Pico reef

[jeffmr4]

Hello and glad to meet everybody!
My apologies for not posting originally in the meet and greet forum. Let this be my introduction. I have done a fair amount with reefing in the past, although only with tanks 10-14 gallons or so, so I am fairly familiar with many aspects of reefing and taking care of a tank. The only area where I lack experience is with larger tanks but that is for another life, maybe.
So my intentions for this build were to do something small, that wouldn't cost a lot of money, maintainable with only water changes (still hoping on this one), containing most of the things I like in reefing and not much more. Low maintenance was a key goal. Like I mentioned I don't want to have to use kalk, 2 part or an ato so water changes and manually adding water are important. I also didn't want to get bogged down with test kits so I figured I could use some test strips which test for most anything I would need to know about except calcium and magnesium, which may not be too big of a concern (only plan on keeping two lps and the rest softies, invertebrates and a fish).
I kind of vacillated on whether to keep a fish or not but have decided to keep a small maroon clown, called 'marooned', until he/she grows too big for the tank.

So, to the details. Equipment,

Lifeguard Aquatics 3 gallon pico tank. (2 gallons when displaced with sand and rock)
Caribsea Life Rock pieces 2.5 lbs.
Caribsea Live Sand about 4-5 lbs.
Brightwell Microbacter XLM (for starter bacteria)
Dr. Tim's for Reef (starter bacteria that I also added later, some explanation needed)
RO Buddie w/DI
Brightwell Aquatics NeoMarine Salt (and analog scale for measuring salt)
Chloramine test strips
TDS Meter
Advatec Master Test Strip Kit (9 in 1 strip, Ammonia and Phosphate)
ATC Refractometer
Kitchen digital thermometer (move over chicken..)
Ocean Nutrition Premium fish food, Hikari frozen mysis and reef roids (with pipette for spot feeding)
Three 5 gallon buckets, 1 1 gallon container, Orlushy 25w heater and Nano Koralia for mixing, measuring tape for keeping track of top off water

For the tank I'm using the Hygger magnetic wavemaker 1600 gph (at lowest speed and longest pulse interval. more on this later..), Nicrew HOB filter 42 gph, AquaMiracle 20w (thumb sized) heater with digital temperature control, and ReefBreeders Pico LED v2 (set to 8 hour daylight time currently)

Inhabitants,

Small Maroon Clown Fish
Astrea, Nassarius and Bumblebee Snails
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
Zooanthids (more to be added in the future maybe?)
GSP (not added yet)
Macroalgae - Gracilaria Hayi (won't add till cycle is more complete)
Green Brain (Favia?) Coral
Duncan
Small Green Carpet Anemone
3 Small Sexy Shrimp (1 male and 2 female I think)

I'm a little over two weeks in and have done a couple of 'no-nos' but with the exception of the Astrea snail everything is alive and seems pretty well. The tank is finishing cycling today I think. No ammonia, nitrite at < 1 and nitrate at 10 maybe. The filter on the HOB has been pulled and I started with the Brightwell Aquatics Starter XLM bacteria, later adding Dr. Tim's when I wasn't sure if the Brightwell Aquatics was working. I had kind of high nitrites (around 5 and climbing?) due to adding most things at once so I did 1 gallon water changes two days in a row to bring the nitrite down so that the cycle wouldn't stall. Now the nitrites and nitrates have come down, PH is back up to normal and Alkalinity coming back up.

The only thing I'm still trying to work out is possibly turning off the Hygger pump at night so things can sleep and move around a little more easily.

Here is a link (sorry about the extra click) to some photos and videos of the tank and the clown,

Jeff's Pico Tank

Pictures of the rest of the inhabitants and corals forthcoming.

Thanks for looking and I welcome any comments and suggestions!

 

[TX_REEF]

welcome!

so... you have a 1600 gph pump and a maroon clown in a 3 gallon tank? I'm scared... maroons definitely don't belong in a tank that small

 

[jeffmr4]

Well, the pump can run at 40% intensity (so 640 gph? Still sounds high but check out the videos. It doesn't seem too much). Also the wave mode is 'nutrition' or pulsing at the slowest pulsing frequency so this brings down the effect quite a bit. I was worried about the clown too but, as in the video, it seems pretty happy chasing its reflection in the glass (and occasionally will just drop off and stick to the pump protector for a second or two and then swim away) and has since I got it.

 

[TX_REEF]

looks like way too much flow to me. clown does not look particularly comfortable. You are aware that maroon clowns can reach six inches in length? Is this tank even six inches in length?

 

[TX_REEF]

and sorry I don't like to be a negative nancy, this just does not seem responsible or kind to the fish.

 

[jeffmr4]

Not to start an argument but being a part of this hobby is not responsible to the Earth when you think about it. We waste water on the tanks and there is a lot of waste water from filtration, live rock from the ocean decimates the reefs in nature, inhabitants in the tank from fish to invertebrates to coral come from the ocean taking away from the ocean, unnecessary electricity is used to keep the tanks running which is fueled by coal. Pretty much all terrible for global warming and the environment so responsible kind of seems like a relative thing. In the scheme of things am I being extremely irresponsible? I don't think so. My carbon footprint is pretty small relative to the rest of the reefing world.

 

[jeffmr4]

Added two snails. An Astrea Turbo and a Cerith to take care of some of the diatoms and algae that is developing. I also added a piece of Gracilaria Hayi macroalgae. All are updated in the photos/videos from the link above. The regular Astrea that I thought was dead has miraculously come back to life I think and is in the picture with the macroalgae.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

(removed)

 

[jeffmr4]

Thanks!

 

[jeffmr4]

Happy 4th! to everyone in the U.S. And many happy returns.

 

[jeffmr4]

Added a small GSP frag and some Rastafarian Zoas.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

(removed)

 

[jeffmr4]

They're all in the link at the top. Anytime something requiring a picture happens I'll mention it here and post the picture(s) there. The link should stay the same. Thanks!

 

[jeffmr4]

I should post in a whiter light so you can see the colors of the corals more clearly but I don't want to mess with the light settings just yet.

 

[jeffmr4]

New video with the new corals.

 

[Brine]

Not to start an argument but being a part of this hobby is not responsible to the Earth when you think about it. We waste water on the tanks and there is a lot of waste water from filtration, live rock from the ocean decimates the reefs in nature, inhabitants in the tank from fish to invertebrates to coral come from the ocean taking away from the ocean, unnecessary electricity is used to keep the tanks running which is fueled by coal. Pretty much all terrible for global warming and the environment so responsible kind of seems like a relative thing. In the scheme of things am I being extremely irresponsible? I don't think so. My carbon footprint is pretty small relative to the rest of the reefing world.

What's your carbon footprint got to do with keeping a maroon clownfish jammed up in a tiny little tank like that? Sounds like a whole lotta deflecting to me but that's just my .02

From your videos, you can clearly see the clown cooped up in each corner of the tank, unable to swim around comfortably. I would highly recommend rehoming the guy

 

[jeffmr4]

Most of the time Marooned is happily swimming into the current or chasing his/her reflection in the glass. At night he/she finds a place to sleep.

I don't know if I mentioned it but the pump is only on for 12 hrs per day. From 6 pm to 6 am it is off. Also, when this fish needs a larger tank I will probably give it to someone I know who will take care of it. I may not have mentioned that.

Also, it may not grow to be 6 inches in this tank. Food for thought

 

[Polymate3D]

Liking the Pico.

As with others who have spoken, the maroon clownfish seems a bit of a odd choice to go with. It is a bigger species of clownfish and although many pick a area and stick to it, my experience with them has been they do have moments where they want to swim about. It would likely be a more stressed fish. I'm more confused just at why it was chosen and curious.

Gobies would be great. Small Blenny like a Tailspot would probably be happy. Even a small damsel like a Azure or Yellow tail would be rather happy in there and active as well.

Stating the fish may not grow to 6 inches makes it sounds more like you intend to keep them long term in here. Short term I get it. I have done small tanks for a specific bullied fish before in the past to help them on there way.

At the end of it all, we are all learning and trying things, so hope it continues to go well for you. Keep us updated.

- Paul

 

[jeffmr4]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your interest! When I originally started this project I wasn't sure if I was going to get a fish at all. I felt the same way you and a few other people here have expressed. However, I changed my mind for a couple of reasons. When I saw how small this fish was (1 1/2") I thought it could work for a while. The tank is 9" cubed which is essentially six times his size. Proportionally speaking, that's not terrible. There is a really good fish store near me that has small clownfish in an even smaller space. Although, I know that is only for holding until they sell. That not withstanding I decided to try it. I've been feeding it a little flake food every day and some mysis once a week. The pump is a little strong but he/she seems to like the current when its on. If I thought for a moment that Marooned was truly unhappy I would give him/her away or return said fish to the store but that has not been what I've observed. I am always learning new things and I am not afraid to say when I'm wrong. I have been taking care of fish off and on since the early 80's so I like to think I know a little bit about the hobby and have the fish, corals and inverts best interests at heart.

I do not intend to keep the fish in this aquarium if it grows much more and maybe I am wrong to say it won't grow 6" (a LFS owner told me that one time when I asked him if a certain fish would work in a tank I was putting up. Yes, bad LFS owner maybe but he never tried to sell me anything that he didn't think would survive well in what I was building.) To some degree we all are given more or less space to grow depending on a number of factors. Some of these are beyond our control while others we have some control over. In the end we do the best with what we have and I think I'm a pretty nice person. So, I don't think I am making 'Marooned' suffer.

 

[jeffmr4]

I got some copepods and phytoplankton from Florida Reef Labs today. Added the copepods and some phytoplankton and everything in the tank looks good! I also decided to turn the hygger pump back on for 24 hours a day because the corals and anemone weren't getting enough flow. My anemone has shrunk up a bit (possibly because of the lack of flow at night?) and I hadn't fed it in a while so I fed it today and might do so more often if it fills out more.