Question about reef crystals and zoas.

[Mele__Reef]

Hey guys,

Can I add zoas to my 3 gallon pico with just using reef crystals. Or should I be supplementing other chemicals for it? My goal is to face all the challenges a small tank has to offer so I can learn the hobby well. Possibly in about 6-8 months once I feel comfortable with water parameters and water changes.I will be setting up a 30 gallon. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Aaron

 

[CodyRVA]

You would likely have less stress if you went straight for the 30G. Smaller bodies of water are a challenge even for seasoned reefers. Regular water changes should be more than sufficient to house zoas. Reef Crystals should work just fine. Good luck!

 

[Serega]

No need to dose anything in a 3 gallon tank, water changes would be sufficient and advisable.

 

[Mele__Reef]

Absolutely, I might just jump into the 30 a lot sooner. Would candy canes, mushroom, and brain be ok for that tank doing routine water changes as well?

 

[CodyRVA]

Absolutely, I might just jump into the 30 a lot sooner. Would candy canes, mushroom, and brain be ok for that tank doing routine water changes as well?

In the pico or the 30G? Basically, regular water changes are only going to be sufficient to the point that your the corals in your system do not utilize the elements faster than you can replace them with your "weekly water change." SPS do poorly in this case because they're less forgiving to parameter swings and have higher demands. So, letting your parameters fall over the course of a week, then spike again from a water change spells disaster for most SPS, and some LPS. Weekly water changes are usually good for small tanks because you can do a 75% water change with maybe a few gallons of water. Zoas and soft corals in general require little to survive so they don't make as much of an impact on your chemistry. LPS corals like candy canes, brain, bubble, etc have skeletal structures so they're going to require more frequent water changes. My advice is to start slow, get some zoas, palys after your system has cycled and you've got a clean up crew. Once those are doing well, maybe look into a mushroom (these can spread fast so tread carefully). After the tank has been stable and the zoas/palys are thriving, maybe get a small LPS frag and see what it does.

 

[Mele__Reef]

Thank you so much for the advice very helpful. You guys are great!!!

 

[cmcoker]

@brandon429 can tell you how he runs his pico, he has all kinds of coral in there.

Here's a read on successful pico, as well
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/the-amazing-lil-1.5-gallon-vase-aquarium-called-maritza

 

[Mele__Reef]

Thanks for the tip cmcoker! That is incredible!!

 

[brandon429]

Hey CM thanks for the holler its neat to see new pico builds. someone is getting hooked, about to pay lol

for sure reefcrystals are fine. there is lots of roar about them at times online, instant ocean too for its cheapness, but pico reefers have absolutely no trouble with any salt brand made.. any of them. what Martiza does w IO is enviable


Right now we could go into my old pico, drain it empty, and come back 20 mins later (sat in air for 20 mins, in threads) with a full wc of any salt brand on the market and do a 100% water change and it would be fine in an hour.
param differences wont kill a pico, and I only do full changes not small percent ones. picos can be made to run like the tidal zone where there is good current, good export etc and the corals rise to the occasion or calmer settings work too... after all mines just an airstone moving water around, nothing intense.

we make 1 gallon reefs run long term, 3 is easy, -but- that means easy in terms of pico reef work that doesn't mean a 40 isn't more stable, it is.

Salinity control is the only real challenge for smaller tanks, past that they are easier to run than larger tanks because its easy to control nutrients w water changes, and because we can take the tanks apart for cleaning as needed. topoff is the major challenge, and so the larger picos like 3-6 gallon are more common as keepers experiment with various salt control levels/

here is the longest charted 3 gallon we have online, and by the way, the refugium is not critical to the setup. the exact same lifespan, and loss due to sandbed clogging/cyano takeover would've been the same with or without the little refugium (neat, but not a key aspect of design) solely due to max lifespan for uncleaned pico sandbeds.

this proves that with only light feeding, and 50% weekly water changes and no dosing, you can take an sps pico 3 gallons out to 3 yrs:
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/180570-el-fabs-simple-guide-to-pico-tanks/

Maritza the vase reef is the maker of that wonderful setup in the article I appreciated working MVR

 

[Mele__Reef]

Thanks for taking the time out to share your knowledge. I really do appreciate it. on your 1.5!!! It's beautiful!!