Complete Newbie. Starting with a pico and have questions/concerns

[xredlinexx1]

Hi All,

 

I'm in the planning process of starting a pico reef, with no experience in reefing or saltwater aquariums. I've been reading, reading and doing more reading trying to educate myself on everything related to keeping a reef. My goal is to create a pico tank that's aesthetically pleasing as possible and requires as little maintenance as possible (i realize this is kind of a pipe dream for picos). Money isn't much of an issue (so i think).

Here is my current inventory plan:
1. aquamaxx 2.6 gallon tank

2. NICREW ClassicLED light 12 - 18 inch version. I'm very much attached to this because of its size and the ability to remove its support wires.

2. hydro inline 200 watt 1/2 inch tubing heater
3. med nano 10 canister filter

4. jardli lily spin pipe and inflow pipe (aesthetics)

5. Mirror the back of the tank (i like the look and i think it will make the tank appear bigger when looking at it)

 

What i'm trying to achieve:
1. I'm going to build a very low profile tank canopy out of wood (i don't like those very tall canopies). The NICREW light will lay flush against the canopy roof mounted to the wood without using the provided The back of the canopy will have a gap wide enough to allow the lily pipes and light cord through and also provide some air.

2. I only want 2 glass pipes in the tank.

 

What i'm concerned about:

1. My main concern now is surface agitation and even skimming (i would love to have skimming to reduce maintenance). I have no clue what kind of effect the med nano filter and lily spin pipe will have (will it make a tornado current, or too little?). I was also thinking i could angle the lily spin pipe so it aims towards the surface to provide the surface agitation. In regards to skimming, i would LOVE to get one of those glass lily intake/surface skimmers, but there doesn't appear to be one short enough to fit in the 7.1 inch tall tank :(.

2. I want to have SPS corals. I'm skeptical of the NICREW light for this. I've read people getting 30ish par readings from it. I'm thinking the light will be fine because of the shallowness of the tank and the fact that the light will take up nearly the whole surface area of the surface.

Do any of you experienced guys have thoughts on this plan?

Thanks !

[Natereef]

The 200w heater sounds way too much for a 2.6 gallon though.

Regarding your concerns.

1. you could aim the outlet towards  the top for surface agitation then that will stir the surface scum which can be filtered out by your filter. I dont think a skimmer is really necessary.

2.Only one way to find out, try it 😄, a lot of  easy sps out there especially in the montipora group of corals. The light seems to be in the 6500k spectrum which is a little bit yellow/ warm, your corals might not look that great under them, try looking for a more blue spectrum of lightning if you can.

[seabass]

Not really a light for SPS.  You might want to check out some of the lights being used in the current pico contest.  Many of the most current threads are 2.5 gallon tanks too.

[Clown79]

I had a basic nicrew led light on a 5g planted tank. These lights are designed for freshwater planted tanks, it barely kept low light plants alive.

 it's not powerful enough or in the right spectrum for corals, even less likely for sps.

 

200watt heater is overkill for 2.6g.

 

Theres no need for a skimmer on such a small tank.

You could just get an hob with a surface skimmer like seachem tidal,, kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

 

[xredlinexx1]

Thanks for the inputs guys. Do you think it would be safe to use the Hydor 200W heater, or is there risk of overheating the tank? Unfortunately I have not found a smaller inline heater (i'm really trying to stay away from an intank heater if possible).

[seabass]

Ista has a 150W version (which is still way over powered); you're probably looking at the Hydor (which has a more recognizable name).  I'd consider putting it on a temperature controller, like an Inkbird.  That way, if it gets stuck on, it won't fry your tank within minutes.

[Tamberav]

Pass on the light, its not strong enough and the color will make coral look like poops. Light and flow are very important to SPS. 

 

You need a controller with a heater that big.

 

Low maintenance and canister filter in a reef do not go hand-in-hand. The reason you don't see more canister filters in reef tanks is they require frequent cleaning in reef tanks and no one wants to open that thing up once or probably even twice a week. The pipes will also get dirty much faster in a reef than freshwater. I had a glass overflow and cleaning that thing was annoying.

 

The AIO style tanks are a lot easier to work with since you can toss the floss and replace quickly. 

 

The canister can work and can be clean looking but expect to have to mess with it and clean it a lot to keep it that way. 

[Ratvan]

10 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I had a basic nicrew led light on a 5g planted tank. These lights are designed for freshwater planted tanks, it barely kept low light plants alive.

 it's not powerful enough or in the right spectrum for corals, even less likely for sps.

 

200watt heater is overkill for 2.6g.

 

Theres no need for a skimmer on such a small tank.

You could just get an hob with a surface skimmer like seachem tidal,, kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

 

I can confirm with my contest tank the Nicrew arent great for corals. 

[xredlinexx1]

Doing more thinking I'm starting to consider using an aquaclear 20 instead of the canister filter. I can make a gap in my wooden canopy for it. Would the ac20 have enough flow for aeration?

 

Here's a thought, has anyone put a water heater in their aquaclear? Im guessing you would have to remove a lot of the media and find a small heater.

[Natereef]

1 hour ago, xredlinexx1 said:

Doing more thinking I'm starting to consider using an aquaclear 20 instead of the canister filter. I can make a gap in my wooden canopy for it. Would the ac20 have enough flow for aeration?

 

Here's a thought, has anyone put a water heater in their aquaclear? Im guessing you would have to remove a lot of the media and find a small heater.

Its a 2.6 gallon tank. It will be plenty of flow from the aquaclear, and yes I did put my heater in the aquaclear when I first started and had my 10 gallon tank, I had to cut a small notch on the cover so the heater wire could pass through. This was the heater that I used. https://www.petsmart.com/fish/heating-and-lighting/heaters/top-fin-betta-aquarium-heater-27538.html

[Clown79]

7 hours ago, xredlinexx1 said:

Doing more thinking I'm starting to consider using an aquaclear 20 instead of the canister filter. I can make a gap in my wooden canopy for it. Would the ac20 have enough flow for aeration?

 

Here's a thought, has anyone put a water heater in their aquaclear? Im guessing you would have to remove a lot of the media and find a small heater.

I use an aquaclear20 on my 2.5 with a tetra heater in it. I made a media basket to hold media on one side and the heater on the other.

 

Flow is good but the surface doesn't stay clean.

[xredlinexx1]

10 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I use an aquaclear20 on my 2.5 with a tetra heater in it

Awesome. Is the tetra heater the 50watt model? I was looking at its dimensions and it says its roughly 5 inches long. You were able to full submerge this in the aquaclear?

[Lingwendil]

The Marina C10 heater is very compact, I have mine in an Azoo mignon 150 filter- highly recommend looking at them. Preset at 78 and pretty accurate.

[Clown79]

12 hours ago, xredlinexx1 said:

Awesome. Is the tetra heater the 50watt model? I was looking at its dimensions and it says its roughly 5 inches long. You were able to full submerge this in the aquaclear?

Ya it's the 50 watt. I don't have the lid on the filter and it fits fine.

[xredlinexx1]

On 4/30/2019 at 2:02 PM, Lingwendil said:

The Marina C10 heater is very compact, I have mine in an Azoo mignon 150 filter- highly recommend looking at them. Preset at 78 and pretty accurate.

I think i'm going with this heater. How did you make room for it in the filter? The aquaclear 20 has a media basket that fills the whole filter section. I'm thinking I will have to remove the media basket and put a divider between the media and the heater (and reducing the amount of media in half).

[Wingy]

I have the AquaClear 20.  I exchanged the included sponge for two layers of filter floss That allowed me to cut it a bit short and put my tiny heater in the included media basket.  I run the power cord through the water outflow.  My advice to you is to use colored tape to mark your cords.  You want to unplug both together whenever your filter isn't running and always plug your filter in first.

[xredlinexx1]

On 5/5/2019 at 4:22 AM, Wingy said:

I have the AquaClear 20.  I exchanged the included sponge for two layers of filter floss That allowed me to cut it a bit short and put my tiny heater in the included media basket.  I run the power cord through the water outflow.  My advice to you is to use colored tape to mark your cords.  You want to unplug both together whenever your filter isn't running and always plug your filter in first.

Does the heater touch the filter floss and other media? If it does, is this some kind of fire hazard (melting of plastic and whatnot), or is the heater too lower powered to generate that much heat?