Starting Pico to Dream Big

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Yupp, that was my thought! I'd love to see how the acro growth rate and growth pattern would be from one compared to the other. I could also do reverse light cycle to help pH, hmmm.

do you not have reverse light cycle in sump now? Some people setup that way to help.

 

[Poseidon03]

do you not have reverse light cycle in sump now? Some people setup that way to help.

I do, but it should further help. I would love to have a straight line for my pH, but it probably would not do that much. I'd also want to see it during the day.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Today I received the sps frag i will be using for this project. It isvabout 3/8ths inches tall and about 3/16th wide at base. This is with just room lights

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Everything seems to be going well. Frag might have grown a mm lol but everything else is stable.. noticed the roughness from handling has healed up nicely.

The Red sea amonia kit works well and easy to read. Ill be working on phosphate and researching that kit next.

I am seeing thin algae strands on glass. So ill be doing a 100 percent water change shortly today and feeding. You can see this in the photo back glass. Ill probably be adding a hermit or snail this week.

Salinty was raised 1 point from .026 to .027 over a week.I am having to constantly recalibrate my refractometer. Maybe getting close to new.

I finally added a control valve which is wide open but mainly to add a different tubing to the pump. The one that came with the pump was constantly coming off and wouldnt know for hours more than likely.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Finally spotted this worm away from the rocks. Doesnt appear to be a bristle worm but possibly a oenone fulgida. Not sure but going to treat as is. Attempting to get out is a pain as it will just slump back in rock. If i cant get it in a day or 2, ill pull rock out and use syringe to stab or flush out.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Finally spotted this worm away from the rocks. Doesnt appear to be a bristle worm but possibly a oenone fulgida. Not sure but going to treat as is. Attempting to get out is a pain as it will just slump back in rock. If i cant get it in a day or 2, ill pull rock out and use syringe to stab or flush out.

Best of luck to getting him out!

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

did find I have possibly three bristle worms, possibly a sponge as well today. Hopefully I can get out the other worm. But may leave in. If it is what ai think, it targets snails, clams and possibly lps. None of which i have plans in the tank for at the moment. This rock is loaded with life.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Was a very tough day today at my lfs. I was able to walk in get the water and small hermit and walk out. Didnt hurt that my wife was with me lol. But I saw my favorite coral healed in frag size. I have always loved elegance corals. Kept them succesfully even bringing some back from dying. I have resisted for the moment. I want the main coral to be the sps with some gorgonia or other sea fans and cocoworm or other feather duster. I am wrestling myself back and forth on pulling the trigger but first need to get worm out girst either way.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

While feeding the coral and organisms, I was finally able to spot a few copepods. Will need to scrub grass and stir bed as mire algae is forming.

 

[besskurz]

Hi, nice thread and nice jar!

I'm gonna give my two cents based in the experience with my bowl.

- Lid / air pump / gas exchange.
There's a lot of information you can read about.. and they will tell you, this is not going to work. But my experiences showed me the opposite. If you are pumping air inside, you are already promoting some air exchange and water movement. In my case, I removed the air pump and I left only a wave maker. Evaporation is really heavy, condensate in the lid and drip back to tank. for me the key was water movement. The air bubbles were kinda of a skimmer leaving the lid nasty. Parameters are all good.

- worms
For me, all of them are good. Exception is the fire if you really want to go full sps.
The bristles, spaghetti keep them all. If you don't have external filtration like me... you need somebody to eat the organic mather. None - except fireworms- will eat corals or shallow stuff like an anaconda... maybe in several months the population will be very big and you can take some one with pliers... but if some of them die , the others will eat. The key is to have an ecosystem. Maybe get a arrow crab to control the population while they are small. I just think that a top layer of fine sand would help to develop more biodiversity. Course sand will prevent some creatures to develop.

- crabs / cuc
Great you bought that crab. He will help lots with the algaes, specially diatoms in the beginning. A nassarus vibex would be a good addition too.

- Glass cleaning
keep in mind your glass will host a lot of copepods and other good similar creatures - as you dont have much rocks. If you scrap off all that algae religiously... their food supply will be limited too. Clean it when you receive visits at home lol

I never made any study to confirm but I believe that aquariums with minimal quantities of rock tend to have more algae problems due to lack of surface to host and develop beneficial bacteria and creatures who eat algae like pods. So.. maybe think about some additional rocks. It won't make any harm and can create levels for more or less light demanding corals.

With all due respect, I hope this helps! good luck and keep posting!

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

correct on alot but not quite the direction im going for some.
I have a gap in back as the oxygen allows for flow.. As gas exchange between water and air in jar then pushes out through gap. Gap also serves to stop hose from being pinched. Circulation pumps I have found seem to generate alot of heat for this size. Even the small ones. The room its in can heat up due to computers so added heat from pump wouldnt be good. Plus the air hose gives it a cleaner look. Lid like you said also stops evaporation and puts the evaporated water back in tank. I might put airstone on to create finer bubbles to pop and act as skimmer but not ready for it yet. This is just a very low tech tank build for a virculation pump.

Im not worried about bristles and most hitch hikers. I want to keep most. I have just never seen this species and would rather pull if I decide to add snails or other critters to be safe. Snails I dont want to add as they produce more wast than crab or shrimp. Arrow crab will be to big. This isnt even a gallon. I also feed benepets which really doesnt foul up the water like other foods or powder.

Algae grows based off nutrients available. While live rock helps with biodiversity, it doesnt prevent or help with algae unless there is die off or something competing with nutrient intake. I do plan on adding a bit of macro algae eventually as well. I actually may remove the sand. I never have much luck and usually causes more issues. Had best success after removing in other builds. With 100 percent water changes weekly, things stay balanced and replenished nutrients with benepets for feeding. Want to avoid more rocks as it allows more detritus to build up and get cluttered. Finer sand definetly helps with fauna and stops wate from getting deep. But i stir up and create turbulance during water change so not something I am worried about.

The goal is to focus on this single sps. On the top of rock and have it fill out. Eventually it will out grow and I will put into a larger tank.

Gave me alot of ideas and directions to think about.

Heres 2 tanks i had. 5 gallon tank before married and moved as well as pitcher just around its prime before I was not able to take care of as well due to health. Wish I had my office tank pictures before we had to work from home due to covid. Similar to this build but smaller and was amazing. I would remove everything clean and scrub and put back on both these.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Coral has a small amount of measurable growth. color is showing a bit more as well. Due to everything that happened last week water change was delayed. No noticeable issue with delay in the tank. Hermit has disappeared. I moved and looked at rocks and unable to find. Will keep an eye out. I will probably add 2 more as well.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I have decided to add an airstone to create finer bubbles to create some skim on glass and edges to clean. This will also help with smoother flow. I have done this before but after @besskurz post and some thought, decided to go ahead and implement. there may have been someone else as well. I noticed now that the Hermit is only coming out at night. which is fine by me but seems to disappear completely during day lol. Still debating on the elegance coral as well. As I turned to look at tank and check over the coral to see how the sps was doing the polyps are extending. Prior to air stone the polyps were not really extended and thought this was due to size. I am unable to get good pictured because of the distortion of the glass as it is imperfect so causes really blurry shots.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Sps polyps extending and image of pods which also shows glass distortion

 

[Poseidon03]

Sps polyps extending and image of pods which also shows glass distortion

This is definitely inspiring and a really cool project. What's your thought on temperature and the lid reflecting a lot of that light?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

This is definitely inspiring and a really cool project. What's your thought on temperature and the lid reflecting a lot of that light?

Temperature will be what the room temp is plus or minus 1 degree and will rise and fall as room temp does. with computers on part of day it is 78. I keep my house at 73 so it can get slightly colder. keeping tanks before I have never had issues with temp unless I was running water pump in the tank.

A glass lid won't reflect much light. it will refract most of the light at different angles due to curvature as it hits the lid. most will still keep inside tank, I am sure there is a measurable par loss but shouldn't be a lot. I do not have a par meter to test and being so small not sure how well or if I could measure unless I do so with the lid out not attached. I only have a dark spot due to tape covering certain leds I do not wish to use. tape is black electrical which can handle the heat this par light puts out. I used this on prior tank I had at work before pandemic and upgrade to AI prime HD.

I do wish I had a par meter to test and give you accurate readings and to put in my log. log is listed on first page down a bit in thread.

 

[Poseidon03]

Temperature will be what the room temp is plus or minus 1 degree and will rise and fall as room temp does. with computers on part of day it is 78. I keep my house at 73 so it can get slightly colder. keeping tanks before I have never had issues with temp unless I was running water pump in the tank.

A glass lid won't reflect much light. it will refract most of the light at different angles due to curvature as it hits the lid. most will still keep inside tank, I am sure there is a measurable par loss but shouldn't be a lot. I do not have a par meter to test and being so small not sure how well or if I could measure unless I do so with the lid out not attached. I only have a dark spot due to tape covering certain leds I do not wish to use. tape is black electrical which can handle the heat this par light puts out. I used this on prior tank I had at work before pandemic and upgrade to AI prime HD.

I do wish I had a par meter to test and give you accurate readings and to put in my log. log is listed on first page down a bit in thread.

If you get a par meter, send it my way for a week, hahaha. I'd be concerned with sps and a daily temp swing that large. Other corals don't seem to be as finicky. I keep my house around 70, so I'd definitely need something if I imitate this eventually.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

If you get a par meter, send it my way for a week, hahaha. I'd be concerned with sps and a daily temp swing that large. Other corals don't seem to be as finicky. I keep my house around 70, so I'd definitely need something if I imitate this eventually.

The key is to be consistent even if its inconsistent. Be consistently inconsistent rofl. I have found that even 2 similar corals even same type may not like same conditions. There is mini heaters for small tanks as well now if temps drop to low as well.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Some exciting things. I ended up picking up my favorite coral today. An elegance coral. Also picked up a coco worm.

During removal from plug I accidentally crush some of the skeleton. To keepbfrom compromissing further I cut off the frag plug bottom and glued back. There seems to be no issues and opened up nicely. Currently im waiting for the phase where it retracts, swells and sometimes looses tentacles. They always bounce back unless they have other issues or water isnt right. Hopefully this one doesnt go through this.

The coco worm was missing most of the radioles so I am monitoring for groth. They are currently very small at the moment.

SPS is happy with increased flow and will adjust and monitor to dial in.

I also found a camera app that improves the picture quality.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Last night I decided to swap lights to my AI Prime HD. This is the current schedule. I am not sure what the schedule used to be when I had other tank setup. well watch how this does. This current program runs from 9 to 9. very little light from 9 to 11. then ramp and peak at 1PM. Then you have a ramp down of Red, Greeb, white and UV from 1pm to 5pm while blues and violets maintain. then off at 9pm. the light is mounted 5 inches from top of lid in a temporary mount setup. I also have attached the light diffuser as well.