Longest running pico tank

[fly2cast]

What are some of the longest running tanks under 5 gallons that you guys know of where they didn't just keep adding new corals if they died but instead had a healthy, growing system?

 

Just curious if there are some old systems out there and what they look like.

[icenine]

Good question.... I'm intersted in seeing who chimes in.

[deacon hemp]

i had a 4 gal for a year.It did well but had grape caulerpa so i tore it down.

[jmorris]

There's a guy that shops at the LFS I work at who had a little pico made out of one of those decorative glass vasses you can fnd at craft stores... about 1.5gal. He just had one of those 16gph power filters from the Red Sea Aquavases on it, and he lit it by hanging an aluminum dome lamp over it with a 20watt 50/50 bulb. He had xenia, zoos, a little frag of spiney-tree leather, and a couple mushrooms and rics in it.

 

It ran beautifuly for ~2 years with just weekly waterchanges and top off inbetween. That's the tank that insipred me to set up my original nano. Unfortunately, he just recently tore it down when he set up a 175g tank... stupid big tanks anyway!

 

Jared

[fly2cast]

Two years isn't too bad. I'm trying to see if anyone has had one in the 5+ year range. My thought is that there isn't a lot of older small tanks out there.

[go4broke44]

nano-reefing is a relatively new concept, so i don't think you will find many, if any, tanks aging over 4-5 years

[Cellenzweig]

Two years isn't too bad. I'm trying to see if anyone has had one in the 5+ year range. My thought is that there isn't a lot of older small tanks out there.

 

nano-reefing is a relatively new concept, so i don't think you will find many, if any, tanks aging over 4-5 years

 

While I agree with go4, I've also noticed that a lot nano-reefers often move on to larger tanks.

[lgoins]

This forum has been here a lot longer than you think

[Cellenzweig]

This forum has been here a lot longer than you think

June 2001?

[ELGORDOINAVW]

Liquid had a 2.5 since as far back as I joined. Last I heard he added a 70 watt MH.

[robmacy]

there's a LFS that recently went belly up, but they had a pico there since their early days. will have to try and see how long it was.

[Bogan]

Where is Liquid nowadays? I loved his 2.5 - I would love to see an update.

[Smurfette]

I have had a 4.4 gal running successfully for almost 2 years. have three tiny gobies in it since the beginning, a Evoita, Masked and Greenbanded, lots of zos and a very tiny green frogspawn frag. also a pistol i have never seen yet hear every night. i am getting a custom acrylic tank made as we speak to replace the current glass one so i can have a sump. been having a bubble algae problem. a coworker of mine has been successfully keeping a 3/4 pico for about 2 years now as well, too bad his little goby jumped, but all corals and inverts are still happy. i also have the 2.5 AGA at the LFS i work at and it has been up and running for over 2 yrs.

i'll post some pics later.

[brandon4299]

My original reefbowl, sounds a lot like the one above, ran for just under three years at 1.5 gallons. I started it in 2001, that was my first pico and the only reason it died is I had a heat spike in my rental house that wiped out everything. Developed algae after that, I surmise it was the death of all the sandbed fauna that spured ammonia spikes and fouling issues in the sand, didn't use sand anymore after that. Its interesting to note that pico reefs that live past the year mark are the true test of design and maintenance. Almost any decent system using clean water and good animals can live for a few months, after that, the accumulation of detritus and the feeding schedules (even further tested if fish are in the design)usually amount to algae crashes (and displeased owners) which are the #1 cause of nano/pico failure, barring hardware issues like crashed heaters and home a/c's or critical fan setups. It is mighty, mighty tough to keep a pico alive for one year+, much less biologically "clean". Kudos to you who are doing it!

[ebin]

Coral had a issue that was on nanos there were small tanks that were up for years like 20+ if I remember correctly. small saltwater tanks are far a new concept.