Indecisive's 3.8g aio pico

[indecisive]

Hello everyone! 

This will be my first reef tank ever, hopefully it helps that I've only had nano and pico tanks anyways. All my stuff is more or less still in the mail and most will arrive on the 10th

 

Anyways, the important stuff:

Tank: Lifegard Aquatics 3.8 gallon aio peninsula

Substrate: Carib sea arag alive special grade

Salt: Aquaforest Reef Salt

Salinity measuring: Swing Arm Hydrometer

Rock: roughly 3lbs dry rock

Heater: 25w compact hygger

Filter: 80gph adjustable pump Uniclife

Media: filter floss for now

Lights: Nicrew 30W Reef LED + more precise controller eventually

Stock: I'm planning on softies and potentially lps (space allowing)

Potentially a clown goby and/or some sort of shrimp

Edited August 23, 2023 by indecisive

[indecisive]

I forgot to mention it above but I'll be using a swing arm hydrometer for now since I got sent one for free with my last order of aquarium related stuff. A refractometer with atc is what I plan on long term

 

A little disappointed the stock pump is probably quite loud since I was thinking of using it for mixing saltwater overnight, I'll see how loud it is though

 

If 53gph isn't enough I know 80gph should be easy enough to find. Although when I was looking at them a couple months back I didn't recognize many brands apart from sicce and hydrofarm both of which I'm not sure if they'll fit if I upgrade

I upgraded to 80gph on aug 23

 

From what I'm reading chemi-pure elite (or is blue better?) might be overkill on a 3.8g tank depending on what my phosphates are like. If that's the case I might do something like carbon and purigen

Oh and I haven't noticed if anyone has ordered directly from lifegard in the aio club (it's what I did), I swear their website wasn't there a couple years ago though. I almost got their 22g bookshelf, ended up with seven ports/mr aqua in 2021 I think

 

I'll likely end up gathering my questions as I set up and actually asking them somewhere other than my tank journal haha

Edited August 23, 2023 by indecisive

[indecisive]

Finally got it wet! 

It'll probably take overnight to clear

Lights are running at 20% blue, 5% white. I'm definitely going to get the precision controller at some point so I adjust individual percent points instead of preset brightness options

[ml86743]

Lookin good!

[indecisive]

@ml86743Thank you! Most of the scape was unplanned

[indecisive]

Starting to clear up significantly.

(Photo is edited to attempt to correct color.)

 

I've decided to order bottled bacteria and some ammonium chloride that'll be here in a few days and I'll look at getting something with coraline algae growing on it from the lfs the next time I go

 

(After the cycle is finished) In terms of first coral, I'm hoping to find a nice looking piece of pulsing xenia at the lfs

 

I've been looking at clown gobies too long, now I'm trying to decide if I want one and the bioload or not. Might do a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp or a trio of sexy shrimp instead though. I want to research and read on this more before I fully commit to a decision

[clownfish14]

Looks great! I have the standard tank instead of the peninsula and I love it. Great little system! I look forward to seeing yours progress! 

[indecisive]

Glad to hear you like the standard! I almost got one of standards and might get it later anyways

 

I'm eager to get some progress

[indecisive]

I went to the lfs yesterday, got some coraline algae scrapings but they don't have macro algae unfortunately

 

I was however pleasantly surprised by the large selection of $10 and $25 frags and they most definitely have pulsing xenia! I'll be trying to figure out what each coral is based on the pictures I took of the unlabeled frag section 

 

Cycle is coming along quickly, I already have nitrites

[clownfish14]

Careful with the Xenia. That stuff grows very quick. Could easily take over the tank. Not sure if you want other corals in there or just that but just wanted to let you know. I made that mistake with my first nano (28gal cube) and what started as a frag turned to an entire tank in about 6 months haha

[indecisive]

I picked the Xenia because of that tendency if anything, I appreciate the warning though! I'm definitely not opposed to a whole tank full but I definitely plan to get a variety of corals in there. More than anything I'm making sure to get something I won't accidentally kill and I'll know for sure with Xenia haha

I'm still deciding if I want to grow it on either one or two walls of the tank, I like the natural motion it adds. I know the lfs will take plenty of frags from me when it gets to that point.

I'm thinking of potentially adding a candy cane or smaller trumpet at some point if needed to keep it in check since I've heard they're less aggressive (apart from the purple and teals) than other lps

[indecisive]

I'm fully cycled much sooner than I thought I would be. Last night I picked up a couple of cheap frags from the lfs, a small piece of pulsing xenia and red leptastrea so I'll see how well I keep these two for a while, they're pretty sad looking right now so once they're a bit more adjusted I'll add pictures of them here

[indecisive]

I figured it's time for some overdo pictures

 

It kept detaching from superglue so I placed it in a rubble pile for a few days and it worked

 

The leptastrea hasn't changed much, maybe a bit more inflated in my tank than the lfs

 

Things are a bit too squeaky clean in here so I might end up putting a neon blue cleaner goby or something like that in sometime soon

[indecisive]

Well sooner turned into really soon, the other day the lfs got a sharknose goby, very excited because I wouldn't have expected them to have one. A bit nervous to say that I have him since he's only eaten 2 mini mysis shrimp soaked in garlic but at the same time he has a plump stomach. I really don't want him to starve on me

 

I also got a green candy cane coral (well glows yellow under actinic) and it on the other hand very much enjoyed mini mysis without giving me trouble

 

[indecisive]

It took until today for him to start eating consistently, tiny mouthed nano fish always worry me

Also a better picture of him now that he's settled in and less shy