New Pico Tank, What To Do? Warnings?

[kmaintl]

I've been around the hobby for quite awhile, but have always been with the perception that bigger is better... especially on maintenance as it is more forgiving on parameter swings.

 

My wife has been bugging me to setup a desktop saltwater tank at work for her for sometime now. I told her to just get a betta bowl and she says "everyone has one, I want something different!". Well, she went out to Petco and got herself this.

 

 

I've never dealth with something this small before, 2gal. For the Pico tank reefers,

1. what do you suggest

2. any warnings I should be careful with?

 

Any photos of your own Pico tank would be great as it will give me some ideas to show her what she could have.

[brandon429]

Here's five helpful tips

 

Partial water charges are bad long term, big water changes are better in a pico, done weekly right off the bat.

Information to the contrary is wrong...Up to and including full changes, matching temp and sg only, no need to tinker with pH and alk etc

 

Don't stock fish, pack it full of coral and shrimp or crabs

 

Don't feed daily, it accumulates waste. Feed generously just before your big water change so unused protein is removed, shrimps and corals don't need daily feeding in a pico, but they need great feeding not sparse feeding as usual

 

Never let any algae exist, its not part of a cycle, its just algae. There are several ways to hand remove algae off a rock, so that its not there, use one

 

Those are the keys to long term success, everything else is short term

[brandon429]

The more you treat a pico like a large tank with regards to water changes, feeding and stocking, the more guarantee you'll have an algae trap in 8 mos and will be starting over, several times. Since this is how the majority sets up their pico reefs, we get the usual lifespan of one year max before huge tank revisions (upgrades) etc

 

When someone builds a pico reef that runs perfectly, they don't usually upgrade to larger systems until that one gives them a reason to, 99% of the time out of frustration with algae.

 

ideal feeds for a pico are refrigerated/frozen feeds, nothing beats

reef nutrition oyster feast

roti feast

frozen cyclopeeze

the refrigerated phyto mixes

not pellet feed

[ChouDawg]

Looking into setting up a pico in December, had a 24g AquaPod before so I'm used to weekly 10% water changes, interesting to hear about large/full water changes. What are your thoughts on filtration? And fuge? I've seen a lot of AC70 fuge conversions and that was what I had originally planned but it seems like a debris trap more than a benefit.

[jbb]

Good stuff Brandon , I am in week one of my PICO and was just about to research some of your info.

[kmaintl]

@brandon429 - exactly the information i need as i've never dealth with anything this small before. i was going to do pellets... glad you mention not to.

 

Partial water charges are bad long term, big water changes are better in a pico, done weekly right off the bat.

Information to the contrary is wrong...Up to and including full changes, matching temp and sg only, no need to tinker with pH and alk etc

 

THIS IS GREAT TO KNOW AS IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT TO CHANGE 50% ONCE A WEEK BY BRINGING IN A GALLON OF SALTWATER.

 

Don't stock fish, pack it full of coral and shrimp or crabs

 

THIS I FIGURE THAT MUCH, EVEN ONE FISH WILL BE TOO BIG OF BIOLOAD FOR 2GAL. GOOD TO GET CONFIRMATION.

 

Don't feed daily, it accumulates waste. Feed generously just before your big water change so unused protein is removed, shrimps and corals don't need daily feeding in a pico, but they need great feeding not sparse feeding as usual

 

ideal feeds for a pico are refrigerated/frozen feeds, nothing beats

reef nutrition oyster feast

roti feast

frozen cyclopeeze

the refrigerated phyto mixes

not pellet feed

 

THIS IS GREAT, MAKES SO MUCH SENSE ONCE I SEE IT IN WRITING. FEED TANK ONCE A WEEK AND THEN DO A LARGE WATER CHANGE AFTERWARDS.

 

Never let any algae exist, its not part of a cycle, its just algae. There are several ways to hand remove algae off a rock, so that its not there, use one

 

Thanks for the tips and warnings... exactly what I needed. Anyone got PHOTOS or suggestions for setup? Less or more rock, shallow or deeper sandbed, macro algae or not?

[brandon429]

My loco methods are designed for picos, the larger tanks don't have to freak out on details as much lol

 

This system I use is usually more critical after several months, before that many people get away with the usual treatment but I figure what works long term isn't a bad way to just go ahead and start

 

My signature link has an article but there's really no best way regarding macro/dsb

 

These water change and feeding tricks cover most designs

[x3thelast]

take brandon's advice, i did.

 

on a side note; ive not been feeding as much anymore. ive switched over to the zeovit foods and feeding fauna marin LPS pellets a few hours before i do a water change. this method has given me (believe it or not) a cleaner tank and still have thriving creatures.

 

good luck. its nice to see more sub gallon tanks here!

 

 

[brandon429]

I've read totally good reviews about fauna for lps its good feed

[kmaintl]

Once I start setting up my wife's Pico tank, I'll post a thread. I'm still doing more research and waiting for supplies to come in.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

[Rrudo74901]

One word of caution; if you set up a desktop tank and you do not own the company, beware.

 

I set up a pico 3 months ago and I probably would have been fired due to the time it takes to care for this tank and the time I spend looking at it as well. Add to that the water jugs and paraphernalia I have all around my office.

[kmaintl]

One word of caution; if you set up a desktop tank and you do not own the company, beware.

 

I set up a pico 3 months ago and I probably would have been fired due to the time it takes to care for this tank and the time I spend looking at it as well. Add to that the water jugs and paraphernalia I have all around my office.

Thanks for the warning.

 

I don't think my wife will do a good job keeping it up... when I explain to her what needs to be done to keep it up depending on what is kept, she says "too much work!" So, going to keep it simple:

1. one bottle of freshwater to topoff every morning into the filter compartment, will put a line where she has to fill up to so she can start her day with manual topoff

2. frozen food every friday to feed her tank

3. one gallon of mixed salterwater every Friday, so she can do her water change by siphoning out a gallon and then pour the gallon in

4. a small magfloat to clean the glass

 

Hopefully, that simple enough for her with inverts, no fish.

[ChouDawg]

I'd advise against doing manual top off every morning. Depending on how your ambient temperature is and if you keep the stock Fluval Spec lid you could be losing too much water in 24 hours. The stock lid has a nice sized circle cut right in the middle that will be an evaporation nightmare. With such a small volume of water, you want to minimize evaporation as much as possible and replenish as soon as it goes down at all or you'll have bad salinity swings.

 

Check out artarmon42's thread for some ideas, he made a custom LED fixture and lid to minimize evaporation.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=267503

[kmaintl]

I'd advise against doing manual top off every morning. Depending on how your ambient temperature is and if you keep the stock Fluval Spec lid you could be losing too much water in 24 hours. The stock lid has a nice sized circle cut right in the middle that will be an evaporation nightmare. With such a small volume of water, you want to minimize evaporation as much as possible and replenish as soon as it goes down at all or you'll have bad salinity swings.

 

Check out artarmon42's thread for some ideas, he made a custom LED fixture and lid to minimize evaporation.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=267503

thanks for the link... and the warning.

[kmaintl]

New tank build will be here

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=312492