How hard is it to maintain a pico?

[b4tn]

I have been doing a 75g mixed SPS and LPS reef for a few years now. It’s already a ton of work but I have always had the itch to do a pico aquarium like 1 gallon maybe. But how involved is it? I look at my full size reef and I have so much equipment like skimmer, ATO, scrubber, wave makers, sump, etc. can you do a small softy aquarium with just water changes and adding some RO every night? Is it going to be a cute little tank with tons of ugly equipment hanging off?

 

[BestMomEver]

We’ve had 5 gallon picos. The biggest challenge, IMO, is keeping up with evaporation and water changes. It’s really easy to let it go for a few days before topping off. Then you have to add a pitcher of water and it really screws up the salinity balance. Also, because of how fragile the system is, you should really do water changes regularly. The smaller the tank, the more frequently you need to do it. Fortunately, the smaller the system, the easier water changes are. In the five gallon, we replaced 1 pitcher every few days. With a one or three gallon, two cups would do it. Regular water changes solve another problem too.... if you exchange water frequently, you really don’t have to add any supplements. My advice is to make water changes part of your daily chores. Come in from work.... water change. Bedtime routine.... water change. In other words, pick a time and do it every day.... just one or two cups. Picos are TONS of fun and if you pay attention to them, are really easy. Put one piece of real live rock in (from another tank) a little sand and some inverts. A pico with nothing but sexy shrimp would be waaaaay cool.

 

[andrewkw]

In some ways it's more involved but in a lot of ways it's a lot less. If you get a fair bit of evaporation I would still look into an ATO or possibly cover the tank. I did run a ato in my pico which I ran successfully for 7 years. I typically did a 100% water change once a week. A 100% water change sounds like a lot of work until you realize you can just pick up your 1 gallon tank and dump the water into the sink if all the rock is secure, or siphon it with something as simple as airline tube.

I would just take the water from either your 75 or from the water change water. IE don't mix up 1 gallon at a time. Depending what you're going to have in the tank all you need is 1 pump and 1 heater.

 

[brandon429]

Would you ever want to have a one gallon setup if such an arrangement was possible that required no ato and only needed topped off twice a week, reducible down to once over 14 days occasionally if required for a long vacation

salinity stability that beats any tank on this board, at one gallon, I think you should.

once stability of evap is factored, the whole darn game changes. all the rules go out the window.

Shape of your one gallon tank is everything

At one gallon, don't be a square/pun intended

Be round for a reason

 

[b4tn]

Thanks everyone. So what about filteration? I guess in that small of a system that filtration/skimming is not that neccisary if your doing large water changes daily.

 

[brandon429]

Not daily req, weekly is ok

You can use a filter or not use one, some just airstone the water inside and the rocks and sand are filters

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009012515486&refsrc=http://www.google.com/&_rdr

topoff for their vase is weekly or maybe every five days, a couple ounces water, and you can see the sps rivals anything a normal sized reef would run. I believe that particular vase is approaching seven yrs.

Change a gallon of water a week, easy
Keep all the corals and never test params, easy. Any salt mix param set will work.
Feed once a week
No auto topoff eq to fail. We restrict evap, not help it.
See any algae or cyano wrecking that pico or the other ones? They’re invader resistant. Invaded reef tanks are for large tankers, try a find a one gallon pico thread currently running with a cyano problem and link it.
None of the corals get diseases, they just go.
No filters to clean
No algae scrubbers, no fancy plumbing, the reef can be picked up and moved full as needed.
The light that runs that sps growth is twenty five bucks off amazon. A reef light for 25/ abi tuna light
I do not know of a reef that has more sps per gallon of water than that one.
Keeping a pico is easy.

 

[Paul B]

I have a one ounce Pico reef with a lighted refugium, Vodka dosing, skimmer with Ozone and a reverse undergravel filter. It presently has a Romain lettuce algae problem even though I have two pods for a CUC. I change 4 drops of water every 2 hours. The inhabitants are a seahorse that I have to invert every few hours to keep his tail wet. The only problem so far (besides the lettuce and green water) is that all the water evaporates every 4 hours.

 

[brandon429]

I'll add this as well

It's easier to grow sps in a fishbowl with a lid than it is to grow sps in any other container including any multiple gallon sized reef. The thing not meant to be a reef is more efficient at producing coral mass than the thing that is= irony

set your own rules for where a reef grows. 97% of the trick is the inner diameter pressing lid, which drops evap massively. if ur pumping air in, turns out how you restrict the outflow doesn't matter

a little old work from 03: half gallon. where's Waldo thor amboinensis edition

 

[saltyhog]

I have to disagree with Brandon a little, noting it greatly depends on your set up. I have a 10 gallon IM Fusion with a screen top and my salinity varies by 0.002-0.003 with daily top off. Since adding an ATO my corals have done much better. Like he mentioned, a different shape with a cover would be much different but you will also have the issue of gas exchange to consider.

 

[brandon429]

The half gallon reef above was sealed. It didn't evaporate at all.



list all reef rules currently in use, we observe them but in different ways.

it's true gas exchange is required no debate. even in the sealed non evaporating sps pico, which never swayed from .023, gas exchange was as good as open topped or the water would be rot and carbonic acid. tabletop acro cemented onto plastic wall

Don't google search how, brainstorm it-that's the nature of micro reefing. plants can be harnessed for the job, like a re breather for divers ran by a giant backpack pressurized and light-converting plant reactor



The official pico reef breakdown:
.25-2+ gallons or any gallonage where shape of container allows for inner diameter pressing lid=easy as pie.

Any sized square tank running open topped: gtg as long as the ato never fails and can be meticulously set then re inspected and cleaned and banked on, the full investment. square tanks in the 5-15 gal range are topoff beasts. They use in three hours what we top off weekly, and in some cases never. I usually forget totally to topoff my vase for days which is harsh but occasional .027-.028 isn't reef doom it's adaptable.

 

[Netfish and Chill]

My LFS has this .25 gallon pico on their front desk. Just freaking love it. Softies and sexy shrimp!