Pico reef
 

For last few months I have been plagued with an idea to setup a pico reef. A plan is to get nice looking tiny tank with mixed zoas/ lps corals and some inverts. An idea became more realistic since I picked up Fluval SPEC Desktop 2g about two weeks ago, so I decided to start this pico reef journal. I never had journal for any of my tanks, so I think it's good opportunity to start one.

and faster than you can blink your eyes, you will have the plague of upgrading to a bigger tank.....

I already have 34g and 120g, so I can enjoy bigger fish and corals there. I really want to try maintain stable reef in such small aquarium.

There are some tank photos:

http://i42.tinypic.com/2i0c36q.png

http://i43.tinypic.com/b46j3t.png

haha i know that tank

ok :)

I have one piece of advice for keeping a tank that small looking amazing and thriving long term - 100% water changes. You will be amazed at how clean it looks and how healthy things stay

I set up my pico tank today, too. What are you doing for a light?

Thanks. 100% water changes sounds a bit scare, but I'll definitely experiment with water changes.

I'm not a big fan of LEDs, but it seems there are no many options available. Most likely I'll go for par30 or par38 bulb.

I grabbed one of these: http://lightboxleds.com/products-page/the-clamp/

with a par38 bulb from here: http://www.reefsupplycanada.com/par-38-reef-light/

Might be overkill for your setup, though!

Added water and one pice of rock from my 120g. I put few stomatella snails and looks like they still alive.

http://i41.tinypic.com/wlvlea.jpg

Got my light yesterday. Thanks to Frank from http://aq-led.com/ for nice and cheap light.

It's 14w Par30 bulb : 2 white, 3 blue and 3 uv leds. It looks bit purple on photos, but it's actually more blue in person.

http://i40.tinypic.com/29beudk.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/31666nq.jpg

It's time to update this journal. I tried to do some aquascaping, I just used small rocks I found in the sump of my big tank.

http://i39.tinypic.com/mutrlx.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/ie4ebo.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/jb4394.jpg

Got the sand( thanks Jess). And there is snow/sand storm

http://i41.tinypic.com/2uh5xeb.jpg

The First Settler :

http://i39.tinypic.com/2wdy7eo.jpg

Looking good! I like your first settler, the striations on his legs are fantastic.

Thanks, he climbed on the highest peak and looked in overview at his territories :biggrin: