Hi I'm new

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buttons buster

New Member
I just started getting involved with pico tanks.
I have had larger successful tanks, but know little about pico tanks.


I am getting a 2 gallon tank and was wondering what was needed as far as lighting and filtration.
Also, what supplements should I provide in order to keep everthing running smoothly?
Also how many specimens can you keep in a pico tank.

What I have so far:
Mini power filter pf-80 80 gallons per hour max setting.
50/50 14,000 K Actinic & 7,400 daytime.


I also have live sand, live rock and seaweed for balance and added filtration.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.


-Alex
 
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Trogdor

New Member
oh god noooooo...sorry i spotted the swing-arm hydrometer next to your tank. :mrgreen: looks like you're off to a good start
 
B

buttons buster

New Member
Oh and I also did my first water test.
This was two days after getting the tank setup.
They are kinda bad:
Nitrate: 40
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 1.0
Why is everything so out of whack?

Also what should I do to cure this?
will it just right itself with time?
please help
 
T

Trogdor

New Member
sorry i didn't see this post.

Parameters are doing exactly what they should be doing. You will start off with an ammonia spike and it will start to decrease after a few days. Then your nitrites will spike followed by a decline. Finally your nitrates will spike and once they get to a steady number (ideally as close to 0 as possible) you can do a water change and it will be ready for a clean-up crew.

As for supplements, I wouldn't supplement anything that you don't test for. Reasoning is that you can get elements to dangerous levels and can crash your tank if you aren't careful. With that being said, you probably don't need all of the detoxing supplements if you are using RO/DI water. RO/DI units will remove all of those harmful elements and you will be left with near pure water.


Hope that helps, sorry that it was missed.
 
B

buttons buster

New Member
Oh and also what do you recommend as a good cleanup crew?
Also should I do a light mod?
it's a 50/50 14,000 K Actinic & 7,400 daytime.
13 watts total for a 2 gallon aquarium.
Is that enough, or do I need more?
Also i was wondering if this light would be considered low, medium, or high?
Thanks a lot
 
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Trogdor

New Member
IMO, you have plenty light for the 2g tank.

The clean-up crew is going to be a hard call on a 2g tank. I would probably go with 1 Astraea and 2 Nassarius or 1 Cerith. After that i would play it by ear to see how well they keep the tank clean. Be sure to keep up with top-off and water changes.
 
B

buttons buster

New Member
Thanks Trogdor.
Also, is there any upgrades as far as lights go that don't cost a lot, or should I be fine with what I got?

Oh and a few more questions,
Should I get a protein skimmer or is a hang on filter suffecient?
Oh, and is the filter that i currently have fine?
its a 80gph three stage filtration.
it has two inserts
1 is the filter "bag" that has a blue mess covering carbon and whatever else is in there, and the second part is this screen like thing that takes the place of bio balls.
like it;s plastic with a lot of surface area(has a lot of pegs shooting off of one side)
for raising beneficial bacteria.

Thanks again.
Hopefully you understand my description
 
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Trogdor

New Member
Everything sounds good to me. I wouldn't worry about a protein skimmer. If you keep up with water changes, you will be removing and replacing enough of the water to offset the effect of a skimmer.
 
K

KidNano

New Member
Everything sounds good to me. I wouldn't worry about a protein skimmer. If you keep up with water changes, you will be removing and replacing enough of the water to offset the effect of a skimmer.
Click to expand...
Ditto.
1What kind of water are you using? Are you using tapwater? If not whats the amquel for? if your using RO you don't need it. you shouldn't need any of those supplements unless you notice something is particularly low. just make sure your top off and replacement water are good quality.
2what are you planning on putting in the tank? That will depend on the lighting however what you have should be fine for most things.

I understand your frustration with not getting any responses. I guess everyone takes the summer off from reefing. ;-)
 
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Trogdor

New Member
i just didn't get the little flashy icon on the main page the first time that he was requesting more info. these forums do that occasionally. If i'm ever responding to your thread and suddenly quit...feel free to drop me a PM. Chances are that i just missed the icon.
 
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buttons buster

New Member
What exactly does Ro water stand for?

I'm using distilled water that comes out of a dispenser in my kitchen.
I was using the amquel to help get rid of nitrate ert from the tank itself.
I thought that was hat it was used for.
correct me if i'm wrong.
I'm not really sure of what to get.
i'm going to start off with a cleanup crew like trogdor said earlier, then I'll slowly add some corals.
I might go with a couple of zoos and mushrooms.
Not sure what else.
Also what do you recommend for livestock?
Oh and what won't those lights cover?
 
K

KidNano

New Member
RO is Reverse Osmosis and there is a RO/DI but I'm not exactly sure what the DI is. Sorry... That's what everyone on this site has always said to use. Distilled water I believe is OK however I don't really know that much about water. If all you want are shrooms and Zoos that light will do just fine. If you want to get into SPS and Clams then most people would probably reccomend something more. It sounds like your doing OK with everything though. I definitely recommend you start with the coral that you've suggested and then when your able to research others and have successfully kept the shrooms and zoos and you've seen good growth out of them then get some other stufff. Xenia would probably be a good starting place too and they add a lot of movement to your tank.

Good luck and stop putting stuff in your tank. Oh yeah..... you said Seaweed. what type of "Seaweed" are you using?

:D :D

Trogdor. I didn't mean you not replying. I think your the only one that did. it's usually nice to get a few different opinions on stuff like this as most of the time that's all they are is opinions. That's all I've got. Opinions. ;-)
 
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Trogdor

New Member
RO is reverse osmosis

I can't really comment on the distilled water. I have never used it nor researched it to find out what is in it. The detox kits are more for heavy contaminates, like chlorine and chloramine. While your tank is cycling, you don't want to detox the ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.

A bit more info on a tank's cycle
All new tanks must go through what is called a cycle. I know you are asking yourself, what is a cycle. It's short for the start of the nitrogen cycle. This happens in water as well as on land. Decomposing matter creates ammonia due to the microorganisms that break down the matter. This bacteria expels wasts in the form of ammonia.

Ammonia can increase to dangerous levels for most macro-organisms but there is a form of bacteria that feed off of ammonia. What happens in your tank is that dead matter decomposing makes ammonia. The ammonia will increase and while it is increasing bacteria is reproducing to keep up with the demand. One day the ammonia source will deplete to a sustainable level.

This new bacteria expels waste in the form of nitrites. The same mini-cycle happens with the nitrites and they will end up producing nitrates. Nitrates will spike and more new bacteria will grow in your tank and then settle down to a level that is maintained.

This maintained level is called your bioload capability. When you add new livestock to your tank, you in turn make the cycle start again. But this time the bacteria doesn't have to start from scratch, instead it just increases the amount of bacteria in the tank. If you add too many new specimens at once, your bacteria can't reproduce fast enough and can cause the ammonia levels to spike. Your tank can only hold so much bacteria so there is a limit on how much of a bioload a tank can handle. Hope that helps a bit on the cycle part. You can google for more info if you need it.

This link might help explain it as well. I'm not fond of using live fish to cycle a tank but everyone has their preferred way.

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html
 
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Trogdor

New Member
KN...yeah i know you weren't saying that i wasn't posting. I was just ranting a bit at how sometimes the icon doesn't light up for a new post. It's annoying but I think it's more of a FireFox issue than anything else.
 
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