3 gallon Nano Help

[gilly]

I'm considering buying a "Picotope" 3 gallon nano aquarium for my dorm room. The light it comes with is a 9w compact fluorescent 50/50. Is that enough for corals such as zoas and mushrooms? What fish are suitable for such an aquarium? Perculas? Is there another similar aquarium that may be a better choice?

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by Gilly
I'm considering buying a "Picotope" 3 gallon nano aquarium for my dorm room. The light it comes with is a 9w compact fluorescent 50/50. Is that enough for corals such as zoas and mushrooms? What fish are suitable for such an aquarium? Perculas? Is there another similar aquarium that may be a better choice?
Zoos and shrooms would be okay. But the percs would out grow the 3 gallon, however, dwarf seahorses would not

I'd be happy to help you set up your tank and set up your brine shrimp hatchery.

 

[joebob7]

i have a 3 gallon picotope
and it is filled with corals
i have a few kinds of zoos
a mushroom
hammer coral that is growing very well
candy cane coral
and lots of GSP
i plan on picking up a yellow clown goby today or tommorrow
so i will keep you posted on how he does

 

[gharner]

joe bob please post some pictures! i may be getting a tom deco kit for christmas and i love to see what people do with their picos. especially with ones with a lot of coral.

 

[joebob7]

ok here are some pics
1) the whole tank
2) some of the corals
3) candy cane
4) some fire and ice zoos

 

[gilly]

Originally Posted by Rykna
Zoos and shrooms would be okay. But the percs would out grow the 3 gallon, however, dwarf seahorses would not

I'd be happy to help you set up your tank and set up your brine shrimp hatchery.

I never thought of raising seahorses. I've always herd that they are difficult to keep. Other than needing live food, do they have any special requirements?

 

[gilly]

Wow joebob, your tank looks great. I guess that answers my question about keeping corals in it.

 

[joebob7]

thanks!
ive had it up for a few months now
and the only thing that i dont like are the almost daily topoffs on it
also the filtration is kind of weak

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by Gilly
I never thought of raising seahorses. I've always herd that they are difficult to keep. Other than needing live food, do they have any special requirements?
Well, IMHO, the dwarf seahorses are the hardiest for first time seahorse keepers.
The hardest part, IMHO for those just starting with ponies(dwarf seahorses), is setting up the Baby Brine Shrimp hatchery and maintaining it. The rest is finding the right water flow(which I can help you with), and maintaining the water quality, which is a bigger task with smaller tanks anyhow.
The other problem with ponies, is that everything in the DST must be dead, with the exception of the LS and pods and narsis snails and a few other clean up crew members. So you'd have to do a major over haul on the tank occupants.
I'd be happy to walk you through the set up if you like.

 

[gilly]

Originally Posted by Rykna
Well, IMHO, the dwarf seahorses are the hardiest for first time seahorse keepers.
The hardest part, IMHO for those just starting with ponies(dwarf seahorses), is setting up the Baby Brine Shrimp hatchery and maintaining it. The rest is finding the right water flow(which I can help you with), and maintaining the water quality, which is a bigger task with smaller tanks anyhow.
The other problem with ponies, is that everything in the DST must be dead, with the exception of the LS and pods and narsis snails and a few other clean up crew members. So you'd have to do a major over haul on the tank occupants.
I'd be happy to walk you through the set up if you like.

Since this is my first SW tank I'm going to stick with some easy (and cheap) fish like gobies. If all goes well then I'll try to set up one of my 20gal tanks for seahorses this summer. Thanks for the help.

 

[joebob7]

hey i got my yellow clown goby a few hours ago
heres a pic if you want it
and a pic of the ricordea i got with him!

 

[gilly]

Looks good! I've always liked clown gobies. Keep me posted on how he does

 

[rykna]

Sounds Great!!!
Can't wait to see pics of your tank

 

[joebob7]

well im sad to say this
but i would NOT reccomend a goby
i had mine for a day
and the next day i couldnt see him i figured he was hiding in the rock so i waited another day
then i got worried and we took out all the rock work
and he WASNT THERE!!
i have no idea where he could have went except been eaten by the 2 hermits or jumped off and is now between the stand and the wall

this is a major bummer

 

[azul1994]

Awesome tank Joebob!

 

[joebob7]

thanks for the nice comments
i hope im not taking over the thread Gilly

 

[gilly]

Sorry to hear about your goby. I really wanted to keep a fish in the tank but mabey I shouldn't?
I don't mind at all if you take over the thread, it's helpful to hear what has and hasn't worked for you.

 

[bjoe23]

i still think you might be able to get a clown goby in there....

 

[joebob7]

im sure you could get a clown and he would live for a while if you stayed on top of it and kept the water up and other stuff
i dont want to sound like one of those people that just says NO just because they have heard it from others
but from my personal experience i think it is too hard to keep the SG and other parameters stable and dont think it would be a good idea

 

[flricordia]

Originally Posted by joebob7
ok here are some pics
1) the whole tank
2) some of the corals
3) candy cane
4) some fire and ice zoos
Nice. Is that glass oracrylic. I had concidered setting on up and drilling the back for a small sump with ATO, just haven't gotten to it yet. I thought of just using a deep tupperware, like 2-3gl and maybe a nano skimmer.