Montiman's Caribbean Desk Pico

[Montiman]

I am super excited to start a new desk tank at the office. I got really jealous of one of my employee's tanks and decided I needed one.

The inspiration from this tank came from my realization that Caribbean Live Rock was available. I personally love live rock. It is a shame more people don't start with real live ocean rock. I think this greatly increases stability and increases the chances of sticking with the hobby.

Since I could get Caribbean rock I wanted to try a Biotope and do exclusively Carribbean live stock. The plan is to add ricordea, rock flower anemones, gorgonians and Caribbean feather worms.

After I had a livestock plan I decided to go with I lifegard 6 gallon bookshelf tank. This fits my desk well without taking up too much space. I then grabbed some equipment from my garage and I had almost everything needed to start the tank.

From my garage I got.

2 Kessil A 80s
Osmolator nano
Tunze Stream 6040

I also purchased a couple other things.

Dennerle Corner Filter
Aquatop Surface skimmer

Here is the tank so far. Just rock and sand now. more to come later.

 

[MNFish]

Funny the stuff that accumulates in a garage!
That is a nice looking setup

 

[Montiman]

I thought I would give my feedback on gulfliverock.com. I ordered 10LBs of rock from them for about $75 shipped 2 day air and I am very happy. This is the best looking liverock I have seen in years. Coraline, Halimeda, clams, and sponges are all over the rock. This is real live rock and I don't think you can go wrong with it.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

I thought I would give my feedback on gulfliverock.com. I ordered 10LBs of rock from them for about $75 shipped 2 day air and I am very happy. This is the best looking liverock I have seen in years. Coraline, Halimeda, clams, and sponges are all over the rock. This is real live rock and I don't think you can go wrong with it.

I can second that! Ordered 17 lbs of their "nano package" (smaller pieces) just a couple months ago, and it looks really good.

 

[dennis romano]

For livestock, check KP Aquatics

 

[Montiman]

I just got my LFS to order me a pair of jeweled damsels. These are the only fish I have planned. I am still wanting to wait some more for corals and inverts.

 

[Montiman]

Jeweled Damsels came in today and look good.

 

[Montiman]

Did my first water change today. About 4 gallons out. Water changes are my primary plan for both filtration and supplementation on this tank. Hoping to add clean up crew and some inverts soon.

 

[Montiman]

Thought I would do an update today. I added a Condy anemone and and a conch this week. I picked them up at the LFS after work and floated the bags in my main system sump. The next morning I had 2 Condys. I also lost one of the Jeweled Damsels. The dominate fish pushed the week one into a corner. I hoped it would resolve itself in a couple days but it looks like the dominate one emerged the winner. When I got the conch I thought it was a cleaner conch like a fighting conch but it is a crown conch which is actually a welk and is a predator. It looks really cool eating clams on the half shell but I won't be able to put many other cleaners. It seems slow enough I might try larger inverts like peppermint shrimp or emerald crabs.

 

[afrokobe]

Great looking build. I see that you are running an autotop surface skimmer. I am doing the same on my nano cube build. How are you dealing with the microbubbles? I can't seem to find a good water level for it. It will shoot out bubbles every once in a while. Just curious if you are running into the same problem...

 

[Montiman]

Trying to upload pics realized my 64 MP pics are too large.

 

[Montiman]

Here we go.

 

[Montiman]

Great looking build. I see that you are running an autotop surface skimmer. I am doing the same on my nano cube build. How are you dealing with the microbubbles? I can't seem to find a good water level for it. It will shoot out bubbles every once in a while. Just curious if you are running into the same problem...

I turned the flow all the way down and shoved a wad of Sera Crystal Clear on top of the sponge.

 

[afrokobe]

I turned the flow all the way down and shoved a wad of Sera Crystal Clear on top of the sponge.

ah ok, thanks for the advice. Ill try tuning mine more this weekend. I have it running only on a few hours a day just to get rid of the surface film since I couldn't stand the bubbles.

 

[jkbonsai]

I am super excited to start a new desk tank at the office. I got really jealous of one of my employee's tanks and decided I needed one.

The inspiration from this tank came from my realization that Caribbean Live Rock was available. I personally love live rock. It is a shame more people don't start with real live ocean rock. I think this greatly increases stability and increases the chances of sticking with the hobby.

Since I could get Caribbean rock I wanted to try a Biotope and do exclusively Carribbean live stock. The plan is to add ricordea, rock flower anemones, gorgonians and Caribbean feather worms.

After I had a livestock plan I decided to go with I lifegard 6 gallon bookshelf tank. This fits my desk well without taking up too much space. I then grabbed some equipment from my garage and I had almost everything needed to start the tank.

From my garage I got.

2 Kessil A 80s
Osmolator nano
Tunze Stream 6040

I also purchased a couple other things.

Dennerle Corner Filter
Aquatop Surface skimmer

Here is the tank so far. Just rock and sand now. more to come later.

Wow I luv that tank, I’m just Nutz for Nanos, 2 kessils A80’s corals are going to love it, nice job. Here’s a 1 gal lifeguard micro pico I just finished. Looking for an A80 to finish it off.

 

[Montiman]

Wow I luv that tank, I’m just Nutz for Nanos, 2 kessils A80’s corals are going to love it, nice job. Here’s a 1 gal lifeguard micro pico I just finished. Looking for an A80 to finish it off.

I really like my A80s. I have 2 AP9Xs, 1 360X and, 2 360s at home so I am a total Kessil fan. That aside you really can't get another light of comparable quality this small.

 

[jkbonsai]

I really like my A80s. I have 2 AP9Xs, 1 360X and, 2 360s at home so I am a total Kessil fan. That aside you really can't get another light of comparable quality this small.

No you can’t they have a patient on the particular wave length. My AI Prime is ok just not the same.

 

[Montiman]

No you can’t they have a patient on the particular wave length. My AI Prime is ok just not the same.

Well the prime is more of an A160 equivalent. They are both 50 watt lights. An A80 is a 15w light. I don't know of another high quality premium light manufacture that makes a light this small.

 

[jkbonsai]

I turned the flow all the way down and shoved a wad of Sera Crystal Clear on top of the sponge.

Yes I had to add dual layered filter cloth to stop micro bubbles, not perfect, also turned pump all the way down. I broke the little 1 gal down and focused on a 7 gal tank. Then I got bored and had left over rock and decided to scape something. I did Bonsai trees for 20 years and gave up hobby when my son passed away now 20 years ago. This influenced me on this design. If I plant this I’ll probably go with Zoa’s and change light. I envisioned green eye Dragons on the branching pads to give it a Tree look.