# My pico-reef aquarium



## smartie2000 (Dec 10, 2009)

My 2.5 gallon Pico reef, photo taken today and the reef almost 2 years old. 

It's only a foot across, which is VERY small for a reef aquarium. The front is the size of a sheet of paper. This was thought to be impossible in the past. Previous reef keepers thought only huge tanks were possible. Anything is possible!

It runs on 9W of light (coral life bulb), plus additional sunlight from my always openned window. I must admit that I think it should get better lighting. It has a Rio nano skimmer, and I do weekly 25% water changes (but that is fast).

Nemo the percula clown fish seems happy, as are the corals. I moved Nemo in the middle of this year from my other tank, she was not the original fish. Much of it is the original corals which grew, I added the torch coral and Duncanopsammia







This was what the tank looked like in March 2008 (quite a difference as things got bigger and coralline algae grew):




The tank had a heater issue and overheated killing my previous firefish goby  The corals died back, but most rebounded


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## Yoyo_Jo (Dec 10, 2009)

Wow - a mini-sea! Very cool. :clap:


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## Ernie (Dec 10, 2009)

Rockin'! 

-Ernie


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## etex (Dec 10, 2009)

WOW!! Very well done! Looks amazing!


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## Candace (Dec 10, 2009)

That's great.


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## biothanasis (Dec 10, 2009)

Wonderful!


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## KyushuCalanthe (Dec 10, 2009)

Really cool set up! I've lost more than one fish to a heat gone haywire. Believe it or not, I've seen even smaller reef set ups here in Japan - but is that really a surprise for the country that specializes in miniaturizing everything?!


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## luvsorchids (Dec 10, 2009)

Cool :clap::clap:. I am one of those who always thought marine aquariums had to be larger.

Susan


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## NYEric (Dec 10, 2009)

Excellent. I miss all the work involved w/ my old 55 g reef tank, NOT!


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Dec 10, 2009)

Gorgeous! How deep is your sandbed? It doesn't look very deep. What are you using for it? Love it.........


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## smartie2000 (Dec 10, 2009)

Thanks guys 



KyushuCalanthe said:


> Really cool set up! I've lost more than one fish to a heat gone haywire. Believe it or not, I've seen even smaller reef set ups here in Japan - but is that really a surprise for the country that specializes in miniaturizing everything?!



I can't imagine much smaller lol. But the Japanese always suprise me



Eric Muehlbauer said:


> Gorgeous! How deep is your sandbed? It doesn't look very deep. What are you using for it? Love it.........



I have aragonite substrate. I don't have much there, maybe 1cm? I didn't want to see a glass bottom nor did I want to take up too much water space with sand. But much of the wastes go into the protein skimmer because the tank is so small, or go through a natural cycle inside the rock crevices. Now that the tank is mature, I don't have to scrub green algae much, I'm pleased


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## Lanmark (Apr 25, 2010)

This is something I have been looking into doing recently. I'm terribly interested so maybe I'll take the plunge and do it someday soon. I may find the need to draw on your experience!  I especially enjoy the corals. They're as beautiful as Neos, but in their own special way! :drool: I have experience with brackish tanks and puffer fish, but not with tiny coral reef tanks such as this. I like it very much! :clap:


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## Dido (Apr 25, 2010)

Really nice. 
Love fish tanks. Will visit a big fair in 3 Weeks.


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## smartie2000 (Apr 25, 2010)

thanks. 

It is still going strong today in the same 2.5 gallon tank. And same lighting (which 9W is inappropriate, but it gets sunlight. I will increase lighting eventually) Every afternoon the corals expand more to soak up the sun.

I recommend a protein skimmer. It keeps everything clean, even though I do weekly water changes (which is very easy with a turkey baster!) I haven't cleaned the protein skimmer for a while, since it hasn't collected much material, which means my tank is clean on its own already. But I have it as a precausion. And since it blows air, it aerates the water. I have rio nano skimmer, but these do make some noise (especially when new).



Dido said:


> Really nice.
> Love fish tanks. Will visit a big fair in 3 Weeks.


I've never visited a fair before, but that sounds interesting


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## smartie2000 (Apr 25, 2010)

Eric M. has mentioned my sand earlier. I do have a 10 gallon as well, which has algae issues that I am dealing with for a while. (so I am too embarassed to post this tank. The corals are alive, but the tank isn't as pretty)

I have a feeling having too much sand is not good, as it collects waste. Even though sand carries friendly bacteria to help process waste, I think the nitrogen levels must be too high after the waste is processed. So all these nutrients are feeding the algae.
Deep sand beds were once a tool used to process ammonia wastes.

This small 2.5 g tank has nearly no sand. The main purpose of the sand was to cover the bottom (glass is ugly) and to help keep the rocks in place.

I think it is ironic my small tank looks better than my larger tank (though both are nano) I'd expect the opposite.

I'll get my 10gallon fixed...I just need some more time and money. It will go through a complete break down and transfer into a 20 gallon tank which my cousin gave to me. (I know my cousin really wants me to use his tank! its very nice) The rocks will be scrubbed, and rocks with algae that won't come off will be replaced. And less sand, maybe 1 inch thick or less. And I need new lighting, because 20 gallon tank would be double the size, lighting is expensive.


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## Lanmark (Apr 25, 2010)

Is the aragonite substrate less hospitable to algae than sand?


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## smartie2000 (Apr 25, 2010)

sorry, the same aragonite is used in both tanks. I transferred sand from the 10 gallon into this smaller one in the very beginnings. I don't know if anyone uses sand as in beach or quartz sand...but I used the words interchangably.

I didn't have much trouble with algae until the last year. I think at this point is when people give up on reef keeping.

I also want to recommend that you *beware of any red cotton candy like algae*. (just google red cotton candy algae if you want a photo. Sorry I can't be more scientific) It looks nice/pretty/cute and unharmful. It will take over your tank under *clean* conditions, cover all rocks and get outgrow corals and there are no natural predators of it in the reef hobby (except for a specific species of Turbo snail. I have not seen them here in my city. I believe some fish will eat it but you need a large tank to keep these fish) This red cotton candy stuff started to take over my 10 gallon, and it collected waste inside its strands. Every week I would be harvesting this algae. Now I have green algae problems too...I am actually hoping the green stuff is suffocate the red stuff, because the green stuff is easier to kill/clean up, so far it is working.

I hope that this doesn't scare you from the hobby. I just wasn't told about this red algae to start with. So I think it was a combo of the red cotton algae (which also has a tendancy to capture wastes in its spongy strands), plus a sand bed that was too deep.

There were some leafy red algaes I allowed to grow, these algaes grew too slow to cause problems and looked nice. Just make sure you know that the algae is the safe kind...Some people have macro algae tanks, and don't even grow coral


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## KyushuCalanthe (Apr 25, 2010)

Bummer Fren. I guess it is near impossible to remove the algae even with a complete tank break down. I had similar problems with fresh water diatoms in a few heavily planted setups. I would clean everything, put in new substrate, but within a month or two the diatoms were back. I think that red algae may be in the genus _Callithamnion_.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Apr 25, 2010)

Fen- the deep sand bed is probably unnecessary in a tiny tank, as water changes are so simple. In larger tanks, the advantage of the deep bed is that it harbors anaerobic bacteria (Nitrosomonas?) that reduce Nitrate to Nitrogen gas, which evaporates harmlessly. As for the red algae..is it cyanobacteria ("red slime") or red hair algae? If its red slime, siphon it out as fast as it appears. Erythromycin will kill it, but why risk anything by adding antibiotics to the tank. If its red hair algae, tangs love it...but they need large tanks. If its of any help....red hair algae is so much less of a problem than green hair algae.


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