KonradTO
Valuable Member
Hi all,
I wanted to share with you some aspects relative to my pico tank, and ask for some suggestions on how to improve it.
It's a random 5g tank I used for keeping the "unwanted" critters. It was looking very ugly so I decided to give it a chance and try to make a tiny macro-xenia tank, where I also keep 2 sexy shrimps and throw some spare frags from time to time. In total I think it costed around 70$. The incredible thing is that I put so little effort in this tank compared to my main DT (32g) but in comparison is going much better.
The build is composed by:
-Random clip on plant led lights, with a lot of reds and very little blue. I think they both are like 50W together. I also supplement that with another 10w 6500k led for the central hours of the day. The result is very white/yellowish. Definitely ugly, but cheap (I had those around for other stuff I did in the past with plants)
-50W heater (15$)
-Hang on filter (Aquael pat mini) made of a pump for water movement and a sponge, which I hardly clean. (15$)
-Random USB 5v pump I use for futher water movement (10$)
-10$ of live rock
I do not have an ATO and clearly I do not dose. I do 30% WC and I feed daily a very little amount of pellet for the 2 sexy shrimps and the pods.
During the heat wave of few weeks ago I got a small bloom of that white-ish blob that grows on the back glass. It looks like bacterial but I am not entirely sure. Aside from that is incredible that I throw random stuff inside, used some sand from my DT which was riddled with dinos, and despite that the sand is very clean and I hardly see nuisance algae. I am trying to get the xenia to grow and cover the back glass, and also I would like to add some more macro species (e.g. blue Hypnea). I recently added some fragments of hollywood stunner that had some brown jelly disease. I dipped them in peroxide 50:50 and blew the brown stuff off them before introducing the frag to the pico and surprisingly not only it recovered but it is also growing very fast compared to the one in my main tank.
This makes me think that there is something I missing about nuisance algae and aquarium care. How is possible that this tiny tank I neglect so much does better than my DT where I dose, test and do all the "usual" maintanance things?
Also, what would you add to such a pico tank? I would like to add more easy corals and see how they do, like an acan and some mushrooms and leathers. Also maybe I could get a couple more sexy shrimps and hope they spawn.
I wanted to share with you some aspects relative to my pico tank, and ask for some suggestions on how to improve it.
It's a random 5g tank I used for keeping the "unwanted" critters. It was looking very ugly so I decided to give it a chance and try to make a tiny macro-xenia tank, where I also keep 2 sexy shrimps and throw some spare frags from time to time. In total I think it costed around 70$. The incredible thing is that I put so little effort in this tank compared to my main DT (32g) but in comparison is going much better.
The build is composed by:
-Random clip on plant led lights, with a lot of reds and very little blue. I think they both are like 50W together. I also supplement that with another 10w 6500k led for the central hours of the day. The result is very white/yellowish. Definitely ugly, but cheap (I had those around for other stuff I did in the past with plants)
-50W heater (15$)
-Hang on filter (Aquael pat mini) made of a pump for water movement and a sponge, which I hardly clean. (15$)
-Random USB 5v pump I use for futher water movement (10$)
-10$ of live rock
I do not have an ATO and clearly I do not dose. I do 30% WC and I feed daily a very little amount of pellet for the 2 sexy shrimps and the pods.
During the heat wave of few weeks ago I got a small bloom of that white-ish blob that grows on the back glass. It looks like bacterial but I am not entirely sure. Aside from that is incredible that I throw random stuff inside, used some sand from my DT which was riddled with dinos, and despite that the sand is very clean and I hardly see nuisance algae. I am trying to get the xenia to grow and cover the back glass, and also I would like to add some more macro species (e.g. blue Hypnea). I recently added some fragments of hollywood stunner that had some brown jelly disease. I dipped them in peroxide 50:50 and blew the brown stuff off them before introducing the frag to the pico and surprisingly not only it recovered but it is also growing very fast compared to the one in my main tank.
This makes me think that there is something I missing about nuisance algae and aquarium care. How is possible that this tiny tank I neglect so much does better than my DT where I dose, test and do all the "usual" maintanance things?
Also, what would you add to such a pico tank? I would like to add more easy corals and see how they do, like an acan and some mushrooms and leathers. Also maybe I could get a couple more sexy shrimps and hope they spawn.
