1 Or 4g Pico

[CAC]

Hi within the next two weeks, im hopefully going to be starting either a 1 or a 4 US gallon pico reef, and i intend to have some corals and inverts in there. Ive been doing lots of reading and posting on specialised forums, but i still cant quite come to a decision....

The problem is, do i go for the smaller, cheaper 1g, and have less corals and inverts, and risk the bigger chance of it crashing, or do i go 'all out' and go for the bigger 4g, with the possability of haveing a small Gobiodon okinawae or similar, but it would be more money, and more effort to run (i.e the 10 min drive to where i would get RO from, which with the smaller id need less water for top-offs and water changes etc.)...

What id ideally like to do would be to set-up the 1g, get some ricordea, zoas and some mushrooms and then get a shrimp or a hermit or two, then if all goes well and id like to expand (money permitting), get some bigger lights, add some more LR and inverts, and take things from there...

Basically id like to just get a taster, but without spending too much, but i still dont want to waste £80+ if it crashes...

What would you surrgest in terms of coral and invert stocking for both the 1g and 4g???

Thanks alot for you time, Mikey.

 

[CAC]

Sorry for the bump, but id really like abit of advice, thanks

 

[Donya]

The problem is, do i go for the smaller, cheaper 1g, and have less corals and inverts, and risk the bigger chance of it crashing, or do i go 'all out' and go for the bigger 4g, with the possability of haveing a small Gobiodon okinawae or similar, but it would be more money, and more effort to run (i.e the 10 min drive to where i would get RO from, which with the smaller id need less water for top-offs and water changes etc.)...

R/O is cheap, and the price difference will be miniscule for such a small difference in tank size (were it 4 gal vs. 200 gal that would different lol). So, don't use that as a factor over things like tank stability. You will not fit much at all in a 1 gallon...if you want a taste of more stuff more safely with less risk of blowing the money on a tank crash, the 4 gallon is better. The 4 gallon should not be more effort to run either...if anything it should be less.

Although I'm not an expert, I would go for the 4 gallon in the interest of stability and opporuntiy to experiment with what is in it.

get some ricordea, zoas and some mushrooms and then get a shrimp or a hermit or two

TBH after seeing the space available in the 1 gallon I've got, I do not think there is room for all that in such a small space, not safely anyway. One good-sized shroom could easily take up a huge amount of space in a 1 gallon.

 

[CAC]

Allright some good ideas, thanks Donya
The problem with the water is, that id have to go and actually get it from the shop, and 4 is quite alot of water...for topoffs and water chages...
How many corals, and how big would you think would be suitable for the 4g?
Also, on the 4g, how often and how much should i water change?

Thanks alot, Mikey

 

[Donya]

For a long time I did everything with 1 gallon bottles for my 5 gallon, about 1 bottle of water per week. On a 4 gallon, you probably shouldn't be changing out more than 1 gallon of water at a time unless something catastrophic happens. I never change out more than 1/2 gallon at a time on my 5 gallon. So, it evened out to 1/2 gallon to mix for new saltwater and 1/2 gallon to use for topoffs. I rarely went through that much for topoffs, but it depends on temperature and humidity in the room of course.

How many corals, and how big would you think would be suitable for the 4g?

Corals are not my area of expertise, so I should leave this one to someone else who has had direct experience with a variety of species. I just know from my own tanks that shrooms can get big and pretty fast too, and they need a large surface area to open up. If you were only going to go with one species of softie that grows in groups, I would think you could fit a lot more in than if you stock different species. Different species can get into space/turf wars.

 

[CAC]

Im not too sure about what to do...

One part of me wants to just get the 4g set-up, and get a few corals, but the other thinks of all the effort...

Thanks, Mikey

 

[demonmagus]

well tbh that's what you were in this for lol, marine tanks are hard (apparently, I don't know myself) a nano is harder, and a pico is very hard, so I would go with the 4 for same reasons as Donya, btw what lighting would you use?

 

[CAC]

Id use some 18w 50/50 6,500K lighting.
Yeah, but its the fact that id need more water each week, and more salt...

Mikey

 

[demonmagus]

but the 1g would be harder to look after I think. Like donya said the salt/water shouldn't put you off completely

 

[Donya]

Yeah, but its the fact that id need more water each week, and more salt...

How much does R/O and salt cost where you are? I would compare this to the amount that could be lost in a crash & rebuilding, plus the distress of it all. Also, if you can afford to spend as much as most corals cost (riccordea around here is $50US--not cheap), I would think RO would be a trivial expense to be worrying about. It seems strange to me for the same reason that it would seem strange to buy a really expensive car and then complain about gas prices. That's not to say I have a lot of money and assume everyone else does...I practically live on noodles. But I've found other, non-critical ways to cut expenses with tanks. Saccrificing stability for cheapness is not a smart move unless you are 100% certain you know what you're doing.

 

[CAC]

I do have enough money to set-up either tank, but its the fact that id have to travel each week to the shop, with a huge bucket, and collect a load of water...Plus, cos im 15, i dont drive...Its a hassel to be asking people to go and get it with me, you know what i mean?
If i got the 1g set-up, then if we went and got 4g, then itd prob do for 2-3 weeks, if i covered the top, but for a 4g, thatd maybe only last one or less...

Mikey

 

[Donya]

If money is not the issue, then why don't you get an R/O unit for your tap?

 

[demonmagus]

I don't think that he has that much money, he might just be saying he has enough to set up with RO water from LFS

 

[CAC]

How much are they, or do you know of any brands or companys???

Thanks alot.

Mikey

 

[sianeds]

I'm new to saltwater myself and am just in the process of seting up a 20gal.

In my very limited experience, setting up a marine tank EATS MONEY like no tomorrow.

1st you have the expense of the tank and the heater and filtration and lighting, then you've got to stock it with water, live rock, substrate, all of which aren't cheap.
Then after weeks of testing the water you can finally start stocking it which is really where the money starts disappearing!
Once you have it up and running you have to contend with the continual and totally unavoidable cost of the water, the test kits, the water additives if you want to keep your corals happy, the fish food etc etc.

This does not even touch on the amount of time and effort all this takes.

Or the patience....

From the posts you've made I get the impression that you are really not ready to take on a marine tank (especially not a nano or pico!!!!) financially and definately not in the work and patience it takes.

I hope you do have a saltwater tank at some point but in my humble opinion now is not the time.

I honestly hope I haven't offended you but you asked for advice!!

Sian xx