abnmojo Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Hello all. I just found this site tonight while wasting time on the puter. I have been keeping a 2.5 gallon pico for the past year and a half with pretty good results. I wish I had found this place before I started, however...... Anyway, I have a glass 2.5 gallon tank, cost $10. I got some live sand and rock from my big tank, so no cost there. I started off with a mini mini power head from the LFS, but it just wasn't doing a good job moving the water so I got a $15 mini hang on the back filter for water movement mostly. I put carbon in there every couple of months or so, for a week or two then yank it. Like I said, the filter is more a place to stick the thermometer and move water arround than to filter anything. The largest purchase for this tank by far was the lights. I got a coralife twin compact florescent fixture. I paid over $50 for it up in northern VA, but since I moved down here to NC, I have seen them for half that. It cranks out 18 watts into that little 2.5, more than enough for any coral. I run one 10k and one actinic bulb. Here is where I went wrong, and if any of you are thinking of doing this, listen up. Putting glass over the tank and the light on top of the glass just didn't work for me. I was getting HUGE temp spike when the light was on, it was ugly. I took some small pieces of wood and fashioned two little stands that kept the light about 1/2 inch off the tank top and left the top open. Since the light fixture covers 80% of the tank top, jumpers (fish) have a 80% chance of smacking the bottom glass of the fixture and not landing on the floor. I have lost a neon goby, but my red-head goby has lived in this tank for over a year, and has grown rather large and fat. I put frags in it that I got from here and there, total cost probably $50 or so. I attached a pic of the only fish in there, a red-headed goby. Great fish for this set up. He is very active, and dosn't hide at all, and doesn't try to jump out. I can't recomend this fish for the pico enough. I've tried threadfin-barber pole goby, clowns, and neons, and all liked to jump..... not good. My corals consist of lots of metalic green star polyps... they like the tank, a lot. Small frag of zoos, who do O.K. in this setup. Not great, but they don't die off either. I have a frag off of my much larger Kenya tree, a small waving hand xenia, some sort of wierd feathery star polyp, some snake/matt polyps, a small frag of glove polyps, and some baby mushrooms on a rock. I had a frogspawn with 4 heads that looked like it was about dead in my large 100 gallon tank. I re-arranged my pico to make room for it a month or two ago and now I have a 5 head frogspawn that does just fine. It really is cool to see the goby hang out in the frogspawn tentacles, that is just too cool. I am worried that the frogspawn will sting my other frags, but I have not seen any of that... yet. The inverts consit of one red-leg hermit, one very, very small randalli pistol shrimp (1/4 in), one boxing crab, and several small snails. Some are nerite (?) some are cereth, and at least two bumble-bee. None are larger than 1/4 inch. If/when they get too big, you just chuck them into the big tank, or you may find your frags re-arranged in the morning. I really can't pimp the pistol shrimp for a pico enough either. You gotta get a small one, however I have kept a rather large tiger for a long time in this tank too. These guys stir up the sand/gravel bed better than any other animal and do it every night. If you have a hang-on filter like I do, any crud in the bed gets eaten by the shrimp or sucked into the hang-on filter and does not mess the tank up, provided you clean the filter often. All in all, my pico is my best reef. I have had MUCH better luck with this DIY tank than my 12 gallon nano cube. My 100 gallon reef.... well, I only keep mushrooms in there now since my juvi emperor angel decided he liked to eat coral all of a sudden.... Oh, and hawks and blennies? They don't eat coral, but the constant perching on them tends to tick them off. Anyone has a question who is new to this feel free to give me an email, and good luck to all..... I am new to the board so I hope my two pics that I took a month or so ago turned up ok. David Link to comment
doncb Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Welcome to NR! I've got a 2.5 AGA in the Pico contest and it is a blast to keep. Lot easier than my 24g. Link to comment
Samoyed Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 welcome to NR...good luck with your 2.5 gallon! POST PICS! Link to comment
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