My 3 Gal Pico

[esacjack]

So I bought my fiance a Biocube 29 for her birthday. I spent a lot of time researching saltwater parameters, testing gear, the nitrogen cycle etc. Somehow, along the way it became my hobby as well.. So to be sure the hobby was for me, I thought I'd start with a small, complicated tank.

I picked up the 3Gal from Drs Fosters Smith back in Mid August. Since I'm creating this thread a month and some change into the tanks life. I'll separate out the timeframes with different replies.

My initial research led me to the following requirements:

Small

Colorful

Clean

No drilling

Lots of live rock

Deep Sand Bed

-NO- Pests

Frequent Water Changes

I know the last one is near impossible to guarantee, but I promised myself I would take every step possible to prevent pests.

Here is my initial expenditure list; (Sorry about the formatting, when I pasted my spreadsheet to the editor, it really messed up the alignment.)

Product Amount Price Extended Price

Picotope 3 Gallon Kit 1 36.99 36.99

Eheim Heater w/ Thermostat 1 16.99 16.99

AquaClear 50 HOB Filter 1 34.99 34.99

Current USA 3-Way Splitter 3 14.99 44.97

Current USA 12V Power Supply 1 15.99 15.99

Small Mag Float 1 7.99 7.99

Lugols Solution 1 10.99 10.99

SeaChem Reef Pack 1 11.99 11.99

Coral Life Digital Therm 1 6.99 6.99

TrippLite Ecosurge 2 26.64 53.28

APC 750VA/450 WATT UPS 1 109.99 109.99

Live Rock 9lbs (Aquatek) 1 51.25 51.25

Saltwater 5 gal (Aquatek) 1 6.99 6.99

RO/DI 5 Gal (Aquatek) 1 4.99 4.99

Caribsea Indo Pacific Black 20lbs 1 15.99 15.99

Hydor Koralia Nano 1 28.99 28.99

Considerations :

We have some weird power issues/spikes in the office. I didnt want any damage to the tank. So I opted for a battery backup system for the tank. It's already saved my butt a few times. Given the amount of backup vs the amount of draw, I have approximately 7 hours of batter backup time.

For those curious as to how those calculations play out:

Watts/Volts = Amps

Amps * Volts = VA

Each device we use has a volt/watt rating. Using this information I calculated I would need a minimum of 100V/a to power the system for 1 hour. I simply multiplied this by 7, (a 750VA UPS is pretty cheap, cheaper than replacing livestock...)

About my Timers:

On my fiances BC29 I was using some of the corallife timers, but one died, and the other has some weird issues not keeping time correctly. We tried dial timers, but i didn't like the caveman feel of it. (Hey, I'm a network engineer, automation is my thing..)

At work I use these TrippLite Timed Surge protectors to handle a variety of things, so I bought a few for the tank lights and pumps. They're guaranteed for life, are fully digital, have 7 zones per strip, with 2 banks of timer options. This allowed me to setup the Koralia Nano as a daytime pump in addition to the AC50. At night the Koralia Nano shuts off during the moon phase and night time hours. This same strip controls my actinic blues and my main lamp.

Why the Aquaclear 50? Why not the 70?

While I saw the value in having the 70 to hide a heater, etc. I wanted to keep keep the Volts/Watts low so that in the event of a power failure, I'd have a lot of wiggle room. Additionally, I hadn't originally planned on doing a refugium, but we'll cover that later. It wasn't till much later I discovered the 70 had the same watt/volts scheme. *D'oh!*

Why would you want frequent water changes?

I wanted a tank that forced me to learn how to properly change, test, and mix water correctly. By doing this, I felt as though when I was ready to break-in the 46 gallon tank, I would feel a little more at ease about crashing it.

Whats up with all the TrueLumens kits?

I'm a network engineer by trade. I'm also a habitual tinkerer, shade tree mechanic, and mod-head.

After eyeballing the tank and its included lamp, I wanted actinic blues. But knew that the blues would be more focused in a given area. So I decided on three, distributed in a triangle formation along the halo of the lamp.

Why so much live rock?

It's funny you ask, actually, a member of this forum unknowingly led me to my decision to use a lot of live rock and deep sand bed for the purpose of biological filtering. I wanted the eco system and biological filtration to do the majority of the work for me, making the tank a little more hands off. (Thanks Patrick/Subsea). Another reason I used a lot of live rock, was that I wanted a natural looking shelves to place frags on, but I wanted it to cascade at a very shallow level. I also don't really think this is 'too much' live rock, as I've seen others with much much more.

Livestock:

Initially, I only wanted to do Zooanthids and a kenya tree and some glove polyps. Along with a cleanup crew. We all know how that goes.... Here are my current inhabitants. (All placed in tank AFTER break-in/cycling completed)

Live Rock 9lbs n/a Medium N/A Bottom

Live Sand Carribsea 10lbs n/a Medium N/A Bottom

Neon Pineapple Tree 1 Frag 2.5 Med - Strng Mod - High Bott/Mid

Green Fluore Mushroom 1 Frag 4 Mushrooms 5 Low - Med Moderate All

Button Polyp (Tan)paly 1 Frag 5 Polyps / 2 Inches Medium Moderate Mid

Taro Tree Coral (Tan) 1 Frag 2.5 Med - Strng Mod - High All

Green Star Polyps (GSP) 3 stems 6 Med - Strng Mod - High Mid / Top

Fancy Damsel 1 1.23 N/A N/A N/A

Torch Coral 1 frag 3 branches 2.4 inches Med - Strng Mod - High Bottom

Future Upgrades:

Convert included pump/filter to refugium. (In progress)

Replace light system with a LEDTric PAR38 FS

Convert AC50 to 50/50 Surface skimmer/circulation filter

Low profile ATO system

( Note: I will continued to update this thread to bring everyone up to speed where my tank is now, i'll attempt to format it in Week/Day)

( Note2: I have tried to attach the excel spreadsheet I'm using to track expenditures, parts, water changes, levels, and inhabitants. But alas, the site does not allow XLS )

[victoly]

first things first, an easy way to post expense charts is to copy/pasta into google documents spreadsheet.

second thing, if you're a network engineer, you're gonna need one of these: http://www.neptunesystems.com/ We'll see you in the appropriate subforum when you've made the choice that 90% of all reef technologists use (where's my dadgum commission from neptune...):

third thing: a major issue that folks seem to have with office tanks is temperature control. many office buildings shut down the AC at night, and it is very hard to keep a tank at a decent temperature with no indoor AC. at a bare minimum evaporative cooling can help keep you in the low 80's. however with a tank that small, you could evaporate a large percentage of your tank in a single day without an ATO. good to see that it is in the works.

here is a gif commemorating your tank build post:

Look forward to seeing pictures!

[esacjack]

Week 1 Day 3

Bad picture with cell.

Cycle has started and I'm still sporting the original filter the unit came with. 1 set of Truelumens LED BLUE's installed.

Went with a 2.5 inch sand bed. Didn't bother aquascaping just yet, want to make sure the cycle is going strong. Added a chunk of raw shrimp to kick start the cycle. Chunk of shrimp can be seen in foreground right corner of tank.

Lights setup on timer. With daylights running from 7:30AM to 5:45PM (Sunrise/Sunset) and Actinics running from 6:37AM to 6:45PM.

Edited October 10, 2012 by esacjack

[esacjack]

first things first, an easy way to post expense charts is to copy/pasta into google documents spreadsheet.

second thing, if you're a network engineer, you're gonna need one of these: http://www.neptunesystems.com/ We'll see you in the appropriate subforum when you've made the choice that 90% of all reef technologists use (where's my dadgum commission from neptune...):

third thing: a major issue that folks seem to have with office tanks is temperature control. many office buildings shut down the AC at night, and it is very hard to keep a tank at a decent temperature with no indoor AC. at a bare minimum evaporative cooling can help keep you in the low 80's. however with a tank that small, you could evaporate a large percentage of your tank in a single day without an ATO. good to see that it is in the works.

here is a gif commemorating your tank build post:

Look forward to seeing pictures!

The building I'm in is a 'green' facility and does shut the AC off on nights/weekends. However, in my office I have a circulating 'turbine' that keeps our area at about 78 degrees. Before going forward with the build, I installed my AVTech Temperature monitor in the room, and monitored the temperature averages (highs and lows) for about 2 weeks. My max temp in the room was 81.37 degrees. After installing the tank, and running my fan, my max temp in the room has been 77.8. Tank temperature during cycling I monitored daily via a webcam attached to my desktop in the office. I would VPN into my office, and remotely check the temp. Max temp never exceeded 77. However, there is notable evaporation, I lose almost EXACTLY the same amount everyday, 300ML. So a refill is a simple measuring cup full each morning. Gravity and Salinity have never been in the realm of dangerous (yet). But definitely planning an ATO VERY soon.

[victoly]

Yeah, at those temperatures you should be dandy assuming your HOB doesn't impart too much heat. Worst case scenario you throw a little clip on fan that kicks on at night to get you in range. But yeah, ATO is a necessity for that, and especially important in a small volume tank.

[esacjack]

Week 1 Day 7

Went to the Dome today, after seeing the build up of diatoms along the bottom of the tank. Picked up 2 snails and an emerald crab. Also installed my eheim heater and stock AC50. Set the heater to 77 degrees, and decided to go ahead and install the koralia nano. In the process, somehow i convinced myself I needed a fancy damsel. Her name is Dani and she hates everything....except the camera...

Had to move a few things around on the tank to accommodate the new gear. Water is still murky, Nitrites and Nitrates were pretty negligible.

Have been topping off 300ML each morning to accommodate for evaporation.

[esacjack]

Week 2 Day 4

Cycle has pretty much completed at this time. The water is very clear, the damsel is doing great, except she hates pellet food. Sometime between Day 2 and Day 3 a friends tank crashed. He was in the process of acclimating a mushroom frag and a few tree corals when it happened, so he handed them off to me. Somewhere along the way, I ended up with a single solitary xenia tree and a palyfrag.

Still havent aquascaped much, but I think this picture is a good start of where I want to go with it.

[esacjack]

Week 2 Day 6

Found some Zoa's clining to the underside of one of my rocks. Didn't know they were there, or where they came from. Gel glued them to a piece of coral skel that was laying on the bottom of the tank.

At this point I've been adding calcium and diluted flugols to the tank in small doses.

[esacjack]

Week 3 Day 1

Came into the office today to see my mushrooms had opened back up and the trees were looking nice.

At this point, I decided I wanted my aquascape to resemble a cave entrance with patches of grass and trees around it. So I drew it all out on paper. Which saved me a lot of time moving things around IN the tank.

At some point, the xenia tree completely disappeared. Never to be seen again.

[esacjack]

Week 3 Day 4

Decided to add some GSP to the tank to give me that grassy look I want. Decided to keep it along the substrate and along the back of the tank attached to a rock. I also noticed after moving one of my other frags, I had 3 little zoas popping up!

[esacjack]

Note Dani staring down the camera.... she's such a ham.

[esacjack]

GSP Attached to rock with rubber band.

[victoly]

now this is what I call a tank diary.

[Radney711]

Sweet someone else starting a 3G pico! I just started mine this weekend! Looking good!

[esacjack]

Week 4 Day 2

Finally made it around to moving some rocks around to their semi final position. Still trying to decide on whether or not to buy a tonga plate sans base, and place it in the back of the tank. Thinking it would be a cool spot to display something, but the flow is quite strong right in that area.

GSP is looking pretty good. Moved the neon pineapple tree by gluing the semi spherical frag it was on, to a rounded edge of one of my live rocks. Had to evict one of my emerald crabs, as he was getting really testy and tearing up the tank. Moved him to my fiances 29G bio cube where he'll have more food. Picked up a smaller emerald crab with a much more mild temperament. The mushrooms have exploded! They've almost completely covered the rock they are on. I lost a mushroom off the frag a week ago, due to it being way too close to the filter... I came into the office to find the mushroom stretched from where it was attached to the rock, all the way up the filter tube... Funny, buy sad at the same time. Tried to save him, even though he was pretty torn up. Gave him a lugols dip reattached him to a separate piece of LR and set him in a low flow area in the back of the tank. Decided it was in everyones best interest if i relocated the shrooms from the ground level to a mid level spot in the tank. This worked out quite well, the plate like piece of LR they are on worked out beautifully as a cliff like shelf.

Also was shocked to see two of my Zoa's missing off the frag. Then a few hours later, I happened to notice they had somehow come off the rock, and stuck to the rock with the shrooms. I attempted to move them back, however they had already firmly attached themselves to the rock. So I left it alone. Might as well let nature take its course.

Edited October 10, 2012 by esacjack

[esacjack]

Week 4 Day 4

Not much has happened in the last few days. The GSP has a multitude of tiny white buds appearing all over the skin. The Zoa's on the mushroom frag seem to LOVE the spot they're in. I've stopped pellet foods altogether, and have now started using 2 different types of foods. Performed a water change prior to feeding, I wanted to get a feel on the impact to the nitrates/nitrties (which mysteriously, never really went away -completely-.) I decided to go ahead and do a 50% water change and had planned to change out the carbon filter, until I realized I'd forgotten to purchase a spare. *sigh* Everyday my nitrates are still visible, but the nitrites are completely gone. So I've decided to turn the stock filter into a mini-refugium to house a small handful of LR and a small clump of chaeto. Will post pics of that process soon.

[esacjack]

Week 4 Day 5

Picked up a beautiful torch coral at Aquatek yesterday. I went into the store looking for chaeto, but walked out with a torch... Proof I can't be trusted with the credit card and a long lunch hour... I also took the opportunity to use some spare black foam board to make a back for the tank. The office across from mine gets direct sunlight which was leaking into my office, which spurred an algae problem. Sorry these pics aren't as vibrant as the others, I was forced to use my cell phone camera again.

Finally installed the other TrueLumens LED's. Can't say enough about them. They really are bright (especially when you use 3 sets of them) For now they're piggy backed, but in the future I plan on cutting, soldering, and sealing them. The picture doesn't really do it justice with a cell phone camera.

The GSP is looking GREAT under all of the new lights. The zoas, and the new torch coral look FANTASTIC!

I've also located a perfect spot to use as my vacuum for my gravity ATO. The farthest left hand corner of the filter assembly sits right at my water line. Its a hollow rectangular chamber that is sealed on one end, open on the other. My plan is to tap a hole, screw in a pressure fitting, seal it, and attach a length of silicone tubing to it. The other end will run to a matching pressure fitting, tapped into a plastic 1 liter sports bottle. The sports bottle will in turn be tapped with a pressure fitting half the size of the vacuum line. This will allow more air, but slower water flow, into the tank. This should reduce the risk of overfilling it in bursts. The bottle will then be placed into a metal water bottle holder, intended for use on bicycle frames. The holder will the be mounted to my wire shelving unit using the included brackets. I will of course have to do several tests on this before putting it into production use, but the theory seems sound

Edited October 11, 2012 by esacjack

[esacjack]

Week 4 Day 6

Noticed some new growth in the tank today. It's on the same frag as the mushrooms and the renegade zoas. Not sure what they are, but they look like tiny flowers, Can anyone help me identify it?

[esacjack]

heres a pic with the growth circled. It appears to have 6 - 8 arms and a stem like body similar to anthelia

Edited October 11, 2012 by esacjack

[victoly]

Probably blue clove polyps.

http://www.jimsreef....lueclove002.jpg

[esacjack]

thanks victoly, I hope so. Because that's initially what i wanted in my tank! haha.

Oh and incidentally, those neptune systems are AWESOME. But, I'm going to reserve that purchase for my 46 gallon >

[victoly]

thanks victoly, I hope so. Because that's initially what i wanted in my tank! haha.

Oh and incidentally, those neptune systems are AWESOME. But, I'm going to reserve that purchase for my 46 gallon >

they make a much cheaper one (the jr or lite i think) that is perfect for smaller systems, but lacks a few features reserved for the bigger apex such as variable dimming for LEDs.

[esacjack]

argh, why did you have to tell me that...

[victoly]

I'm a tech evangelist?

[+KimP]

Wow, your tank looks great! Especially for how small it is. I'm impressed with your planning. I'm looking forward to reading about how the gravity ato works for you, and the refugium too.