Liz’s Pico Reef…?

Howdy!

(Sorry, I have to say that as a student at Texas A&M)

I’m joining the #tinytankchallenge because I study the intersection of science and leisure. Basically, keeping an aquarium is a leisure activity that is all about SCIENCE! I’m a grad student at TAMU and while I have limited time nowadays, I used to be HUGE into aquarium keeping! That’s how I got into studying it!

Anyway, as a cheap fish nerd I always look for found items that I can use in or as an aquarium. When I was bicycling down the street to last year work I saw a small glass tank and tiny HOB filter sitting in someone’s trash. It looks to be home made and is an 8″x8″x8″ cube. ADORABLE! So, I took it home.

I didn’t know what to do with it and was having motivation issues. I set up a 10g marine tank for a frogfish we caught in the gulf but when she laid eggs and croaked, the tank went to he11. I was not so sure I could maintain a marine aquarium during this point in my life. I’ve kept several before (20L reef, 58g reef, 100g tub reef), but never a pico.

Kermitta the frogfish laid eggs then croaked. 😦

I’ve been a bit indecisive about doing a marine tank… I’ve wanted to do a nice little planted FW tank with shrimp… but SW is calling…

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So, I’ve taken Ethan’s advice and started looking at http://www.nano-reef.com (where I used to be very active, actually; I’m “Six”). Inspiration is stemming from my strange preoccupation with species-only aquaria as well as my interest in making things well… interesting. I read Anthony Calfo’s books on greenhouse reefing and I distinctly remember him using a concrete item in his reef that he grew fire coral on as a joke. That concrete item was a peeing boy:

So I’m leaning towards a single coral species tank, probably metallic green star polyp (gsp), that is trained to encrust on something funny (but it would have to be TINY!). Or, perhaps I’ll make a bonsai-looking treescape? Or a farm scape with little goats and chickens on the GSP? The possibilities are endless!

• 8x8x8″ cube tank = $0.00
• small HOB filter = $0.00
• ridiculous ideas = priceless

Thanks for reading! Follow me on twitter for more updates! @LizMarchio