Pico tank build - Lifegard 3.8 with Side Filter

OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
wait are nano clowns a real thing? i still haven't seen or heard of these yet
I'm not sure if that's a real thing either, but the name on the glass did say "Nano Clowns".
 

Ef4life

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 19, 2020
Messages
952
Reaction score
1,702
Location
Phoenix
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
5.5g glass from petco, diy aio insert i made of travertine. This is from a few months back, the acros have all removed because of the ycg eating them.
DF8D4313-8C56-4D6C-9159-49D430B2F903.jpeg
 

jarviz

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 22, 2021
Messages
261
Reaction score
150
Location
Queens
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
what kind of powerhead is that? is it not over kill for that tank size?
 
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Bought my kid his first inhabitants for his pico - a juvenile Ocellaris, a hermit crab, and a snail.
 

Attachments

  • clown 1.jpg
    clown 1.jpg
    175.8 KB · Views: 113
  • clown 2.jpg
    clown 2.jpg
    182.8 KB · Views: 126
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks for sharing this build. I just picked up the same tank at my LFS and excited to get started with it as my office desk tank. ;)

Right on, my man. Don't forget to share pics, or a build thread of your own. Love these little picos.
 
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
1 MONTH UPDATE:


It's been about a month (started cycle 05/24) and the tank has been doing great. Parameters are stable. Ammonia has been at 0 and nitrate is between 0 and 5 ppm (hard to tell from the API test kit).

Current tank inhabitants are 1 ocellaris clown, 1 red legged hermit, 2 trochus snails, 1 turbo snail, and 1 nassarius snail. I feed minimally twice a day, and a 35%~ish water change every weekend. Lights are on a 12 hour cycle, ramping up and ramping down.

I did lose the original turbo snail and clown on the 3rd week of the tank being up. One day the snail made it's way down to the sand and just stayed there for days. Didn't move at all and I was afraid it was dead. Took it out to avoid an ammonia spike. I tried prodding it but it didn't respond. The tank temp had spiked to 83 degrees so maybe that stressed it out.

The original clown died due to a dumb mistake I made. I was procrastinating on ordering a lid, so I had a makeshift lid in the meantime. It was basically two sheets of a paper towel draped over the tank, pulled taught, and held down by tape. It was a temp solution meant to keep the dust out of the water and the clown from jumping. It actually worked well for weeks. However, we had a heat spell and had a couple of humid nights. I guess the humidity was enough to weigh the towels down just enough to touch the water. Once it made contact with water, game over. The towels absorbed a lot of water out of the tank. My kid woke up to a loud return pump and I had to do a cleanup at 6 in the morning. The clown was a bit responsive once I got fresh saltwater in the tank, but he was gasping and leaning on his side on the sandbed for most of the day. He didn't make it to the night.

After that, no more towel cover and the lid is on order. The tank has been doing well again. I got another juvie occellaris a few days after and he's been doing well. That is, up until a couple of days ago. He developed some sort of white fungal growth on his lip and side of his face. I posted a thread to see if the community can identify it. He's eating and swimming normally and is very active. To be on the safe side, I placed him in a hospital tank and treating him with malachite green.

I also placed the Ink Bird and spectral controller on the side of the cabinet for easy access. Not great, but it's as neat as it's gonna be.

Anyway, I'll treat the clown for a week and place him back in the pico if the lesions are gone. Here's a few pics of the pico before I moved him.
 

Attachments

  • blue front.jpg
    blue front.jpg
    191.7 KB · Views: 117
  • blue side.jpg
    blue side.jpg
    214.2 KB · Views: 98
  • white front.jpg
    white front.jpg
    212.3 KB · Views: 100
  • white side.jpg
    white side.jpg
    198.9 KB · Views: 127
  • gadgets.jpg
    gadgets.jpg
    195.4 KB · Views: 134
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Update: Month 2.5

Tank is a little over 2 months old. Corals from LFS, AquaSD, and WWC are settled in, eating, and growing. I will probably take off the plugs this weekend and place them on the rock permanently. For the acans, I'll glue them on separate rock rubble and place them on the sand. There's a few corals that I'm likely selling off. The platy, goniastrea, and chalice will have to go. I realized that when they grow out, it'll be too big for the pico. The clownfish has recovered fully from the fungal infection several weeks ago and looking like his old self again.

Thinking of adding more flow. There's a Jebao and Hygger nano DC pumps on Amazon, but it's probably overkill for the tank. I think I'll just get a more powerful return pump, maybe around 150 gph, and pair it with a RFG. If that works out, I'll go ahead and order a lid from KrakenReef and not worry about adding a cutout.

Other than that, tank is cruising along, no other gear needed. I like spending time watching the tank, so I manually top off with RODI daily. I also bought a fan for hot summer days, but we haven't had a heat wave yet. The tank got hot as 80 F a few days, but I just dropped in a couple of RODI ice cubes to bring the temp down a couple of degrees.

I do a 40% water change weekly. I change the filter floss twice a week. I feed the clownfish once or twice a day (pellets). On Fridays, I'll target feed the corals from brine/spirulina. Nitrates are at 0. I do get a light dusting of diatoms on the sand every now and then, but the hermit crabs mow it down in a day or two. However, I do find that I need to scrape the glass every other day. Should I go with the Flipper Nano, or a good 'ol algae scraper wand with a blade? Let me know which is best.

Next up: might start dosing Red Sea AB+. There's enough frags in the tank to uptake nutrients.
 

Attachments

  • 20210806_203928.jpg
    20210806_203928.jpg
    264.9 KB · Views: 114
  • 20210806_203942.jpg
    20210806_203942.jpg
    259.8 KB · Views: 106
  • 20210806_204035.jpg
    20210806_204035.jpg
    242.4 KB · Views: 119

WhiteTailFish

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
73
Reaction score
35
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice work so far! Sorry about you losing your clown earlier.
I finally got my tank setup and started my Build thread! Just by coincidence I ended up using the same heater and pump as you did for your build. There really arent that many good options out there for these small tanks...
 

Attachments

  • 20210728_085458.jpg
    20210728_085458.jpg
    205.4 KB · Views: 119
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice work so far! Sorry about you losing your clown earlier.
I finally got my tank setup and started my Build thread! Just by coincidence I ended up using the same heater and pump as you did for your build. There really arent that many good options out there for these small tanks...
Hey, thank you! Yes, gear selection is limited. I did find a 180 gph return pump (I forget the name, but BRS has it) and it nearly has the same dimensions as the stock return. I'll post it here if I remember.

With these picos, you really have to stay on top of your husbandry. Topping off is just as important as a water change. I'm actually thinking about doing 100% (or close to it) water changes to keep calcium, alk, and trace elements up.

Other than that, keep it simple.
 
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0

Hey Daniel, two questions.

1) I'm assuming that's a Kessil arm. Does it allow the light to be right over the tank, or is it just a bit past the front of the tank?

2) With the 360X, do you get any shadowing? I have the A80 and there's quite a bit of shadowing on corals and rock on the top part of the tank.
 
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Quick update.


Swapped out the Kessil A80 for a 360X. It's a bit overkill for this tank, but hoping to keep sticks soon.

Added a couple of rainbow acans and a couple of zoas. Everything is doing well and growing.

PO4 is stable at 0.05 - 0.10 on any given day. Alk has also steadied and in the range of 8.5 - 9.0.
 

Attachments

  • Full Tank Shot - 11-05-2021.jpeg
    Full Tank Shot - 11-05-2021.jpeg
    159.1 KB · Views: 80
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Update:

Our clown jumped out this morning. Found him on the floor.

Got another ocellaris clown to replace him. Also added a yellowtail damselfish to a pop of color and movement to the tank.

The damsel's in good shapre. The clown, not so much. Fins looked nipped and barely eating. Hopefully he'll recover and get healthy in our tank.
 

Squid_reef

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2021
Messages
17
Reaction score
30
Location
London
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sorry to hear about the clown.

It's nice to see another Pico build! I've only been scrolling through your thread now - looks great!

How are the corals doing with the new 360X?
 
OP
OP
K

KK's Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2021
Messages
1,135
Reaction score
1,139
Location
94589
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Corals look great with the 360X. They've opened up a lot more and polyps are usually out. That's only at 50% intensity. The babies on the acans have gotten bigger, and rainbow montis have started to encrust the rock.

Haven't had time to set up the Spectral Controller, but I'm hoping the UV spectrum will help with the color pop.

I think the A80 just didn't have enough juice for LPS and SPS. That and I think the dosing of AFR and keeping PO4 from bottoming out has also helped.
 

snakemau

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 8, 2021
Messages
172
Reaction score
128
Location
San Antonio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Great looking tank! Where did you put the heater? There’s no room with the intank media basket, and the rerun are will not hold that much water for the heater to be submerged…
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 71 37.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 63 33.5%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.3%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 1 0.5%
Back
Top