Gharner's Pico Reef Journal

[gharner]

Today my Tom Deco Kit 3gallon pico finally came in the mail!!! it was ordered about 3 weeks ago and was on back order so i had to wait. well it finally arrived and so i decided to make a journal for it (wish i did this for my 12 gallon too but oh well). right now i have nothing in it, but my plans are as follows:
-about 2-3 pounds of live rock (hopefully premium fiji rock but ill take whatever i can get

)
-black sand
-corals (softies, shrooms,zoos,and maybe an lps frag or 2)
-2-3 snails
-2-3 hermit crabs
-and the ruler of the tank a juvenile Neogonodactylus Wennerae

I dont have school tomorrow so im hoping to go to my lfs to get the sand and rock. i have 2 shrooms a ricordia and a colt coral frag that are blowin around the 12 gallon so they will probably go into the pico as soon as it is stable. i will probably also pick up a cuc for the pico tomorrow as well but just keep them in my 12 gallon until the cycle is complete. let me know what you think.....im hoping that this tank will look really nice. ive put a lot of thought into it and want it to showcase the mantis and corals

 

[shogun323]

Sounds cool!! Be ready to kiss your hermits and snails goodbye as they will soon become dinner!!!!!!

 

[gharner]

hahaha yup i was planning on it. thats why im keeping extras in the 12 gallon hahahaha. i have a few nerite snails in my 12 gallon and they seem to have a pretty thick shell. i wonder how long they would last with a N. wennerae thats only about an inch long?

 

[gharner]

so i filled the tank up with tap water this morning just to make sure that there are no leaks and stuff. so far everything is running good

. tomorrow im going to my lfs to get some rock and the black sand, plus a clean up crew which will reside in my 12 gallon until the cycle finishes. how long do you think it will take this little tank to cycle?(im gonna use probably a pound of rock from the 12 gallon and mix it with the new rock). i will probably use water from the 12 gallon also for the first fill up.

 

[shogun323]

It should cycle rather quickly. I reccommend using rubble if you can. Mantis enjoy rebuilding also due to the size of the pico. Yours may not do much building since he is a little feller but he will as he grows.
My Mantis Building

 

[gharner]

haha nice video. i love how he puts the rock exactly where he wants in, then pats it down. for a mantis that is only an inch or so long ill need some small rubble rocks. thats cool cause it means i dont need to get premium liverock, just smash up some nano rubble. im going to one of my lfs in a few minutes to look around so i might get some rock there......the rest of the stuff im gonna pick up tomorrow afternoon. as soon as i get some stuff in there ill post some pics.
would a glass thermometer be ok to have with a small smasher type mantis? i wasnt sure if he would attempt to break the glass thermometer or not. i dont really wanna spend the money on a digital thermometer but i will if i need to.

 

[bjoe23]

You could try a stick on therometer

 

[joebob7]

if you put in a thermometer...
make sure its not filled with mercury!

sounds like it will be a great tank
you should fill it with corals (you dont need many to fill it haha)

 

[gharner]

yeah im gonna fill it up with quite a few corals, i already have 2 fairly large shrooms, a frag of zoos, and a colt coral frag waiting in my 12 gallon. i bought a cheap glass thermometer for now till i figure out what to do.

 

[gharner]

so i got a little over a pound of rock for now and the black sand as well. the only problem with the sand is that it is really fine grained and it is sticking to air bubbles. it sounds weired but the sand is like grabbing air bubbles and forming into little round balls. i cant get them to go away and its drivin me crazy! i got tired of messin with it and put in the rock and turned on the filter, hopefully it will settle out within a day or so. ill try to post some pics as soon as i can get ahold of a camera.

 

[gharner]

here are some pics: (sorry the camera im using sucks really bad and the colors are way off)
full tank shot

cool rock i found at my lfs:

a shroom:the color on this pic is really bad...the shroom is a nice green color but you cant tell with the flash

the hole in the center of this rock will hopefully be the mantis' den

i also tested the water, here are the params:
temp:74 degrees
pH:8.2
ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
sp.gravity: 1.024
(ammonia and nitrite were both at zero.....i dont think the tank would have cycled that quickly, and i added more rock today so i will be testing the water in about 24hrs to see if anything changes)
at my lfs today i grabbed
* 3 nassarius snails
*3 margarita snails
*5 blue leg hermits
this will be the clean up crew for the time being and i will add them after the cycle is complete

 

[gharner]

how long till i can add a cuc??? with my 12 gallon it was obvious when it cycled.....this tank isnt doin a whole lot yet and the params are good

 

[gharner]

params for the night:
ammonia: 0ppm
trites: 0ppm
trates: 10ppm
so where the heck is my cycle?! or is the tank cycled because the rock was cured?

advice needed

 

[coral keeper]

Looking good!

How many watts are on it?

 

[shogun323]

Originally Posted by gharner
params for the night:
ammonia: 0ppm
trites: 0ppm
trates: 10ppm
so where the heck is my cycle?! or is the tank cycled because the rock was cured?

advice needed
Since Nitrates are the final stage of the cycle it would seem you are all set. I would try ghost feeding to see if you get an ammonia spike.

 

[gharner]

its a total of 18 watts so that would be 6 watts per gallon
as far as the cycle goes....to me it seems weired that i couldnt really tell when it occured but i guess it is indeed possible cause all of the rock was cured. im gonna start slowly by adding a snail and a hermit crab tomorrow after school then i also have some corals i gotta get in there.
another question, what type of heater should i get?! my temps are dropping to 70 degrees at night.....during the day it goes up to 74 degrees.

 

[gharner]

so i added a few inverts today.... a tiny blue leg hermit, a margarita snail, and some sort of burowing algea eating snail (kinda looks like a nassarius)
ill test the params tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.

 

[sexyshrimp101]

I read on "the website" a discussion about heaters, and they said that the mantis will take whacks at a glass heater because of the light. They recommended the Visitherm heater. Apparently one guy has had his take a couple whacks at it and it hasn't broken yet.

 

[gharner]

sexyshrimp101:
oh cool, visitherm is actually the heater i found today in my lfs's magazine...i thought it would be perfect for a mantis tank cause they say its shatter proof!!! haha perfect timing. thanks ill check it out on the "other site", do you think the 20 watt or 50 watt would be good for my 3 gallon? i kinda figured the 20 watt would be enough because it says it will heat up to 8 1/2 gallons of water.
Ps: sexyshrimp101 are you a member of the forum on the other site? i am, and it is a great place to find info.....i always think their forum needs more members so i can get more responses haha.

 

[gharner]

got some diatoms today! yay haha. ill try to take some pics to post maybe tomorrow.....