The Minx Pico!

[minxitbabe]

   Hi everyone!  So excited because yesterday I decided to take the plunge and start a pico tank.   I have had a little tank sitting around since its Betta inhabitant died months ago and I have been eyeballing it for a few weeks now .  Measurements are basically 8 inches all the way around making it 2.2 gal capacity.  

   My husband and I decided to go on a fish store journey yesterday and drove an hour and a half to the next big city to visit 3 fish stores in that area.  Picked up 3 lbs of live rock on my fish store journey yesterday and will likely pick up another piece. Current plan is to put the pom pom crab that I also picked up yesterday in when the tank is running smoothly until then the crab is living in my 12 gal nano cube. 1st picture is when I put water in before I left on my fish store journey leaving a bit of space for the water displacement for the rock addition. Second is when I got home with my spoils from the journey. 

  Can't wait to update with pictures as the little bits and pieces come together!

[debbeach13]

Welcome to NR. How long have you had the nano cube? Cute pico. What are your hopes for this tank? 

[andrewkw]

You might want to think about adjusting the rock. The glass is going to be very hard to clean. Otherwise great start.

[minxitbabe]

  My nano cube was started black Friday last year. Had always wanted saltwater and they had such a great deal on the tank we had to do it!  

  Planning on moving the rock but kinda wanted to keep it there to hid the heater that won't fit in the spacially challenged back compartment. Will likely move it a few times until I am happy with how it sits.  Currently planning on keeping at least one pom pom crab maybe a pair and some lower light soft corals.  Beyond that I haven't planned anything still researching the balancing of such a  tiny ecosystem.

[Lula_Mae]

Which heater are you using?  I always recommend the 25w Archaea heater offered by Aqua Forest Aquariums.  It's tiny and inobstrusive for little tanks and has an external thermostat so you can adjust it.  Can you break up the rocks at all?  It can be hard to find rocks small enough to fit nicely in little tanks and still look right scale-wise.  It will definitely be hard to clean the glass and I can see detritus getting trapped back there in the future so I'd definitely recommend adjusting it.  Have you selected a light yet?  The tank looks super-cute!

[minxitbabe]

  I bought a tiny little flat betta tank type heater only to find out that the stupid thing is way under powered! It is a 7.5w and when I got it home and opened the package it said will raise temp 2 ish degrees from room temp. 😒 Only says this inside of course not on the outside packaging. So I will be buying another one since I have never heated such a small tank I didn't realize I would need so much more power.  I don't particularly want to break up the rock will just recenter the top one like I had originally planned before the heater issue.  I was wanting to use the light that came on the tank but the darn thing is less than two years old and one of the "LED" bulbs is dead already.  So I may be looking for repair/replacement options for both of the bulbs.  I am more wanting some sort of interesting little critters than corals so lighting is not going to be over the top.

 

 The little one was out and about in the "big" tank!  Booping hermit crabs and everything.  Not shy at all!

 

 

[debbeach13]

39 minutes ago, minxitbabe said:

 Booping hermit crabs and everything.  

Love it. I actually laughed.

[Cyndi]

Cute! What else do you plan to do with it? 

I loved my pico!

[minxitbabe]

35 minutes ago, Cyndi said:

Cute! What else do you plan to do with it? 

I loved my pico!

That's fun looking! Current plan is pom pom crabs other than those I am flexible. Maybe some sexy shrimp?  But I have read of peoples pom poms eating their sexy shrimp so it will depend on if this crab seems to be aggressive or chill. 

[Lula_Mae]

12 hours ago, minxitbabe said:

  I bought a tiny little flat betta tank type heater only to find out that the stupid thing is way under powered! It is a 7.5w and when I got it home and opened the package it said will raise temp 2 ish degrees from room temp. 😒 Only says this inside of course not on the outside packaging. So I will be buying another one since I have never heated such a small tank I didn't realize I would need so much more power.  I don't particularly want to break up the rock will just recenter the top one like I had originally planned before the heater issue.  I was wanting to use the light that came on the tank but the darn thing is less than two years old and one of the "LED" bulbs is dead already.  So I may be looking for repair/replacement options for both of the bulbs.  I am more wanting some sort of interesting little critters than corals so lighting is not going to be over the top.

 

 The little one was out and about in the "big" tank!  Booping hermit crabs and everything.  Not shy at all!

 

 

Oh boy, your pom pom sounds a bit like my old one Shelby!

 

10 hours ago, Cyndi said:

Cute! What else do you plan to do with it? 

I loved my pico!

That is gorgeous! Do you have a tank thread anywhere?

 

10 hours ago, minxitbabe said:

That's fun looking! Current plan is pom pom crabs other than those I am flexible. Maybe some sexy shrimp?  But I have read of peoples pom poms eating their sexy shrimp so it will depend on if this crab seems to be aggressive or chill. 

I've never heard of that but I would believe it! The aforementioned pom pom Shelby tried to eat my other pom pom...

[minxitbabe]

@Cyndi Did you feel like your sand bed was deep enough?  I keep looking at mine and wondering if I should add another 1/4in layer?

[minxitbabe]

And the time table for the cycle starts again later tonight.  Contacted the company about my dead bulb in my light and was told bring the whole shebang back to Petsmart and they will replace it completely for free!  So heading home to remove the water, 3 rocks and sand.  Kind of a pain but yay free replacement of defective products. 

 Pom Pom crab is just going to have to continue roaming the big tank. 

[vlangel]

What a cutie!  I have a pom pom named Cheerleader in my 10 QT.

[Cyndi]

On 10/8/2018 at 6:48 AM, Lula_Mae said:

Oh boy, your pom pom sounds a bit like my old one Shelby!

 

That is gorgeous! Do you have a tank thread anywhere?

 

I've never heard of that but I would believe it! The aforementioned pom pom Shelby tried to eat my other pom pom...

No tank thread anywhere. Never really thought of keeping one for any of my tanks. 

[Cyndi]

On 10/8/2018 at 8:15 AM, minxitbabe said:

@Cyndi Did you feel like your sand bed was deep enough?  I keep looking at mine and wondering if I should add another 1/4in layer?

I think for what I used it for it was actually too much sand which made it harder to clean with the frequent spot feeding and live foods for the dwarve ponies.

[Lula_Mae]

9 hours ago, Cyndi said:

I think for what I used it for it was actually too much sand which made it harder to clean with the frequent spot feeding and live foods for the dwarve ponies.

Dwarf ponies are neat. Did you hatch brine shrimp for them, or use another food source?

[Cyndi]

On 10/18/2018 at 7:51 AM, Lula_Mae said:

Dwarf ponies are neat. Did you hatch brine shrimp for them, or use another food source?

Hatched brine shrimp.

[minxitbabe]

Been terribly busy and haven't updated. Unfortunately my update isn't good.  The tank was housing 2 small blue hermits and a small turbo snail for two weeks.  Levels were great and I was able to gage evaporation for top offs. Three days ago I added a clown goby. Cute tiny little yellow bugger that liked to freak me out by doing his clown goby thing near the top of the tank making me think he was toast.  Never toast yet but this morning I woke up to him in a full out ich outbreak!  So now I have to try and figure out what the heck I am going to do.  I don't have a qt set up and this is my first saltwater ich.  The little guy has now become a $10 menace!  Picture of the newest eye twitch in my life before he looked like a yellow sweater with white pilling.

[Lula_Mae]

Been looking into this myself for my little green banded goby. Check out the tank transfer method and copper treatment as options. Also compare to pics and descriptions to ensure it's not velvet.

[minxitbabe]

The Minx pico is effectively dead for the time being. The ich goby died and now we are counting down the days until the fallow period is done.   The two tiny hermits ate my poor snail and now one of the victors is proudly wearing his shell.  Have a feeling the snail fell upside down and either died or my hermits were crazy hungry and murdered it. 

[minxitbabe]

Good news today! I hadn't turned on the light for more than a week and when I did today I have a pod explosion!  The little things are everywhere and apparently happy as can be.  Too bad I still have weeks until the end of fallow period because I would love to throw some into my new 55 to seed it.  There is still hope for this little tank.