immortaly007
New Member
In the last few months, after keeping freshwater shrimp for years, I've started my saltwater journey in a challenging way by trying to run a pico tank. Since I'm pretty new to reefkeeping, I am interested in your feedback. I also thought this might be interesting for future reefers to read.
In November 2024, I visited Vivarium, a large aquarium conference in the Netherlands, and found a "good" deal on a used Aqua Medic Armatus XS. In the end, maybe I should have gone with a new one: it turned out the tank was missing some pieces, notably the holds for the lamp and the cover for the overflow, and the display tank is pretty scratched from (probably) too rough cleaning. But I figured, let's see how it goes.
So, I went to the LFS, got some Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, live rock, and a replacement accessories pack (30 nov 2024). For the sump, apart from the filtration media that came with the tank, I added some bio balls, active coal, and more live rock.
This led to a nice algae bloom, pictured here after ~2 weeks on Dec 11:
So far so good, time to cycle! I realized I didn't like the supplied lamp since there was no way to automate the lighting schedule (other than on/off on a timer). I ended up upgrading to an Aqua Knight V2 on a black friday deal, which I quite like.
As time went on, algae and small organisms started coming on the live rock. On Jan 19th, I spotted some starfish-looking little critters (some type of Asterina). I am also spotting more an more feather dusters in various colors (white, red and brown feathers). I think they're cute, so I am keeping them (macro picture with a zoom lens of the star fish):
I also ordered some test kits so I could check on parameters, specifically
* Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro for Ca, Mg and KH
* Hanna PO4 ultra low range tester
* Salifert NO2 and NH3/NH4 tests
* Nyos Nitrate
This showed that Magnesium was pretty high (around 1600 between januari and march), while KH was low: around 6 when I first measured it. I brought i back up to ~9 with water changes, but it keeps dropping a little daily.
But, since I now kept it in an "acceptable range", I decided to add the first corals: two Zoa frags on Feb 8 (pic the day after, on the first day, they were closed)
I also got some color-filter phone lens a few days later, which led to these pictures. All the white dots I think are Spirorbid Worms:
The green Zoa (bottom in this pic) seems to be more picky. It opens slower, not all polyps open every day. I figured maybe I wants to be closer to the center of the light, so I moved it there. I seems to help a bit.
On Feb 22, after the Zoa's had been doing well for a few weeks, I decided to add, what I thought, was GSP (see this topic). It turned out to be a green hairy mushroom (rhodactys) species. It looks cool tho, so I'm keeping it. I did move it down to the floor later, as it would regularly (almost) topple over:
Mar 15: The mushroom is doing well, so I decided to add the GSP that I wanted to add originally. My plan is to eventually have GSP and the mushroom cover the original live rock (and zoa's cover the rocks on the left). I also added some snails. I think they are a Trochus histrio and Turbo fluctuosus, to help take care of the algae.
Currently, as you can see on the last picture with the snail, the green zoa has been unhappy since the new additions (and also in the morning). It has just been closed. I have noticed that it's generally the most happy right after a water change, and then throughout the week gets less happy until I do another water change. I do pretty large water changes (~40%) weekly, to keep the parameters as close as possible to "freshly mixed" water. I am not sure if this is maybe annoying the Zoa's.
Also, nutrients are very low, I'm consistently measuring Nitrates 0-0.5 and Phosphates 0-0.03. With KH also slowly dropping throughout the week and boosting again at the water change.
Some Armatus XS tips:
Last weekend, the pump completely stopped working. It turned out that you can open it up with sharp nails or a screwdriver, and clean the tiny sponge and filter mechanism.
I created a custom ATO for the tank using a ESP8266 (Arduino board), an external water level sensor, and a small USB pump. A normal ATO didn't fit in the tank. Let me know if you're interested in pics/build info on that.
I've now pointed a camera at the tank to try and do a timelapse to see if I can find anything that might be causing the zoa's to close, or if there's times when they do open.
In the future, I might add some sexy shrimp, but first I want the corals to be happy, as I'm concerned that sexy's would eat zoa's if they're unhealthy.
Parameters:
Temp: 25C
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
SG: 1.025 (usually I am for 1.026, don't know why it dropped)
KH: 7.5
Ca: 410
Mg: 1360
PO4: 0
Any tips on how to keep the zoa's happier, what to test for, or tips on the scape, algae control, or coral selection, are very welcome!
In November 2024, I visited Vivarium, a large aquarium conference in the Netherlands, and found a "good" deal on a used Aqua Medic Armatus XS. In the end, maybe I should have gone with a new one: it turned out the tank was missing some pieces, notably the holds for the lamp and the cover for the overflow, and the display tank is pretty scratched from (probably) too rough cleaning. But I figured, let's see how it goes.
So, I went to the LFS, got some Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, live rock, and a replacement accessories pack (30 nov 2024). For the sump, apart from the filtration media that came with the tank, I added some bio balls, active coal, and more live rock.
This led to a nice algae bloom, pictured here after ~2 weeks on Dec 11:
So far so good, time to cycle! I realized I didn't like the supplied lamp since there was no way to automate the lighting schedule (other than on/off on a timer). I ended up upgrading to an Aqua Knight V2 on a black friday deal, which I quite like.
As time went on, algae and small organisms started coming on the live rock. On Jan 19th, I spotted some starfish-looking little critters (some type of Asterina). I am also spotting more an more feather dusters in various colors (white, red and brown feathers). I think they're cute, so I am keeping them (macro picture with a zoom lens of the star fish):
I also ordered some test kits so I could check on parameters, specifically
* Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro for Ca, Mg and KH
* Hanna PO4 ultra low range tester
* Salifert NO2 and NH3/NH4 tests
* Nyos Nitrate
This showed that Magnesium was pretty high (around 1600 between januari and march), while KH was low: around 6 when I first measured it. I brought i back up to ~9 with water changes, but it keeps dropping a little daily.
But, since I now kept it in an "acceptable range", I decided to add the first corals: two Zoa frags on Feb 8 (pic the day after, on the first day, they were closed)
I also got some color-filter phone lens a few days later, which led to these pictures. All the white dots I think are Spirorbid Worms:
The green Zoa (bottom in this pic) seems to be more picky. It opens slower, not all polyps open every day. I figured maybe I wants to be closer to the center of the light, so I moved it there. I seems to help a bit.
On Feb 22, after the Zoa's had been doing well for a few weeks, I decided to add, what I thought, was GSP (see this topic). It turned out to be a green hairy mushroom (rhodactys) species. It looks cool tho, so I'm keeping it. I did move it down to the floor later, as it would regularly (almost) topple over:
Mar 15: The mushroom is doing well, so I decided to add the GSP that I wanted to add originally. My plan is to eventually have GSP and the mushroom cover the original live rock (and zoa's cover the rocks on the left). I also added some snails. I think they are a Trochus histrio and Turbo fluctuosus, to help take care of the algae.
Currently, as you can see on the last picture with the snail, the green zoa has been unhappy since the new additions (and also in the morning). It has just been closed. I have noticed that it's generally the most happy right after a water change, and then throughout the week gets less happy until I do another water change. I do pretty large water changes (~40%) weekly, to keep the parameters as close as possible to "freshly mixed" water. I am not sure if this is maybe annoying the Zoa's.
Also, nutrients are very low, I'm consistently measuring Nitrates 0-0.5 and Phosphates 0-0.03. With KH also slowly dropping throughout the week and boosting again at the water change.
Some Armatus XS tips:
Last weekend, the pump completely stopped working. It turned out that you can open it up with sharp nails or a screwdriver, and clean the tiny sponge and filter mechanism.
I created a custom ATO for the tank using a ESP8266 (Arduino board), an external water level sensor, and a small USB pump. A normal ATO didn't fit in the tank. Let me know if you're interested in pics/build info on that.
I've now pointed a camera at the tank to try and do a timelapse to see if I can find anything that might be causing the zoa's to close, or if there's times when they do open.
In the future, I might add some sexy shrimp, but first I want the corals to be happy, as I'm concerned that sexy's would eat zoa's if they're unhealthy.
Parameters:
Temp: 25C
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
SG: 1.025 (usually I am for 1.026, don't know why it dropped)
KH: 7.5
Ca: 410
Mg: 1360
PO4: 0
Any tips on how to keep the zoa's happier, what to test for, or tips on the scape, algae control, or coral selection, are very welcome!
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