Carey's Pico Build!

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I'm actually researching and pricing led's for my next build. :)

The lighting on the 125g is pretty good, I have a 12 bulb T5 fixture.
 
So I got an issue with the pico. I have some excessive green hair algae. :-(

Is it the nutrients or the lighting? I have a nanotuners Par38 bulb over it for about 10 hours a day and I feed sparingly since theres not much in there. I probably do 3 pwcs of 1g or so every week. I've also been target feeding a sun coral in there, could that be the source of the new algae? It's actually growing around some of the corals, and the frag plugs. :-(

Anyone experience this in their tiny tank? I'm just now realizing how difficult it is to run a pico! LOL
 
carey said:
I found the pico LED light that looks really cool and is upgradeable.

Ecoxotic EcoPico LED Arm Light Fixture w/ 12K White & 453nm Blue Strip

For those that are looking for a modern approach to pico lighting. :)
Click to expand...

Really sleek looking do you know if anyone has had success with it and do you know specs on those LEDs site didn't say much I'm thinking even if they were 1w LEDs which is not likely they might not support much
 
carey said:
So I got an issue with the pico. I have some excessive green hair algae. :-(

Is it the nutrients or the lighting? I have a nanotuners Par38 bulb over it for about 10 hours a day and I feed sparingly since theres not much in there. I probably do 3 pwcs of 1g or so every week. I've also been target feeding a sun coral in there, could that be the source of the new algae? It's actually growing around some of the corals, and the frag plugs. :-(

Anyone experience this in their tiny tank? I'm just now realizing how difficult it is to run a pico! LOL
Click to expand...

I had a 5g pico running last year and when I got hair algae a mithrax crab wad the answer I had a black one as s hitchhiker he scavenged all loose extra food and also ate most of the hair algae. Funny enough the pico was setup to quarantine him till I could make sure he was ref safe :) so his more common cousin would be an emerald crab. I also had periwinkles and narrassus snails on my CUC
 
I think your light is on too long. I would cut that back to 7 or 8 hours. Also, with a sun coral, you cant add a matrix emerald crab. It will rob your sun coral and it will never eat. Unless you are taking it out to feed. Sun coral will foul water. They can be difficult to maintain.
 
I'm using a single par38 bulb from nanotuners. Its an led bulb and is awesome. Was a pain to find a fixture to hold it though the bulb weighs like a pound. :)
 
carey said:
So I got an issue with the pico. I have some excessive green hair algae. :-(

Is it the nutrients or the lighting? I have a nanotuners Par38 bulb over it for about 10 hours a day and I feed sparingly since theres not much in there. I probably do 3 pwcs of 1g or so every week. I've also been target feeding a sun coral in there, could that be the source of the new algae? It's actually growing around some of the corals, and the frag plugs. :-(

Anyone experience this in their tiny tank? I'm just now realizing how difficult it is to run a pico! LOL
Click to expand...

Combination of both is causing your problems,cut back on the lighting time and having to feed a sun coral in a Pico just isn't going to work.I also got an extra Azoo Palm Filter from the Drs for $8.99 which helped with flow and keeping water good.Also put some chaeto in there.Will help with nutrients and you can use it as it grows to feed your tang in the 125.
You should only need to do a PW once a week then.To often water changes never let's your aquarium settle in.
 
I'm probably gonna put back the original light that came with the system, give the corals a break from the hi intensity lighting.

Yeah, I figured the pico would be a good place to baby my sun coral, am considering moving it to another tank. But we'll see. :)

Thanks guys for the input. Always appreciated!
 
So I got majorly bored and decided it was picture time for my sw tanks!

here are some shots i just took. even caught the porcelain crab and a shrimp. LOL

img_1478316_0_414be8fb17cba982bfc71e627c31c0d1.jpg

img_1478316_1_3ce625e5bb0b156bd0c909f4533b0b2f.jpg

img_1478316_2_bce9b31c5fd598f77e13e19360d97621.jpg
 
I'm sure its mentioned but I can't find this, what's the top right?

Also, I've decided this is my fav. Nano sw on here, and I'm really jelous of how amazing it looks. You've inspired me for sure :)
 
If youre talking about the green heads, thats a duncan. :-D It has literally quintupled in size in just a few months. It's real easy to care for and I can tell it's gonna be a nice coral for my 125g when it gets a bit bigger.

Thanks so much for the compliment, I try really hard on all my tanks, but the pico has been a real joy to play with. Even though its so darn small, lol
 
The big coral in there is a candycane, I moved it from my 125g when i got a HUGE one for that tank. Another easy to care for coral, it seems to like the pico. :)

theres also mushrooms, an acan,xenia,kenya tree, a blasto frag and the sun corals down on the left on the sand.

I plan on re-doing the tank again, my crab molted and left it's pieces everywhere/. LOL I thought something had eaten him it was such a mess. And with it being so tiny I cant get my hands in there to pick up the pieces.

I'm also looking at getting one of those battery operated sand siphons, hopefully it will make cleaning it up a lot easier. It's one of those things you dont' know you need until you run into a problem.

Another cool thing to have is the twolittle fishies mag cleaner. the regular tiny mag float is way too big for a 4-5g tank, takes up too much space and knocks things over when you use it.
 
Are you talking about the little pen shaped thing? There's one that doesn't suck up actualy water, but vacums stuff into a baggie, I was juust talking about that a min. Ago. It seems like it make getting shrimp poo in my 10 gal way easier lol..
 
Omg! The one I was looking at was 40, this is basically the same! Tysm!!! Kill order this tomorow, and set up a review for it :) I figure for my shrimp tank ill finaly be able to get all up in there :)
 
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