J/k. I suppose it's a pico. Work has been stressful lately, and staring at my tank has always been soothing for me, so I need a tank on my desk. It has to be small enough so it looks like an accessory, not something I spend a lot of work time on. I've seen some tall 3.5g, that should work well. Anyways, any thoughts for fish? What are the smallest fish available? I was kindof thinking a goby/shrimp pair would be fun.
Work Femto
- Thread starter Yaten13
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The shrimp will move too much sand around, IMO. I had a clown goby in there and he did alright until I forgot to feed him and he croaked. I think the pico's are more work than the bigger tank. It takes more time to get things stabilized, because of the constant evaporation the sg will jump. I like to keep mine at 1.024, overnight it goes to 1.033 due to evap. If you dose, it won't take much to overdose. I use a purchased product, that way it will be more consistant than my mixtures, and a 1 mL 33gauge syringe to get accurate dosing. I have this one, http://www.marinedepot.com/aquariums_tanks_jbj_picotope-ap.html.
I'm thinking just hardy things only. 50% water changes 2-3x a week. Maybe I'll just put a yellowtail damsel in, since I like them and they are really hard to kill. Pulsing xenia, mushrooms, maybe some LPS, no dosing, no weekend topoff. I have a stable 55g at home for the interesting / sensitive things.
I could fit bigger on my desk, but as a grad student, it's kindof about appearances, so it has to look like an accessory, not a hobby.
I could fit bigger on my desk, but as a grad student, it's kindof about appearances, so it has to look like an accessory, not a hobby.
So I got a 5.5 gallon cube. I'm thinking of just grabbing some small pieces of LR / crushed coral from my DT so the cycle is short. I have a yellowtail damsel that got kicked out of the DT by another fish, so he might come to work with me for awhile. That way I could have a buddy swimming around, and get a chance to see where the parameters stabilize without killing anybody. I have some soft corals that are doing well that I can bring as testers. If they die, no biggie since I can always refrag. Then when I have time / $$ to deal with it, I can kick the damsel back into the frag tank and get a goby / shrimp pair.
Pics to follow when I get it up and running!
Edit: btw the damsel is still like 1/2" so he wont be too big for the tank for a while yet.
Pics to follow when I get it up and running!
Edit: btw the damsel is still like 1/2" so he wont be too big for the tank for a while yet.
I'm a grad student as well, and I have a long lab bench next to my desk in the office. I keep going back and forth over whether I should set up a tank in there. I'm in a basement office, so I don't think too many people would notice me staring at the tank all day instead of doing work. And I could borrow RODI water from the lab upstairs. Yeah, just convinced myself it's a good idea. Maybe a 20 long...
Your little tank is looking good. How's it doing? I would paint or cover the back to hide all those cords.
Your little tank is looking good. How's it doing? I would paint or cover the back to hide all those cords.
It's a AIO setup. http://www.ecoxotic.com/ecopico-aquarium.html
The little powerhead you see on the left draws water through biomedia (stock). But I've replaced the little black sponge thing with carbon. Maybe 5# live rock, and coarse aragonite sand. The rest has to be taken up by softies or removed in my weekly 20% (1 gallon) water change. There's also a little heater behind the rocks. The temperature in the building is always 72, and this bumps it up to 76.
The little powerhead you see on the left draws water through biomedia (stock). But I've replaced the little black sponge thing with carbon. Maybe 5# live rock, and coarse aragonite sand. The rest has to be taken up by softies or removed in my weekly 20% (1 gallon) water change. There's also a little heater behind the rocks. The temperature in the building is always 72, and this bumps it up to 76.
Yep. It comes with a 3x1 watt led strip. You have to buy an adapter which supports 4 of these strips (25$) and then strips of 3x1w leds for another $25 ea. The overhead arm has room for about 4. I ended up grabbing 1 blue, 1 white and 1 50/50 strip (9w total). I may buy one more white led strip next time I'm at elite reef just for the extra PAR. It's very pretty, but not all that bright. The setup at elite reef when I was there had mostly mushrooms and looked really cool.
Well, I've been busy as heck at work, so I haven't been as active here, but it's still been really nice to have this tank at work (since I'm lucky if I can go home and say hi to my fish and feed / water them before bed). I took your suggestions and put a backing in the back to hide the mess. The damsel was a bit boring, so I decided to add a clown goby and the damsel immediately tried to kill him. So the damsel got kicked the heck out and I got a pretty little gold stripe clown that is behaving nicely. My sps (birdsnest and digi) have been flourishing since I dropped the led's to about 3 inches over their heads. LPS and softies are doing well in much less light below. Current stock list - goby, clown, sexy shrimp, 1 hermit, 1 asterea, several hitchiker cowries, buttload of stomatellas and micro stars, and huge pod populations. Guess no one is really all that interested in eating them, so they even come out to grab flakes when I feed. I also was getting low pH's so probably low oxygen, so I added a little HOB filter with no media / sponges / anything, just for recirculation and flow.
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