1 gal nano reef (first saltwater setup)

Tyler_Fishman

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Oh boy! this is a bit of a hit or miss, I cant start with a 120 or even a 55g so I went with what I can understand is exactly what a beginner shouldn't attempt: a small tank, but with all the knowledge I've collected from 2 years of research off YouTube and forums, I don't think I'll fail completely, What I have on the tank is a tetra 10 gal filter, an air stone, and some dry rock, the lighting is sketchy for me atm, I run the tank by my plants under two 5000k LED fixtures, I'm going to (hopefully) get better lighting because I do plan to add soft corals, aqueon has 50/50 bulbs that I've read can grow soft corals decently, I had one of them before although it broke, I like how it looks. I will also be getting calcium and Iodine supplements when the cycle is over, I'm not sure if the flow is too powerful, although I don't think it is for softies, I've also noticed a strand of string like coarse algae on the dry rock, (hurray I created life already!)
 

reeferfoxx

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Oh boy! this is a bit of a hit or miss, I cant start with a 120 or even a 55g so I went with what I can understand is exactly what a beginner shouldn't attempt: a small tank, but with all the knowledge I've collected from 2 years of research off YouTube and forums, I don't think I'll fail completely, What I have on the tank is a tetra 10 gal filter, an air stone, and some dry rock, the lighting is sketchy for me atm, I run the tank by my plants under two 5000k LED fixtures, I'm going to (hopefully) get better lighting because I do plan to add soft corals, aqueon has 50/50 bulbs that I've read can grow soft corals decently, I had one of them before although it broke, I like how it looks. I will also be getting calcium and Iodine supplements when the cycle is over, I'm not sure if the flow is too powerful, although I don't think it is for softies, I've also noticed a strand of string like coarse algae on the dry rock, (hurray I created life already!)
As long as the filter provide movement and agitation, the air stone isn't necessary. Softies won't require much calcium supplemrnts either as water changes will fix that. The only issue with tanks these size is water evaporation. A sealed lid would help but could be still be a pain.

@brandon429
 
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Tyler_Fishman

Tyler_Fishman

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As long as the filter provide movement and agitation, the air stone isn't necessary. Softies won't require much calcium supplemrnts either as water changes will fix that. The only issue with tanks these size is water evaporation. A sealed lid would help but could be still be a pain.

@brandon429
the calcium is for coralline algae growth, Evaporation, is minimal, I just put plastic wrap over it and call it a day, it seems to do the trick
 
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Tyler_Fishman

Tyler_Fishman

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Tank pics?
I do plan to add more, it looks a bit bare for now.

20170816_075730.jpg


20170816_075735.jpg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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reeferfox thanks for the referral its nice to see new picos being setup we like them for sure. The experimentation of treading new ground is all the fun. Picos were so much against the rules, to merely have a bubbling one gallon anything begins the excitement and it really never ends lol especially when they get packed to the core and there's lots on the line within the small system.

its my opinion that anyone can setup a pico reef and run it just fine, the various methods and modes selected have varying outcomes and the unideal approaches simply take on algae and tank growths faster than ideal setups, but both tend to house simple corals just fine. Ive learned to look at pico reefs not as if they'll live or die, but how they'll do as a long term algae control aquarium. people will take down their tanks soon if battles cant be won. there's fifteen ways to pico reef, these are my highlight bullet points

-using a square tank as a pico is not the same as using a vase or a bowl. the topoff requirements are worlds apart. a vase or a bowl can run 7 days in between a single topoff of freshwater using nothing other than how the lid fits on the tank.

A square tank usually requires daily topoff, or auto top systems to keep salinity in check, all due to the size of the tank! Its because of inner-diameter fitting lids...the square tanks have lids that rest on the surface, doesn't restrict evaporation the same (and when it doesn, salt creep is a real issue)

a vase or a bowl has a specific lid system that rests on the inner diameter of the vase, so that all drips go back down into the actual tank and don't dry out as saltcreep. the salinity stability of a one gallon unassisted vase reef will beat any other size tank we can own, it will have better unassisted salinity than a 300 gallon tank in fact or any other size.

but the square reef, that's functions normally and in that the salinity handling is much different.

lighting

its ok to shine any light that causes photosynthesis and that includes freshwater ones. our marine algae love that spectrum, it will add to algae work



algae work

never allow any form of invasion to exist from day 1 to day 3000. we can do 100% water changes matching temp and salinity only in the pico reef, any time we want to run them

when algae is there, take the tank apart, rinse everything including the sand in clean saltwater over the sink, scrub off the rocks, and put it all back together nice and sharp, guide the pico reef into working correctly. accept no algae at any time, no invasion, ever. that's what makes them so easy to run.

depending on your unique setup you will either be scrubbing algae more often or less often than the comparables.
 

brett_schn

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U don’t need to dose anything in a pico. Weekly water changes add all the elements back. Dosing will do more harm then good in that tank
 

679x

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way too small of a tank for your first time I would go with something more forgivable
In the second sentence of the original post he said that he can't get something bigger like a 55g, but he's aware that a tiny tank isn't very good for a beginner
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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pico reefs have a hidden secret, they do not follow the gallonage/dilution rules of the normal evaporating tanks. they're easier to run. they break every rule written about reefing before 2001. since we usually don't stock fish but fancy corals, and a few easy inverts (which our systems can digest if they die/documented many times) there aren't really losses that happen over weekends or long holidays when we travel...large tankers can lose a single fishor two in some setups, and the resulting cascade is total loss.

they tolerate no physical external insults to the mad inverse; such as nerf, or an errant elbow, or breathing on them too hard. but chemically and biologically they're easier to run than larger reefs, going fully against the rules and norms of the last few decades agreed, solely because we have total reset control over the water column in an instant. Whats the solution for phosphate and nitrate issues in a 300 gallon reef? sixteen months experimentation, endless purchases of media, overstripping, understripping, all because we can't just rip change all the water

a pico reef's grandest biological and chemical problems are fixed in one fell swoop. Got a cruddy sandbed, clouding all the time, the seat of your nitrate issues in a pico reef? One hour rip cleaning, perfectly new sand, skip cycle, so easy.

end of nitrate issues

how many fail points does a 300 gallon reef have mechanically? ever seen people going on vacation and not worrying about the setups or buying massive $$ redundancies so they can sustain a few hours power outage? Imagine 7-10 days without topoff, and no external fail points other than your home AC in the summer, or your home heater in the winter, which kills all sized reefs anyway. a bait box bubbler will run your vase in a power outage for three days, two D batteries.

A bubbling airstone setup usually never fails, Ive never had one fail in 30 yrs aquarium keeping though I know threads abound with instances.

We have a thread here on why its easier to grow pro sps frags in a fishbowl than it is in an sps reef, bc it is, and the proof is shocking :)

now that's not to say that large reefs don't get the good fish, they do. They have dilution which in the event of tank loss clearly gives padding a tiny pico reef would be killed by involving fish loss events...but don't let those comparisons imply a vase isn't an ideal first reef or second reef, it sure is. Ive converted many away from large tanking heh its fun thing to do.

a pico reef that is square and has no special lid design or evaporation control meets all the requirements for concern and gallonage.

pico reefs have such little variance from predictable maturation phases, in one writing we can guide a complete SW newb how to run them for years. its currently going down that way at nano-reef.com, some first time pico reefers now have tanks of the month
 
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Tyler_Fishman

Tyler_Fishman

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UPDATE:
After my battle with dinofllagaletes, and now that I have built up a small micro fauna population I do plan to soon add my first coral: green star polyps, my first attempt at adding them was not successful, but now that the tanks alage issues have been pretty much solved I feel a bit more confident in adding coral :)
 

DeniseAndy

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I run 2 6 gallon edge reefs and they are nice and easy. Algae gets in the way, take it all out scrub, do 100% water change off we go. I actually have a spare edge and 5g laying around to transfer to keep the tanks algae free for presentations (these are traveling tanks).

I hope to start my first "jar" reef when I am recovered from surgery. Found a great jar with a cork lid so easy to drill. May have more evap issues though.

I am sure you will do great! Sounds like you have plant experience in freshwater, so you will adapt quickly. Good luck. Show us pics.
 
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Tyler_Fishman

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Little buggers are opening up already just after 10 mind after being placed in, they look pretty good under my LEDS too, the trochus is taking his sweet time although

20171023_201739_001.jpg
 

DeniseAndy

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Looks like a monster with many arms. :) I see the refugium, what are the other two filters? Just curious. 1g is so little water the more the better.
 

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