Scuba in a reef nano tank...

[bbianchi]

Brandon,

I have marketed this pico to be at your house for $199 and that includes live sand and premium live rock with tons of purple macro algae.

You add the salt water and turn it on; corals and softies are on the user to purchase on their own, each frag is $10 dollars per piece.

I don't supply the corals as I am not a distributor for live animals or corals.

So from the pic you get it all; filter, light, additives etc, you add water and walk away.

Come on Brandon let me put this pico in your room so you can have the actinic back in place where it belongs... The pico has two 9 watt bulbs, one is 03 actinic light while the other is 10,000k daylight...

You make it sound too easy... I know better

You need a hygrometer, premium salts (oceanic was top when I was in), trace elements that arent cheap, probably some DT's Phytoplankton to feed the soft corals.. and while $10 sounds great you cant even beat that for most items at Saltwater Fish and Supplies at Saltwaterfish.com. Where do you buy your stuff for $10 a frag? Also have you tried hard corals out of curiosity? With your watt to gallon ratio thats not bad. Does the rock come wet / live?

Also how does your package compare to this?

12 Gal JBJ Nano Cube DELUXE + LEDs

 

[mikeguerrero]

You make it sound too easy... I know better

You need a hygrometer, premium salts (oceanic was top when I was in), trace elements that arent cheap, probably some DT's Phytoplankton to feed the soft corals.. and while $10 sounds great you cant even beat that for most items at Saltwater Fish and Supplies at Saltwaterfish.com. Where do you buy your stuff for $10 a frag? Also have you tried hard corals out of curiosity? With your watt to gallon ratio thats not bad. Does the rock come wet / live?

Also how does your package compare to this?

12 Gal JBJ Nano Cube DELUXE + LEDs

Brandon,

The trace elements cost $15 dollars and last you half a year, Strontium, Calcium and Iodide.

Do you realize the volume that I'm working with? 1 gallon of actual sea water, we are not talking about 100 gallons where you need all the factors you remember.

Stay away from the 12 gallon JBJ, they are expensive to maintain, I should now, I took first prize in two awards with two 12 gallon JBJ systems, one LPS corals the other SPS corals.

I am talking about 1 gallon pico, a love that will bring back great memories without the expensive headaches.

Brandon, I'm still working out the bugs, you'll see once I get them rolled out I will show you the cost on actual paper work, next time I see you at Monterey.

Yes I pick up Frags from several LDS I have access to out here in the East Bay, remember I'm not limited to what Monterey, Salinas gets, they all pull from the same vendor and he's here in Alameda.

I have built longterm friendships with all the major petshops out this way and have access to the 10 dollar frags most don't.

Keep watching my thread for updates...

MG

 

[bbianchi]

I didnt have mine up here, I had mine in Fresno, and was buddy buddy with the owner of the shop for several years. Plus "cash" prices were always better. My 12gallon nano was darn nice, granted I did my own lighting mod. I dont know if I could make the investment in a 1 gallon since the temperature swings can happen quite quickly and that can really stress the contents.

 

[saf1]

Outside the personal biasness and religeous side of things, its not as bad as you think. That is - IF YOU PLAN ahead of time. Meaning - know what you plan to keep as it relates to fish and coral. That will give you a up front estimated cost for buy in. Here is why.

1. Coral dictates lighting requirements. Sps vs softies, etc.
2. Coral dictates supplements (DT's in your example, idodine, etc)
3. Filter - biasness aside you don't need mechanical usually - live sand and rock work

With that in mind - live rock and sand bed are your filter. You just need water movement in the nano's. Koralia's or other power heads work - that isn't too bad. Heater - ok, not bad cost wise. Mike's filter is ok - remove the media if you want and just use it for water turnover, etc. Your good.

Fish - green chromis, clowns, royal gramma, six line wrass, tri blenny, etc - all great fish. Nano = small bio load. Add a couple snails, cleaner shrimp or peppermints - your set. Again - no supplement needed here.

Corals - small polyps, softies, etc - most won't require DT's. Green star polyps or xenia - yeah - they need it. Depending on what you are housing will depend on supplements. You may get by with DIY stuff such as vodka or other things - I don't know how crafty you are or time.

Lighting - as with corals above, MH cause heat so vho's or other options are better. Highest cost factor is here so maybe consider a DIY. LED's are gaining especially if you go your own route. Meanwell drivers or buckpuks drive 8 to 6 led's - choose white, royal blue, etc - you can pinpoint light as you deem necessary and growth patterns so far have been positive. If you want - stay with PC or svho's or overclock standard florecents using ice caps.

What I mean is that if you see ahead of time what you want to keep the cost will vary. It can be done cheep. My 16 year old daughter build a eclipse 6 gallone for under 100 bucks. Granted she pillaged my main display and sump - but it worked. Most expensive was the LED light she tried from sunburst which was 60 or so bucks. Tank was 40 bucks on sale. Rest she stole from my setup. 4 cups of live sand, 2 large rocks, some rubble, mated pair of clarkie clown fish....off she goes happy as a clam

I dunno. If you didn't already catch it - planning is essential Knowing what coral you want to keep in turn feeds lighting requirements which in turn feeds into any additives. Fish - well, that is the easiest of all because you have a set amount of realestate which means no tangs, etc.

BTW those cubes you mentioned are pretty crazy. I think they have a higher upfront cost. But...if you google them or read up on them around the community - they have many that look freaking awesome.

Your mileage may vary of course. Seems like Mike is trying to make it easy so all you have to do is pick fish and coral.

 

[mikeguerrero]

I didnt have mine up here, I had mine in Fresno, and was buddy buddy with the owner of the shop for several years. Plus "cash" prices were always better. My 12gallon nano was darn nice, granted I did my own lighting mod. I dont know if I could make the investment in a 1 gallon since the temperature swings can happen quite quickly and that can really stress the contents.

Brandon,

Rather than running an expensive nano chiller I have worked out another easy solution for a common problem; heat in a nano...

I run a $15 dollar Brinks digital timer that has the amp rating to turn off/on the 18watt Coralife.

What I do is run the digital timer for two 4 hour sessions your choice. This keeps the pico from ever hitting beyond 85 degrees in a given day.

I run mine four hours in the morning and then four hours late at night when I get home; I avoid the mid day hours.

If you insist on mid day hours I am working on another solution.

In the meantime this pico doesn't run with any heater because the unit is encased with a glass top that locks in heat from the ambient temps of a room.

Brandon you remember that SPS corals cannot take a fluctuation in a temp swing but zoos and yumas and rics can, they are in waters that have greater variations than SPS.

You will soon have a pico in your room and wonder why it wasn't done years ago, no headaches, simple water changes that even a Cave man can do.

Brandon I took this video today, running my new pico for one week

 

[CosmoKramerOfTheDeep]

Wow that is a really cool little tank . . .the colors of zoos are really vivid for such a small light, maybe because the light is so close? What type of light is it? How much live rock did you use? I'd love to see any other tanks you may keep.

Do you ever dive for aquarium fish or corals? I'm not even sure if there is a legal means to do so, but seems like it would be cool to actually go try to collect a certain ffish or coral instead of just ordering one or buying it from a store.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Wow that is a really cool little tank . . .the colors of zoos are really vivid for such a small light, maybe because the light is so close? What type of light is it? How much live rock did you use? I'd love to see any other tanks you may keep.

Do you ever dive for aquarium fish or corals? I'm not even sure if there is a legal means to do so, but seems like it would be cool to actually go try to collect a certain ffish or coral instead of just ordering one or buying it from a store.

Thanks for your kind words on my hobby as an aquarist. I use a Coralife 18watt power compacts; LED's are too expensive and haven't dropped in price to effectively market them out.

Because the light runs on two 9 watt bulbs, one is 03 actinic while the other is 10,000k daylight; you are seeing the 03 pic up the nice colors.

I ran a 72 gallon bowfront and then a 90 gallon bowfront reef, also had two 12 gallon JBJ nano tanks with special modifications in the hoods.

I don't dive for corals because I don't live in tropical areas, would love to dive here in Monterey and gather some critters but it's against the law without a permit and that's a whole other world with cold water reefs.

MG

 

[ae3753]

MG,

This is freaking awesome! Nicely done, I would like to see more of your work.

$199, huh? Let's talk

 

[mikeguerrero]

MG,

This is freaking awesome! Nicely done, I would like to see more of your work.

$199, huh? Let's talk

Don, here is some of my work...

This was my 72 gallon bowfront that I kept, LPS and SPS corals together...

And my favorite starfish pic..

 

[DCBC]

Great pics Mike. Thanks for sharing.

Wayne