My first attempt at a pico

schneidergarrettt60 · Jul 7, 2020

Just a warning for you this pico is going to end up with your mom wanting a bigger system than you have hahahaha ;Happy.
I do like the plan that whatever you do she will do making it easy and successful. I was just curious and don't want to be taken in a negative way.
Thanks.
I will be watching this one grow

DSEKULA · Jul 7, 2020

schneidergarrettt60 said:
Just a warning for you this pico is going to end up with your mom wanting a bigger system than you have hahahaha ;Happy.
I do like the plan that whatever you do she will do making it easy and successful. I was just curious and don't want to be taken in a negative way.
Thanks.
I will be watching this one grow

No, I don't take it as negative it's an honest concern that I've done my best to address. I wouldn't even attempt this with most people as it takes a lot to convince me that someone with no experience would be able to care for a reef, all I can say is that over the years my mum has shown a great dedication to caring for aquatic flora and fauna that is way beyond average and I can see the pico flourishing in her care. She is also electronic savvy so if I need to video chat etc to see what's going on or help her there are options. I would help her start a larger aquarium but there's honestly space issues and I don't know that she will ever be able to commit to something larger. With stock in mind as well as the size of the tank buying distilled water to mix salt is very feasible. There's no lfs in the immediate area to get saltwater so larger won't just be a larger tank but also the water storage, rodi filter etc that would go into the up keep. The idea was something small that could be very manageable with what's on hand etc. right now water storage will basically be me sending an extra heater to toss in the gallon jug of water the day/night before wc to ensure its temped and mixed ahead of time. To give you an idea house size wise, this 2gal will be a living room center piece >255 isn't happening lol, the nice part is that even though the base is only 9" it stands 21" high making a nice display even though it's only 2gallons. I'm planning on starting mine with weekly 1gallon wc, once rock is considered that will likely be about 70% of the volume and would make for a very manageable schedule.

DSEKULA · Jul 7, 2020

Finished the doors and got a nice epoxy coat on the insides and the area where the tank will sit, don't need any wood rotting issues.

DSEKULA · Jul 7, 2020

Oh and mum got her salt and refractometer today . Of course I sent calabration solution too so later (maybe tonight) I'll get to teach her how to calabrate and use it... Maybe mix some saltwater too .

Reefing_addiction · Jul 7, 2020

I am seriously impressed! If only I had more time I’d give something like this a shot!

DSEKULA · Jul 11, 2020

My sexy shrimp (ordered throu lfs) came in, usually orders with them take months but these only took a few weeks. Decided to set up instead of trying to keep them all in a breeder box etc. So.... Finally here is the stocked tank, have more shrooms coming still but otherwise this will be it.

DSEKULA · Jul 13, 2020

Yay!! My fold up water change bucket came today. To make it super easy to change water I drilled a float valve in the bucket (it will shut off at one gallon). The line snaps into the drain line on the bottom of the tank. With a simple button push it disconnects to carry to a drain and then folds back up for storage. It's a little more bulky with the float valve but I think it's worth it.

DSEKULA · Jul 13, 2020

Also a side note, I removed the pocilipora today. The shrimp were all over it 24/7. I don't know if they were picking at it and causing it to start rtn or if the coral started to rtn and they started picking at the dieing tissue. I did read a bit and find that this is semi normal for sexy shrimp and sps coral.

DSEKULA · Jul 13, 2020

Leak testing, should be ready to ship soon

DSEKULA · Jul 14, 2020

Tank #2 got all wrapped up and shipped across the country today

Here's how I protected the acrylic I worked so hard on.

DSEKULA · Jul 18, 2020

After all the diy fun I finally took the day to clean up the shop . I really needed it.
Got some frags in the sump waiting to go in the pico, pics later when the lights come on.

Rylan5d · Jul 18, 2020

Thats super cool! Nice work!

DSEKULA · Jul 19, 2020

Here's a couple of the shrooms waiting in the sump.

DSEKULA · Jul 19, 2020

First semi-auto water change

DSEKULA · Jul 20, 2020

Well.... It was a sad day in the pico something went wrong...
Did my first wc with the tank stocked and everything looked happy and kinda open after (it is tank night though).
Later getting ready to turn in for the night I noticed my nem had walked all the way to the top and was attached to the acrylic. Further inspection, it's mouth was gaping open and a couple tentacles looked like they were either melting or collected gunk while walking. A Ric shroom poofed as did the trumpet coral and most zoa were closed. The shrimp and crab seemed absolutely fine. I took the nem down two floors back to its inital box in the sump, it closed it's mouth immediately and will hopefully recover. I then did some tests ammonia no2 at 0 the water used is literally the same batch (I mix 100 at a time for the big tank awc) its temped within 1/2 degree.. at this point everything seems "normal" the pico experiment will go on. Any suggestions to what happened are welcome but it's speculation at this point hopefully everything recovers.

DSEKULA · Jul 20, 2020

Well moved the rock and coral back to the sump this morning did another wc everything was looking bad

DSEKULA · Jul 21, 2020

Well...
Mum got her tank today and did an excellent job setting up

I'm a proud daughter today!!

DSEKULA · Jul 27, 2020

Ok, so I was messing with the tank checking nutrients etc and instead of pulling water off the top I drained off the bottom... The water smelled like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide). I didn't test for hydrogen sulfide but I can only assume the pump I was using wasn't flowing all the way to the bottom and it was forming down there then my wc mixed it all up. Just a guess but logical. I changed the pump to a larger one and changed out the water. Over the next few days I added some mushrooms to the bottom rock. Everything did well for about a week so tonight I tried adding my rock back in. Fingers crossed, try #2

Side note- the shrimp crabs and snails were fine through this whole mess no losses there.