My 2g Pico Reef

[melev]

I bought some new zoos today during a LFS's one day sale. They are really pretty, and I didn't want to put them in the main tank since my livestock tends to enjoy checking things a little too, ah... thoroughly.

So I set up my Fry Tank, the one I've been hoping to keep baby clownfish in one day. Since I can't get the hatchlings, I decided to put it to use for now. I might even get the Clown Goby out of my tank and put it in this little pico tank.







I have a tiny heater in the tank to maintain temperature, and a PC 50/50 bulb over the frags. The light fixture is too large, and it is tempting to just use a 5100K refugium bulb instead. I've not made up my mind yet.

Here is the pump, a Sen mini pump that moves 90gph. I decided to make a small adaptation to the outlet to control the flow in a way that should work okay.

[melev]

I have one snail in the tank to keep the rock tidy. Water changes will be the only filtration, and I don't plan to feed the tank. I'll just use water from the reef tank. It holds roughly 2g of water.

The cube is 9 x 9 x 9. One blue moonlight is mounted over the tank, which I may leave on.

[melev]

I picked up a new item a few days later.

[melev]

Here are a few new pictures now that the clam is getting used to the tank. Plus he's got a friend.







This is my older maxima. It looks much worse compared to the new one. Odds are it has been picked on by the Copperband Butterfly more than once. I believe the mantle may be pinched, and dipping it in freshwater for 5 minutes may help. It has been a while since I've had clam problem so I'll need input from others before I do anything.

I pulled it out of the tank late last night, so it will have plenty of time to heal up in the new tank.


The ricordia has been stretching and looking kind of ugly in my main reef, so I moved it into the Pico just to see if it will recover, split, or heal. Plus it was small.

[melev]

After about 4 more days...

So here it is after another visit to the LFS on Saturday.



Here are both clams. They tend to move a bit, so what you see is what you get. The first (1 yr old) maxima looks better already, and it has only been a couple of days since it was moved from the 280g reef.

[melev]

And all the zoos. There are lots of tiny precious frags in here, so it makes for a very colorful showpiece.











I added a second snail, a couple of stomatellas, a baby serpent starfish, and did a 1g water change again last night. I take 1g from the main reef and pour it in the Pico to replace was has been tossed out. I suppose I could just toss it back in the reef tank, but I'm not.

The only thing I'm feeding (I know, I can't help myself) is a small amount of phyto every two days. If the clams can sit in a dish of water and suck out the phyto in 30 minutes, I don't see why they can't do the same in the Pico.

I dug out my tiny "Shrimp" magnet that is designed to work on 1/4" acrylic, and the front panel stays nice and pretty.

The heater has been unplugged since last night to see what would happen. The tank temperature dropped to 79.7F from 82.4F yesterday. I need to address the lighting situation before moving the tank, but the small pump seems to be generating enough heat to remove the need for a heater whatsoever. Maybe it would be needed in the winter.

I top off with maybe 1/2 cup of RO/DI water each day.

I hope you enjoyed the images. I like this little tank, and need to relocate my computer tower on the floor so I can put this tank on the desk.

[shouldabenacowboy]

I think you like building cool tanks just to hear people's jaws drop! All I can say is wow...that is way cool..Thanks for sharing

SBC

[Birdlady]

Awesome!!!!!

[koletangz]

Nice tank, nice zoos, nice pictures. Absolutely amazing.

[melev]

Thanks guys. It is nice to have something tiny to care for for a change.

[FishMachine]

nice

[melev]

What does your signature line mean, Fishmachine?

[TigerWoods]

Now I HAVE TO do a pico!!!!!!!! It's a great place to put frags in and move anything that gets injured in the main tank. Great job as usual Marc!

[Sugar Magnolia]

It's looking fantastic Marc! Lots of color in there.

[guitar_lord]

What kinda lighting are you using on the small tank????
Looks great by the way!!!

[melev]

I had a extra Coralife light fixture that normally sits on my quarantine tank. As you can see in the first image, it is way too big for this tank. It is a single PC 50/50 bulb.

I'm thinking about using a single 5100K bulb like I do over my refugium. It isn't quite a blue, but the tank still looks great under it. Either way, I'll need to create some type of canopy. http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

[guitar_lord]

its only 75watts?

How big are those clams?? they must be tiny...
the picture makes them look really big!

[melev]

Yes, it is weak, but works great over my refugium. I had xenia pulsing under it for a couple of weeks, so I know they should be good enough and I'm only lighting 2 gallons of water.

The clams are less than 2" wide (the shell, that is).

I just dropped in a tiny Cleaner Shrimp to make it a little more interesting to look at.

[Ritten]

Marc, that is one great tank, having said that, I'm jealous!

[melev]

Here is my little cleaner shrimp. He's tiny!!!!!





I also saw a Chiton, so I got a quick picture before it hiked out of the light's reach.



And this colorful serpent star was hiding behind the clear acrylic bracket that held the heater before. Sorry about the image quality.

[Daemonfly]

Hrm, 70w MH perhaps? The Coralife 2x13w might be a good & easy fit, although slightly on the dim side for clams perhaps, and would render the current moonlight solution unuseable.

How close is it to your main tank? If it's close enough, could plumb it into the main tank's sump and not worry about water changes. Well, unless you want to keep it seperate for new-frag QT reasons. Could benefit from the main tank's maturity.

Also, you need sand

[melev]

[Carl_in_Florida]

wow mark. thats all i can really say. Having that monster tank is gonna make this thing easy to maintain. You can just replace the water weekly.

Obviously your only lighting concern is the clam and i honestly don't know what will support them, but the tank looks great!

btw, your bb writings caused me to strip my fuge to chaeto only.

Carl

[melev]

I don't know how I keep getting credit for bare-bottom posts. I actually like sandbeds, but do participate in Bomber's BB thread from time to time.

The Pico is barebottom, but it is tempting to pour a little crushed coral in here for the clams to nestle into.

Btw, Amy's 7g minibox makes me want to make a small overflow box. So I think I will, just to fit around the tiny pump, and drill a hole for the output to go through.

[Carl_in_Florida]

oh, than maybe you should go bb

i look forward to watching the progress.

Carl