lighter to burn anything you decided is bad to smithereens. it doesnt produce poisons (assuming you aren't burning colonial anemones lol) and this trick can literally save your tank 20x over as it ages. you really have an ideal setup, in its simplicity. that doesnt look like bad algae off the bat, the day it does, dont mess around with phosphate this or that just kill it off 100% in one fell swoop/. you can pack and maintain as much coral glued and bound to that rock as will physically fit in that tank, literally. look at andrewks thread 4 yr s running, its packed like that. if you'll keep yours glue to the rock and not the glass you w always have a removable treatable item and no algae no invader can ever kill off your tank, not any one. if you can experiment and find a little phosphate control that dont overstrip the tank, and you want that extra hang on back gear, then you can lessen the wc while not having to skimp on feeding. feeding right before a water change is ideal, it prevents the classic all-food stays in tank and rots technique. the wc is exportive, paired they allow you to feed nicely for lots of corals since we are free to change water 100% daily if we want, or weekly, variably, and we are free to air expose whats in pico reefs as we cheat, we can make these tanks live forever as long as your tank isn't attacked by an errant nerf ball Link to comment
Clarinet_Reefer Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Looks like I've got some sort of nice dusting on the acrylic. Diatoms? Algae? Doesn't matter, I went ahead and did a 100% WC and cleaned up the acrylic. Also continuing to mess around with editing my photos. Enjoy my pictures! Top down view PomPom!! After the WC! Hope everyone had a good weekend! Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Very glad to see one of my tanks up and running...... Keep up the work... Link to comment
brandon429 Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 the best trick ever for pico reefing is the instant reset make it look like day 1 trick. i agree Mike's tanks are a staple and your recent update pic looks like pic 1 which was already nice clean aged live rock. this is opposite from the hands off, dont touch it, only strip phosphate habit. we are usually advised to not insult a reef like that. but is it insult? The trend of simply blasting everything reset was: -heresy in 1999, that will kill every known reef animal and the rock and the bacteria and you will never reef again -subterfuge in 2001, as only 10% of your system will survive that. -sure a few are getting away with it, but its a disgusting cheat in 2003 -well, thats only something pico reefers do post 2003- -check recent few yrs ago articles on large tanks that do 95% water changes, aw they caught up!! find an aiptasia you dont like? fry him with a lighter while the rock is out. get some green hair algae in exactly the month of july since all reef life commands and conveys trace phosphate? hit the reset button, et al. in 2025 i give you my word you can still be resetting this old tank and it w work fine lol. prob all packed w corals by then lol Link to comment
Clownfish2004 Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Great job so far your on the right track. Link to comment
Clarinet_Reefer Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Water Change! Another 100% and the tank looks good. PomPom molted today however I couldn't get a picture of it. Also picked up a nice little colony of zoas. Let me know what you think of my photos! Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day! Pom Pom! Natural Light Some photo editing, got the green to really pop. Link to comment
Old_Reef_Dude Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Nice build! Keep up the good work! Link to comment
glenawil Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 How is that pom pom doing? Link to comment
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