I’m Wayne. (group: “hello Wayne”) It’s Been 20 Years...

To Pico or not to Pico, that is the question.


  • Total voters
    7

Wayne Powell

New Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Location
Waterdown, ON
...I seem to be in good company here, lots of users coming back to the hobby after a long time away. Although I had been a hobby aquarist all my life (55 now), I was that guy for whom any family and friends coming from Hawaii on vacation and elsewhere would bring back those huge dead acropora skeletons of several kinds (we were in Vancouver)... that were in some original saltwater fish only tanks. Being a bit of an ecologist (and a UVIC Marine Biologist wannabe until I learned I could not scuba) I remember feeling awfully guilty about those reef coral skeletons in the early 80’s....

For me it was more than 20 years ago (after moving to Toronto) that I custom built and drilled an overflow in a thick glass 15 Gallon Tall (with 10 gallon sump) reef tank in a peninsula cabinet I built, and even built a huge (for this tank) 4’ x 4” Acrylic Protein Skimmer with a venturi that ran from the sump on up to above the top of the display tank in the enclosed side of the peninsula cabinet. It was all self contained and automated with off the hardware store shelf and home made electronics (my “other” hobby). I don’t even remember calling it a “Nano” at the time, but people were impressed by the success of such a small tank, and it came down to the water quality, the amount of oxygen injected by that giant (for this tank) skimmer. All cured live rock (up top and some in sump), live sand, then anemone, clowns, a coral banded shrimp, snails and hermits, I think one mushroom coral, all the beautiful life that emerged from that rock (including Apstasia which I kind of liked at the time, and grew slowly as the tank, with that huge skimmer, was very quick to process and remove nutrients.). Had some nasty battles with a “thumb splitter” who would actually grab and pull on the stick I was trying to squish him with, and fire worm.... lots of coralline algae, never had any hair or bubble algae. Fluorescent lit and a moon light, all on timers, homemade wave timer... you get the picture. I’m trying to remember the LFS, it was a place in Scarborough I think, the main guy there was great, I met Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung there.

We loved that tank so much. Unfortunately we had to move and I found a home for everything except the tanks, the sand and “live” rock that I let dry out (and still have along with a 10 gallon bucket of dry, uncaked , and unused Coralife “Scientific Grade” Marine Salt) - hoping to one day redo the glory.

Well the protein skimmer fell one day, cracked and I could not stand to look at it in that state so it got turfed. More recently after a “down-size” of sorts I was finally encouraged to let those original tanks go too.

I was about to sell or giveaway a new, unused original Fluval Spec 2 (2 gal) I had bought (with thought of using as a frag quarantine, or maybe just a desktop planted freshwater tank)... when I got it in my head to maybe do a small, sparsely inhabited pico reef. I also picked up a Fluval Nano Marine LED somewhere along the way, and a protein skimmer that fits nice in the AIO sump... and still have a miniature rio pump. Hmm.... really I shouldn’t do less than a 5 gallon. But I wonder. Is it possible, with some form of ATO and weekly water changes, and a long period of cycling, whether I can bring that coral sand and dead live rock (dry rock, but real reef rock) back to some successful life as a true pico pico. I still like mushroom corals and clean-up crew, maybe a cleaner shrimp? Would a Gobi, cleaner shrimp pair be successful in a 2 Gal aquarium with a couple inches of coral sand (I always believed in a thick sand bed with sand sifting critters, or a little help now and again from a chop stick.).

I think I need a new Marine LFS in my area (Waterdown / Burlington) to latch on to (once the world gets a little more stable again).

What do you’ll think? Am I crazy? And hello, my name is Wayne.
 

Poseidon

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
SW Ontario
Welcome!

I also vote no on the pico, go bigger, 40-50g at least kind of thing.
Theres so many improvements in the hobby, i have an ATO in my sumpless 75g tank that works very well, check my build thread through my profile
 

Wayne Powell

New Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Location
Waterdown, ON
Welcome!

I also vote no on the pico, go bigger, 40-50g at least kind of thing.
Theres so many improvements in the hobby, i have an ATO in my sumpless 75g tank that works very well, check my build thread through my profile

Hey Poseidon, I'm totally with you on that one, but having looked after aquariums large and small off an on for the past 45 years or so (but none in the last 15), this time I am looking to apply my existing knowledge in a much, much smaller format. No interest, time or money to apply to a larger format tank. Biggest I could practically (I mean practical for me) is about 10 gals and even then I don't really want to buy another tank at this time. I am thinking here about taking what I have on hand with minimal extra purchases (who ever has extra money these days....) and starting simply by re-seeding my dry rock and sand, monitoring it for a month, and just adding a small coralline seeding, maybe a single Mushroom and clean-up crew to start (again over some time). I'm in no rush. Semi-weekly water-changes likely.

While not an expert by any means, I am also not a newbie (and one of those people whose attention to detail goes in the "Type AA" category). So the pico presents itself to me as an experimental challenge. lol
 

Shooter000

HomeGrownFrags
Joined
Jan 19, 2015
Location
Alvinston, Ontario
Do it, I've owned a few small tanks, fun to have and still have my 44g, go small or go home say, lol, i think it could be a fun experiment aswell, still working on getting a 5g rock flower tank setup perfectly,

#DOIT!!!!
 

Josh

Active Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Location
London
The only time i successfully ran a small reef tank was when it had a fully covered lid (biocube). Beyond that the salinity/alk swings made it very difficult to maintain stability. You are the only one who will know if you can handle it. Experience says you have the tools, its the time factor i struggled with, i bet you cant go much more than 2 days without topping off in the winter and that can be hard to keep up with.

I have a 40g Breeder im using as a frag tank and i used 1 of those Hydor ATO's and its been amazing, even with the small distance between the probes i see salinity swings on my apex that are worse than my 150g system.
 

Wayne Powell

New Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Location
Waterdown, ON
i bet you cant go much more than 2 days without topping off in the winter and that can be hard to keep up with.
Very good info, and yes, it had occurred to me, so I will experiment with some sort of ATO, if nothing more than a bottle and drip line (along the lines of what I used to do with Kalkwasser). I have a particular advantage that I work from home and tank would be in my office. I also grow orchids and so am still used to the weekly regimes. We rarely travel and so, if it did happen, at least a small tank I can figure out how to transport to a temporary babysitter. lol
 

Josh

Active Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Location
London
Very good info, and yes, it had occurred to me, so I will experiment with some sort of ATO, if nothing more than a bottle and drip line (along the lines of what I used to do with Kalkwasser). I have a particular advantage that I work from home and tank would be in my office. I also grow orchids and so am still used to the weekly regimes. We rarely travel and so, if it did happen, at least a small tank I can figure out how to transport to a temporary babysitter. lol

Every challenge has a solution :) Glad to see you have thought this through. There is a rather large nano reef community worldwide, should check them out. www.nano-reef.com
 

Seasquirt

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Location
Wingham
Hello, it's nice to see someone useing what they have, i have a tendency to go get what i want. Lol
Hey money was meant to spend, shhh don't tell my better half, i like to spend the money.
So it's been since May what have you been up to and pictures are great.
 
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