Setting up a new saltwater pico tank.

Max447 · Oct 24, 2016

-----HUGE UPDATE-----

I already have a bit of rock that I paid a lot of money for (not surprising this is the saltwater hobby after all), and it did not fit into the 1.5 gallon. Then I tried it in a 5.5 gallon, there was almost no room for anything. I FINALY decided to just do a 10 gallon aquarium. I think that this will be the best option for me and it will be more stable than the smaller aquariums. I just set it up and am now going to give it a short cycle, as everything was live (came from a older tank).
Here are the pics!

The light that is on it now is only temporary until I get the better lighting in the mail. As you can see it has a refugium in the back and a hob filter. I might also get some more rock in there but still deciding on that. Stocking ideas would be welcome right about now.

--THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND AWSOME TIPS--[emoji8]

DeniseAndy · Oct 25, 2016

While it cycles, I would keep light to a minimum. All you will do is speed algae growth. Look like the rock has a bit of coralline growing, so you want some. Couple hours at most. Good luck.

Stocking a small tank can be really fun. Just make sure to look at the fact that more organisms will mean more nutrients. Nutrients are the hardest things to control in a pico and nano.

I would suggest a shrimp/goby pair. Too cool not to have in a 10g. Shrimp that you like. I like spotted cleaners, skunk, peppermint are helpful, even sexy shrimp once you can keep salinity stable.

Crabs would be great. Poppom, mithrax, porcelain, hermits.

Maybe a firefish, randals goby or similar, little blenny like tailspot, along those lines.

Oh, what fun is coming.

Max447 · Oct 25, 2016

DeniseAndy said:
While it cycles, I would keep light to a minimum. All you will do is speed algae growth. Look like the rock has a bit of coralline growing, so you want some. Couple hours at most. Good luck.

Stocking a small tank can be really fun. Just make sure to look at the fact that more organisms will mean more nutrients. Nutrients are the hardest things to control in a pico and nano.

I would suggest a shrimp/goby pair. Too cool not to have in a 10g. Shrimp that you like. I like spotted cleaners, skunk, peppermint are helpful, even sexy shrimp once you can keep salinity stable.

Crabs would be great. Poppom, mithrax, porcelain, hermits.

Maybe a firefish, randals goby or similar, little blenny like tailspot, along those lines.

Oh, what fun is coming.

Thank you very much for the reply! The light In The picture is just a 1w led light I used to get a slightly better shot of the tank the actual lights are currently shipping and will arrive on the 31st. I am planning on using this tank as a test tank before I make the jump into much bigger systems. I will be testing different lights and salts as well as salinity levels. This will take a very long time as I will need to slowly implement each change I wish to make. But it will be a great and fun experience along the way!