16L Pico Reef

[mini_matt]

Edit: This is my first salty tank, come help me enjoy it! (scroll down for pics

was going to use a betta lifespace 16L tank as a marine set up but I found a bargain of a tank at my local garden centre! (the same size but with a glass lid instead of a hood)

Thanks for any opinions or advice

 

[lljdma06]

So 16W total, then? For roughly 3g of water? And it's T5. I imagine you shouldn't have trouble with the normal hardy corals (mushrooms, softies, etc...)

This your first SW tank?

llj

 

[mini_matt]

Thanks, yes first time SW currently in the 'read as much as you can and try to understand it' stage!
Currently have running a 14 litre FW planted tank that's been going brilliantly but it's all green and marine is very attractive with all it's brightly coloured corals etc. I think I will be running it as all coral possibly one fish I have seen a cute looking yellow tail damsel I think it was but no idea if this is suitable.?

For good news I spoke to someone who has run this tank with corals for a year and said it all did well
My plan right now is to run without a filter as such and let the LR do all the work with a powerhead then just water change once a week of 10-20% however this plan may change depending on advice given here

 

[lljdma06]

For a tank this small, I'd do significantly more water changes. How are you getting your water? Three basic ways...

1. Buy pre-made water at the lfs
2. Collect natural seawater
3. Make your own using RO/DI water.

For a tank this size you could feasibly by distilled water from the supermarket and then make your own SW with a saltmix. I personally opted to get an RO/DI unit, but this is completely up to you. I love the control I get mixing my own SW.

 

[mini_matt]

Have a second hand RO unit that parents got with their 4 foot tank however I don't know how old/ used it is... so I will probably use that however I can get jerry cans of SW or RO from several places locally. Do you mean multiple times a week or a larger percentage once a week?

Thanks for the help

 

[lljdma06]

Have a second hand RO unit that parents got with their 4 foot tank however I don't know how old/ used it is... so I will probably use that however I can get jerry cans of SW or RO from several places locally. Do you mean multiple times a week or a larger percentage once a week?

Thanks for the help

No problem. Right now, my picos get about a 40% weekly, but they are only at the CUC stage right now. I'm sure I'll be changing more frequently as I introduce more organisms into the tanks. If you can hook up your parent's RO and see what kind of water you get out of it, it may be very useful. You'd have to run it and probably back flush the system. Then, you'll need a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter to check what comes out of the RO unit. If you're getting more than a certain number, especially after the unit's been running for a spell, you'll have to change the filters.

 

[mini_matt]

great stuff, at the minute i have a 10L bucket for water changes on my 14L planted and i tend to just change a bucket each week.
is a tds meter expensive? or something i could likely borrow from someone locally?
i asume with RO water you dont then have to add a dechlorinator to the water? and could you not use tap water like you do with FW and use a dechlore? thanks for the advice, there still seem to be small things i am questioning at the minute, not quite ready for the plunge...

 

[lljdma06]

great stuff, at the minute i have a 10L bucket for water changes on my 14L planted and i tend to just change a bucket each week.
is a tds meter expensive? or something i could likely borrow from someone locally?
i asume with RO water you dont then have to add a dechlorinator to the water? and could you not use tap water like you do with FW and use a dechlore? thanks for the advice, there still seem to be small things i am questioning at the minute, not quite ready for the plunge...

You can get one for less than $30 off eBay. No, not recommended that you use tapwater unless you are extremely lucky. Most people are not extrmely lucky. I have very hard water and lots of ammonia and other stuff.

It's really good to ask questions and take things slow. If you do your research right, Marine isn't hard, or at least I haven't found it to be. It just took more planning before I jumped in. And you have to take things slow.

L

 

[mini_matt]

yeah im definitely trying to make sure i know as much as possible before even buying a tank! haha
my girlfriends dad has just started a large marine tank in the living room which i can see crashing as he has just used salted tap water and has 2 externals setup on the tank which i have read are really bad nitrate traps and corals have all been put in in one go pretty much but he's the kind of person that wont be told and just does what he thinks etc.
just glad i have the peoplde on here to tell me the right way

 

[mini_matt]

Visited my local garden centre today and ended up buying a tank
I went with a splash aquarium 16L as I couldn't resist the £20 price tag! It is only a bare tank however i have been offered a pair of 11w arcadia arc pods for £30 and I have everything else heaters and power heads sat doing nothing at home anyways
I also bought a blue bulb to go in one of the arc pods. Am I right in thinking the blue is good for plant growth?

 

[mini_matt]

So I finally got around to this today, went and picked up two Arcadia arc pod 11w for £30!

The best part was they came with 50/50 blue/sunlight bulbs!

Next I bought me some RO from my lfs, tried using the RO unit at home but I got impatient £9.99 for 25L container and free fill up £2.50 normally I thought was good

Salt I nabbed from my girlfriends dad (was shocked at how much I needed though!

Bought coral sand earlier in the week for £4.99 and used half a bag so £2.50 worth in the tank.

So so far that's £71.50 spent on the tank oh and £3 on a tank stand at a car boot sale

This week I will be picking up 1kg of live rock for £7

But now I can't decide what to do with the lighting, do I run one blue and one 50/50 or or both 50/50? What is going to be more beneficial to any corals I put in there? Pics to follow...

 

[mini_matt]

first set up 13/09/2011 added roughly 1-2kg of live rock from an already established tank

got taken shopping to a SW fish and coral shop in Taunton for my birthday (great stock, good prices and friendly in the know staff) and my tank now looks like this:

GSP fallen down at the front silly hermit

coral wise I got bought:
Green Star Polyps £8.50
green mushroom £6.50
Metalic green Hammerhead £14.50
yellow centre green polyps £22
mushroom on rock £6.50

along with the corals I got bought:
1 Pom-Pom crab £13.50
2 Snails £4.70
1 Sexy shrimp £7.50
filter floss £3.99

freebees i got some zoas, small red mushroom and a blue sponge he also gave me two heads of hammer for the price of one!
the bill was £87 which is great considering the size of the bits I got!
and once home my girlfriends dad realised he overbought and had to frag a large rock covered in GSP so I got lots of LR rubble and GSP!

since then I bought 1 dwarf blue leg hermit £3.50 and 2x bumble bee snails £6

I have also bought a small HOB filter 260l/h £8.95 to hold some filter floss as I hate seeing things floating around in the water

this brings my running total to £176.95 (not that I paid for all of that due to my birthday!)

tested water tonight and all looks good

 

[Million]

Looks beautiful, I like the way you've arranged the corals a lot. Can't wait til I can afford a nano reef myself

 

[Jinty McGinty]

I am loving it!! I had no idea you could have a small marine tank..........now you've given me ideas!!

 

[mini_matt]

If you only want to keep soft corals like zoas and mushies I would recomend the 16l life space tank as it is roughly £40-45 and comes with 2 T5 tubes!
There are plenty of people doing these small pico tanks like the 8L betta and microhabitat system