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Equipment for a Pico?


Jackson

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So PC Lighting has only just made it to the UK market in force. Interpet has released some PC ballasts which means i can finally set up a Pico!

What equipment would you reccomend for a begginer Pico?

I just want to put frags in there and maybe a couple of Hermits/Sexy shrimp.

Do you skim a Pico? i have a spare Piccalo but it will crowd the tank.

Many thanks,

Jackson.

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ImAnanoReefer

I do not skim my pico. I simply have a tiny HOB filter, florescent lighting, and a few chunks of LR in it. I found hermits to be eco-terrorists in my pico. While I think that they do more good than harm in a large tank, I think in a tiny pico that hermits should be replaced with snails, worms, and the like. Sexy shrimp are great for picos, so are porcelain anemone crabs, mantis shrimps, and tiny micro-brittle stars. (I wouldn't suggest the big kind, I had one leap out 5 times before I gave up and sent it back to the LFS) You can also set up a pico with just an airline tube... I have seen it done in Coral magazine, but haven't done it myself. I'll be watching your progress, and hope I helped a bit!:D

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neanderthalman

Mantis Shrimp? A pico might be a good home for ONLY a mantis shrimp, but don't plan on keeping anything else in there with it for very long. Mantis shrimp are excellent hunters and are very difficult to get rid of. They are also nocturnal, so you'd generally only see them active at night - so what's the point in keeping one as a pet?

 

As far as equipment goes, I managed to fit a powerhead and heater in my pico, but that is all the equipment that should be necessary for any nano. Skimmers are part of an ongoing debate, as they remove valuable nutrients from the water. In a pico, you can't afford to be losing nutrients unnecessarily. Frequent water changes are all that should needed in a pico to keep it from stinking.

 

Critters are always a good debate, but I've found my blue-leg hermits to be marvelous little reef-goats, and have yet to damage any of my corals. In a small tank, it's also fun to watch them fight over each other's shells. I also had a single turbo snail for the longest time, and it single-handedly kept the tank walls pristine. My current astrea snail is doing a brilliant job, and I've got a pair of hitchiking bumblebee snails helpin it out. I'd love to have a sexy shrimp or three, but I'm not sure about whether or not there's enough space - so I'm sticking to corals.

 

I've got some zoos, GSP, and a green mushroom that may or may not be a ricordea - still not sure about that guy. The GSP can spread like mad, so unless you're willing to frag it every so often, I don't recommend it. I'm planning to try to convice some to take up residence on my powerhead, just to take advantage of all the space I have. Xenia are another favorite of mine, but they too spread quite quickly - but they're too hypnotic to leave out.

 

Water parameters can change quickly in a pico, so I'm quite simply not willing to risk putting in any stony corals, since they're generally more difficult and expensive. If you lose a handful of soft corals, you're not going to have to remortgage your house to replace them. If you happen to have a particularly nice specimen that you'd like to showcase, expensive or not, a pico can be the perfect way to show it off.

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the way that the coral magazine had it was to drill a hole down a small stack of LR. Then from there put it together using ridged tubing (not airline, something with a bigger diameter, you'll see why)

The hole that you drilled into the live rock should allow for the tubing from above to slip through. Then u run ridged airline tube down the center of the bigger tube. When you turn on the air pump, it will make the water in the bigger tube rise and flow over the top, and will pull the water from around the live rock into the bigger tube from the bottom. This allows for the water to flow from top to bottom.

 

I dont know if i explained it all that well but its Issue 2 of coral magazine. Hope this helps.

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neanderthalman

That sounds amazing Soju - it works off of the same principle as an undergravel filter. The current flow wouldn't be very high, so you might have trouble with some filter-feeders - but the appearance would be so much better! I'm tempted to give this a shot myself and lose the powerhead (mine's huge)

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ProFlatlander15

thats a great idea soju...perfect for small tanks. i used to have a filter like that in my 10 gal FW tank, was a little too small for the ank, but it worked well. drilling through the LR keeps it hidden too.

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NicksAcrylicReef

So are the hang on back filters really nessary for picos? Given weekly water changes it shouldent need mechanical filtration right?

 

I was thinking of either the airlift system or a small pwoerhead on a tiny closed loop.

 

The plus side to the closed loop is you could skim the surface water and not have the scum layer on the surface :)

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neanderthalman

You do not need mechanical filtration in a pico provided you take the time to set up a stable ecosystem. That means being patient when cycling, then adding a well-balanced cleanup crew.

 

Your cleanup crew should include a snail of some sort that will clean algae off of the glass for you, and crabs or shrimp to eat any detritus and algae on the liverock. Depending on the size of your tank, you might want a sand-sifter of some sort, like some species of starfish and snails.

 

Many nanos have a hang-back style filter, but the filter medium has been removed. This gives a slightly larger water volume, and you can put some rubble and LS in it for extra filtration without affecting your aquascape. Think of it like a mini-refugium. I've also seen macroalgae in one as well.

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