Iremía - cocodriz’s first pico jar

[cocodriz]

Hey all,

I’ve been a regular lurker here for awhile and I finally had the time to put this together. This is actually my first saltwater tank. Yes that’s right. I have actually been a freshwater fanatic my entire life althought I have always wanted to start a saltwater tank. I love the simplicity and style of a pico reef and I’m very pleased to say that I have finally started my cycling. Now I hope in this thread I can take you guys along the challenges and rewards of my first saltwater tank. Here is what I’m running in Iremía:

Tank: 2g Glass Jar at Walmart (I realize this is a popular tank style)

Heater: 10W mini heater which seems to be doing the job perfectly so far. The tank is always around 79.9F

Airflow: A small single hose bubbler from my LFS. Doing a great job at creating and maintaining a healthy flow.

Light: 18W LIFEGARD multispectrum light, poisitioned about 15 inches above the lid of my jar.

 

And yes I plan to do weekly water changes using R/O saltwater from my LFS. I actually decided to not go with live sand due to some of the comments I’ve read about the upkeep being too much of a hassle in a small tank. 

 

As stated earlier I had begun my cycling today, so I will be testing the water once every 2-3 days. In the meantime I’m absolutely mezmorized by all the hitchhikers on my live rock(I purchased about 3.5 lbs). I’m not too familiar with a lot of these guys. I’m also hoping an extra pair of eyes by some seasoned reefers might be able to asist me, especially with whatever it is that looks like a peice of lettuce on the side of my rock, lol. Also any tips/tricks/or comments are greatly appreciated. I hope you all enjoy and I will be sure to post any exciting updates back here. 

 

 

[SeaFurn]

Looks good.

Since you purchased live rock you might not even have a cycle since it should already have all the bacteria established. If the rock was out of the water for any length of time there may be a little bit of die off and that may cause a little bit of ammonia but the bacteria should deal with that quickly. Definitely don’t dose any ammonia. 

[cocodriz]

Just now, SeaFurn said:

Looks good.

Since you purchased live rock you might not even have a cycle since it should already have all the bacteria established. If the rock was out of the water for any length of time there may be a little bit of die off and that may cause a little bit of ammonia but the bacteria should deal with that quickly. Definitely don’t dose any ammonia. 

Thank you! I'll test the levels of ammonia and see where I stand.

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @cocodriz, congrats on your first pico reef! These jars have made for great systems, you're off to a good start.

[debbeach13]

Welcome to NR have fun. Looks like some nice rock!

[cocodriz]

16 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Welcome to NR have fun. Looks like some nice rock!

Thank you! It’s still so amazing to me that these rocks are so full of life. I’m not even sure how to begin identifying all these creatures.

[cocodriz]

Wow... I don't think you guys realize how much of a mistake it was starting a cycle a week before all these Black Friday frag sales. I definitely should have timed this better... lol. Oh well... so I miss a few good prices on some of my favorite frags. It's the way she goes. Other than that, cycle is going healthy, I've seen a baby aiptasia and will definitely wait to deal with him when he's a little bigger. I don't wanna screw up and end up with aiptasia everywhere lol. Will continue to cycle in darkness and when I come back from my Thanksgiving trip hopefully everything will test smoothly.

[cocodriz]

Got back from a vacation that ended up with being hospitalized (all better now), to find this little teeny guy making his way across my jar. Any idea of what starfish he is? doesnt look like a Aesterina to me but what do I know, lol. Sorry it’s blurry, my phone kept wanting to focus on the rock behind him. Hopefully someone can help ID this guy. It was the only picture I could snag before he disappeared.

[cocodriz]

Tank finally finished cycling on Wednesday, I had to time to hop in the LFS and snag a small CUC made up of 2 Blue legged hermits and 4 nerite snails, not sure if that’s an appropriate CUC so let me know if I should add or remove anything. I also played with the scape a little more and found a layout I like. anyways here’s a pic. Gonna add coral in a couple weeks, if you have any suggestions for a hearty coral let me know:)

[Coinee]

I may be wrong but 4 snails seems like a lot for a jar like that. So unless you're planning to target feed them, one or two may die. I'm not 100% sure though.

[WV Reefer]

On 11/29/2018 at 11:57 PM, cocodriz said:

Got back from a vacation that ended up with being hospitalized (all better now), to find this little teeny guy making his way across my jar. Any idea of what starfish he is? doesnt look like a Aesterina to me but what do I know, lol. Sorry it’s blurry, my phone kept wanting to focus on the rock behind him. Hopefully someone can help ID this guy. It was the only picture I could snag before he disappeared.

Have you seen the Starfish again? Your right, it doesn’t look like an asterina, it’s legs are too slender. 

14 hours ago, cocodriz said:

Tank finally finished cycling on Wednesday, I had to time to hop in the LFS and snag a small CUC made up of 2 Blue legged hermits and 4 nerite snails, not sure if that’s an appropriate CUC so let me know if I should add or remove anything. I also played with the scape a little more and found a layout I like. anyways here’s a pic. Gonna add coral in a couple weeks, if you have any suggestions for a hearty coral let me know:)

 

I like the scape. Can’t wait to see what you put in here. 🙂

[Lula_Mae]

Depending on the size of the snails, 4 may be too much. Just keep an eye out. Hermits might take one out anyway lol. 

[Christopher Marks]

Congrats on your first additions! It looks like the crabs and snails are quite small? Personally for my jar I’m thinking just one hermit crab, so I only have one to worry about eating my snails or knocking things over. Are your snails larger or smaller than the hermit crab currently?

[cocodriz]

On 12/23/2018 at 7:42 AM, Coinee said:

I may be wrong but 4 snails seems like a lot for a jar like that. So unless you're planning to target feed them, one or two may die. I'm not 100% sure though.

 

On 12/24/2018 at 2:21 AM, Lula_Mae said:

Depending on the size of the snails, 4 may be too much. Just keep an eye out. Hermits might take one out anyway lol. 

 

On 12/24/2018 at 10:23 AM, Christopher Marks said:

Congrats on your first additions! It looks like the crabs and snails are quite small? Personally for my jar I’m thinking just one hermit crab, so I only have one to worry about eating my snails or knocking things over. Are your snails larger or smaller than the hermit crab currently?

Well, You guys were right... Haha, anyways let me fill you in on a little of that. I did get 4 nerites snails and 2 of them did expire in the past weeks but it seems to be fine, and I think they were dead once I brought them home because I was not able to find them once I put them in. Params still stable, and one of my hermits actually stole one of the dead snail's shells which was pretty cool to see, and how I found out that a few died. Right now I have 2 snails in, still getting a decent amount of waste on the bottom of the tank, and with barebone, it doesn't look too great. I bought a new vacuum for the extra debris, doing a 100% water change tomorrow. I was toying with the idea of getting a single turbo snail, but I probably won't commit I would feel too bad about putting a decent size snail in a pico. My snails are smaller than the hermits but my hermits are soooooo small. I asked for the smallest he could find.

[cocodriz]

On 12/23/2018 at 8:01 AM, WV Reefer said:

Have you seen the Starfish again? Your right, it doesn’t look like an asterina, it’s legs are too slender. 

 

I like the scape. Can’t wait to see what you put in here. 🙂

I have not seen the starfish again, it looked like a little brittle star, but it might have gotten eliminated in the recent water changes. I am thinking about toying with the scape again... I have some ideas but we'll see.

[cocodriz]

I have been super busy with the holidays and a recent promotion so I have not been able to get on here for a few weeks. In the past weeks, I have added 2 corals. One frogspawn, and one (maybe) favia, both were free from my buddy who works at fish store across town, but who can complain about free coral 😂. Anyways, tank is looking great, no major algae spike in this tank and hopefully it remains that way.... If you can ID the corals I would love the help.

In the near future, I will be receiving a random frag pack with 3 soft corals, ordered from Cultivated Reef. I'm waiting for their order processing to clear, I guess they were having some issues. I'm a big fan of soft coral and anything that can flow in the water.