1ish Gallon Pico

[brosegge]

19 hours ago, JBM said:

 

This happens to be my specialty. Utility worker (electricity geek) by trade. 

 

Moving everything to another socket will do little other than give you a placebo effect. And maybe reduced fire hazard. It's more then likely (high probability) that the room is all on one 10 or 15 amp breaker. Meaning, your not going to get any more voltage and amperage by switching sockets.  

 

Youd be surprised at how efficient everything thing is these days. If I have time tomorrow. I'll throw a kill a watt meter on my tank and see how many actual watts everything draws. I can't imagine it being high at all.  I'd imagine it being under 250 watts at full tilt. And well under 3 amps at the same full tilt. 

Thanks for the insight.  I was amidst the troubleshooting phase; trying to figure out why the tank wouldn't warm past 74 degrees.  Ultimately, it was a bad thermometer as the digital one is reading 78-79.  You bring up a good point, the adjacent socket is in fact on the same breaker.  Nonetheless, these two sockets provide power to the PC, monitor, desk lamp, heater, LED light, and bubbler with no issues.

 

I have a friend that is going to frag me out some softies and LPS.  I hope the parameters are in check tomorrow.

[brosegge]

Water test day.  Here are the results.  

 

pH - 7.8 

Ammonia - 0.5 ppm

Nitrite - >5.0 ppm

Nitrate - 5-10 ppm

 

Looks like I'm still cycling out the nitrites.  The interpretation of the nitrate test is still subject to interpretation.  One thing is for sure, the ammonia and pH are roughly the same as one week ago.  Nitrites have increased since my last test as have nitrates.  More waiting.

 

05/03/2018 Test Results

 

05/10/2018 Test Results

[SeaFurn]

Seems like watching the grass grow sometimes, doesn’t it?!

 

Won’t be long tho! 

[JBM]

Well, your moving along as expected. Not much else to do aside from watch the paint dry. 

 

In the next week or two, nitrites will fall, and nitrates will spike. A 100% water change and you'll be ready for coral and other inhabitants. 

[Lula_Mae]

On 4/30/2018 at 3:58 PM, brosegge said:

Thanks for the tip on the airstone removal.  The bubbling is much less vigorous now and I feel much better.  I forgot to mark the fill level on the tank so I'm going to wait on top-off until my refractometer comes in the mail.   I also ordered a Hydor 25W heater and the API Test Kit.  

 

 

 

On 5/3/2018 at 3:55 PM, brosegge said:

Call me crazy (aren't we all) but I'm already thinking about a slightly larger tank, maybe in the 3-5 gallon range.  I would be more comfortable with an all-in-one tank or something I can hang a modded Aquaclear on the back of.  I just worry that cleaning/maintenance on this small guy will be troublesome due to the limited space (aquascaping makes cleaning the back side of the tank nearly impossible without moving rock around).  Plus, the kitties have already taken an interest and I came home today to find the glass cover pushed aside.  I would probably feel more comfortable with something that has a more secure lid.

 

Been running and cycling for 5 days now.  I messed around a little with the aquascaping when I installed the 25w heater.  Though I have the dial set to 78 my thermometer is only reading 72.  I've gradually been bumping it up to see if I can get the temp in range but haven't had any luck yet.  I hope this heater is strong enough?  My refractometer came in the mail and my salinity is staying around 1.024 with top-offs.  I'm waiting on my my API test kit to see how the other parameters look.  I'm not sure why I thought this tank was 2 gallons, it looks more like 1 to me now that I've been staring at it for nearly a week.

I'm a little late, but I just wanted to let you know that my personal opinion is that Hydor Theos are pretty much junk.  I had a 25w in a 5.5 and no matter how low I dialed the thermostat on it, it kept the tank above 85 constantly.  Tank never did well.  I highly recommend the 25w Archea heater offered by Aqua Forest Aquariums as it's much more slender than the Theo and the external thermostat has been rock steady for over a year for me.  I have been very impressed with it.  I posted pictures on the Creative Container Contest announcement thread back in October or so doing a size comparison with a Pepsi can and a nickel lol.  I have one in my 5.5 now and my jar from the contest, and several others used it as well.  Otherwise, welcome back!

[brosegge]

7 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

 

I'm a little late, but I just wanted to let you know that my personal opinion is that Hydor Theos are pretty much junk.  I had a 25w in a 5.5 and no matter how low I dialed the thermostat on it, it kept the tank above 85 constantly.  Tank never did well.  I highly recommend the 25w Archea heater offered by Aqua Forest Aquariums as it's much more slender than the Theo and the external thermostat has been rock steady for over a year for me.  I have been very impressed with it.  I posted pictures on the Creative Container Contest announcement thread back in October or so doing a size comparison with a Pepsi can and a nickel lol.  I have one in my 5.5 now and my jar from the contest, and several others used it as well.  Otherwise, welcome back!

With just the airstone and the Hydor Theos I had no problem keeping the temp around 78-80, though I had it dialed back to 76ish.  Last week I ditched the airstone and added a 100gph Hydor pump.  Now, even with the Hydor heater dialed all the way down to 71 degrees, my tank temp is staying around 80.  I think the heat from the pump may be enough to keep it in range. 

 

After I do my next water test I may remove the heater all together and see how the temp stabilizes without it.  Living in FL makes it pretty easy to keep the temp in range but I may re-evaluate when it cools down in the fall and I'll look into the Archea heater.  

[brosegge]

Finally finished cycling out the pico.  Here are the results:

 

Salinity - 1.023

pH - 7.8 S.U.

Ammonia - 0.0 ppm

Nitrite - 0.0 ppm

Nitrate - 0.0 ppm

 

Should I do a water change before stocking?  I have plans to add a snail, some asterinas, small hermits, and potentially a harlequin shrimp (I am aware of the particular diet of harlequins). 

[SeaFurn]

Have you already done a water change? Your nitrates should still be high and higher than the last test since the nitrites were still in process of converting to nitrates. 

 

But yes, you generally will do a large water change when the cycle is complete before you add anything.

[JBM]

Nitrates don't just vanish. They accumulate till they are exported via water changes. 

 

Read this

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

 

 

And I highly suggest not adding a harlequin shrimp to something so small. 

[1891Bro]

On 5/8/2018 at 6:57 PM, JBM said:

 

This happens to be my specialty. Utility worker (electricity geek) by trade. 

 

Moving everything to another socket will do little other than give you a placebo effect. And maybe reduced fire hazard. It's more then likely (high probability) that the room is all on one 10 or 15 amp breaker. Meaning, your not going to get any more voltage and amperage by switching sockets.  

 

Youd be surprised at how efficient everything thing is these days. If I have time tomorrow. I'll throw a kill a watt meter on my tank and see how many actual watts everything draws. I can't imagine it being high at all.  I'd imagine it being under 250 watts at full tilt. And well under 3 amps at the same full tilt. 

Never trust a stump jumper. 

[brosegge]

On 5/17/2018 at 8:28 PM, SeaFurn said:

Have you already done a water change? Your nitrates should still be high and higher than the last test since the nitrites were still in process of converting to nitrates. 

 

But yes, you generally will do a large water change when the cycle is complete before you add anything.

I was under the mistaken impression that the nitrates would accumulate after zeroing out (mistaken).  I tested last week and my nitrates were starting to climb.  I'm going to test again Thursday and if the nitrates are higher like I expect, I'm going to do a water change and start stocking.

[SeaFurn]

54 minutes ago, brosegge said:

I was under the mistaken impression that the nitrates would accumulate after zeroing out (mistaken).  I tested last week and my nitrates were starting to climb.  I'm going to test again Thursday and if the nitrates are higher like I expect, I'm going to do a water change and start stocking.

You mostly need to be comfortable that ammonia gets processed to nitrites and then to nitrates in about 24 hours. 

If that’s happening then the biological filter is established. Then do a big water change to reduce the nitrates in the tank and you’re ready!