What is the most difficult aspect of a pico reef?

[luckydud13]

One of the biggest problems you'll face with a pico tank is maintaining a stable salinity. A small amount of evaporation will lead to a larger change in salinity than the same amount of evaporation from a larger tank. These salinity swings can be awfully hard on corals and inverts that are used to the very stable salinity of the ocean. If you feed any inverts or corals you'll also see a larger ammonia and NO2-2/NO3- spike. There's just not as much water to dilute any of these chemicals if there is any overfeeding. That said, pico tanks are very doable. The smallest tanks I've kept were 5 gallons and I bred brine shrimp in them.

I beg to differ. Because when water evaporates, it doesn't take the salinity with it. What ou ma be talking about is if ou do not top off daily, then because there is less water and the same amount of salt, then ya that could be a problem.

Sorry i didnt mean to contradict, just didnt want the OP to get the wrong idea.

 

[kyryah]

Thanks everyone for your input. It is still going to be awhile before I even attempt this, but I want as much info as possible going in.

Considering ammonia/nA and nI, I do understand how these things work. With 12 FW tanks and a BW tank, I would have to or I would have a lot of dead fish and inverts.


Kristina