College Pico Reef [Looking for Suggestions]

[dbjonesjr]

Hello all! As I am transferring from the school I spent the last year at and will be away from home in the fall I will be significantly downsizing. Today I will be beginning my journey into the world of pico reef tanks. It will surely be challenging but that is one of the things I enjoy most about this hobby. Here is a quick description of what I have to work with and the constraints of my project.

I have some pukani that I got when I purchased my first saltwater tank that I will use for my nano. I broke it up into smaller pieces and acid cured it over the weekend. It is now soaking in freshwater. It has not released any phosphates or nitrates so I am thinking I am good to go. I also have an auto top off but I would like to avoid using one to be quite honest.

Now that I have purchased a Waterbox Cube Nano 7 I will need to decide on the rest of the equipment to go in the tank. I am trying to stay within a budget of $200.00 but it wouldn't be an issue if I needed to extend it. This is an edit and I will certainly be extending the budget! I won't be including items I am reusing in my budget.

Item List and Budget
Tank - Waterbox Cube Nano 7 ($89.99)
Light - Undetermined
Heater - Tetra HT30 ($0.00)
Flow - Hydor Koralia Nano 425 ($0.00)
Rock - Pukani 10 lbs ($0.00)
Sand - CaribSea Arag-Alive Bahamas Oolite 10 lbs ($11.60)

Thanks in advance for any and all opinions. I will make sure to post as many photographs as I can along the way. For the time being enjoy a photograph of my rocks!

 

[dbjonesjr]

I will be keeping this second posting as a place to plan ahead and determine necessary steps to achieve my goals.

22 June 2019 - Begin cycling rock in saltwater.
29 June 2019 - Add ARC Reef Purple Helix® Coralline Algae in a Bottle assuming the tank is cycling ammonia and nitrite.
6 July 2019 - Fish and invertebrate additions will begin assuming there are no major setbacks.
27 July 2019 - Coral additions will begin around this time depending on if I want to wait until I get to school to do this.
25 August 2019 - This is the day moving to school will be. The reef will likely stay home until the following weekend depending on how everything works out.

 

[dbjonesjr]

I will be keeping this third posting as a place to list products and concepts I have not yet tried that I will try with this reef.

1) FritzZyme® TurboStart® 900
2) Caribsea AragAlive

 

[dbjonesjr]

I will be keeping this fourth posting as a place to list goals for this pico reef.

1) Wait a minimum four weeks after cycling to add any corals.
2) Keep multiple varieties of Seriatopora.

 

[dbjonesjr]

18 June 2019

Today I added the rock to saltwater in a ten gallon tank. I added Dr. Tim’s Ammonium Chloride to shoot for 0.5 ppm ammonia. I intend on getting some bacteria from the store tomorrow.

 

[Hemmdog]

Be careful with tanks in college. I was very careful and still my tanks ended up with 9V batteries in them, beer bottle caps, tequila, my friends old flip phone and drivers license. College is wild, as it should be. Just expect the worst for your tank, kids are dumb.

 

[dbjonesjr]

Be careful with tanks in college. I was very careful and still my tanks ended up with 9V batteries in them, beer bottle caps, tequila, my friends old flip phone and drivers license. College is wild, as it should be. Just expect the worst for your tank, kids are dumb.

Thanks for the warning! I will obviously try to avoid these things but stuff happens. Maybe a lid will help.

 

[Katrina71]

Yes! A lid is a must.

 

[dbjonesjr]

Yes! A lid is a must.

It will help with evaporation as well. I just need to figure out what tank to get now.

 

[Katrina71]

I have seen some sweet little Evo tanks.

 

[dbjonesjr]

I have seen some sweet little Evo tanks.

I like those a lot but I think it would be difficult to mount an upgraded light on them. I was thinking an Aqua Knight or something similar would work well. I don’t care if a filter is built in but it would be a nice bonus. Do you know of anyone in particular that has a nice one?

 

[dbjonesjr]

I stopped by the store after work and picked up some FritzZyme® TurboStart® 900 to add to the tank. It was still at 0.5 ppm per the API test kit. I'll be testing again after work today to find out if anything changed.

I also went ahead and ordered the Waterbox Cube Nano 7. At $89.99 I felt like it was a reasonable deal for an extremely clean looking tank I wouldn't mind having on my nightstand for the time being. Next up I'll need to order sand before I fill the tank up as well as a light. Bare bottom tanks have grown on me due to ease of maintenance but I think the sand will help with added stability in a tank this size. I am still trying to choose between a couple different types so recommendations are welcome. I will also need to time the ordering and addition of ARC Reef Purple Helix® Coralline Algae in a Bottle carefully.

 

[dbjonesjr]

I haven't done much with the rock or anything as expected so I've been shopping around for a light. I always say I am going to try and stay cheap but that doesn't ever happen. I'm thinking I will spend a little more now to avoid the itch to upgrade later.

Additionally, the cycle is well underway with ammonia seeming to be close to fully processed today and nitrite around 1.0 ppm. Once nitrite goes back down I plan on adding 1.0 ppm ammonia to the tank and see how it handles that. I find when I add more ammonia and get a buildup of nitrite in the water it can significantly slow the cycle even if the bacteria population is capable of processing the waste.

 

[btmedic04]

I keep eyeballing the waterbox 7 aio kit on saltwateraquarium. Comes with a kessil A80, and mount. But I also have 2 nanos and want to get something larger. MTS is real lol

 

[dbjonesjr]

I keep eyeballing the waterbox 7 aio kit on saltwateraquarium. Comes with a kessil A80, and mount. But I also have 2 nanos and want to get something larger. MTS is real lol

I got the tank in today and went ahead and set it up. I’ll share a photograph in my next post!

 

[dbjonesjr]

Today the Waterbox Cube Nano 7 came in. It is even nicer than I expected. It seems very well put together and the filtration compartment is just as large as the one on the Biocube 16 (at least it feels that way). I’m hoping that I will find a good deal on a light during the Reef2Reef sponsored summer sale. It is definitely weird not having as much space as I’d like in the 7 gallon compared to any other tank I’ve had. I’ll probably change some things before I’m happy but here is an updated photo for now!

 

[btmedic04]

It looks awesome! I may get one for a rock nem or mini maxi nem tank

 

[dbjonesjr]

It looks awesome! I may get one for a rock nem or mini maxi nem tank

That would be a great idea. I’m probably going to go with a mixed reef but no nems for this one.

 

[dbjonesjr]

I figure it's about time for an update as it's been two weeks. Here is a picture of what the tank looked like after the water cleared up and I got my light on! However, the cycle has been stalled on nitrites for over a week so I decided to take action. I removed all the rock and sand and am now using 500 mL of Seachem Matrix in lieu. I also went ahead and picked up a bottle of Instant Ocean Bio-Spira. Man has that done the trick! It's only been six hours and it already seems to be cycling the ammonia and nitrite fine! I think this will allow me to get very creative with whatever scape I attempt. I'm looking to do something that will help maximize the space I have. Does anyone have any thoughts?