pico tanks??

[pandafishowner]

i saw the pico tank in the picture section. i've got a tank about 1.5 gallons that i'd love to turn into a pico tank with some small frags and some live rock. how would i do it? what kind of light, what type filter/aeration, etc?

[Farrmanchu]

I did one that size. You need an AQ Mini HOB filter, and a 10 Watt Coralife 50/50 bulb. At room temp, the HOB should heat it to about 78, and when the light is on, it should go to 79 or 80. NO HEATER, the pump in the HOB heats it if it's around 1 Gallon. 1.5 might need a bigger HOB, or a heater. Weekly 40% waterchanges.

[Farrmanchu]

[pandafishowner]

cool, thanks! where did you get the Coralife 50/50 light from? i have 2 small hang on back filters already.

i have this tank and one of these somewhere. would they be ok?

[Geofrog]

I'm also thinking of starting a pico but how do you deal with evaporation? I would think that you would lose a lot during the day.

[pandafishowner]

I was wondering that too Geo. I know my 29g start evaporating noticably within a day or two of a water change so I do top offs every other day. The 10g saltwater tank will lose about an inch of water every 2-3 days too. It probably wouldn't be too hard to keep a bucket somewhere of saltwater already mixed to top it off with? Add a powerhead or something inside the bucket?

I just want a use for these tanks. I used to use them for QT tanks but aside from the corner one being a hospital tank for a new betta with fin rot right now, they haven't been used in months.

*edit* and what kind of corals can go in them? mushrooms? zoos? xenias? and crabs, snails?

[TRIX]

Hey. Don't do top up's with salt water your slanity will go through the roof. Top up with fresh water. Salt does not evaporate but the water does. If salt evaporated we would have a bunch of salt water rivers. Wouldn't that be cool though.

[Farrmanchu]

Originally Posted by TRIX

Hey. Don't do top up's with salt water your slanity will go through the roof. Top up with fresh water. Salt does not evaporate but the water does. If salt evaporated we would have a bunch of salt water rivers. Wouldn't that be cool though.

Ditto to that, topoff with non-salt.

[pandafishowner]

another question. how did you cycle the pico tanks? do you just put in the salt water, add some live rock and corals and there you go? did you use tank water from established tanks?

i think my hex tank is the 2 gallon version. i can't remember. but anyway i'll definitely use it

[christyf5]

The cycle will go much faster if you can use rock sand and water from an already established tank. For my nano I used cycled rock but new sand and water. I didn't see a cycle at all but it took about 2 weeks to see any activity in the sand.

Just a suggestion for evaporation topup. I use a kent aquadoser and it works great. I just fill the reservoir about once every 7-9 days (depending on how much we use the woodstove).