Hello!

[Ticoreef]

I am getting back into the aquarium game after a long layoff. I previously had a 90 gallon thriving African Cichlid tank that I had to take down because of a move, and also had a solitary piranha in a 20L for 12 years. So a decent amount of freshwater experience, but no saltwater experience.

I plan on setting up a coral only pico jar in the next few months. So far I have a light, and know I will be using the 2 gallon Anchor Hocking jar with an air pump, heater and thats it. I look forward to keeping you all updated, and asking lots of questions, mostly about the best LFS's near Boston. I also plan on starting a build thread over at nanoreef.com.

 

[aresangel]

Welcome to BRS and the hobby!

Sounds interesting as a build goes. Pico’s are hard because any evaporation makes a larger difference in salinity than larger tanks. I feel like 75 gallons is much easier than the 25 gallons I started with. And I can only imagine it would be harder for a 2 gallon tank!

Good luck! Welcome!

 

[Chris A.]

Welcome and agree with aresangle, I now have the smallest tank I’ve ever owned. It’s a 29 biocube and everything is absolutely a challenge to keep stable. Wish you the best of luck

 

[FishieBusiness]

Lovely Pets in Quincy is a great LFS and easy to get to off the highway. Good Luck on the new project.

 

[Ticoreef]

Thanks all! I used to visit Lovely Pets years ago, I'm glad to hear they are still around. I sure wish Skiptons still existed....

Where would you all recommend to go for some man made real reef rock? I would like to eliminate the possibility of hitchhikers. Also, I plan on using distilled water since my volume will be so low, is there somewhere in the city that sells it cheap?

 

[Chris A.]

Distilled water might be cheap at Walmart or target.

 

[cstacks]

I'd love to see how the 2 gal jar works out! I have a 5 gallon tank (fluval evo 5 w coral box moon light) I got tank from lovely pets and in a lot of ways I really like the 5 gallon tank for its size and affordability. I just change 1 gallon a week and its really easy, right now I am battling bubble algae but hoping over time the coral will grow and it will die out.

imo the total key with a small tank is having an ato because the heater evaporates the water so fast its almost impossible to keep up if you have a filter/pump/heater. It seems crazy to spend more money on the ato than the tank but its chugs though about 1-2 gallons every week for me. Ive been using tap water with prime instead of distilled and didn't notice any difference really other than saving money and my back, the main thing I've found was making sure to change 1 gallon every week to keep everything level.

 

[Ticoreef]

Your tank looks amazing, nice work! I plan on having a mostly sealed lid on my jar so I dont expect evaporation to be too much of a concern, especially with only a pump, light and heater. I also plan on doing 100% water changes every week in the beginning, then hopefully tapering down to every other week once I get established. Its not fully clear in your pics, are you running bare bottom? I am still undecided on sand or not.

 

[cstacks]

Thanks! With the lid that sounds like it will work fine. I do bare bottom for all my tanks I had a tank when I was in middle school that had sand and I always remember during water changes if I wasn't careful a lot of debris would collect and kick up and it would cause issues, this way I can take the rocks out and syphon the bottom once a year or so and I feel like less can go wrong (but I also heard sand is a helpful filter so might be a good idea). Can't wait to see how yours comes out will be following along for sure!