I bought a couple of nice little acro frags the other day. 24 hours later, they were (and still are) on their last leg and had substantial flesh loss. I'm not sure what was the issue but I suspect the heater was faulty (preset to 25 degrees but the water temp was 27-29 degrees), and the release of ammonia by the flesh floss was likely exacerbated by the small tank size. I'm not optimistic about the frags' chances of survival.
Anyway, that whole ordeal motivated me to start designing a purpose-built SPS pico system. Based on the philosophies of @brandon429 and Jake Adams' EcoReef Zero, as well as my own experience with keeping an extremely small SPS pico in the past, I've come up with this. Feel free to share your thoughts
Tank size: ~10-15 litres
Lighting:
*With the 100% water changes, I could probably have gone without the filter floss and carbon, but I wanted to be extra sure about the water quality (bearing in mind, I will be keeping acro), the carbon should help keep the water clean. Plus I'd only need a tiny amount, so a little bit goes a long way.
**The bell siphon will serve to provide strong, alternating flow. I've tried using the Carlson surge bucket design but found that a slightly stronger pump would be needed for that, compared to the bell siphon design. But they both use the same principles anyway. And I'm aware of DC wavemakers, but I've found that they're either cheap but unreliable (my Jebao RW4 died pretty quickly), or good but cost an arm and a leg (like the Vortech MP10). I'm a fan of these alternative and creative solutions like surge buckets and bell siphons.
***Mainly serving as something for the SPS frags to stand on, instead of filtration.
And for added interest, here's my old SPS pico. I'm not sure I'd call it successful, but I did see some growth from the larger pocillopora, as well as the birdnest frags. But I was still happy to have owned, at the time, one of the smallest SPS picos in the world, at only 2 litres or 1/2 gallon.
Anyway, that whole ordeal motivated me to start designing a purpose-built SPS pico system. Based on the philosophies of @brandon429 and Jake Adams' EcoReef Zero, as well as my own experience with keeping an extremely small SPS pico in the past, I've come up with this. Feel free to share your thoughts
Tank size: ~10-15 litres
Lighting:
- PAR38 E27 LED
- Filter floss
- Red Sea Reef Spec Carbon*
- Aqua One Maxi 102 submersible pump
- 15w Heater
- DIY surge bell siphon**
- Glass lid
- Acropora
- Live rock***
- 100% water change (1-2 per week) using natural sea water
- Feeding Vitalis SPS food prior to WC
- Manual top up with RODI water
*With the 100% water changes, I could probably have gone without the filter floss and carbon, but I wanted to be extra sure about the water quality (bearing in mind, I will be keeping acro), the carbon should help keep the water clean. Plus I'd only need a tiny amount, so a little bit goes a long way.
**The bell siphon will serve to provide strong, alternating flow. I've tried using the Carlson surge bucket design but found that a slightly stronger pump would be needed for that, compared to the bell siphon design. But they both use the same principles anyway. And I'm aware of DC wavemakers, but I've found that they're either cheap but unreliable (my Jebao RW4 died pretty quickly), or good but cost an arm and a leg (like the Vortech MP10). I'm a fan of these alternative and creative solutions like surge buckets and bell siphons.
***Mainly serving as something for the SPS frags to stand on, instead of filtration.
And for added interest, here's my old SPS pico. I'm not sure I'd call it successful, but I did see some growth from the larger pocillopora, as well as the birdnest frags. But I was still happy to have owned, at the time, one of the smallest SPS picos in the world, at only 2 litres or 1/2 gallon.
