NPS Pico Tank

[txg8gxp]

Well I got another project. I was given a new fluval spec 2g pico tank for christmas. Thanks adriene :) This is one of the best little tanks fluval has released yet. This is a all in one design pico with overflow and filtration in the back like a biocube. I have tons of ideas/plans for this tank already. It will be a NPS tank with a rock/foam back wall, modded filtration for a rock/chaeto fuge. The tank comes with a led light that I will probably mod with some red/uv/blue/and maybe try some green leds. They are only like 1/4w leds, so power will not be great but it is for NPS coral so who cares. The tank is 7.25" wide by 9.25" deep and 10" tall. The foam rock wall will be very similar to my bc29, I will use silicone 1 and black pond foam with some rock rubble and a couple piece of FHI rock I picked up from gabes. More info soon, now for some pics.
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01351.jpg?t=1293580228
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01354.jpg?t=1293580279
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01355.jpg?t=1293580316
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01361.jpg?t=1293580355

[Europhyllia]

How exciting. That will be awesome! Going small is really the only way NPS can be affordable with all that food!

[Kristy]

Now that is adorable! Every desk needs one of those. Good work Adriene!

[tebstan]

I knew he'd like it, it has LEDs. :wink_smile:

And the best part is, they're not perfect reef LEDs, so they need to be tweaked. Gotta love a project. :lauging:

I'm excited to see how this will turn out!

[fisherman]

Probably not an issue if you go all NPS but if not skip the red light. There is evidence that shows true red light to halt the production of zooxanthellae.

[txg8gxp]

Well that didn't take too long. I think I'm done, I will give it some time and see if I want to change anything.
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01363.jpg?t=1293600987
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01364.jpg?t=1293601106

[tebstan]

I like it! I *love* those FHI rocks, they are so cool.

So what's the stocking plan?!

[txg8gxp]

Not 100% on stocking list yet. Probably nothing but coral. Plan so far is chili, carnations, nps gorg, sponges and maybe a really small sun coral frag or dendro.

[Mr Cob]

love it! This is also something I would like to learn more about. NPS corals.

[tebstan]

You can have some frags of my NPS, but you gotta do the cutting. Knives and needles make me queasy. The idea of cutting my coral oogs me out. :sick:

[Mr Cob]

You can have some frags of my NPS, but you gotta do the cutting. Knives and needles make me queasy. The idea of cutting my coral oogs me out. :sick:

LOL! i didn't do too hot with the purple and orange carnation frags. Was pretty bummed out...first fragging session I have done that was unsuccessful!

[tebstan]

We had to cut the purple carnation to save it. Well, I watched, anyway. But the pieces look like they'll pull through, and there's a little pico sized one. My orange carnation likes to sprout babies that walk away from mamma rock, so that one's easy too. The red gorg though, it needs to have an arm lopped off. (eek!) Just cut and glue, right? It's in great shape, but the arms are so thin I worry about it. I'm not so good with the glue.

[Europhyllia]

On the gorgs it's best to glue them by the inside stalk so you would trim a little of the meat/covering away from the stalk and then apply the glue to the stalk.
As far as carnations goes you may want to up the phyto and see if it helps. Dropping babies is usually a bad sign - sort of a last ditch effort to preserve the species. On the plus side though it takes them months to die so at least you can enjoy the mama and babies for quite awhile. :)

[tebstan]

On the gorgs it's best to glue them by the inside stalk so you would trim a little of the meat/covering away from the stalk and then apply the glue to the stalk.
As far as carnations goes you may want to up the phyto and see if it helps. Dropping babies is usually a bad sign - sort of a last ditch effort to preserve the species. On the plus side though it takes them months to die so at least you can enjoy the mama and babies for quite awhile. :)

That's what I'd read recently. I was doing tons of meaty foods like cyclopeeze and prawn eggs and oyster eggs. But after reading about something you posted, I've drastically increased my phyto feeding. About trippled it. Surprisingly no ditch in water quality, since I cut back on the other stuff and the bio pellets are kicking in. There was an immediate noticeable improvement in the gorg and carnations. Now I'm almost out of phyto though! I've got to get the jumbo size bottle from now on :)
I don't know how much it's helping, but I'm feeding both DT's and Reef Nutrition's. One is green based and one is brown. I want to cover as many bases as I can.

[tebstan]

Dropping babies is usually a bad sign - sort of a last ditch effort to preserve the species.

Might seem like a silly question, but...
How do you tell if its dropping babies...?

My original piece doesn't look any smaller. The piece I picked up at a LFS had two main stalks and a bunch of little ones on the rock. When I glued the rock to my structure, some of the smaller pieces sort of scootched over onto my rock. Were those dropped babies making a run for it? Or just another piece looking for better flow?

(I was amazed that it crawled onto my rock! So weird.)

[Kristy]

I'm excited for you to see how this turns out. But..... not even one tiny little
http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/thumbs/th-90164-clown-yellow-goby.jpg (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+1441&pcatid=1441)
Or maybe a sweet little solitary
http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/thumbs/th-71003-catalina-goby.jpg (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+155&pcatid=155)
or even a lone
http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/thumbs/th-70938-hi-fin-red-goby.jpg (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+181&pcatid=181)
??????

I know your way is safer, but I would be so tempted! Here is a final suggestion that I recently saw at a LFS, the barnacle blenny. They have the funniest little personalities and are tiny little fish that hide in an empty shell when they don't have the barnacles available.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/product/p-90033-barnacle-blenny2.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:popupWin1('/product/detailed_image.cfm?pCatId=1414', 50, 50, 596, 616))

[Europhyllia]

Those Catalina Gobies are so pretty. I saw they have nano chillers for under $150. That might work.
Without a chiller it would be tough to keep it at 68 degrees or below for that goby. I use a fan for the seahorse tank and don't think I could get it down to 68 even with a larger water volume.

tebstan I think on the NPS forums most people with NPS softies use the more concentrated phyto form from Reed called ShellfishDiet.

It takes so much and can get pretty pricey depending on tank size.

A small tank like that would be perfect for doing NPS softies without going broke. ;)

(I briefly considered NPS softies but $200 for phyto a month in a big tank like mine - I don't think so lol)

Coral Magazine has great articles on coral nutrition. If you don't have a subscription yet somebody should surprise you with one . ;)

They also have good articles on coral reproduction. The way I understand it it can go both ways: sexual/spawning or asexual/fragging. I would guess your carnation is self fragging rather than spawning but you have a better idea about that since you are watching the tank.

[tebstan]

tebstan I think on the NPS forums most people with NPS softies use the more concentrated phyto form from Reed called ShellfishDiet.


I'll have to look into that, thanks. Do you know who carries it?




Coral Magazine has great articles on coral nutrition. If you don't have a subscription yet somebody should surprise you with one . ;)


Hahaha... I just surprised someone else with that one... maybe I can borrow it. ;)




I would guess your carnation is self fragging rather than spawning

I agree. It looked like it was doing that before I even got it, so I didn't realize what was going on. Now that I know what the tiny ones are all about I can try make an improvement for it.

[Europhyllia]

You can see if AD will order it for you since they carry Reed or you might have to order it directly from Reed.

I am using BrineShrimp Direct ' algae paste right now just for the oysters etc. and it seems 'good enough' for my tank.

[txg8gxp]

Maybe a small clown goby would be cool... As for carnations and feeding I'm thinking with such a small tank keeping the right amount of phyto in the water shouldn't be too hard. (I hope) My main concern right now is flow, will the stock pump be ok or will I need to add more. Luckly I already have a couple really small pumps that I will be able to hide in the tank if needed. It will be a learning experience which is half the fun I think.

[txg8gxp]

This will be my first coral to frag for the pico. It has been in my biocube and has been doing great so far.
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01365.jpg?t=1293651820

[Europhyllia]

It's beautiful STephen. It should do great as long as you can keep the right. But you already know that :)

[txg8gxp]

Well I got the sand and water in today. I also added a extra tom aquatics pump I had laying around for extra flow. Once the tank has been running for awhile I will add a few pieces of yellow sponge covered rock rubble in the back for extra filtration and maybe some chaeto. There is around 2.5-3 pounds of rock and 1.5 cups of sand hahahahaha yeah 1.5 cups of sand.
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01366.jpg?t=1293672763
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01367.jpg?t=1293672797
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01368.jpg?t=1293672831
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01370.jpg?t=1293672886
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01369.jpg?t=1293672940

[ErikH]

Righteous!

Very cool pico man!

[Europhyllia]

I love what you did with the background. Best and most natural looking foam background I've ever seen!

[Janus]

I was really curious to see what was going to be done with this tank after we ordered it, looks really nice so far :D

I have to agree that you have done one of the better foam backgrounds I have seen , especially in a nano

I think I might end up going in on my day off and getting one of these little guys for myself ;)

[txg8gxp]

Thanks everyone

[tebstan]

It looks great! I knew it would. :)

[txg8gxp]

The tank is cloudy now. From what I have learned so far my guess is die off from the dry rock rubble or a bacteria bloom. With such a small tank things will change fast, so I have a feeling it's a combination of both. I'm really curious to see how long it takes to clear back up.
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01372.jpg?t=1293739667

[Mr Cob]

Dude...looks awesome! Great job!

[txg8gxp]

Quick update: Water has been nice and clear the last 24 hours so today I added a limpet, dwarf cerith and a astrea star. I also picked up a awesome looking porcelain crab yesterday but it will stay in my biocube for a few weeks at least before moving it over. It has to be one of the coolest things I have got yet, it's alot of fun watching it filter out foods in the water. It went crazy when I added some coral frenzy/FM zoa/blue zoo mix yesterday.

[tebstan]

I also picked up a awesome looking porcelain crab yesterday

ahem.

:photo:

[txg8gxp]

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/DSC01378.jpg?t=1293910904

[tebstan]

He's awesome!

If you google "porcelain crab" this guy and an ugly one comes up. When you google "anemone crab" only this pretty one shows up. Wish I knew what the real name is so I could order me one. I ordered porcelains and got the plain ones. :(

[jpond83]

i got one just like that from reefs2u a couple months ago he went strait to my maxi mini carpet and has not left since 10593

[txav8r]

Sweet! How did I miss this thread???

[txg8gxp]

Ok quick update. I added my chili coral to the tank today and it's already open ready to feed. I'm not sure if I will leave it placed were it is or hang it off the back wall. I normally keep the light over the back of the tank to provide light for the chaeto but had to move it over the tank to get a decent pic.
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/2g%20pico/DSC01390.jpg?t=1295579141
http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/txg8gxp/2g%20pico/DSC01391.jpg?t=1295579280

[tebstan]

It looks huge in there! :D

[Europhyllia]

nice. happiest chili I've ever seen :)