2 Gallon Pico Questions

[SimonL]

Hi,

 

First of all, I want to thank everyone for this amazing community, I learned so much from reading all the guides and opionions here. But I have a few questions where I could not really find an answer:

 

I'm starting a 2 gallon pico jar with cured live rock which arrives today.

 

1. Do I need to put the rocks in "quarantine" for some time or can I put them directly into the tank?

 

2. Do the live rocks need light during the cycling period?

 

3. When should I start with weekly 100% water changes? Do I need to do more or less water changes in the beginning? I found conflicting answers on this one.

 

4. Are there some pro tips when handling live rock?

 

Thanks 🙂

[SaltyGallon]

 

Hi Simon and welcome to NR! 🤪 

 

... I'm not one of the jar guys or gals but I'm sure they'll turn up haha!

 

My two pence:

 

1. Do I need to put the rocks in "quarantine" for some time or can I put them directly into the tank?

Depends on the purpose. If for pests, then yeah sure. But if it's for any stuff that might leach out, don't worry - cured liverock (i.e. the wet stuff from an existing tank somewhere!) is ready to go!

 

2. Do the live rocks need light during the cycling period?

If I've understood correctly you've got live rock i.e. it's already well cycled - so yeah sure, turn them on. If you were "cycling" dry rock which has no biological filtration already established and plenty of stuff that will leach out to begin with then you might keep the light off (to minimise algal growth) but in this instance the rock's cycled, so this is a non-issue.

 

3. When should I start with weekly 100% water changes? Do I need to do more or less water changes in the beginning? I found conflicting answers on this one.

I'll let the jar heads answer this one!

 

4. Are there some pro tips when handling live rock?

Keep it wet and only rinse it in saltwater, you don't want to kill the good stuff on/in it - you'll probably find some nice surprises in terms of invertebrates etc. Some people wear gloves when they do this stuff but I've never bothered/never started with live rock - if there's big bristle worms etc then probs worth the rubber gloves! Likewise don't be tempted to scrub it etc. if you can be sure that there aren't any zoas and/or palys growing on it - the toxins aren't much fun (understatement).

 

What type of sand are you going for? The same rules apply re cycling of "live" sand and "dry" sand. If going dry, you'll want to give a good wash first - and even then it'll still leach plenty of stuff out for a while during cycle, so make sure you go for a good quality sand.

[SimonL]

Thanks, you helped me a lot 👍

11 minutes ago, Azur said:

What type of sand are you going for?

Sand from a local company very similar to Carbisea Fiji Pink Sand. I washed it dozens of times and I think it was worth it. When I put it in, the water was crystal clear from the beginning.

[Ratvan]

Morning, welcome. I do love the jar reefs. Tempted to set one up myself but no, too many tanks already

 

1. Put the rock in the jar, you may get a small mini cycle from die off caused by shipping so monitor the levels carefully. You might not get a cycle at all but just better to be prepared. 

2. Turn the lights on and sort out the schedule, as above no to a small cycle is possibly

3. In my 2.5G I changed the water (and floss) weekly, after testing for a little while I pushed this out to 10 days. Start now so you get into the habit of weekly water changes, you'll get better stability with good practises early on

 

Good luck, am looking forwards to seeing this progress

 

[SaltyGallon]

7 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Morning, welcome. I do love the jar reefs. Tempted to set one up myself but no, too many tanks already

 

1. Put the rock in the jar, you may get a small mini cycle from die off caused by shipping so monitor the levels carefully. You might not get a cycle at all but just better to be prepared. 

2. Turn the lights on and sort out the schedule, as above no to a small cycle is possibly

3. In my 2.5G I changed the water (and floss) weekly, after testing for a little while I pushed this out to 10 days. Start now so you get into the habit of weekly water changes, you'll get better stability with good practises early on

 

Good luck, am looking forwards to seeing this progress

 

What he said too, haha! I glossed over the possibility of a mini-cycle - don't be alarmed if you start getting brown rusty stuff on your sandbed and rocks in a couple of weeks, it's perfectly normal (diatoms) - they'll burn out in their own time, so don't fret/rush, just keep doing what you're doing 😎

[Ratvan]

Just now, Azur said:

What he said too, haha! I glossed over the possibility of a mini-cycle - don't be alarmed if you start getting brown rusty stuff on your sandbed and rocks in a couple of weeks, it's perfectly normal (diatoms) - they'll burn out in their own time, so don't fret/rush, just keep doing what you're doing 😎

I only point it out as I seem to cause mini cycles all the time 

[SimonL]

Thanks! I'll post updates here 🙂