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Silvertoe's Pico- Bye bye MP10!


silvertoe

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Hello Everyone!

I've been reef-keeping for about four years now (after a long stint keeping tropical before that) and having had a 180L mixed reef, a 60L nano, I have now gone even smaller with a 30L system.

 

I haven't kept a reef build before so I hope I can keep you guys posted on this system's progress (assuming there is progress)!

 

Like many, I'm sure, I started off by reading up about reefs on many sites and eventually, now, I only really come onto NR! My early inspirations were all from this forum, mainly TeenyReef's 10G, ninjamyst's 12G, yoshii's 10G and Justind's 9G. Subsequently, I fell in love with the shallow style tank and East1, Scorched, 4x5 and Brad908's builds.

 

Setup:

Display- ADA Cube Garden 45-F (45 x 16 x 24cm);

Sump- custom acrylic four chamber sump (approximately 25 cm cube);

Overflow- a Scorched style direct drain/ return system with a 1" drain and 1/2" return;

Return pump- Jecod DCT-1200;

Heater- Aquael 50W Easy Heater;

Circulation- will probably add my MP10 from the 60L;

Light- at present nothing but my Ai Prime will be mounted onto this in the near future (when the 60L is closed down);

Mechanical filtration- 4" filter sock;

Bio filtration- maybe 2kg live rock and future plan to add chaeto chamber to sump;

Chemical filtration- None planned;

Doser- single dosing pump (TMC) planned for Kalwasser addition;

ATO- TMC single switch;

Cabinet- IKEA!

 

My plans for livestock are actually just two or three corals which I hope to nurture to eventually fill a lot of the open space. In fact I only started this tank to keep some of my old favourite colonies (or frags of) when I sold almost all of my 60L system off and realised I'd miss reef-keeping too much! My cleaner shrimp from the 60L (already two years old) will also probably see out his days here and hopefully a porcelain crab if I can find a pretty one.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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Things are a bit slow on the reef front- waiting for initial problems to show themselves so I can sort them out- sump issues, ATO etc.

 

Added a couple of little tester corals though as the tank I'm closing down is getting more and more closed down and I wanted to ensure the new system is stable enough for some simple ones before I more my favourites over. They aren't in their final positions but just wanted to see how they got on.

 

Also a horrible picture of my sump to give you an idea- obviously very very bare still at the minute!

 

 

 

 

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I only noticed when looking at the above photos how discoloured the water has become. Some GAC has been added to try and help with that. On the plus side, the polyps seem to be happy enough this morning. They are actually GSP but not looking very green at that angle and under that temporary light! Can't wait to get the Prime on this tank!

 

 

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Hi All,

 

So I must apologise for my awful pictures and lack of updates recently. I've only just shut my old build down and have now managed to bring my Ai Prime to this Pico build and also the much needed ATO- wow I can't believe the evaporation rate and what a huge problem it can be in such a small system.

 

Anyway, livestock wise- I still just have the tester mushrooms and GSP but they are getting along OK.

 

I apologise for my terrible pictures.

 

 

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The Ai mount just looks awful on this build- do you guys think I should just hang from ceiling? Then how do people manage their cable?

 

And an updated pic of the sump- some serious cable management needed!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the last two frags/corals have come from my old build that I'm shutting down.

Would appreciate an ID on both actually! Is the mushroom a Yuma or Florida? That little guy has been with me for about two years- used to be huge! Then just got upset and hasn't expanded properly in well over a year, let's hope it does better in this build!

 

The next one is what was given to me as a free frag of 'birds nest'. That little brown stick grew into the colony you can see attached. When I sold that colony I was gutted but so happy that a little part had broken off and somehow survived! You can see it's lost all it's colour but I hope it'll pull through. The question is, is it really a birds nest?! The shapes just don't look like other BNs I see?

 

I have taken the idea I saw on @teenyreef's build thread (I hope it's ok to tag in this! Likewise credit to whoever originally came up with the idea if not teenyreef) and use small wedding gift bags that I buy in bulk off eBay to put filter media in. They are ideal for hanging between the baffles of this custom sump as the flow passes through them. I'm not a huge fan of chemical media but had some old carbon and Purigen that I used to use and thought I'd pop it in this build as things settle down.

 

After five days away there was some diatom and hair algae growth but a quick clean up (aren't picos nice and easy to polish up!?). Things seem ok. Can't thank @Scorched enough for his help on setting up this type of overflow. For such a small tank I can push a fair amount of flow through it and am hoping it's enough even for the SPS frag- if not the MP10 is ready and waiting.
 

Any help/ advice/ input at this stage much appreciated!

 

 

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Oh you'll also notice my (rather algae'd) Turbo in this shot and my two Nassarius poking up though the sand!

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Beautiful tank! I'm glad the organza bags worked out for you :)

 

Your birdsnest looks like a coral I had in my original 4g pico. It was sold to me as a birdsnest but as it grew it looked more like a stylo. I never could decide which kind it really was because it never got big enough to show the full-sized colony shape. Here's a picture of it:

Birdsnest

 

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I remember this coral from reading your threads!

My coral doesn't seem to have such girth (am I allowed to say that!?) in the branches though. And not enough taper for a birds nest..... Oh well, if you like it, does it really matter?

 

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I fixed the unidentified SPS to the left side of the main rock- right in front of the return line. I thought a Monti growing out from the other side would be nice but we'll see if I have the flow to support them! The SPS seems already to be getting some of its blue colour back already which is satisfying.

Hope you guys like how the tank is turning out.

 

 

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I think I may have said above that this one did exactly the same- but didn't completely die. It now seems to be doing better in this new tank amazingly. 

 

Though I bought three originally and it's the only one that survived!

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16 hours ago, connorp said:

Good looking tank so far! I've always loved picos. Are you going to add a goby or something at some point?

Oh man I'm so tempted to add a fish!

I've had several Gobies in the past and was going to try a Damsel this time- I'd like an open water fish ideally. But still uncertain, the display really is so tiny.

 

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3 hours ago, silvertoe said:

Oh man I'm so tempted to add a fish!

I've had several Gobies in the past and was going to try a Damsel this time- I'd like an open water fish ideally. But still uncertain, the display really is so tiny.

 

You might want to look into masked gobies then. I have two right now, and they like to stay out in the water column.

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22 minutes ago, connorp said:

You might want to look into masked gobies then. I have two right now, and they like to stay out in the water column.

Ah thanks dude, great suggestion!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Green banded gobies are also a good choice in very small tanks. They hide in the rocks when they are very small, but become pretty fearless after a few months.

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So......

 

Last week I bought a small frag of encrusting Pavona, purely because I'd never seen before and wanted something a bit different (sorry for bad pic)

 

 

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And today I visited an experienced local reefer and got a frag of pink hystix and this (rather too large but I couldn't resist) frag of what I think is Montipora spongodes. Can anyone help me ID it? It's a lovely coral but I really shouldn't have got something so big. I just hope it makes the change from one system to mine.

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59 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Green banded gobies are also a good choice in very small tanks. They hide in the rocks when they are very small, but become pretty fearless after a few months.

Hey teeny. Actually GBGs were always my original plan for my last build- inspired entirely by reading your 10G thread.

They seem to be a bit tricky to get hold of here in the UK though but I think it is possible. Also- I've had red Trimma gobies in the past but ended up losing them after six months or so- what do you feed yours? Do you find they need a good source of live critters to nibble on?

ps. Sorry for grubby tank above!

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