new pico: all the exciting details

[afromage5000]

My new tank is going to be a 1.77 gal to contain a couple snails, crabs and shrimp. I particularly like coral banded shrimp and a sally lightfoot crab along with a few snails. Im not going to heat the tank because its only gonna be those inverts and when i had my Paradise fish(rip) in the same tank it stayed around 72-75. Ive got a 10 watt 50/50 power compact for lighting.

tank with sandbed. almost ready for water!

2-3 lbs live rock curing. I have scrubbed it twice with a toothbrush to get all the die off away and then i did a 100% water change after.

my PC light.

so thats all for now, bring on the suggestions!!

 

[amd]

what about water movement /filtrarion? looks nice way to go. oh S*#@ what sand are you using, answer this now now hurry, also make sure to go to the grocerystore to get the r/o water

 

[afromage5000]

I've got the 2-3 lbs live rock seen above and a power head i took out of a little desk fountain. I empties a gallon bucket in less than a minute with the power head so i think it is powerful enough. As sand goes it was labeled as land hermit sand on the shelf but is made of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate so i think it is good.

 

[amd]

ok, mabey check around on that, make sure, sounds fine though, that will be a nice pico, good job, and use ro water

 

[fish outa wata]

I don't want to be negative but is this tank big enough for a sally lightfoot?
I think the LR should be good.
Loadroad has a pico, check out his thread. Tons of info.

 

[afromage5000]

too small for a sallt lightfoot? maybe, any other suggestions besides hermits?

 

[S.Reef]

Should be fine for a sallylightfoot. They usually stay small, if it does get too big you can always trade it in....how about an emerald crab....or staghorn hermit?

 

[Perfectblue]

Off to a great start, but remember take things slowly especially in a tank this small.

 

[afromage5000]

update

The live rock has cured for a week and i moved it into the tank. I added 2 more lbs of sand to create a better DSB but lost some when i rinsed it. Im not sure if i like the sand, it took a whole 24 hrs for the water to clear and it is coating everything including the acrylic but i wont change it just yet. I broke one of the LR peices so now i have 3 chunks to work with. What do you think? Gotta get a cocktail shrimp to help the cycle but there is still a little die-off still which will get those bacteria going soon.

Pics

front

from the top

 

[afromage5000]

hmm. i thought i resized that. Photobucket is a little slow on the uptake.

 

[fish outa wata]

lookin good, def. coming together,

 

[SALTY WATERS]

too small for a sallt lightfoot?

Sally Lightfoots are eating machines and require large amounts of LR to grase upon. They get to be about 3" and did I mention that they like to eat a lot!!!

I had one a while back in a 10g and it was way to small for mine which was already at about 2 - 2 1/2 " after only a short time.

 

[ram man]

you wont realy be able to keep anything ecxept a few low light corlas, maybe zoanthids or mushrooms

 

[afromage5000]

ok so maybe nix the crab. I trashed the sand last night, too fine grained for this tank, im going to pick up some crushed coral today.

 

[ram man]

why did you dump the sand? crushed coral looks alot worse in my oppinion.

 

[kevin4052002]

A substrate of crushed coral may result in dangerously swaying pH. This would be terrible on such a small system. You might want to rethink it.

Just a thought..

 

[afromage5000]

why does crushed coral cause swings? I thougt it was well buffered and would maintain a good ph. I just put it in the tank and i actually like how it looks but we'll see. This is good though, im learning a lot and that exactly why i started this tank.

 

[afromage5000]

i trashed the sand because it was way too fine and it literally took 48hrs to settle, i dont want to have to wait that long every time i do a water change etc.

 

[afromage5000]

So here it is with the new crushed coral. I got very low readings for nitrate and nitrite so i think there may not be enough ammonia around for the bacteria to start but we'll see tomorrow.

 

[kevin4052002]

The pH sway usually won't happen for awhile. I don't know for sure, but that is what I've heard.

If you rinse the sand thoroughly before you put it in, the smaller particles should be removed. When my eel stirs up the sand its quite a mess, but it settles within an hour and a half or so.