Pico Reef Tank Build Thread - Lifegard 3.8

[kiswanson]

Ready for sand, rocks and water! Notice I also put a small Levoit HEPA filter to ensure there is never an issue with smells from the tank.

 

[kiswanson]

Picked up a marine pure ball and rubble/branch rock that has been cycled in a system fed with ammonium and kept separate from fish and coral, so hopefully pest free and able to help establish bio diversity in the tank quickly. This is from our LFS Aquatics Unlimited. The rock also looks good t right away.

 

[kiswanson]

Took a marine pure 2” cube and soaked it in PNS probio denitrifying bacteria. Notice I kept it covered and next to my HEPA filter while soaking as this stuff does have a distinct smell. Don’t spoil it!

 

[kiswanson]

It’s always a question how much these bacterial additives help, but for my Red Sea e170 Max my tank really stabilized and nutrients were controlled with the combination of NoPox dosing, regular PNS probio denitrifying bacteria addition, and oceanmagik phytoplankton daily dosing. I’m not sure if all of that is needed, but my tank looks really good with that combo and I don’t have nitrates problems despite having a pretty heavily stocked tank. I also have added copepods from algae barn, but that was more to establish a population for my mandarin dragonet.

 

[kiswanson]

Media basket ready to be placed in. Once it gets cycled I’ll take out that bio ball and replace it with chemi pure blue nano

 

[kiswanson]

Sand added. Don’t forget to keep the little packet of clarifier. It really helps with the cloudiness once the water is added.

 

[kiswanson]

Rock work added

 

[minorhero]

Cool build! Makes me want to consider a pico tank.

 

[Viperdragon]

If I worked in an office I would so have one of these. Love following this. So simple

 

[kiswanson]

Saltwater added. Be sure to have plenty of towels!

 

[kiswanson]

Used the Aquarium cycle kit with Fritz turbo start and algae barn nitrocycle to feed the bacteria. It is kind of annoying dosing things for such a small volume. Recommend picking up a milliliter pipette or graduated cylinder.

 

[kiswanson]

Lifegard 3.8 gallon all in one Pico reef tank all set up and cycle started. Open to any good suggestions for corals, fish, and inverts. My initial thought is one of the dwarf gobies, mushrooms, rock flower anemones, sexy shrimp, assorted small snails. I do have a lid on order, and I won’t get any fish till that is

#picotank #picoreef #piconanoreeftank #nanoreef #nanoreeftank #nanotank #lifegard #wiscoreef #wiscoreefer #wiscoreefers #WisconsinReef #Wisconsin

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Very nice, following along!

 

[Weasel1960]

Would Like to talk to you about your light at some point. Was going to put 3 of those on a 4 foot tank along with 4 T-5 bulbs. Will be curious to see what your spread and par will be.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Media basket ready to be placed in. Once it gets cycled I’ll take out that bio ball and replace it with chemi pure blue nano

That's a sweet little media basket.

 

[kiswanson]

Would Like to talk to you about your light at some point. Was going to put 3 of those on a 4 foot tank along with 4 T-5 bulbs. Will be curious to see what your spread and par will be.

I won’t be measuring par in this little tank. I don’t think I would use A80s for a larger tank. I would think either A360x’s or Ap9x’s

 

[kiswanson]

A Video of the Pico tank after set up and starting the cycle. I may make a build video as well. Time to start looking at livestock!

 

[KK's Reef]

Now that I’m looking at it, I guess cutting the green part would let me take out the basket without removing the Lifegard inlet strainer, so I may consider doing that.
#intank

For me, the top arch of the media basket was getting snagged on the Lifegard strainer. The basket wasn't reaching all the way down.

If you can cut the green part, it might be less work and work out much better.

 

[KK's Reef]

A nice bucket, CaribSea Fiji pink “live” sand, a 5 gallon jug of salt water from the local fish store, filter floss, and a 1 gallon jug of RODI water for dealing with evaporation

If I could do it over, I might've just rinsed the Fiji Pink until the water was crystal clear. I stir up a lot of dust whenever I syphon the sand during regular maintenance.

However, I didn't really go through a bad "ugly phase", so maybe the live sand did help.

 

[kiswanson]

Sand settled after the weekend and water nice and clear. I will need to set up an ATO this week I think.