The small water volume meant that a cool breeze is all that is needed to keep the tank cool at 27-28 degrees Celsius. During the first few months of maintenance, Two Little Fishies part A and part B Calcium and Alkalinity two part additives were manually supplemented, but as the growth of the SPS increased, a dosing pump was used to keep up with the supplementation of calcium.Įvaporation is not as high as you’d imagine and the tank is placed in a windy location of the house. The only flow provided for the SPS comes from the hang on filter, and as a result, not everywhere in the tank is suitable for SPS growth. You’ll be surprised how much detritus can accumulate from what little liverock and feeding that is in the tank. The same staghorn as above a few months later.Īpart from the diligent water changes, daily siphoning of detritus was also carried out. The blue staghorn shown here was when it was first glued to the rockscape. The hang on filter also included biohome and zeolites for biological filtration.
Due to the small water volume and the lack of a protein skimmer, water changes of two liters were performed once every day or once every two days. The fish now only consists of one or two Eviota gobies and a pair of Priolepis nocturna. The tiny gobies that were prone to jumping were relocated and the pico tank mainly featured SPS and invertebrates. megastigma, got spooked easily whenever the lights turned on and off, and therefore jump out of the tank easily. See also The Nano Reef gets First Deep Cleaning in Two Years īeing a very tiny and shallow tank, some of the fish, especially the A. The tank also had a half inch african flameback angelfish which was cute for awhile, but as it grew bigger, it had to be relocated. The main livestock housed in this tank includes various species of SPS corals, a few shrimps mainly in the Urocaridella and Leander genera, some nano gobies including Aioliops megastigma, Elacatinus multifasciatus, Stonogobiops xanthorhinica, a pair of Discordipinna griessingeri and other nano gobies. These didn’t last very long as they were spooked easily which resulted in jumping related casualties due to the shallow tank. The Montipora showed very good growth and you can see the original frag as well as the large portion in which it grew out from. A small pink Stylophora growing next to an encrusting Montipora. The volume of the tank roughly equates to 7 gallons, but taking into account the few pieces of liverocks, the total effective water volume of the tank is just about 6 gallons. The set up is barebottom, skimmer-less, wavemaker-less and devoid of almost all familiar aquarium related equipment except for a 600L/Hr hang on filter and until recently, a dosing pump for administration of calcium and other additives.
The nano SPS reef was inspired by Marcello’s tiny reef garden and features a 60x23x20 cm tank equipped with two units of 12K Par 32 Cree LED spotlights. The 60cm x 23cm x 20cm pico tank is equipped with 2 units of Par 38 Cree spotlights. At only slightly more than 5 gallons, balancing the water chemistry to suit the needs of the coral inhabitants is not so simple. Many of them end up looking just as beautiful and this tiny pico tank by Singaporean fish breeder JunKai who bred the oblique dottyback is no exception. With the increase in nano reef tanks in recent years, we’ve been seeing a lot more examples of simplified mini versions of the former. SPS corals are known for their higher level of care and sometimes difficult nature as far as corals go – most SPS aquarium set ups include high flow, high light, and big aquariums teeming with other invertebrate and fish life.