Modification on budget tank

ReefHog10 · Feb 3, 2022

I had purchased a small, 8 gallon, Top Fin "dazzle" tank from Petco to house my quarantine fish for observation prior to adding to display tank and it has honestly done incredibly well. Added a few pieces of live rock as well as some matrix bio material to one of the bank chambers at set up, put some bacterial starter in with the only fish (~ 2.5-3" coral beauty angel) and the water parameters have stayed perfect for going on two weeks. All that to say, it has done better than expected and I'm pleasantly surprised.. which got me to thinking (ha). Once I move the Coral Beauty to my DT, could I convert this to a desktop pico by adding live sand and a few soft corals (thinking GSP/Xenias because I would want them to grow and fill the tank) and a couple of clowns for my office? Would the stock, basic LED lights in this tank support that or would I need to find a small LED strip to mount in the hood? I would also add a small micro pump of some kind of course as there is little flow in it now. I'm new to this, have little to no experience and am full of ideas that may not at all be practical - interested in others thoughts. Thanks in advance!

MnFish1 · Feb 3, 2022

Maybe - it would be better to keep that tank as your QT tank (assuming you're planning to buy more fish - though its kind of small) - and buy a regular pico/nano tank? Otherwise I don't see why you cant do it. As far as the light - you could ask your lFS to rent/borrow a PAR meter to check the light you have in the tank. Also - the type of coral you're planning to add generally do not require huge amounts of light.

Good luck with whatever you decide

ReefHog10 · Feb 3, 2022

My local fish store isn't exactly "local".. ha. I can't find any info on the intensity of those lights, but considering they're stock to a $40 tank I can't imagine they're great. On the other hand, I've read where soft corals don't require much.. Just curious if folks had any experience with a similar scenario.