My pico reef 2 gallons - day 1333
 

I've really been getting back to reefing lately, not that I haven't always had tanks running, but let things go for a while and the past few months things have been going well. All along the way I've had this 2 gallon dymax iq3 pico I bought as an impulse buy 3 and a half years ago.

At the start I jammed many corals in and quite a few got overgrown by others, but now it's gotten to the point where almost everything is doing great and there is no room at all for anything new. I bought a little rock flower anemone on the weekend then couldn't find anywhere to put it :) it ended up in my main display but took some more photos of the pico.

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This chalice is growing up 2 sides of the acrylic, unfortunately that means the bottom faces out.
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The tank is lit by a par30 bulb. I replaced the cheapo return pump with a mini jet. I had to take the covers off the pump to jam it in. I also drilled an additional hole in the false wall (while the tank was running) to put a zoo meds powerhead in for additional flow. Finally there is a red sea pico power filter which has fliter floss and one tablespoon of carbon and half a tablespoon of GFO. Since it's not exactly tumbling I'm not sure how much good it does. I still get algae in the tank, but it does get a lot of natural sunlight, however I like this. The natural light likely helps my mangrove survive but not really thrive it only has 7 leaves despite approaching 4 years old. I'm debating pulling the bottom rock that has the GSP on it so I can put something new in, but the tank is doing well don't want to mess with it much. Besides changing the floss I do 1 gallon non religious weekly water changes. The carbon and gfo is replaced every 2 weeks. Originally this tank did have a small sandbed but it's such a detritus factory it was very counter productive. Now after having this tank for years I firmly believe no sandbed is the key to success in pico aquariums. While I certainly dislike the look of bare bottom tanks as much as the next person, you can hardly tell this is a bare bottom tank :)

fancy seeing you here ;)

i said it once and i'll say it again: NICE TANK!

z

That's so pretty :smile:

that's a cool little pico you got there! It's like peering into a little cave of wonders !

Wicked! That seems like a surprising variety for a tank that size. Nicely done

Very beautiful !

Awesome pico!!!!