Tigahboy's 🌋 Pico

[asting]

Looking good! figure out your light?

[Tigahboy]

39 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Love your photography skills

Thank you!  I love taking photos of tanks.  Pretty much nothing else.  LOL.  

 

39 minutes ago, asting said:

Looking good! figure out your light?

So you are saying my backlight LED strip won't grow corals?? 

 

(hope to have the light situation nailed down soon).

[Tigahboy]

My son putting in the first pieces of live rock.  #startemyoung

 

[748S911]

25 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

My son putting in the first pieces of live rock.  #startemyoung

 

Awesome!! 

[Tigahboy]

Son's first scape (with 3 live rock rubble pieces). 😀

[748S911]

Just now, Tigahboy said:

Son's first scape (with 3 live rock rubble pieces). 😀

Sweet!!!! Let the coral games begin! 

[Clown79]

Thats a cute tank and having a little helper is always great

[Tigahboy]

2 hours ago, 748S911 said:

Sweet!!!! Let the coral games begin! 

Well.  Not quite there yet. I still gotta cycle from scratch.  😱

 

11 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Thats a cute tank and having a little helper is always great

Thanks!  My son gets super excited doing anything tank related.  It was super cute watching him pick out the tiniest pieces and then gently putting them in. 

[Tigahboy]

So basically aquascaping fail tonight.  I tried a lot of different pieces and configurations and wasn't happy with any of them.  It's REALLY hard trying to scape around the ginormous volcano.  Giving up for now, but will try again later.  Here's just a sampling of some of the scape configurations.

[MetaTank]

8 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

So basically aquascaping fail tonight.  I tried a lot of different pieces and configurations and wasn't happy with any of them.  It's REALLY hard trying to scape around the ginormous volcano.  Giving up for now, but will try again later.  Here's just a sampling of some of the scape configurations.

I actually really dig bottom right.

[Tigahboy]

1 minute ago, MetaTank said:

I actually really dig bottom right.

My wife likes that one. She said it looks like a dinosaur head.  😂

[748S911]

You could break up your rock into ruble and make an S going from the front of the tiki hut and wrap it behind the volcano?

 

[This guy is extra salty]

3 hours ago, Tigahboy said:

My son putting in the first pieces of live rock.  #startemyoung

 

No glove 🧤  no love 

[seabass]

Finally caught up.  The backlit background is the punch that this tank needed.  Following.

[Tigahboy]

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

Finally caught up.  The backlit background is the punch that this tank needed.  Following.

Awesome!  Thanks for checking in!

[Tigahboy]

17 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

No glove 🧤  no love 

Hey, it was just very small and smooth rock rubble pieces!  LOL.  I haven't had much luck finding gloves that fit him, but I am looking.  I just bought gloves for myself today (I seldom wear them, but I know I should).

 

28 minutes ago, 748S911 said:

You could break up your rock into ruble and make an S going from the front of the tiki hut and wrap it behind the volcano?

 

That's a good idea.  I think smaller pieces would be easier to work with.  Might have to do some smashy smashy with the LR.  I think I'm going to put sand in and see how I feel after I've slept on it.

[MetaTank]

2 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

Hey, it was just very small and smooth rock rubble pieces!  LOL.  I haven't had much luck finding gloves that fit him, but I am looking.  I just bought gloves for myself today (I seldom wear them, but I know I should).

 

That's a good idea.  I think smaller pieces would be easier to work with.  Might have to do some smashy smashy with the LR.  I think I'm going to put sand in and see how I feel after I've slept on it.

I've been putting off smashing a big rock...lol... only thing holding me back I think

[748S911]

6 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

That's a good idea.  I think smaller pieces would be easier to work with.  Might have to do some smashy smashy with the LR.  I think I'm going to put sand in and see how I feel after I've slept on it.

[Tigahboy]

So a few updates:

 

1. Had a major setback with my main 20g custom tank build today.  Basically had some drama with the LFS regarding delays, etc., and that deal fell apart.  The LFS refunded my money and now I have no main tank and stand coming.  But I have actually really been enjoying this pico and don't feel all that sad about it.  So I'm going to double down and put everything into this pico for now.  

 

2. This cheapo powerhead I bought from Amazon is just way too loud.  The humming is driving me cray cray.  The only reason I got it was because it was the smallest powerhead I could find - 1.87in x 1.68in x 1.24in.  But I just can't stand it anymore, so I took it out.  As I was trying to improve upon the volcano (i.e., removing the bulky bubbler and cord that is supposed to reside inside the volcano and adding an air pump outside of the tank that feeds an airstone inside the volcano), I realized the bubbler from the volcano was actually creating quite a bit of circulation within the tank on its own.  I need to find a better airstone and air pump, but maybe that plus the 65 gph HOB could be enough circulation.  If not, I may be on the hunt for another powerhead/wave maker.

 

 

3.  I've never done this before, but I'm seriously considering putting almost no or very little LR in this tank, and rely heavily on bio media.  I've actually never used any bio media on any of my prior reef tanks.  But based on my research it seems like this could be a viable alternative/supplement to LR: 

 

 

Supposedly it doesn't have as many of the negative qualities of other bio media, such as being a detritus trap, crumbling, leaching aluminum.  It is also supposed to have way more surface area than other forms of bio media.  Again, I've never used it, but just based on my research.  If anyone has any experience with this specific bio media, would love to hear your experience.

[KISReef]

49 minutes ago, 748S911 said:

You could break up your rock into ruble and make an S going from the front of the tiki hut and wrap it behind the volcano?

 

That's a great idea. I would place the smaller pieces of rock around 2/3rds of the volcano up to 1/3rd of the height. That way the Volcano is the center piece and the rock and corals attached become the reef to the volcano (island).  You can scatter some smaller filler in pieces to balance the layout (golden ratio). Just an idea.

[748S911]

5 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

So a few updates:

 

1. Had a major setback with my main 20g custom tank build today.  Basically had some drama with the LFS regarding delays, etc., and that deal fell apart.  The LFS refunded my money and now I have no main tank and stand coming.  But I have actually really been enjoying this pico and don't feel all that sad about it.  So I'm going to double down and put everything into this pico for now.  

 

2. This cheapo powerhead I bought from Amazon is just way too loud.  The humming is driving me cray cray.  The only reason I got it was because it was the smallest powerhead I could find - 1.87in x 1.68in x 1.24in.  But I just can't stand it anymore, so I took it out.  As I was trying to improve upon the volcano (i.e., removing the bulky bubbler and cord that is supposed to reside inside the volcano and adding an air pump outside of the tank that feeds an airstone inside the volcano), I realized the bubbler from the volcano was actually creating quite a bit of circulation within the tank on its own.  I need to find a better airstone and air pump, but maybe that plus the 65 gph HOB could be enough circulation.  If not, I may be on the hunt for another powerhead/wave maker.

 

 

3.  I've never done this before, but I'm seriously considering putting almost no or very little LR in this tank, and rely heavily on bio media.  I've actually never used any bio media on any of my prior reef tanks.  But based on my research it seems like this could be a viable alternative/supplement to LR: 

 

 

Supposedly it doesn't have as many of the negative qualities of other bio media, such as being a detritus trap, crumbling, leaching aluminum.  It is also supposed to have way more surface area than other forms of bio media.  Again, I've never used it, but just based on my research.  If anyone has any experience with this specific bio media, would love to hear your experience.

Sorry to hear about the 20 gallon, I got the same janky micro pumps that are way too loud lol.  I'm loving my marine pure bio balls, they are great.

[This guy is extra salty]

24 minutes ago, MetaTank said:

I've been putting off smashing a big rock...lol... only thing holding me back I think

I have been drilling my live rock

[MetaTank]

2 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I have been drilling my live rock

Eager to see where this goes

[Tigahboy]

1 minute ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I have been drilling my live rock

Nice.  Yeah, I have acrylic rods and mason drill bit ready in case I need to go that route as well... but I'm now leaning towards the completely minimalist scape now with bio media to supplement.  

[MetaTank]

3 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

Nice.  Yeah, I have acrylic rods and mason drill bit ready in case I need to go that route as well... but I'm now leaning towards the completely minimalist scape now with bio media to supplement.  

I think this is a good idea, I like the minimalist idea. I just looked at my rocks again, I may just plop down two large rocks and call it a day...lol...but maybe not. Depends on how the smashing of the biggest rock goes...