Starting pico tank, need some things

[matt.radich]

I am tossing around the idea of setting up a 2.5 gallon pico reef. I need a few things possibly first though.

I need a power filter or some sort of filter to get water movement and flow in the tank. Also possibly a small light, but I may just use a 10 pc bulb.

If you have any tips ( besides the challenge, I really wanna give this a shot) just go ahead and post here.

If you have something that you would be willing to sell or give pm me, post here of you can text me at 303-827-8652

 

[tlsrcs]

Welll I got rock and some yumas rics. And other low light coral that will like your light. Also live sand to seed the tank. I also got a few macros you could throw in there too. Hhmmm a turbo to keep it clean or other snails you can fish out.......

 

[Yaten13]

For my 5g at work, I have a small hang-on-back filter (like the 5-15 Aquatech for $10 at walmart). Just remove the carbon and other crap if you like. It does a really good job getting the water moving and aerated and doesn't blast things around like a little powerhead might. They also sell a small heater that is cheap, and keeps the tank at a constant 78 (or 76 I forget), that comes in handy as well if you don't want to spend $50 on a micro mini titanium nano or w/e. After that, just go gentle. Softies are wonderful since they can also serve as nutrient export. Do at least weekly water changes since the small volume won't have that much waste management capacity. Clowns are fun (as long as you keep water quality up) since they usually pick a pretty small home and don't really need a huge amount of room to mess around in anyways, and if you keep it alone it stays male and small.

Oh, and there are whole nano-forums for small volumes. Might consider googling those if you are looking for other tips.

 

[matt.radich]

thanks for all the good advice. After looking at my tank, I am seriously contemplating doing a 5.5 gallon setup instead of the 2.5 so I can keep the clown, or will he do fine for a bit in the 2.5 until my 40 gallon gets setup? I don't want to mess this one up. I have a small heater that does the job very well at a constant 78-79 all day so that's covered. My plan was to do soft corals and then some snails to do some clean up.

my question is, what did you put in your filter instead of the media? Did you just do like a sponge to get the large gunk out?

 

[tlsrcs]

poly fill. lol i have a bag of it you can come take a hand full. just change it often. its like 3 bucks at wallmart

 

[matt.radich]

Haha I will do that when I stop by today I'll text you so we can figure out a time tonight to stop by

 

[tlsrcs]

sounds good.

 

[tlsrcs]

oh bring a bucket for the sand and rock...i am running low on them lol they are all getting full of rock

 

[matt.radich]

Haha will do. I will only need like 2lbs of rock for the pico tank lol I found two pieces in my room to use but I will bring a bucket for sure

 

[tlsrcs]

ok well what ever works you can take some rubble to seed. Heck if you come down i can probably get you set up with enought to get going with out much of a cycle.

 

[Yaten13]

I can't tell you if a 2.5 would be enough or not. The best way to tell is cycle the tank completely before anything goes in, then monitor it pretty carefully for the first few months. If you can keep your waste products (nitrates) in check then you should be fine. Personally, I don't use any mechanical filtration. Every time I put carbon or sponges in, my nitrates started creeping up, so I run it completely empty for aeration/flow alone. Pretty much if you want a filter, you need to be committed to replacing the media pretty much daily so it doesn't accumulate (same principle as a filter sock). I get junk out with water changes weekly.

 

[matt.radich]

Alrighty thank you everyone for the help. I got the Walmart filter what $11.77 including tax. What a deal! I think I may post a build thread just for fun so I can personally keep track of my progress.

 

[tlsrcs]

pics??

 

[matt.radich]

I'll get a thead going up soon. Hopefully tonight if I can find the time