Tuffryu Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Hey guys, thanks for letting me share my pico reef in-progress. It was difficult to find a relevant place to keep an on-going journal but glad I came across this site. I just started my pico reef about a week and half ago and it's been doing very well thus far. The fluval spec is a great tank with chambers in the back and some really great water flow for basic soft corals. My plan for this tank is to keep low light livestock with a watchman/pistol shrimp combo. Initial setup: I removed the carbon that came with it and replaced it with bio matrix in both chambers. The cured live rock was purchased from my local fishstore along with RODI water. The live sand and all other equipment was purchased off Amazon.com. I used Instant Ocean to get the water up to .023-4, and added rock/sand the same day. The interesting part about the set up and cycle process is that it went super fast. I had little to no die-off as the rock was transported in water, and the bag for the sand was never opened or rinsed. I had a very small ammonia spike a couple of days after initial setup. Tested a few days later and few days after again with all readings showing zero. Just yesterday I added a yellow watchman goby, snails, and a green zoa. There were several zoas popping out of the live rock after the first week. I replaced the stock light with the Finnex LED version and it is working very welll. I'll keep updating this post as much as possible. Thanks for letting me share my reef! Equipment Fluval Spec 3 - 2.6 gal 4 lbs live rock CaribSea aragonite live sand - Fiji pink RODI Instant Ocean Aqueon 50 heater Finnex 10 inch LED lighting SeaChem bio matrix Nano mag scrubber Link to comment
TFish77 Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Cant wait to see how this one develops. Awesome scape by the way :-) Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 Thanks TFish77! Spent quite a bit of time chiseling the rock and epoxying them to create something cool. Will keep posting. Testing embed feature. (different angle) Link to comment
TFish77 Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Thanks TFish77! Spent quite a bit of time chiseling the rock and epoxying them to create something cool. Will keep posting. Testing embed feature. (different angle) That really looks awesome. Aquascaping in my opinion is one of the most crucial aspects of the hobby and you seem to have a knack for it, especially in something that small. I spent 6 hours scaping my main tank and the damn thing is 20g lol. Good choice on the matrix by seachem. I run a similar product by red sea and seems to give me better results than just live rock. I am assuming you are just going to fill the overflow box with these. Also any plans to run carbon? Just curious. Link to comment
jbb Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 JBJ modular surface skimmer will greatly improve surface skimming. I have it on my spec III and I love it . Note: I had to glue it in place. Link to comment
TFish77 Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 JBJ modular surface skimmer will greatly improve surface skimming. I have it on my spec III and I love it . Note: I had to glue it in place. Hmmm you had to glue it? I know those things are awesome but in the one I did the overflow seemed to suck the surface skimmer against the wall. I never glued it because I assumed that was by design. Either way good product. Link to comment
jbb Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Hmmm you had to glue it? I know those things are awesome but in the one I did the overflow seemed to suck the surface skimmer against the wall. I never glued it because I assumed that was by design. Either way good product. On the nanocube that it was made for there was a lip that kept it from sliding up. On the spec it doesn't quite have that same amount of water pressure to hold it firmly against the back wall. I used a tiny dot of super glue in each corner to hold it. It comes off fairly easily if you need to remove it . Link to comment
JR! Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 did the same thing on a larger tank and it worked perfect. just used a dab a glue like he said. they tend to me kinda hard to find or at least it was for me Link to comment
jbb Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 did the same thing on a larger tank and it worked perfect. just used a dab a glue like he said. they tend to me kinda hard to find or at least it was for me Let me help you sir http://www.amazon.com/JBJ-Lighting-JB7382-Modular-24-Gallon/dp/B001EUG8JW Link to comment
TFish77 Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 On the nanocube that it was made for there was a lip that kept it from sliding up. On the spec it doesn't quite have that same amount of water pressure to hold it firmly against the back wall. I used a tiny dot of super glue in each corner to hold it. It comes off fairly easily if you need to remove it . Gotcha. I think the one I built was a jbj 14 or so and even on that I did consider gluing it in. Works great though. Link to comment
JR! Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Let me help you sir http://www.amazon.com/JBJ-Lighting-JB7382-Modular-24-Gallon/dp/B001EUG8JW Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 That really looks awesome. Aquascaping in my opinion is one of the most crucial aspects of the hobby and you seem to have a knack for it, especially in something that small. I spent 6 hours scaping my main tank and the damn thing is 20g lol. Good choice on the matrix by seachem. I run a similar product by red sea and seems to give me better results than just live rock. I am assuming you are just going to fill the overflow box with these. Also any plans to run carbon? Just curious. Thanks again for the comments! I like taking time to ensure the rocks are placed correctly rather than just throwing them in against the back overflow. It took time to ensure the rock didn't touch any part of the glass. No plans to run carbon just yet. I used the same sponge in the overflow and filled the 2 chambers with matrix rocks. Seems to be working well. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 You are off to a great start Tuffryu!! JBJ modular surface skimmer will greatly improve surface skimming. I have it on my spec III and I love it .Note: I had to glue it in place. Does it work better than InTank's surface skimmer? Or did you just use the JBJ one because its what you had on hand? http://www.shop.mediabaskets.com/Fluval-Spec-Surface-Skimmer-FLSSS.htm Link to comment
jbb Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 You are off to a great start Tuffryu!! Does it work better than InTank's surface skimmer? Or did you just use the JBJ one because its what you had on hand? http://www.shop.mediabaskets.com/Fluval-Spec-Surface-Skimmer-FLSSS.htm I love Stevie , but I have to say it works MUCH better than the InTank piece . Link to comment
Tamberav Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 I love Stevie , but I have to say it works MUCH better than the InTank piece . Thanks for your honesty!! I think I'll pick one up. Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 I am in no way affiliated with the Finnex product, however i do use the Finnex 10 inch and found this nifty chart that explains the PAR level variations for different depths. I know quite a few people were looking around for info on Finnex in various forum threads so hopefully this helps. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/145-finnex/189944-finnex-ray-ii-fugeray-par-data.html Those crazy looking blue lights. Test, test, test....looking pretty good. Link to comment
TFish77 Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 I am in no way affiliated with the Finnex product, however i do use the Finnex 10 inch and found this nifty chart that explains the PAR level variations for different depths. I know quite a few people were looking around for info on Finnex in various forum threads so hopefully this helps. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/145-finnex/189944-finnex-ray-ii-fugeray-par-data.html Those crazy looking blue lights. Test, test, test....looking pretty good. Did you test nitrates? Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Did you test nitrates? Haha, yes you noticed it was missing. Yess i'm probably at 1-2ppm. Link to comment
TFish77 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Haha, yes you noticed it was missing. Yess i'm probably at 1-2ppm. Just checking ^^ Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 More rockscaping to open up the hollow, middle part of the rock. Not bad. I think I'm almost done. Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Additions to the club - Candy cane and green polyp frags. Sorry for the poor pic as I just threw them in and they weren't open. Link to comment
GavinW Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I just acquired a fluval spec 2! Pretty much the same tank. Does the heater you got fit in the return chamber? Also will you be adding an ATO? If so I really want to know what will fit! If only the smart ATO micro was available........ Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 13, 2015 Author Share Posted November 13, 2015 I just acquired a fluval spec 2! Pretty much the same tank. Does the heater you got fit in the return chamber? Also will you be adding an ATO? If so I really want to know what will fit! If only the smart ATO micro was available........ Thats a cool tank, but too small for me lol. The heater fits perfectly in the chamber on my tank although I'm not sure if it will fit the spec 2. What's an ATO? Link to comment
dandelion Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 What does it do? Does it basically just move the grille higher up, closer to the water surface? JBJ modular surface skimmer will greatly improve surface skimming. I have it on my spec III and I love it . Note: I had to glue it in place. Auto-Top-Off. Detects water level and pumps freshwater into your tank to make up for evaporation. Thats a cool tank, but too small for me lol. The heater fits perfectly in the chamber on my tank although I'm not sure if it will fit the spec 2. What's an ATO? Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted November 13, 2015 Author Share Posted November 13, 2015 What does it do? Does it basically just move the grille higher up, closer to the water surface? Auto-Top-Off. Detects water level and pumps freshwater into your tank to make up for evaporation. Ahh yes. I haven't about auto top off yet. I've been adding about a cup every 2 days or so. I doubt there's anything out there that would work for a 2-3 gal. I may DIY one at some point. Keep me posted if you find something! Link to comment
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