Student With a New Pico Reef

Zack Leibovitch · Oct 10, 2018

Hello! As a second saltwater tank, I decided to finally try a pico reef. I know these tanks can be challenging, but I was really craving a bit of the ocean (on a budget lol). For my setup, I have:

Tank
-2.5 Gallon Glass Aquarium

Filtration
-10 Gallon hang on back Cartridge filter (I chose this size mainly for the water movement it provides)

Livestock/Decor
-about 2.6 pounds of live rock
-a layer of Carib Sea "super naturals" sand

Lighting
-HIPARGERO LED Aquarium Light
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0727V8C5Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am currently in the cycling process and have just seeded the tank with about 25 pellets of crushed fish food. The tank has been up for 3 days and I am excited to have it up and running. I am still in the process of getting a decent testing kit, as money is a big factor, but hope to have one within the next few weeks. The room is at a fairly stable temperature and the led lights barely get hot. Any input on what I should be doing? What should I expect from a small tank like this during the cycling process? I always get nervous when starting a new project, so any help, tips or advice is greatly appreciated!

brandon429 · Oct 10, 2018

It's already cycled

Adding feed will possibly bring on its first algae challenge

This w help, and nice setup!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/

Your rocks have the full complement of bacteria already, we can see. Time to skip the cycle and have a plan handy for when the algae first shows up. Do a full water change, add some zoanthids, easy starter corals.

When algae first shows up, lift the rock it's on out of the tank, take a knife, scrape off the algae and put back and force the small reef to be algae free always then it looks great year after year. Accept no phase of cyano, algae, diatoms, rinse them all out and keep it looking nice like it does now

Clean out all the extra food put in, that can seed your tank permanently with invasions in some cases depending on what hitchhiked in. How we cycle affects how our algae wars will proceed, we have time to intercept here