3 gallon extra parts pico build

[100%hydrophylic]

sooo... my mom had a little three gallon eclipse system at her desk at work with a couple tetra but she got tired of the constantly cleaning algae off of it so she made me break it down. wellll.... i decided to turn it onto a pico reef

(Its not done!! and i haven't cleaned off the final resting place for the tank)





The lights are from the 12 gallon saltwater kit, it usually comes with one bulb and ballast thing, but we called in because the light burnt out and they for some reason sent us a whole new hood. soo i have 2 of the eclipse 12 bulbs.

two 50/50 power compact 13 watt light bulbs for a total of 26 watts over 3 gallons





The filter is just going to be the eclipse 3 filter, but i dont know what to put in it (in terms of filter media)



Over all:



plans for inhabitants:
-blood red fire shrimp or coral banded
-tons of zoanthids
-mushrooms maybe ricordia
-Gsp/clove polyps
-xenia
-blue or scarlet or electric blue hermits
-spiny star astrae if i find any
-maybe a nassarious
-small goby (undecided species)

Some questions:

1.) what is the best way to utilize the filter compartments of this system?
2.) should i put a biowheel in the biowheel compartment
3.) any suggestions on the goby i should put in it??
4.) can i keep a LPS in it? (trumpets maybe?)
5.) any other suggestions on inhabitants?
6.) do you think this system will work? or is there some major flaw that will cause it to crash very soon

Thank you! depending on the answers you may or may not get more pictures in the (kinda) near future!

[camw1313]

I would suggest some sort of clown goby. I have a little yellow clown and I love it. They would be good for a tank that size because they stay so small and they bounce around the tank.

[mstrpoz]

Do you have a link for those lights or something i have this same little tank i wanted to do this with?

[100%hydrophylic]

uhhh kinda? lol. they are from an eclipse 12 system that i retrofited a 36 watt into so i had this light extra... here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...B7TGS06EC8N02H

see the white thing on the inside of the hood? i used a dremel and cut out the ballast and light clips and took the whole thing apart. i had two of these because marineland sent me an extra for some reason. im sure theres a cheaper way, but they were just sitting around in my garage any way.

i do like clown gobies, in fact i have a yellow one in my 75g lol. i dont think i want to put him in there, and i dont want to get another one because i like variety. thanks for the suggestion though!

any critiques/suggestions are welcomed

[NoobySWkeeper]

Dounno,,


How do I add motto

[100%hydrophylic]

how much evaporation loss should i expect from this tank? should i plan on setting up some type of small auto top off because its such a small system?

[100%hydrophylic]

well, i finally put water in it

this is just some live rock from my fuge on my main system. im going to buy some more rock this weekend most likley.

[100%hydrophylic]

Still would like to know some opinions on best filter media for a pico.... Thank you!

also from looking at the other pico systems they all seem to have HOB.... i didnt really want to put a HOB but i have this old one that i used on the very first freshwater tank i ever had. its for 10 gallons and i could probably mod some stuff to make it fit on the tank. but the problem is im not sure if i used any meds in the tank 7 or 8 years ago. i dont think i have ever owned copper though. is it even safe to use if i wanted to use it?

[100%hydrophylic]

got my rock! how do you like the aquascape? give me a grade! (ranging from F- to A+!)

[ohchiz84]

Originally Posted by 100%hydrophylic

how much evaporation loss should i expect from this tank? should i plan on setting up some type of small auto top off because its such a small system?

i probably put 2-4 L a week in my 3 gal, but its not covered

[100%hydrophylic]

i got the plague



the aiptasia plague.

i dont have a syringe and needle, or joes juice, or lemon juice, or kalk paste. any objections with completely smothering it with epoxy?

[theyammieguy]

But it's so beautiful. lol

[NoobySWkeeper]

I grow aptasia on purpose in my mantis tank...

[100%hydrophylic]

ha i know right, its such a sexy aiptasia. but as they say, beauty is only skin deep and this little gal is evil at heart! i will not let you make babies and make me pay child support you evil aiptasia!

but seriously, is epoxy ok?

[theyammieguy]

Can you get some aiptasia X within a week? Epoxy should work. I've never tried it but have read about it.

I've finally got mine half a$$ under control. One or two pop up every few days but I inject them with aiptasia X and it gets rid of them. I had bad luck with joes juice, seemed to make them worse.

[100%hydrophylic]

well idk why but most of the LFS i go to dont really carry aiptasia killing chemicals because they have extremely good luck with peppermints.... this one rock had about 40 aiptasia on it, and they threw it in their peppermint tank. the next week no aiptasia left. i dont want a peppermint though. also i dont know where id get a syringe and needle to inject them... i really dont want to go to a pharmacist or something as a teenager and ask for a syringe and needle lol.

[theyammieguy]

aipstasia X and joe's juice come with syringes. A X comes with 2 stainless steel "needles". 1 straight and 1 bent.
I like the A X better. It seems to stay in the anemone better and the joe's juice crystalizes in the bottle and clogs their cheap applicator needle. Which is plastic.

I was suprised to see that the LFS I go to every saturday had the A X.

[100%hydrophylic]

hmmm, oh ok well ill ask around this weekend lol. if not i will revert to plan B: epoxy.

thank you!

[theyammieguy]

no problem. I hate the bastards.

Oh, I didn't have any luck with peppermint shrimp.

I'm going to buy some berghia nudibranches.

[100%hydrophylic]

ohhh, i have never seen berghia locally. looks like a cool little nudi though. seems a little pricey. when i google them the places selling them are forums and its like 30 dollars for 3 quarter inch nudis.

[theyammieguy]

If you can get 3 for $30, thats a good deal. They're usually $15 for 1.

[100%hydrophylic]

ohh ok. i dont know much about nudis, seems really small for $15 a pop. but if theyr as good as people claim about eating aiptasia then its probably worth it. where you gonna get them?

[theyammieguy]

From what I've read, theres nothing out there that comes close to controlling aipstasia like the berghia.
http://www.berghia.net/

[cody6766]

they're so good that a local breeder can't keep them fed! He has an aptasia tank and they're eating him out of house and home. I had good luck with peppermint shrimp, but also had good luck supergluing the bastards. Epoxy putty also works, but gets unsightly if you have more than one or 2

[100%hydrophylic]

yea, its only that one big one. so i might go see if i can find some aiptasia x tomorrow and if i cant ill just epoxy it.

Ok! now that i have a game plan for the aiptasia, im kinda stumped on the cycle for this tank. i was kinda expecting a spike in ammonia when i first put the tank up because ive been constantly putting mysis shrimp in the tank (basically feeding it daily). the rocks came from my fuge and the lfs and have tons of life. should i not see a cycle or something? i dont want to dump tons of food in it and nuke the good life in the tank, but i also want to see a small ammonia spike so i know the tank cycled.