cainechow Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 (edited) I'm starting up a new 4.3 gallon pico tank. It is the saltwater twin to Syncro's freshwater iwagumi. (We should probably do up a tank build thread in DIY. It was lots of fun.)(Too bad my DSLR lens is broken. The phone camera makes everything look way more blue than it really looks... though it IS kinda blue)The plan for the tank is a good chunk of live rock, one coral and a couple of sexy shrimps; no fish because fish are dirty . With the low bio load I don't plan to dose and counting on water changes to replenish the water column and clean out junk. The tank currently has a single 2x1w blue + 1x1w white GU10 bulb hanging over it. I am planning on doing two but I have 3 of these bulbs if I need to get more light for what ever coral I end up getting. My float switches for my ato are supposedly in the mail and I can't wait to get that wired up.I'm looking for suggestions on what coral to get. The coral is going to be the center piece of the tank.Some factors are: It would be nice if the coral had some movement with the water flow I am a reef newb but I did a lot of reading? ... and I have you guys I'm good with water changes. After the rock and stuff is in water volume is probably going to be closer to 3.7 gallon My wife likes colourful corals. Admittedly so do I. So what coral and which shop do you recommend? Edited July 16, 2013 by cainechow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGuppyGirl Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 What about a superman monti coral? Am not a salty myself but seen a small one at aquarium illusions and it was extremely colorful and i'm a superman fan girl lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted October 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2012 Woh. That's a pretty neat coral. It is on the rare side it seems. Also it is an SPS coral which I am not yet prepared to get into right away because SPS are regarded as harder to keep. It sure looks awesome though. Maybe one day when I get more skilled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitaminz Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 With that small of a tank, I would do a Ricordea garden!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted October 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Nice. Is that yours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitaminz Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Hahaha, no I wish... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meeiu Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 How is this tank going for you? I am dying to see some new images Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted November 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 No updates yet. In 4 weeks the tank with water and sand has processed two 1 cm chunks of raw shrimp, 1 dead ghost shrimp, 1x1x1cm chunk of raw basa fillet, half an expired emerald eye rasbora. I had 1ppm ammonia last night, undetectable NO2, undetectable NO3. I suspect that the ammonia is from the still processing rasbora. The undetectable NO3 seems a bit puzzling to me though. We'll see how things progress. I think I've decided on a branching hammer coral though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingin' It Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 What about frogspawn or octospawn? Imo, they're nicer. No matter what coral you get...don't forget to feed them. I just read back and you said no fish as they're dirty...but keep in mind so are corals! They just happen to need light too. I look fwd to more pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted November 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 Touche on the corals also being dirty. I just didn't want to worry about lotsa dirty animals I was told by the boss that the pico just wasn't going to work on the dresser in the bedroom so it has been relegated to the living room corner. In retrospect, it means that more people can enjoy the tank I figured out how to get another GU10 bulb on there so I'll throw that out for a pic I'm going to also be building a pedestal for the tank so that it sits at about eye level when sitting on the couch. BTW, what is the difference between frogspawn and the octospawn? Pictures via Google images doesn't make it clear. Is it like a frogspawn with lotsa (8) arms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingin' It Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 BTW, what is the difference between frogspawn and the octospawn? Pictures via Google images doesn't make it clear. Is it like a frogspawn with lotsa (8) arms? Octospawn is basically the same as frogspawn...but there should be more "knobs" on it. It's a very cool coral IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted November 10, 2012 Report Share Posted November 10, 2012 That is gonna look pretty neat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted January 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 After what seems to be forever and a day (actually 12 weeks) of just sand and water, I finally got me a little coral. It is 1.1 head of frogspawn. It looks pretty lonely in there right now. I'm hoping that in a week or so after it gets used to the tank and lights I'll start feeding the little guy and the second micro head will get some growth. When I'm convinced I've got the coral care down I'll probably add a sexy shrimp, though maybe a harlequin shrimp if I decide to splurge. (I figured out how to take okay pics with the phone so that they don't turn out uber blue) This pic is about 24 hours after I got him in the tank. When I first got him, he started to extend his polyps while acclimating which I took as a good sign. We probably had full polyp extension within an hour of being homed in the tank. Just to the right of the trunk you can see the tiny 0.1 head just sticking out of the sand. I guess you don't really directly feed ones that are that small. Hmmm. I dunno how to link videos properly from Google+ but here it is. Nothing much to look at right now I guess but I'm still excited https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100065899123994630741/albums/5776035146918545937/5829633151894350418 Thanks for looking and the coral suggestions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted January 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 On second reading I'm not going to go harlequin shrimps even though they are very pretty. I didn't know before that they pretty much only eat starfish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somewherebeyondthesea Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 I have a small 12 Gallon Fluval Edge and I've had lots of fun with creating a small tank. I would recogmend: Zoos (they come in many colors) Ricordias (like the garden one shown above) Sexy Shrimp Porcelain Crab Pom Pom Crab Twin spot goby Yellow clown goby Barnical blennys Green Star Polyps Acans Mushrooms(fuzzy ones too!) Torch Coral I have lots more but i would need to know what you had for current/water flow :-) If you wanted a really cool example AI in Edmonton has an awesome nano Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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