Hi all, a few weeks ago my wife called me and said that my 3 gallon pico tank was hot. I mean the tank was hot, I had her grab a thermometer and it was reading over 100 degrees in the tank! I cant remember but I believe I was using a 25w or 50w aqueon heater that I got secondhand and was something I had laying around.
So the night befor this happened I noticed the corals we not opening like they should but would give it a day to see if it continued. Unfortunately the heater got stuck on and was cooking my livestock.
I felt terrible about this happening and failure was looming over me as I let all those poor creatures die over my lack of attention and total incompetence.
That tank was about 6 months old and starting to come together. I had my first coral I got over 2 years ago in it and it had been through thick and thin but finally was starting to grow (Kenya tree), a small hammer colony, zoas and shrooms splashed in the mix, and a sun coral I nursed back to life over the last year. There was also a small maroon clown with nem and a coral banded shrimp.
Have you ever had something happen in your life that was terrible but at the same time a blessing. When I set this tank up initially I just threw a bunch of stuff at it and that was it, I was about to get married and move and was in no place to be setting up a other tank but I just had to.
So now I have the opportunity to do this right. I will be documenting this on reef2reef and hopefully with the guidance of others I can have a long lived pico reef.
Here is what I am starting with...
*3 gallon water box aio
*dry rock that came from a tank that was torn down. (Only up 4 months)
*kessil a80 tuna blue
*hydor mini 1000 return pump
*tiny 80 gph pump for circulation
*possibly a smart ato micro
I'm probably going to go bare bottom just because of the ease of cleaning but Im open to suggestions. Still need to get a new heater but something a bit smaller this time, again I'm open to suggestions. Not sure what I'm going to use for filtration yet, I'm open to suggestions. Here's a few pictures of the scape I made yesterday. I would love input from everyone, oh and did i say i was open to suggestions!!
So the night befor this happened I noticed the corals we not opening like they should but would give it a day to see if it continued. Unfortunately the heater got stuck on and was cooking my livestock.
I felt terrible about this happening and failure was looming over me as I let all those poor creatures die over my lack of attention and total incompetence.
That tank was about 6 months old and starting to come together. I had my first coral I got over 2 years ago in it and it had been through thick and thin but finally was starting to grow (Kenya tree), a small hammer colony, zoas and shrooms splashed in the mix, and a sun coral I nursed back to life over the last year. There was also a small maroon clown with nem and a coral banded shrimp.
Have you ever had something happen in your life that was terrible but at the same time a blessing. When I set this tank up initially I just threw a bunch of stuff at it and that was it, I was about to get married and move and was in no place to be setting up a other tank but I just had to.
So now I have the opportunity to do this right. I will be documenting this on reef2reef and hopefully with the guidance of others I can have a long lived pico reef.
Here is what I am starting with...
*3 gallon water box aio
*dry rock that came from a tank that was torn down. (Only up 4 months)
*kessil a80 tuna blue
*hydor mini 1000 return pump
*tiny 80 gph pump for circulation
*possibly a smart ato micro
I'm probably going to go bare bottom just because of the ease of cleaning but Im open to suggestions. Still need to get a new heater but something a bit smaller this time, again I'm open to suggestions. Not sure what I'm going to use for filtration yet, I'm open to suggestions. Here's a few pictures of the scape I made yesterday. I would love input from everyone, oh and did i say i was open to suggestions!!