Office Tank on a Whim - 3gal Picotope (1 Viewer)

[ange062]

I have a Marsh thread for my Nano, so figured it was only fair to start one for my Pico also.

As the story goes, I was sitting in my office having a slow morning one day, saw some people growing ivy and other plants, and somehow struck up the idea that it would be cool to have a tank in my office! A lunchtime trip to a close by LFS and before you know it I was lugging back a JBJ 3g Picotope, LR, live sand, and water with the help of a couple of excited colleagues. We had to "sneak" it all back in, because to this day I still don't know if it's technically allowed but I haven't been yelled at yet. It's quite an audience grabber! There are at least several daily visitors that stop by to check out what's going on with the tank.

I started the tank back in Sept 2011. A week after starting and all parms looking good (used LR / sand from an established tank) I added a tiny clown and a fireshrimp. A couple days later and both were dead for unknown reasons. I got disenchanted with the idea, and the tank just sat there for 2-mo afterwards. I cleaned the glass and did weekly water changes but the only livestock I added was a frag of xenia that was overgrowing in the nano.

So after that break, I got reinvigorated and decided to do it right! I scrapped the junky stock 9w PC in lieu of a Ecoxotic Panorama Pro 12k/453nm mix. At the same time I threw on an AC70 with InTank media basket for added filtration and water volume, and ordered up an overflow box and lid for the tank from BonsaiReef. I also fragged out some GSP and orange zoas from the nano to get some more life in the tank. After a few more weeks of everything looking good, I added two damsels to make sure the tank was life bearing for fish without a large investment...

The fish have been in the tank for about 2-mo now and are doing great. This week I finally built a long overdue stand for the Panorama Pro, and decided that since the nano is now all SPS that the pico is going to be my LPS tank. I picked up my first piece last night, a wagon wheel fungia. Also got a few additional zoas (eagle eye & green bay packers).

And some pics:
Day1:

Failed first fish attempt:

Upgrade Time!!

2nd Fish Attempt, this time successful:

 

[ange062]

Time to scrap that ghetto rigged taped on light mount!!
Test Fit:

Final Product:

First piece of LPS holding in my nano:

Will post an updated FTS sometime later. Looking forward to the LPS conversion!

 

[BigRick]

Is that a sundial snail in there with the fungia?

 

[ange062]

Is that a sundial snail in there with the fungia?

Negative, it's a type of trochus. If you look closely you will see the swirl of the shell is horizontal with the surface (i.e. when the snail is crawling) and a sundial has a vertically oriented swirl.

 

[dayton]

Looks good, pretty cool what you guys come up with.

 

[ange062]

Looks good, pretty cool what you guys come up with.

Thanks dayton!

This one is still a work in progress for sure, but I think the upgrades have worked out pretty well. I can say that it's very hard to keep a pico "level", salinity shifts happen quickly, nitrates and phosphates build up super quick if you even add just a couple too many pellets of food, etc etc. I think I've got a pretty solid grasp on it now though, weekly 50% water changes lately, running GFO and carbon in an oversized filter with an overflow to skim protein off the surface, and having a lid to reduce evap have all helped.

I'm hoping the LPS conversion goes well. I think the hardest part is going to be finding awesome super-bright colored pieces that are small enough to work in my ultra-limited space. I'm planning a re-scape to remove some LR to make more room and better light coverage.

 

[dayton]

Im new to this stuff. Iv got a 29 bio cube that im "learning" on. Iv looked at reefs2go.com alot latly and it looks like they have some bright zoas and such. I havnt ordered anything yet but they look good.

 

[fishrme]

looks nice ..gives your office space a lotta extra like in a tiny package ..and a nice conversation piece to boot !!!!

 

[ange062]

looks nice ..gives your office space a lotta extra like in a tiny package ..and a nice conversation piece to boot !!!!

Thanks, its definitely a conversation piece as people stop by all the time to check it out!

Unfortunately, there was just a "big" announcement at work that we will be moving to a new building, so further work on this tank will be discontinued for a bit as it will have to be torn down soon.

 

[fjwaquarium]

Wow. Your pico looking good.

 

[Tnconcept]

Thats a neat setup!

 

[flipside]

Now, you're just showing off, Angelo.

 

[ange062]

Dennis, tnconcept, Leo, thanks for the comments!! Unfortunately, as I said in my last post, they are shutting the building down at work so the tank will probably be taken down this week

 

[Tnconcept]

Dennis, tnconcept, Leo, thanks for the comments!! Unfortunately, as I said in my last post, they are shutting the building down at work so the tank will probably be taken down this week

Aww dude that sucks!

 

[porkchop]

Did this tank get moved, or did you just tear it down?

It was looking awesome.

 

[ange062]

Did this tank get moved, or did you just tear it down?

It was looking awesome.

Its actually still up and running. The office move has been delayed and I only put one half-hearted effort into selling it. Its been neglected with monthly water changes at best, and even less frequent glass cleanings, but all the corals have grown a lot and I still have the b&w damsel.

Need to snag some updated pics! Thanks for the comments.