Need advice on my tank...

[dragon79]

Hey most of you who know my pico know how small it is, and well I have a question to ask.

I have 5 pieces of LR in my little tank. One in upper right, upper right front, one in the left that extends to the middle, and two other small pieces that rest on top of that. With how it's set now it has like a visible sandbed visible from the left to the middle of tank. right side it's occupied by LR. With getting future frags for it, will it be harder to accomodate them in there? Or should I have started with less LR, so when I do buy frags that usually do come with a rock attached to it, start decorating from there? I liked the way that tank looked on reefcentral, the one that my brother found....the one that had that clam in it. It looked like he had just the right amount of rock where he was still able to buy what he wanted, deck it out nicely and still have a nice sandbed visible and enjoy. What thoughts and or advice can you give me?

 

[mikeguerrero]

I'll be the first to reply,,,, ditch the live rock now !!! That was my biggest mistake I did when I started the cube.... Since I was a reefer of big tanks I was acustummed to large corals,,,, big mistake as you all saw me go through corals attacking and it was Incysor to the rescue :smile: thanks... His advice was appreciated....

Steve, the beauty of your tank is that since it's so small, the smaller you go the funner it is to shop for the perfect piece. And since you go with cured live pieces, I would spend a pretty penny on each piece, since it's what will make your tank.

You have way too much rock in your tank and I'm glad you are seeing that, I didn't want to be the one that busted your balls, I was hoping phishcy would do his job :wink: Just kidden.... Looks like you busted your own balls,,, j/k

But seriously Steve, your tank has potential for awesome pieces, plus that live rock can go into nano angels tank, she has plenty of space. When we did her tank I was happy we went with little live rock as compared to mine....

Hope this sheds some light....

Mike

P.S

I would go with a clam in your tank, because you have double the lighting as the other user plus you are a big fan of dosing... The distance between the light and the tank is also closer than others. Your main insurance since I know I will get flammed for this post is that you and I are friends with the owners at Tongs in fountain valley. If the clam starts to look unhappy, mantle not extended, she'll credit you back and you can get something else.....

A lot of users flammed me for the clam I got and it's been 4 months and you see that it's as healty as can be. Tender care goes a long way in this hobby....

 

[djconn]

While moving last weekend, I took out a combined total of approx. 20-25 lbs of live rock from my three tanks. Its great to have in your system as sort of a natural, living filter but you are correct in that it will, at some point, compete with your for corals for real estate. In my situation, I had simply collected just way too many corals for the amount of space I had in my tanks.

My original plan was to sell the excess rock locally, but I couldn't find any buyers. I then opted to start up a grow-out/propagation tank for xenia, green star polyps and misc. mushrooms in a spare 10 gallon tank I had lying around. Most of the extra rock ended up in there.

I would take out your extra live rock as you get new frags. Throw the extra rock in your cube. Just keep a nice balance of rock and corals in your pico.

 

[dragon79]

i figured as much

Oh well........looks like it's true. But anyway, hey mike about that guy with the clam, you should read what he wrote back. You have a link to it from when you first posted about it. Go to it and read what he said. He talks about clams that are smaller than 2 inches (which is the one he had in the melody pico) As for me, I think I would like to get a ric for the pico. The one that looks just like yours. Haven't spotted one yet out here though. I'll be making room in the pico, I'll be removing the LR in the upper right front of tank, It'll give more of the sandbed available to place a future frag.

 

[Phischy]

I've got a 40gal, I don't know jack about nano/pico's.

 

[incysor]

I wouldn't remove too much at once...You'd be removing a large portion of your filter system. If the pieces are simply too large, I'd take them out, whack 'em with a hammer to break them up and then put it all back.

If you've got mostly fist-sized pieces it's pretty easy to remove one or two when you get new pieces of coral.

B

 

[dragon79]

ha ha ha

I've got a 40gal, I don't know jack about nano/pico's.

Thanks for your support during this time of needing advice, ha ha ha. I know who to go to when and if I ever go with a 40 gallon tank. I'll need detailed instructions on how to entomb unwanted hitchhikers, ha ha ha.

BTW, nice pic on the lounge, lol.

 

[Phischy]

My name was brought up so I thought I'd chime in. My advice: go slowly. ha ha ha

Man, there are some great LFS up in the greater LA area. Plus with LAX that's where most of the shipments come in for So Cal, you must have the best stores up there to choose from without paying more shipping to get the same corals to places in the midwest.

 

[dragon79]

My name was brought up so I thought I'd chime in. My advice: go slowly. ha ha ha

Man, there are some great LFS up in the greater LA area. Plus with LAX that's where most of the shipments come in for So Cal, you must have the best stores up there to choose from without paying more shipping to get the same corals to places in the midwest.

great advice! ha ha ha But anyway, I wanted to let you know that I did pick up a cool tip from you....I found the cyclop-eze bar, and picked one up. Should be fun to watch as I feed with that, and go with your mentality of "feed, and douse with beneficial chemicals.... come on stupid corals and zoo's, expand and reproduce already!" hehehe

As far as the places out here, yah there are good places, and where you can get some pretty tight stuff, but its not as cheap as some of your guys's prices. I swear, like my brother from up north (mr. signature series mike) can almost get anything from his LFS for about 4 dollars to 6 dollars cheaper than what I can down here in Southern Cali. Go figure, no luck in getting a cheap price, doh!

 

[Phischy]

So far I'm getting all of my corals through the local forum www.sdreefs.com but that's a stretch for you being up there. I picked up a candy cane that is doing well and dividing but the rest of my corals aren't. They're big fat and happy, but not reproducing!!!

This weekend I"m going to install my new lights and go from 110w to 220w of PC power, I hope this is enough to kick 'em in the pants to start growing. Maybe I should dose with "Spanish Fly". I dunno....

I should also be getting 3 to 4 orange shroom frags and pulsing xenia frags as well. I've yet to buy a coral in a LFS, which is why I want my frags to grow!!!