Office Mantis Tank - Pico

Small update...

I added a small fish and 2 hermits last Friday.

They survived the weekend.

My CUC should be here this week, which is good considering I have a diatom outbreak .

On a side note, I'm considering turning this tank into a display sump/fuge for a shallow tank I'm thinking about getting.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

What kind of fish?

 

I believe it is a pajama cardinal.

I doubt it will stay in this tank. If it does, it will likely become food for the Mantis I'm going to put in.

 

Picos are the best. No tank quite as spectacular looking as a well setup poco. What kinda fish?

 

I must have been posting just as you responded:

I believe it is a pajama cardinal.

I doubt it will stay in this tank. If it does, it will likely become food for the Mantis I'm going to put in.

 

Sorry about that. I don't understand though did you purchase it for mantis food?

 

It was honestly an impulse purchase. I had a coupon for a discount and purchased this fish. I put it in this tank in hopes it would survive and it has thus far. I'll likely be moving it to my 55g as this Pico is going to become a Mantis tank.

 

sounds good, good to see your not gonna just let him get eaten! haha great little fish, you should skip the mantis and put in a pair or panda gobies, or a pair of clown gobies, make sure theyre a pair or theyll kill each other but i think a small reef tank with a couple tiny fish would be alot cooler than a mantis tank. well i just never like mantis tanks to begin with.

 

Ultimately I'm thinking of making this a Mantis tank, and then getting a shallow long tank (maybe 12-20gallons) and making this a display fuge. The shallow would house 2 small clowns probably.

 

Time for a big update:

Last week I ordered the 5.5 quick crew from reefcleaners.org. It contains the following:

• 5 Dwarf Ceriths
• 2 Nassarius
• 4 Florida Ceriths
• 3 Small Nerites

Here are pictures of what I got

Entire Order


5 Dwarf Ceriths



I couldn't be happier. They are in the tank now. Thanks John @ reefcleaners.org for everything!


Friday of last week I added the following to my media rack:

• Filter Floss
• Purigen
• Chaeto

Yesterday I did my first water change (50%), as it looked like the cycle was good to go.

Today, I decided it was time to check my levels again, being as I haven't checked in a while.

Finally, everything was at 0!!!

I added a few corals from my 55g, 2 of which weren't doing so good (browned out and not so healthy looking). The 2 not so good looking ones are SPS, which I guess doesn't surprise me that I probably screwed something up with them.

Two others I added are piece I got from someone. One was a Zoa the other was Birdsnest.

Both were in my 55g and the Birdsnest was doing fine. Unfortunantly the Zoa frag never opened up in there, so I figured I would give it a try here. Still nothing.

Anyways, here is a pic of the birdsnet:



I have a shipment of coral coming in on Thursday from Mr. Coral and will be sure to take pictures and document everything . I am very much looking forward to it.