Anyone Tried One Of These Tanks For A Pico?

[Donya]

I was just wondering if anyone else had tried a pico with one of these?

The kit as-is has looked good to me so far: almost silent, no detectable vibrations into the desk, not too bad for evaporation, no splashing out of the top that I've seen (although perhaps it would with a higher waterline), and not prone to temperature swings. Of course, the included lighting is probably useless for just about anything photosynthetic, so that may be why I haven't seen pics of anything marine in one of the tanks. Still, it seems reasonable for animals that need somewhat lower temperatures or that go into hiding in bright light, which is mainly what I'm looking into.

 

[Nick16]

well you cant keep much in a pico.

(freshwater) stuff includes shrimp or snails, but you got to be good on your W/C's!

maybe some small fry until they get slightly bigger but they would need some sort of filter/flow to aid their growth. (small h.o.b)

Marine, im not so sure...

 

[Donya]

well you cant keep much in a pico.

(freshwater) stuff includes shrimp or snails, but you got to be good on your W/C's!

maybe some small fry until they get slightly bigger but they would need some sort of filter/flow to aid their growth. (small h.o.b)

Marine, im not so sure...

I'm not interested in keeping lots of stuff, and I've kept mostly picos in marine. I've got three 1-gallon picos right now and was considering moving the stock from one over into the Tetra tank unless someone has had really bad experiences with the model. The mostly closed top and built-in lighting system are about the only things I'm a bit iffy about, mainly because I've only kept open-topped picos before.

(edited to fix typos)

 

[seffieuk]

Looks exciting Donya, what are you planning on keeping? Anything you plan to do, you can count on me being there to follow progress

Seffie x

 

[Donya]

I have a young little Ciliopagurus strigatus hermit that I'd like to move into the new tank along with a strange little dog whelk that hasn't been compatible with much else so far. Beyond that, I have no idea! If all goes well with the hermit, it'll need a bigger tank eventually, but, given hermit growth rates I've seen, "eventually" could be a year or more down the line. I'd like to be able to keep a pretty close eye on it in the mean time.

At any rate, I have to get the AC unit fixed in my living room first before anything all that interesting happens. Hopefully the AC will be back up in the next week or so, and if I'm still happy with the 1.5g's stability after that I'll set up a proper tank journal this time.

(edit: more typos...)

 

[the biffster]

how about this small

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yHpW-Apg40&feature=fvw

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3lhEeOCpao&feature=related

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=opWhchnKreA&feature=related

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOsitYhihc&feature=related

this is a better link than the last

 

[Pearsondesign]

wowsers!
those tanks are SMALL!

are they ok to leave with no filtration except LR?
if so i might conisder setting my small arcadia arc tank up like that

 

[the biffster]

all them tanks have filters all be it small ones and small home made externals
a lot of them have a small built in filter containing cheato that removes the nitrates

 

[Donya]

how about this small

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yHpW-Apg40&feature=fvw

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3lhEeOCpao&feature=related

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=opWhchnKreA&feature=related

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOsitYhihc&feature=related

this is a better link than the last

And I thought my no-LR, DSB-only pico was risky...

I wish the person with the closed tanks in the 2nd video all the success in the world, but he must be more of a gambler than me. Unless there's something important I'm missing in those setups, I would worry about O2 if anything unplanned happened. Completely sealed also seems more prone to overheating.

 

[Donya]

Well, fiddly tank bothers have already started. I'll probably start a journal to summarize this stuff sooner than originally expected even though animals won't be going in for a while.

Earlier today: holy filter splash Batman!

Turns out that was because I was running the Whisper 3i filter cartridgeless. I popped a cartridge in and the excess water all over the lid went to almost zero. However, I'm concerned that it doesn't provide enough surface agitation in this state. I have NEVER run a pico with this little agitation before:


(Gotta click the picture for the video)

I've tried the filter output in many different positions and that's the best aggitation with the cartridge. Having the filter higher so that it made a little stream actually let a film build up on the surface due to insufficient horizontal circulation. On the other hand, my reason for increased agitation on my other picos is macro-related, and I will probably have no macro in this tank due to the lighting (might get some micro going, but macro would be difficult). What do you guys think?

If the aggitation is risky, I might be able to bump it up by chucking the cartridge (which I will be doing anyway eventually) and putting rubble in the 3i's chamber to hinder the bubbles just a bit. Maybe that's the best middle ground between the two cases above, but I haven't tried it yet.

Also, there is one annoying point to note about these tanks. If you want the light to stay at a position and not risk slamming down unexpectedly while doing maintenance, something like this is necessary:

Still, good points of the system heavily outweigh bad points for me so far.

 

[seffieuk]

Its really interesting Donya - keep up the good wrok

Seffie x