Poliwag Posted November 7, 2021 Share Posted November 7, 2021 Hey Everyone, I've been lurking on this forum for a while now, and this past summer I finally decided to start my very own pico reef. The tank is about 6 months old and I wanted to make a journal to keep track of my progress (good and bad). Tank Specs Display: Lifegard 3.8g Peninsula Lighting: Kessil A80 with Spectral Controller (might switch to AI prime 16HD) Return Pump: Mini-Jet 606 with RFJ nozzle Heating: Pulaco 25w heater from Amazon Filtration: 3D printed media basket Filter Media: filter floss, carbon, and Seachem Matrix Aquarium Lid: Saran wrap until I get an ATO Doser: Kamoer x1 pro 2 Dosing: Tropic Marin All for Reef Livestock FISH Clown Fish CLEAN UP CREW X2 Gold-ring Cowrie Hermit crab Anemone Crab Corals SOFTIES Yuma mushroom Zoas (utter chaos, armor of gods, sunny Ds, rainbow incinerator) GSP LPS Green Candy Cane Torch (pink tips green) Hammer (purple tip and neon) Favias (dragon soul and a no-name) Red blasto Red goniopora Acan (red/purple and green/purple) Duncan SPS Plating (green and starburst) Purple bonsai Montipora Digitata Birdsnest 4 Quote Link to comment
Poliwag Posted November 7, 2021 Author Share Posted November 7, 2021 Might get rid of the clown since it won't stop bothering any corals that flow. Quote Link to comment
Poliwag Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 Just a little update. Added a Japanese long tentacle toadstool today (picture below) and it’s already opened up. Also started to dose some ATI nutrition nitrate and phosphate last week to keep my levels from bottoming out. 3 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 On 11/7/2021 at 2:45 PM, Poliwag said: Hey Everyone, I've been lurking on this forum for a while now, and this past summer I finally decided to start my very own pico reef. The tank is about 6 months old and I wanted to make a journal to keep track of my progress (good and bad). Tank Specs Display: Lifegard 3.8g Peninsula Lighting: Kessil A80 with Spectral Controller (might switch to AI prime 16HD) Return Pump: Mini-Jet 606 with RFJ nozzle Heating: Pulaco 25w heater from Amazon Filtration: 3D printed media basket Filter Media: filter floss, carbon, and Seachem Matrix Aquarium Lid: Saran wrap until I get an ATO Doser: Kamoer x1 pro 2 Dosing: Tropic Marin All for Reef Livestock FISH Clown Fish CLEAN UP CREW X2 Gold-ring Cowrie Hermit crab Anemone Crab Corals SOFTIES Yuma mushroom Zoas (utter chaos, armor of gods, sunny Ds, rainbow incinerator) GSP LPS Green Candy Cane Torch (pink tips green) Hammer (purple tip and neon) Favias (dragon soul and a no-name) Red blasto Red goniopora Acan (red/purple and green/purple) Duncan SPS Plating (green and starburst) Purple bonsai Montipora Digitata Birdsnest Looks good in there so far. 😊 1 Quote Link to comment
sango Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Hi Poliwag, nice looking tank! If you’re not dosing a carbon source (eg vinegar, vodka, NOPOX) then I would be surprised if your PO4 and NO3 are bottoming out, especially since you have fish to feed. Have you been measuring your levels? If not then I can recommend the Hanna Phosphate ULR and Hanna Nitrate High Range checkers. Good luck! Quote Link to comment
skippylou Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Nice work! Question for you as I messed around with this tank for a short bit recently but was struggling to get the flow and water levels where I wanted them with an upgraded Sicce pump + RFG and plugging that dang hole at the bottom. Looks like you used the plug instead of the strainer, curious if you're running your minijet at max flow and what else you have in the overflow chamber there? I'm always curious to see what/how folks with these smaller Lifegards have dealt with the bottom drain hole. Quote Link to comment
Poliwag Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 3 hours ago, sango said: Hi Poliwag, nice looking tank! If you’re not dosing a carbon source (eg vinegar, vodka, NOPOX) then I would be surprised if your PO4 and NO3 are bottoming out, especially since you have fish to feed. Have you been measuring your levels? If not then I can recommend the Hanna Phosphate ULR and Hanna Nitrate High Range checkers. Good luck! I use salifert to test for nitrate and phosphate and they’ve always tested at 0 for me.. no clue why. Quote Link to comment
Poliwag Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 3 hours ago, skippylou said: Nice work! Question for you as I messed around with this tank for a short bit recently but was struggling to get the flow and water levels where I wanted them with an upgraded Sicce pump + RFG and plugging that dang hole at the bottom. Looks like you used the plug instead of the strainer, curious if you're running your minijet at max flow and what else you have in the overflow chamber there? I'm always curious to see what/how folks with these smaller Lifegards have dealt with the bottom drain hole. Yeah I used the plug so that water passes through my filter floss 100%. My minijet is running at max with the flow restrictor removed as well. And I only have filter floss + a bag of seachem matrix on in my overflow chamber, sometimes a bag of carbon if I remember. Quote Link to comment
skippylou Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Interesting. I had only floss in the intank media rack with the plug like you do and the pump was ~40 gph lower than yours is rated but it still was draining the pump chamber to probably halfway and raising the display to way closer than I wanted to the top :P. Quote Link to comment
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