Pico College Tank: Updates People Updates!

[CD_Scapes]

Hi y'all,

Over Easter I finally got back into saltwater after about half a year away from the salty side. I currently have been keeping freshwater for the whole 12 years I have been in the hobby. On the freshwater side I specialize in botanical method aquariums that focus on replicating the natural habitats of fishes with the addition of botanicals and tannin-stained waters at times. Now I can't have tannin-stained waters in a saltwater (to my knowledge) but I do know I can have botanicals in the form of mangrove leaves in a saltwater aquarium. So with this project I will be adding in a few leaves from yellow and red mangroves to add that natural touch and as a bit of an experiment. I am really trying to focus on keeping this as natural as possible so expect lots of browns and greens also microalgae, mud, and "pests" to an extent.

FTS 4/10/23:

Equipment-
-UNS 25c (Coming soon!)
-ONF Nano+
- Dymax SF-120
- 25W Archaea heater with Inkbird controller
- Duetto ATO with 1G Reservoir
- Custom Target wood plant stand


Filtration-
- MarinePure Gems
- 6lbs TBS rock (Coming Soon!)
-3lbs TBS live sand
- AquaClear 30
- .5 gallon weekly water change

Fish-
-Tiger Goby (Coming soon!)

Wishlist Inverts-
- CUC

• Amphipods
• Chitons
• Copepods
• Dwarf Ceriths
• Dwarf Planaxis
• Marginella Snails
• Micro Brittlestars
• Money Cowrie
• Stomatella Snails
• Zig zag Periwinkles

- Crabs

• Blue/Green Porcelain Crabs
• Decorator crabs
• Mime Crabs

- Misc.

• Cluster Duster
• Short Codium
• (Possible) Flat Tree Oysters

Wishlist Coral-

• Caribbean palythoa
• Gorgonian of some type

Future Goals
Moving forward I plan to upgrade my tank to a UNS 25c which is a nice 4 gallon cube tank that will fit the stand perfectly. Speaking of the stand, I hope when I go home for the summer I can add a couple more support bars on the sides and back of the stand to help stabilize it a bit. I also hope to add in some side paneling and a door to just make it look a bit cleaner to me. Lastly I will put another shelf at the base of the stand so I can use this current tank as the ATO reservoir inside the stand.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with the new tank!!!

 

[Troylee]

Should be a cool little build!

 

[LegalReefer]

Looks great, should be a very fun little build! Good luck with it, where did you get your rock? Looks like you've already got a coral, right?

 

[CD_Scapes]

Looks great, should be a very fun little build! Good luck with it, where did you get your rock? Looks like you've already got a coral, right?

Got it from my LFS was like $7 and yeah I noticed the red disco mushrooms when I brought the rock home

 

[LegalReefer]

Excited to see how this turns out! Careful with the discosoma shrooms, they can multiply like mad. I have blue discos, started with ~8 and now have dozens all over

 

[CD_Scapes]

Excited to see how this turns out! Careful with the discosoma shrooms, they can multiply like mad. I have blue discos, started with ~8 and now have dozens all over

Yeah the one I have now already split off from its foot so I have 3. Also found a little aiptasia too while I was doing the water change today. Speaking of a waterchange, I set a heater out of one of my other tanks on the counter to clean some algae off of it and then when I went to wipe it the whole heater exploded in my hand! I think the paper towel was too cold after the heater was exposed to cool air as well. I should have let it temperature acclimate a little more before I wiped it down, but I wasn't hurt so thats good at least.

 

[minorhero]

Picos are fun, I'm loving mine so far. Looks like you are off to a good start minus the exploding heater

I'm also wanting to add pederson cleaner shrimp to my pico. Ideally a small group of them, but so far I haven't found anyone who has tried to keep multiples in a small tank. If you get to that place before me, looking forward to watching how it goes

 

[CD_Scapes]

Picos are fun, I'm loving mine so far. Looks like you are off to a good start minus the exploding heater

I'm also wanting to add pederson cleaner shrimp to my pico. Ideally a small group of them, but so far I haven't found anyone who has tried to keep multiples in a small tank. If you get to that place before me, looking forward to watching how it goes

Will do! I think I will try out a couple of them. I first need to get these red mushrooms out of my tank though before they take over

 

[LegalReefer]

How's the tank looking with some of the haze settled down?

 

[CD_Scapes]

How's the tank looking with some of the haze settled down?

It’s looking pretty great, I think later tonight I will try and freeze off the mushrooms with some ice but besides that everything is doing great

 

[LegalReefer]

If I were you, I'd just pry the mushrooms off and set a small cup with some rubble in the corner to let them attach. There are always people in the hobby willing to take corals, and these animals are special enough that nothing ever warrants killing them, in my opinion. Feel free to disagree though!

 

[CD_Scapes]

If I were you, I'd just pry the mushrooms off and set a small cup with some rubble in the corner to let them attach. There are always people in the hobby willing to take corals, and these animals are special enough that nothing ever warrants killing them, in my opinion. Feel free to disagree though!

I mean people freeze off anemones and they turn out fine in the end. The mushrooms don’t fit my desires for the tank so I’m planning to remove them and get other stuff

 

[LegalReefer]

I mean people freeze off anemones and they turn out fine in the end. The mushrooms don’t fit my desires for the tank so I’m planning to remove them and get other stuff

I wasn't recommending you keep them! Was just saying not to kill them. If you put out an "ad" for free coral, I guarantee there will be someone local who'd take them. Alternatively you could take them to your LFS and trade them in

 

[CD_Scapes]

Oh for sure, I might even just bring the rock back and get rock from KPAquatics too

 

[LegalReefer]

My brother started with live rock from KP Aquatics (I think, might've been Gulf Live Rock), and his tank looks fantastic. Definitely recommend real live rock from the sea!

 

[Cell]

I mean people freeze off anemones and they turn out fine in the end. The mushrooms don’t fit my desires for the tank so I’m planning to remove them and get other stuff

I've never found ice to be a very effective method in getting nems to detach. Cool tank.

 

[LegalReefer]

I've never found ice to be a very effective method in getting nems to detach. Cool tank.

What have you found to be effective? I actually need a way to get RBTA's to detach, I've got 6 right now, and want to give one to my brother

 

[Cell]

This:

Safe and Easy DIY way to remove Nems

Due to seeing numerous post recently about how to remove anemones and shrooms without hurting them or destroying rock work. I felt like this was in order. First off, a little back story. Years ago, when I lived in Florida and collected aquatic life on a regular basis, we always had issues with...

www.reef2reef.com

Or hanging upside down over a bucket but I never really liked doing it that way.

 

[CD_Scapes]

My brother started with live rock from KP Aquatics (I think, might've been Gulf Live Rock), and his tank looks fantastic. Definitely recommend real live rock from the sea!

Yeah I used to have some in an old UNS 30a before I moved dorms last year, sometime during its move the gracilaria melted and the tank was never the same. Maybe I could re-setup this tank again? Who knows though, I feel like the stand would be nice for the tank but also another 30a would be amazing.