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Pico³


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For the contest I'll be entering with an Eheim aquastyles 4. The girlfriend has always wanted seahorses so I took this chance to get another tank, get her horses, and enter the contest.

Here is the entry picture: post-2165-0-68701900-1358312785_thumb.jp

Tonight we put purigen into the built in corner filter and sand into the tank:post-2165-0-95533200-1358312800_thumb.jp

And how it looks before bed: post-2165-0-43614600-1358312811_thumb.jp

I've added some bottled bacteria and will add the dwarf horse tomorrow, we will be ordering 5 more dwarfs to have a heard of 6.

Got a rockscape in the works right now, also a par 38 on the shelf in case we want more light. Mainly we will have macro algae, and potentially some sea whips for hitch posts. Since dwarfs take live food and constantly need fed (no stomachs to hold any food) I've got some pod cultures started, phyto culture running, and BBS hatching.

Budget:

Tank/stand/filter/light $90 ($60 left for slush)

Livestock $40 2 dwarfs (one was lost and will be replaced) ($110 remains)

Equipment $0 (deciding if I should get a sump or anything special)

Free items: Sugar sand

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Yeah we went with dwarfs for the challenge and as a way to set ourselves apart from other tanks sin e we have just a basic pico.

It was a used tank that got filled for less than 24 hours before they decided to not bring this style in so the shop didn't want to display it.

The sps colonies are indeed for this, it will provide great shape and hitching sites.

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Yeah I got envious of the awesome tank names so we decided its a pico cube;)

Earlier I moved the dwarf into the pico and poured in some pods, he went right to the expanded chaeto clump, hitched up and started the hunt.

Even though I don't have my rock scape yet I've got him in there so it's more confined spaces to increase pod interaction. He/she was in a 10 gallon before. I have sieves and will pull all the pods from him holding tank into the pico.

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dont get me wrong, the feeding on these is anything but easy. I have probably 5 times the water mass in live cultures just for it to eat than I have in the entire tank. I'm actually in the process of rearranging a room to have a shelf rack of cultures. I'll be doing rotifers, BBS, phyto, 3 species of pods, and maybe mysis.

I expect to spend around 1 hour per day jut tending the cultures and getting food to the horse.

I then need to build a way to auto feed my pico tank when I leave, since they have no stomach they need constant food. It is said that you cant leave more than 2 hours or they will die, so I'll start hammering out a way to transport food in without too much water, all remotely and without pumps killing the food as it transfers.

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dosing pump through a sieve...sieve moves on stepping motor to feed tank and then resets....arduino to the rescue!

If your willing to help me figure that part out I'm willing to drink beer with you ;)

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nice i like this! my gf has been wanting dwarfs as well so we are using this oppertunity to set up a tank for them too. sorry to hear about your loss, these horses can be a pain in the butt sometimes. do you know how many gph your filter does?

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Just a few pics from earlier this morning. Put food in for him and since they are attracted to light I like to turn my filter and light off and place a small flashlight to guide them. The column begins at the top and slowly extends down into the water before swarming all around.2yzypebe.jpgga4u7egy.jpg9ymapura.jpg

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Thanks guys! We will be ordering in a herd within the next two week and setting them through a QT process I have planned out. I'll be able to add in the new ones with little risk to the original.

also think we might put a small conch into the tank to sad sift and clean up possibly.

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