1.5 Gallon Pico Build Thread

[Electric Reef]

Hello All.  My name is Dan.  Ive been successfully reef keeping (knocks on wood) for just over four years now.   Absolutely love this hobby and community.   Recently stumbled upon a pico-reef that caught my eye and really set the bar as far as pico-reefs go.  Very inspirational tiny piece of the ocean.  I decided to not only try a new piece of equipment out for my boss, but also try my hand at keeping a reef smaller than five gallons.   (My first saltwater endeavor was a 5 gallon fluval tank)

On this thread I will be documenting this build, hopefully for the foreseeable future.  For those that are experienced with builds this tiny, please chime in at any time and drop some knowledge on me.    For those of you who are just curious or stumbled upon this thread, welcome!

Without further introduction.  Here is the current equipment list for this build.  Some items I had laying around and others I purchased.  Pictures to follow.  Enjoy!

x1 AI Prime HD (mounted to underside of my coffee mug cabinet)

x1 Aquatop 15w heater.  (rated for tanks from 2-5 gallons and supposedly has built in thermostat)

x1 Small whisper air pump

x1 10Lb bag of Carib Sea Bimini Pink Sand (used all 10 pounds)

x3 Lbs of seeded dry rock (had the rock sitting in a bin of saltwater that i added Dr. Tims to, along with a damsel for the past 3 months) (Technically live rock)

x1 2 gallon glass cookie jar from Walmart

 

That's it!  That is all I plan on having to turn this into a thriving and beautiful ecosystem.

 

My hopes.   I am really hoping that with my patience and current experience keeping a 65 gallon SPS dominant reef successfully, I can apply what I currently know about reef keeping and have an amazing pico-reef on my kitchen counter.

 

My expectations.   I truly expect to be thrown a curve ball at some point during this adventure.   We all know, well most of us should know,  that the smaller the water volume, the quicker water parameters can swing.   I am going to say now, the only thing I will be testing and keeping my eye on is temperature and salinity.   I will not test alkalinity.  I will not test calcium and I will not test Magnesium.   Pretty much just the basics and hope I can nail this thing down.  

 

My plan.   I plan on letting this pico-reef brake in solidly for the first year.  Add a crab an a small pico-reef safe fish within the next three weeks.   Let the ecosystem stabilize and get use to the crab and fish.   After the first two months I will add a couple of Zoanthid frags.   Possibly some other small softy corals.   Around the one year mark I plan on going after the LPS.  Maybe some encrusters and other easy to care for LPS.   At about a year and a half, if the tank is stable and healthy (given we make it that far) I will add one or two pieces of SPS.   So I know I said I was not going to test anything but temp and salinity, at the year and a half mark it might be who of me to do a month long testing cycle just to get a clue as to how my tank shifts from week to week.  

 

If you have made it this far, thank you.  Again, any and all constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.   Cheers!

 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, Electric Reef said:

Hello All.  My name is Dan.  Ive been successfully reef keeping (knocks on wood) for just over four years now.   Absolutely love this hobby and community.   Recently stumbled upon a pico-reef that caught my eye and really set the bar as far as pico-reefs go.  Very inspirational tiny piece of the ocean.  I decided to not only try a new piece of equipment out for my boss, but also try my hand at keeping a reef smaller than five gallons.   (My first saltwater endeavor was a 5 gallon fluval tank)

On this thread I will be documenting this build, hopefully for the foreseeable future.  For those that are experienced with builds this tiny, please chime in at any time and drop some knowledge on me.    For those of you who are just curious or stumbled upon this thread, welcome!

Without further introduction.  Here is the current equipment list for this build.  Some items I had laying around and others I purchased.  Pictures to follow.  Enjoy!

x1 AI Prime HD (mounted to underside of my coffee mug cabinet)

x1 Aquatop 15w heater.  (rated for tanks from 2-5 gallons and supposedly has built in thermostat)

x1 Small whisper air pump

x1 10Lb bag of Carib Sea Bimini Pink Sand (used all 10 pounds)

x3 Lbs of seeded dry rock (had the rock sitting in a bin of saltwater that i added Dr. Tims to, along with a damsel for the past 3 months) (Technically live rock)

x1 2 gallon glass cookie jar from Walmart

 

That's it!  That is all I plan on having to turn this into a thriving and beautiful ecosystem.

 

My hopes.   I am really hoping that with my patience and current experience keeping a 65 gallon SPS dominant reef successfully, I can apply what I currently know about reef keeping and have an amazing pico-reef on my kitchen counter.

 

My expectations.   I truly expect to be thrown a curve ball at some point during this adventure.   We all know, well most of us should know,  that the smaller the water volume, the quicker water parameters can swing.   I am going to say now, the only thing I will be testing and keeping my eye on is temperature and salinity.   I will not test alkalinity.  I will not test calcium and I will not test Magnesium.   Pretty much just the basics and hope I can nail this thing down.  

 

My plan.   I plan on letting this pico-reef brake in solidly for the first year.  Add a crab an a small pico-reef safe fish within the next three weeks.   Let the ecosystem stabilize and get use to the crab and fish.   After the first two months I will add a couple of Zoanthid frags.   Possibly some other small softy corals.   Around the one year mark I plan on going after the LPS.  Maybe some encrusters and other easy to care for LPS.   At about a year and a half, if the tank is stable and healthy (given we make it that far) I will add one or two pieces of SPS.   So I know I said I was not going to test anything but temp and salinity, at the year and a half mark it might be who of me to do a month long testing cycle just to get a clue as to how my tank shifts from week to week.  

 

If you have made it this far, thank you.  Again, any and all constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.   Cheers!

 

Hi Dan!! 

 

Sounds like you have a plan! Looking forward to see what you do. 🙂

[Electric Reef]

Thanks WV reefer.  Super excited to see how it turns out over the next couple of years

 

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @Electric Reef! This is a really cool pico jar you've created, I like your plans!

 

I was thinking that might be a bit too much rock, but perhaps it's an optical illusion from the jar. In the pico jar contest some builds kept their aquascape 'removable' for maintenance, or to remove pest algae. If you reduce your aquascape a little, that might be a handy maintenance option for you.

[dannyk35]

Awesome build! Looking forward to seeing it progress!

[Electric Reef]

56 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome to the community @Electric Reef! This is a really cool pico jar you've created, I like your plans!

 

I was thinking that might be a bit too much rock, but perhaps it's an optical illusion from the jar. In the pico jar contest some builds kept their aquascape 'removable' for maintenance, or to remove pest algae. If you reduce your aquascape a little, that might be a handy maintenance option for you.

Thanks for the heads up.   There are only two large pieces and on two small pieces of rock in there.  Should be pretty easy to get the rock out if I need too.  Hoping my maintenance schedule will be sufficient enough that I wont need to remove the rock.   We shall see!

[Lula_Mae]

Nice jar!  I had one of these for the creative container contest.   I epoxied some large rubble bits together to make a removable rock structure.  I'd probably recommend reducing the depth of your sand bed as detritus can build up pretty fast in our little picos.  My current desktop pico has about a half inch of sand, my jar had about an inch (my old 5.5 was bare bottom).  My thought is that the risk of trapped detritus causing nutrient issues outweighs potential benefits of the additional bacteria in the sand.  If you keep it this deep you may want to consider deep cleaning as Brandon recommends by pouring water into the reef a few times during water changes, to stir it up well.

 

I am not familiar with your heater but highly recommend this one from Aqua Forest Aquariums.  It's small and slim (I posted comparison pictures last fall on the creative container contest thread) and has an external thermostat for control.  Several contestants used this heater and I have used it for over a year and a half in several tanks.