2.6 Gallon Crustacean Biotope

[Nixperience]

I’ve been out of reefing for about 6-7 years now and I got the itch again. I’ve been a long time member of nano-reef.com, but decided to check out Reef2Reef as it seems like a larger and more active community.

I decided to start a pico with my daughter’s Fluval Spec III betta tank that was collecting dust in the basement and I plan to do a bigger nano this winter once I brush the dust off my reef keeping skills. I figured the most difficult thing with picos is salinity and temperature stability, so right off the bat, I got an ato and an InkBird heat controller. I got some cured rock from the LFS and a bag of live sand to get it going. It’s been cycling almost 2 weeks and things are looking pretty good. I’ve made a few upgrades with the pump, light, and media basket and I plugged that stupid hole in the wall towards the bottom chamber of the intake.

Tank: Fluval Spec III 2.6 Gallon
Lighting: ReefBreeders Pico LED
Return: Sicce MicraPlus Pump
Heater: 50w Hydor Theo w/ InkBird Heater Controller
Filtration: InTank Media Basket with Floss and Biocubes. No chemical media at the moment
Sand: CaribSea Bahamas Oolite

My plan is to keep with simple corals that I wouldn’t mind transferring to a better tank, the usual astrea, nassarius, hermit crew, and probably some sexy shrimp and a pompom crab and I’m going to seed it with tons of pods and phyto. I would really like to do a 36” long on a bookshelf and I’m leaning towards the 21 gallon UNS 90L. I guess I’ll start a new journal once I begin that process

 

[Nixperience]

Over the years, these have been my tanks.
First was a 10 gallon and I learned as I went along.

Then I moved and started a 33 gallon cube with a 14 gallon sump, which I realized, I do not like the cube format or sumps.

Then at my new house I started a 4.3 gallon pico under my basement stairs.

Then I moved and upgraded to an IM 25 Lagoon, which I realized I love the shallow reef format. Eventually I broke that down and sold it as I wasn’t spending enough time in my basement anymore to take care of it enough.

Now 6 years later, I’m getting back into it, still loving shallow reefs and not loving sumps or AIOs, so my next build will be very clean and simple.

 

[Nixperience]

I added some corals the other day and they are responding nicely so far. I didn’t want to get anything expensive right now, since I’m getting my bearings and never been smaller than 4 gallons before. I got a blue polyp birdsnest, green monti cap, small scan colony, a blasto wellsi, some yellow zoa, a baby green Yuma, and a small colony of holy grail micromussa that the guy gave me for $20! So here is my FTS for today.

Side note, as I’ve been planning the upgrade, as much as I wanted to avoid AIO, I think having the ato box and a heater, and whatever else, it won’t hide well in the display and I’m not brave enough to go full on dirty, so I’m leaning towards the UNS 90LA aio. Then I can have media, heater, bigger return pump (thinking the ai axis 40), and even a refugium. I can hide probes if I get more tech with it. I think it will just simplify my life and the tank will be pretty accessible for cleaning. Stand is in place to let my wife digest that before I even let her know my plans for it

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome back to the hobby, looks like you have been plenty successful in the past, good luck.

 

[Nixperience]

Welcome back to the hobby, looks like you have been plenty successful in the past, good luck.

Thank you. I’m excited to get back into it and regret selling most of my stuff, but I guess acquiring new stuff is part of the fun.

 

[Nixperience]

I sketched out a couple of scaping ideas for UNS 90LA I’m planning towards. Tell
me what you think. Any changes, suggestions, pieces from each and make a new one?

 

[Fish Fan]

I sketched out a couple of scaping ideas for UNS 90LA I’m planning towards. Tell
me what you think. Any changes, suggestions, pieces from each and make a new one?

I like the middle one myself, and great skills with the sketching!

 

[kevgib67]

I picked the same one before seeing Fish Fan’s choice!

 

[Nixperience]

Thanks guys! I was actually leaning towards the middle one as well. Maybe once I actually get the tank, I can creat something similar from the front view, but work in the canyons and caves between the rocks for travel and hiding.

 

[Tahoe61]

I love Picos.

Recently purchased a Hygger HG222-9w Waver Maker for my 6 gallon. It's designed for 5-10 gallon. It's perfect for Picos.

Following.

 

[PolypPocket]

I love Picos.

Recently purchased a Hygger HG222-9w Waver Maker for my 6 gallon. It's designed for 5-10 gallon. It's perfect for Picos.

Following.

That’s the one I have for my 6 gallon too

 

[Nixperience]

I think this is the one. Combinations of the things I liked in the 3 sketches. I put the croissant formation on the left and turned it towards the end to create a little sheltered area, maybe for an RFA garden. The little overhang on the right could be nice flanked with euphyllia and run sps from the top peak down the back. I’m going to try all flow from the right side and see how that plays out between an axis 40 return pump with a varied flow and a Nero 3 on the aio wall. Once I get the go ahead from the wife to get the tank, I’ll start a new build thread for this.

 

[Nixperience]

Today I moved the tank up to its new home. I’m hoping my wife will see how stupid it looks with all that empty space and suggest I get a bigger tank. I’m going to make it her idea

 

[Nixperience]

Yesterday I stopped into my local PetCo and I was surprised to see no dead or sick looking fish and clear water and their corals actually looked OK. As usual, all their anemones are bleached though I am still reluctant to get a fish from there, but I got a sexy shrimp and convinced them to sell me a bleached RFA 75% off so I can try to nurse its color back. No pics because it buried itself, probably to protect itself from the light until it feels safe to come back out. I plan to feed it frozen misis twice a week once it’s ready to take it and hopefully it will get its color back. So $35 for a sexy shrimp and a RFA isn’t bad.

 

[Nixperience]

Since I’m definitely getting the new system by the end of November at the latest, I was thinking I could get a small royal gramma and put it in the pico until the new system is set up. Do you think that would be OK? It would only be 2 months and if ends up having a parasite, the tank will be fallow long enough by the time it transfers and if it’s healthy, I have an established safe fish for the transfer.

 

[Tahoe61]

Since I’m definitely getting the new system by the end of November at the latest, I was thinking I could get a small royal gramma and put it in the pico until the new system is set up. Do you think that would be OK? It would only be 2 months and if ends up having a parasite, the tank will be fallow long enough by the time it transfers and if it’s healthy, I have an established safe fish for the transfer.

It will jump, I guarantee it.
Personally I don’t feel right about adding it to a 2.5 gallon.
Neon Gobies are a great choice for Picos though.

 

[Nixperience]

It will jump, I guarantee it.
Personally I don’t feel right about adding it to a 2.5 gallon.
Neon Gobies are a great choice for Picos though.

I understand. It would be temporary as basically a quarantine before setting up the new system.

 

[Tahoe61]

I understand. It would be temporary as basically a quarantine before setting up the new system.

My biggest sticking point is a lid, if you have a lid and it's only a month, maybe. Remember it's a month of cycling as well.
I keep smaller fish in my 6 gallon pico from time to time but very short periods.

 

[Nixperience]

My biggest sticking point is a lid, if you have a lid and it's only a month, maybe. Remember it's a month of cycling as well.
I keep smaller fish in my 6 gallon pico from time to time but very short periods.

Gotcha. Yes I have a lid that I don’t like to use, but I would use it in this case and I would add additional rock to give it more hiding space and have more cycled rock to help the new tank cycle when that starts. I’ll wait longer before I do, so it’s not in there too long.

 

[Nixperience]

My acan is getting nice and fat and finally grew a mouth on the 4th head it was growing. This thing is looking like a scoly in this tank . I have 3 lbs of rock in this tank, but I’m going to add another pound or 2 to have even more matured rock to put in the new tank by the time it gets set up in November.