Nano-Noobie : Am I on the right track for success ??

Well, hello there ...

Oooooooookay .. I am starting an itty bitty nano/pico reef. The "tank" is a thick-glassed crystal vase of 1-gallon in volume. I have a 3-inch substrate of white "marine sand" (not live .. but I am in hopes to get a starter culture from a LFS next week). I found a nice 2-lb LR that had been curing at the LFS for about a month, and resting in my nano-vase for 5 days now. For salt mix, I have used "Oceanic", and for water, R/O drinking water I purchased from "Target". Lighting is a 6" tube with a value of "85 colors" (12 hr on/off). A small submersable powerhead provides average current, and a small heater keeps the whole kit-n-kabootle at 80F. I added some calcium additive as/per the dosage listed on the bottle 2 days ago.

Now I sit for 2-3 weeks, .. right ??? ... I have noticed no crawlie critters pop up, but I have already noticed the tiniest bit of bright red coraline, bright green (coraline?) and some small pathes of (hair algae??) The rock has some very small tubes attached & some neat looking textures.

So ... how I understand it, is I sit & wait for about 2-3 weeks before I add anything to the tank at all....which brings me to a question of what the best cleaner(s) for a tank this small would be. I was thinking of a slug, untill I got online & researched these beasts & the difficulty to feed them. Now I am thinking that a peppermint shrimp would be my best bet. Remember: it'a a vase, so the surface area of the substrate isn't much.

Anyway ... whaddayathink ?? ... I am open for sugesstions ... critiques ... getting pummelled, chastised & brow-beaten.

 

Wow...you have a lot of guts. A tank that small is tough to maintain. The parameters can literally swing in hours.

As far as as stocking, there arent any fish that can live in a system that small. I would suggest 1-2 hermit crabs as your livestock.

 

Snails. and you could get some micro hermits, perhaps your LFS would let you trade large in for smalls as your critters grow!

 

I would also be sure to check out www.nano-reef.com

This is a site dedicated to small tanks. A search for "pico" will hopefully give you some information.

 

Yeah .... the little factoid, that I am fully out of my skull in attempting this endeavor, is a given. (shrug) ... I know that fish are out of the question and that my options are quite limited. I found a hijacker snail in the tank last night, but the micro crabs sound like a maybe-go. The fact that the whole thing can melt down inj just a few hours does worry me a little .. almost like I'm setting myself up for failure here ... but I dunno if it worries me enough to not try & pull the task off.

If the task does prove to be beyond my scope of ability/time allotment, than I may work on doing 3 or 4 of these little vase-picos, all running into a largish fuge/sump of 30 or 40 gallons, housed out of sight in a stand. That would solve much of the underlying problems of lightning-fast water chemestry flops.

I'll try & get some photos if I pull this lil' buggar off & shoot them to the site.

Am still open to hear suggestions & options for corals, polyps, inverts & the like.

 

You could make an autotop off sortof thing. Kent marine makes on with a drip counter , here.


http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F13/Class/Fish+Supplies+Dosing+Equipment/T1/F13+0064+0154/EDP/6668/Itemdy00.aspx

that you could fill with fresh top off water. You would need to fiddle to find out how much to drip in during the day to keep you even. It has a pretty long hose so you could hide the container on a hook behind a cabinet or something as long as it is higher that the pico vase

 

Also, I have a betta vase with a plant in the top. I used and upside down Icee Lid (one of the domed lids for the frozen drinks you get in convenience stores) and set it in the flair at the top of the vase. You could put a mangrove plant in it. It would help filter the water, hide the top off line, and keep evaporation down a bit.

 

Well....I've switched out the underwater filter, used for water movement, to a clear-plastic HOB filter that measures a whopping 3"w X 3"d. 'Tis a "Seaclear" filter setup, made for use in little beta fish tanks.

The plans are to use it as a refugium, but am I kidding myself with such a small area for LR sand/LR rubble/algae ??? ... The one-gallon tank volume is so minute anyway, will I see a benefit from such a small (about 1-2 cups volume) ???

 

What is the volume of your little experiment?

 

Karma For Ur Adventure!