Monday I got a wild hair up my you know what and decided I wanted to set up a little pico tank.

I Purchased a 2.5 Gallon Tank w/ a Glass cover and an Elite "mini" Submersible Filter.

I bought the Elite "mini" because it's not really a filter, more like a miniature Powerhead that flows at 58 Gal/Hr. It has a Venturi with a valve that can be used for aeration, but I've opted not to use that. It also has an adjustable Output diverter and adjustable flow control. Not bad for $10.

I got the Sand and Rock from my 1yr old 10 Gallon Nano Cube. I made sure to get a few pieces of rock that had some life in it, even noticed a worm or two.

I've done about a 1/2 gallon water change every night and added some Seachem Stability each time. I'm pretty sure there won't be a cycle but wanted to be sure. I haven't tested any of the water parameters yet but figured I'd at least let it run a week and then I'll start testing.

For lighting I ordered a Coralife Mini Aqualite fixture today it's basically 2 9W PC lights, 1 is 10,000K and the other Acintic.

Here's what it looks like so Far

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa15/Lukestimp/pico%20tank/25Gallon001.jpg

what kind of livestock are you going to add

i think a tang would look really good, jk

A tang in a 2.5 gallon!?!?!?

no no trigger wold be good

Go get a shark from SWC lol you should get a small mantis ;) maybe add some zoas or something thats what im doing with my 7gallon AGA bow

I was thinking Mantis at first, but I've been looking at some other peoples Pico's and i really think a High Fin Goby and a Pistol Shrimp is the way I'm going to go. There both reef safe, and I would definatly like to keep some some corals in here.

What types of Corals would be good under the Lights I ordered, You can't get much more than that unless you go with a small halide of some sort. I would really like to keep some Zoas.

i have zoas under pc's in my biocbue and they do fine......so does my frogspawn in that same tank.......so does my hammer in that same tank.......all under stock PC's no telling how odl they are either because i bought it used.

any softies. will work fine. what's your fixture look like, I'd love to do that with a 2.5 one day.

I would do only Zoas because anything else will get so big that it will dominate the tank. Even Shrooms will get big fast. Its going to need very regular WC if you put many corals at all and even more so with a high fin and pistol.

beware, I have that same powerhead for a QT and water prep and it says all over do not use with saltwater. Make sure you have a grounding rod or something...just make sure its not killing your fish.

Coralife Mini Aqualight PowerCompact Fixtures

The Coralife Mini Aqualight lighting fixtures are sleek and streamlined fixtures designed to enhance and complement aquariums. The compact and low-profile style is suitable where space is limited. The fixtures feature a sleek aluminum housing, a highly-polished reflector, an acrylic lens cover for easy access to lamps and built-in ballast.http://www.f3images.com/IMD/w7.jpghttp://www.f3images.com/IMD/aquarium_images/lighting_fluorescent_coralife_mini_aqualight_with_ 1-9w_10k_or_1-9w_true_actinic_03_blue_lamp.jpgCoralife Mini Aqualight Fixture - Saltwater

1 x 9W 10000K + 1 x 9W Actinic 03
Ideal for Saltwater and Mini Reef Aquariums
Dimensions (LxWxH): 9" x 5" x 2"

Dawgdude- I know the water changes are going to be real important, what do you think, about a 1/2 gallon every other day. Also I want your Avatar in this thing! I'm currently setting up a 125 so as things grow they will just be moved to that.

he just sold some at the meeting. they're fraggin' awesome. they glow under actinics...man, sorry to hijack, but yea, you should get some.

I have that light over my refugium and love it though it does get extremely hot for just 18 watts of power.

The Coralife Mini Light arrived today. This little things kicks for it's size. Check it out.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa15/Lukestimp/pico%20tank/25Gallon004.jpg

Very Nice.

Looks great, I have one on my pico and i just want to warn you to keep an eye on the water temp!

You definately have to watch the heat from this light, even the housing is almost to hot to touch. They don't make legs for this light so I'm going to have to come up with something that will get the light off the Glass cover.

Since I first posted this, I have had a mishap, My wife was in the bedroom and I here here say my name all calm like and I walk in the room to see a Crack running all the way across the back of the tank. I quickly got everything moved to a 5 Gallon I have just sitting around.

I bought another 2.5 and everything has been fine with it, I'm not sure if the first one was just poorly made or if the heat from the lights had something to do with it, but I highly doubt that.

I've also since added a High Fin-Black Ray-Yellow Face Goby (Those things have so many names it's not even funny) and a Little Pistol shrimp. I enclosed the 2 with the Top half of a 2 liter bottle and a Piece of the Live rock for the first few days, and they immediately took to each other.

Since adding back in all the other rock, I've only seen them once, any ideas on how to get them to dig their hole in front so everyone can see them when they are out.

turn the tank around? lol, sounds cool, any pictures of it stocked?

you need acouple of tangs in there. maybe a lionfish also.

you need acouple of tangs in there. maybe a lionfish also.

Hahaha. I've recently set up a 5.5g tank, I would definitely recommend sexy shrimp . You could probably get 6 in there though I would recommend 3-4. They've got a ton of personality and look nice too. I've got two at the moment, they spend all day in the two ricordias that I just added to the tank, jumping in and out of them.

I recommend a bamboo shark. You can never have enough of those and they're very light on the bioload, so you might be able to get two in there. Seriously though, I love the tank and it looks great.:thumbs:

Did look great, I finally decided to add the High Fin and the pistol to my Nano Cube and broke this one down, I was in fact just thinking about selling the whole set-up, but I think the light will make a great Fuge light on my next project.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1887998/2/istockphoto_1887998-big-fish.jpgi think a tang would look really good, jk

hey get a warty angler lol lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!