toastiireefs June 18, 2018 Share June 18, 2018 So after two years of this 3 gallon Fluval sitting dry in my closet, fretting over which light replacement I will need, I FINALLY have ordered all my kit in order to start filling this tank! I have the Niello Par38 light on the way, may or may not upgrade this depending on quality, but I have seen some other people have this light on their nanos so hopefully it works out! Plan is to have a Zoa Garden, GSP, maybe LPS down the road. Fish wise: 3 gallons is small. A frogfish was living in this in it's previous owners house (who was a very experienced aquarist). What type of fish would be appropriate for this size aquarium, the more charismatic the better. If the answer is "nothing" then that is also fine too. (Would love to do dwarf seahorses, but getting captive reared ones seems difficult these days after the government was petitioned to put them on the ESA. If anyone knows a reputable source for them I would be interested to know!). Only needs left are sand, and epoxy. Once everything arrives this week, I will be putting it together, posting pictures, and letting this baby cycle. I have never had such a small aquarium before so this will be an experience! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy June 22, 2018 Share June 22, 2018 Hope to see some pics soon !!! Those little tanks are wayyyyy cooler than big tanks once everything is grown out and established. I got my feet wet in reefing with a Fluval Spec V (5g) I think you can still get dwarf seahorses at saltcritters.com. Good luck... and lets see some pics soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs June 22, 2018 Author Share June 22, 2018 I am having a hard time uploading /embedding photos into this post. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dDzJkfMUX4aZGEUIC0eR5Oqkmxany0w6 It is currently still dry. Trying to think of some aquascaping options. I have an idea of creating a couple (1 or 2) "floating shelf rocks" that are epoxied/silliconed to the back of the aquarium. Similar to a frag rack, except with rock. Curious if this is possible. But not sure if it would hold and I would have to do that dry I think. So I may delay filling this until Monday. Any ideas and advice welcome! I also had a light mishap. The gooseneck I had gave me an electric shock, was not wired correctly, so I returned that, and am getting a new light fixture, that will clamp onto the table instead of the tank, so not ideal, but will work for now. I am looking forward to having this 'scaped and filled and cycling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs June 22, 2018 Author Share June 22, 2018 Aquascape options IMG_1292 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1291 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1290 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Photos of the tank with the light, though new fixture is being purchased IMG_1269 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1266 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy June 22, 2018 Share June 22, 2018 Nice ! I have an empty Fluval tank like yours in my garage , this makes me wanna set it up and make a zoa garden and fiddler crab tank lol. I also have an AI Prime sitting in my garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari.harutunian June 22, 2018 Share June 22, 2018 Nice ! I have an empty Fluval tank like yours in my garage , this makes me wanna set it up and make a zoa garden and fiddler crab tank lol. I also have an AI Prime sitting in my garage.Makes me want to set up my 3 gal cpr tank. It’s a very odd shape though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs June 22, 2018 Author Share June 22, 2018 Nice ! I have an empty Fluval tank like yours in my garage , this makes me wanna set it up and make a zoa garden and fiddler crab tank lol. I also have an AI Prime sitting in my garage. Yea! I have intentions of a Zoa/ricordia Garden-- buuuuut I have a feeling in 6-7 months I will want to get some hardy SPS frags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime June 22, 2018 Share June 22, 2018 Yea! I have intentions of a Zoa/ricordia Garden-- buuuuut I have a feeling in 6-7 months I will want to get some hardy SPS frags. Stick with zoas and ric and keep your life easy. It's a slippery slope. It takes more dedication, IMO, to start with something, and not make any changes along the way! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy June 22, 2018 Share June 22, 2018 Stick with zoas and ric and keep your life easy. It's a slippery slope. It takes more dedication, IMO, to start with something, and not make any changes along the way! Cheers! Hahahaha ..practice what u preach brotherrrrrr ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime June 23, 2018 Share June 23, 2018 Hahahaha ..practice what u preach brotherrrrrr ...... Do as I say, not as I do! I speak with a voice of little experience! Haha. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs June 23, 2018 Author Share June 23, 2018 Stick with zoas and ric and keep your life easy. It's a slippery slope. It takes more dedication, IMO, to start with something, and not make any changes along the way! Cheers! I know I already feel the slippery slope. (I technically haven't started anything yet!!- I can still plan right??) I think my light is strong enough for hardy SPS, from what I have seen from other aquariums- I am thinking like some pretty Montis on a magnetic frag plug. But before this happens, I need to get my tank wet first! The other thing I am debating right now is bare bottom or putting sand in. I think I am going to end up with sand. Though many of the picos on nano-reefs forums seem to favor Bare bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs June 26, 2018 Author Share June 26, 2018 It's wet! IMG_1316 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1317 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Rockwork is almost how I would like it. I am a bit nervous I won't have room for my powerhead in there! I put some dried caribsea live sand in there to jump the cycling. I got some liverock from BRK as well last weekend. This morning ammonia was 1ppm. I am going to let it do its thing, maybe add a little flake in there in a few weeks to make sure the tank can handle it. Very excited! (Side note: went to get some supplies for the dog at PetSmart with the Husband, he started eye-ing the 75gallons and the 54 gallon corner aquarium. I feel like this pico may be short lived.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs June 29, 2018 Author Share June 29, 2018 New Light came in! This one does not give me electric shocks when I touch it so for that, I give it an A+. I also like that I will be able to adjust it. Currently the temperature is sitting at 78 ish without a heater. I have the tiniest Korallias in there, but even still that is 240gph- I like how compact it is, but still feels like too much power, we shall see how that goes. FullSizeRender.jpg by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Light turns out very blue in photos because of the actinics. But I think I like it. IMG_1329 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs July 17, 2018 Author Share July 17, 2018 Tank is mostly cycled now, I did a small water change last night. My pH is a little lower than I would like it: 7.8 to 8.0 ish My salinity is also a little on the low side: 1.021 so I may raise that as well with a small water change or by evaporation and then adding in the same salinity. Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate before the water change was about 10-20ppm. (sometimes reading those colors is hard!). Stock List thoughts: Corals: Zoas and Palys- I would like a lot of variety. (So if anyone has some fun frags of this, I am open to buying). Ricordea Debating on GSP- I think it looks pretty, and I have an idea of matting the wall with it, but also its a P.I.T.A to scrape off or keep it from over growing everything else. A few months down the line, once things stabilize more I may look into some hardy LPS/SPS- but will play that one by ear. Fish: Citron/Yellow Clown Goby. Inverts: A couple snails Hermit Crabs Sexy Shrimp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.ocellaris July 19, 2018 Share July 19, 2018 I have always wondered how much maintenance for such a small tank. It looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs August 16, 2018 Author Share August 16, 2018 I have always wondered how much maintenance for such a small tank. It looks great!1) I love when I write out a long post and then accidentally delete all of it by hitting the back button. 2) Thank you! As far as maintenance, for the first couple weeks, the algae came on strong- could literally watch it grow, so I was doing water changes 3-6 days apart about .5-1 gallon so 15-30 %. But then I stuck chaeto in the back chamber and that has instantly solved my algae problem, and I haven't done a water change in 2 weeks? though I need to do some light maintenance this weekend! I feed my tank about once or twice a week with a TINY amount of coral frenzy. That helps keep everyone happy. The fish mostly picks algae off rocks most of the time. I have thought about getting some frozen brine or copepods to supplement also. Update, since it has been a while. I got some zoas, hammer coral, gorg, and a cute tiny hector goby- who is very adept at hiding in this tiny aquarium! He is a joy to watch and has all sorts of sleeping places. At first, my flow in the tank was WAY too strong. polyps were out but not fully, switched out a Koralia 240, to a Rio 50 and everything is MUCH MUCH happier!!! Since I put the Chaeto in, my top off is higher than usual, is that normal?? I wish I had more coraline happening, but my pH runs a little lower than I would like, even though I am using reef crystals. However, based on other threads on this issue and because I mostly have soft corals in there, I am not going to worry about supplementing Ca, I am just going to keep things consistent. Future stocking plans: Letting my corals that I have grow out. Maybe a another mushroom coral, and another LPS. Last thing I want is a shrimp, I am trying to decide between sexy shrimp or a cleaner shrimp. Sexy shrimp just look so cool! Though so are cleaners- hard decision there! Okay! Picture time: (Disclaimer, these are from my phone, i have better ones on my DSLR, I just havent downloaded them yet) IMG_1643 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1576 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1518 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr IMG_1517 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs August 20, 2018 Author Share August 20, 2018 Just saw something VERY strange- I will probably post about it in a different thread. But something living in a tube just either pooped or spawned, and I have no idea what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs August 20, 2018 Author Share August 20, 2018 IMG_1682 by Sara MARRIOTT, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toastiireefs July 22, 2019 Author Share July 22, 2019 Updates: Having slime algae issues, though mostly likely to just poor water maintenance. It has really attacked my zoanthids. My Gorgonia is flourishing as well as my mushroom. I just added a couple more mushroom pieces, a sinularia, and two more gorgonias, and some galaxea (from frag fest). One of those gorg pieces looks like it is melting (bummer), but the other one looks like it is doing well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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