A Beginner’s 5 gallon Marineland Pico reef

[revhtree]

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this, almost two months actually! Things have gone pretty well, even with a week long vacation away! First and biggest update, I got my first fish! A shark nose goby, aquacultured. Cute little bugger who loves to perch on my zoa rock.

Additionally, almost all of my corals seem to be doing pretty well! My orange rhodactis shrooms have grown nicely and one split, giving me 3 beauties, my blue shrooms are slowly taking over the back of my tank, my Kenya Tree has grown enormously, GSP’s are starting to spread onto the back wall, green cabbage leather is putting on more polyps and mass, Zoas are growing nicely, all in all my softies are happy.

I have two LPS corals, a candy cane, and a Hollywood Stunner Chalice, and they’re... wishing washy. Candy cane I’ve had for months, and while it hasn’t died, it has withered somewhat and was starting to bleach and retract until I put it in a more shaded spot. Now it’s gaining some color back but isn’t really filling out its skeleton yet. Any suggestions?

The Hollywood Stunner is happier, but not growing much yet. Granted, I’ve only had it for two weeks, but I have yet to see any noticeable change in its mantle extension. We’ll see with time, I suppose. Still feeding everything, pellets for the RFA, ‘shrooms, fish and critters (speaking of my inverts, had to give my Emerald Mythrax away as he’d decided coraline algae and GSP’s were delicious), and dosing phytoplankton for my corals. Also using Coralife Nano A&B for trace elements and dosing, Alk and Calcium are at 11 and 420 respectively. Dunno if I should be doing more there. Anyhow, that’s it for now! I’ve gotta figure out how to transport this baby 250 miles in the next three weeks, wish me luck!

Looking nice!

 

[LegalReefer]

Looking nice!

Thank you! You started Reef2Reef, right? Thank you for providing such a wonderful resource for aquarists everywhere!

 

[LegalReefer]

It’s been a while since I last updated this! Lots has changed since July. I moved 400 miles and dragged my water box with me; nothing died! The city I’m in now has a few decent fish stores and I’ve managed to pick up a coral or two.

FTS - I have some hair algae growing, and need to cut back the chaeto on the left, but everything is doing pretty well! I have picked up a Duncan, Blastomussa Meretti, and a birdsnest coral; all are growing, though the birdsnest is growing best! It’s put on six or seven tips in the time I’ve had it, such a cool coral!

My other corals have also grown well, Zoas starting to take over their rock in the front right, and GSP starting to grow out onto the back of the tank in sheets. My small frag of Hollywood Stunner has started to grow out, putting on a few millimeters of growth and gaining a few mouths!

Compared to how things looked when I first moved the tank, it’s impressive how different things are. Sadly, I did lose the RFA shortly after the move, it just melted away one day, but other than that I’ve sustained no losses; both shrimp are happy, as is the goby.

^this was right after resetting the tank. Things are looking better now!

 

[BBestvin]

Any updates? How's the tank looking now? Which light did you add again? I think you said Coralife...?

 

[LegalReefer]

Hello everyone! It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this thread, and things have been pretty good thankfully. Law School is busy so I haven’t been able to care for my tank as carefully as I desire. The tank has gotten a bit overgrown in some ways, and I’m battling hair algae (advice on that front would be really helpful!), but overall this baby is able to survive pretty well with low levels of care.

Anyways, let’s take a look at stuff! Be warned that photos right now aren’t all that aesthetically pleasing on account of lack of tending and care.

Full tank shot. My Kenya tree keeps dropping babies, it’s had three so far and is shading corals below. Need to figure out what to do with that, and with all those babies. Blue mushrooms have calmed down some, they were spreading like mad for a while but seem to have slowed. Rhodactis shrooms keep splitting, I’ve got from having 2 to having 7! My GSP has been growing to cover the back wall, Zoas have been budding off new polyps, and my birdsnest has been putting on more and more new tips!

Duncan coral is growing fine, hasn’t changed much tho it’s expanded out its base. I’m hoping it will start growing new buds eventually, but we’ll see.

Birdsnest! Looks much better under blues, I definitely need to get a new light tho, still using a coralife clip-on.

New stylophora, peppermint shrimp ate half its polyps and caused it to start bleaching. Took the Peppermint shrimp out and the stylophora is recovering slowly, but I’m quite upset.

Not a great pic but my candycane and my Hollywood stunner are both growing nicely, Hollywood stunner has more than tripled in diameter since I got it, and it seems to be growing happily.


Overall still have a lot of work I need to do, and cleanup as well. I’ve got to figure out how to handle this hair algae, and maybe find a way to get rid of some annoying red flatworms. Any and all advice would be welcomed! Hope everyone is having a good time, happy reefing!

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Following along! everything does seem to be growing nicely.

 

[LegalReefer]

Following along! everything does seem to be growing nicely.

Thank you! Just checked out your build thread, I love the look of your clownfish! What kind of clown is that?

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Thank you! Just checked out your build thread, I love the look of your clownfish! What kind of clown is that?

Thanks for checking it out! I believe he is a Black Ocellaris, got him from the lfs, but here is a link to them online: https://vividaquariums.com/products/black-white-ocellaris-clownfish

cant really tell if the orange nose is just a defect in some of them, but I love it!

 

[BBestvin]

Looking good, I'm about to start a reef build with the same tank so thank you for posting your updates. I'm currently torn between the Hipargero light for cheaper or an AI Prime. Obviously the Prime is better but it's 3x $$$ too.

As for GHA, good luck. Had it in my biocube and struggled to remove it. Even with manual removal it kept coming back. Diligent water changes and Flux Rx helped and now it's gone again. I just bought my first Algae Scrubber though to help me with maintenance, I hope anyway.

 

[LegalReefer]

Looking good, I'm about to start a reef build with the same tank so thank you for posting your updates. I'm currently torn between the Hipargero light for cheaper or an AI Prime. Obviously the Prime is better but it's 3x $$$ too.

As for GHA, good luck. Had it in my biocube and struggled to remove it. Even with manual removal it kept coming back. Diligent water changes and Flux Rx helped and now it's gone again. I just bought my first Algae Scrubber though to help me with maintenance, I hope anyway.

Go for it! Do you have a build-thread I can follow? If you don't, you should totally create one. I'd say go with the AI Prime if you can afford it. I'm a broke student so I can't afford anything super nice, but if I could I'd upgrade to an AI Prime or something like it. As it stands, the Hipargero would be an upgrade for me, too.

Any advice on dosing Flux RX? Worth doing? Any other alternatives; I've heard Hydrogen Peroxide can work really well, tho it's a bit risky?

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Go for it! Do you have a build-thread I can follow? If you don't, you should totally create one. I'd say go with the AI Prime if you can afford it. I'm a broke student so I can't afford anything super nice, but if I could I'd upgrade to an AI Prime or something like it. As it stands, the Hipargero would be an upgrade for me, too.

Any advice on dosing Flux RX? Worth doing? Any other alternatives; I've heard Hydrogen Peroxide can work really well, tho it's a bit risky?

For your hair algae problem, I would start by pinching it off into the siphon during water changes, that will take out the nutrients that are bound up by the algae along with getting rid of it.

Flux rx does seem to be a good treatment, so that could work too.

 

[Medical_Reef]

Nice work on the Marineland! I started with the tank as well and had a heck of a time, glad to see it worked out for you. And survived a move!

 

[LegalReefer]

Nice work on the Marineland! I started with the tank as well and had a heck of a time, glad to see it worked out for you. And survived a move!

Thank you! I’m currently engaged in upgrading to a 10 gallon actually. The Marineland has been great, but my corals are running out of room to grow! I should have everything transferred this week, and will be posting pictures soon!

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Thank you! I’m currently engaged in upgrading to a 10 gallon actually. The Marineland has been great, but my corals are running out of room to grow! I should have everything transferred this week, and will be posting pictures soon!

which tank are you choosing to go with?

 

[LegalReefer]

Just upgraded my 5-gallon to a 10-gallon! Not the best photo or aquascape because I had to upgrade in a hurry, old tank’s filter broke and it was get everyone into the 10-gallon or let everyone die. Happy with it though, once this season’s finals are done I’ll be aquascape get it quite intensely for future plans!

The 10-gallon is a Petco standard, I believe. It was a gift from one of the amazing members of the 3-Rivers Marine Society! This hobby has some of the kindest and most incredible people around!

 

[LegalReefer]

A proper update took a bit longer than just a day. In my defense, I am currently in the thick of finals at Law school and trying my best not to die. I'm glad to finally get everything transferred over to my 10-gallon, but I am certainly going to miss my 5-gallon Marineland. It was a fun tank to have and get started back into this hobby on. Hard to believe It's been a bit over a year since I got started. Quite a crazy year, looking back. I moved from North Carolina to Pittsburgh, started Law School, and really started embarking on what is shaping up to be my career and general path for life. Not sure how much I will ultimately enjoy the law, but this hobby will exist, thankfully, to fill the gaps in my life and scratch the itch that is my love of marine biology and ecology. Without any more waxing poetic or just rambling, here's my tank as it currently stands:


My newest addition, picked up when I was grabbing water for a water change from one of the local fish stores. I don't know exactly what form of closed brain coral it is, but I believe it to be a platygyra of some sort. If anyone knows or has any ideas, I would love to hear them! I love the coloration on the piece, the white and bright green is a good combination, and the coral has been putting out feeding tentacles frequently, so I presume it's fairly happy. Hoping for it to grow nicely.

My birdsnest coral of some simple color variety, purchased from a big mother colony at an lfs here in Pittsburgh. The mother colony sadly died entirely, last I saw when I went back to the store, so I got lucky getting this piece when I did, for as cheap as I got it. It was a tiny four-point stick when I bought it, and now it's turning into a real bramble of points, looking really good so far! I need to get a picture of my clown gobies perching in the branches, they love hanging out here.


A purple pocillopora, my second sps I've tried my hand at. When I first got it, my peppermint shrimp decided to pluck out half the polyps and chow down, making the poor thing nearly bleach and causing the polyps to recede and stay closed for the first few months. After getting rid of the peppermint shrimp and moving this guy to the new tank, he's been much happier. He's fully encrusted the frag plug, and is just barely beginning to start encrusting the rock he's on. Looking forward to seeing how he grows, I really like the thick branches with smoother tips, it's a cool look.


Zoa rock garden with pulsing xenia hitchikers. The pulsing xenia came as a tiny two-poly hitchiker on a frag I bought months ago, got plucked off the frag when I was handling it, and ended up disappearing for a time. Imagine my surprise when they ended up sprouting out of the middle of my zoa garden! I am trying to figure out a way to pluck them loose and re-home them somewhere more fitting, but until then, here they are. My zoas don't seem unhappy, at least. I also love the two clams that are growing on this rock, they've grow so much from the time I first got this rock and didn't even know they were there!

Hollywood Stunner chalice. In the 5-gallon, the area that is now dead skeleton was attached to a rock the plug had been placed beside. In order to move it over, I had to break it a bit, resulting in that ugly exposure of the skeleton. I'm hopeful that it will grow back to cover the dead skeleton, it seems happy to be in an area with more flow.

My duncan has finally started putting on more heads! There are at least three growing rather well, but there might be as many as six from what I can see. Looking forward to seeing it grow!

Rhodactis shrooms keep multiplying, and I'm quite hopeful they'll grow to encompass this whole rock. Love the orange coloration, with almost blue-white striations. Hopeful that they'll keep growing and multiplying throughout this tank. If anyone has ideas or suggestions on how to encourage mushroom growth, let me know! What do people feed their 'shrooms?



Full tank shot to finish. Need a better camera to deal with blue-lights, and should probably post an updated picture. Made a bit of an archway off to the right side of the tank, still trying to figure out how best to aquascape this. In the back left is my pile of over-productive starter corals, a small forest of kenya trees and blue mushrooms. Gotta figure out what to do with them all since I certainly don't want to kill anything. I should also get pictures of my clown gobies, thinking about adding another fish, maybe a Hector's Goby or a Firefish? Advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[LegalReefer]

I'll post a picture of my updated aquascape tonight. Not a whole lot different, but would love to hear ideas from people for how to arrange things! I'm always so impressed by many of the layouts and setups in people's tanks, and just don't have a great aesthetic sense myself. Would love the advice of others

 

[kiswanson]

I like the upgrade. I think a solid background (black or something else) would really help make the corals stand out and keep the eye from being distracted by cords and what not.

 

[LegalReefer]

I like the upgrade. I think a solid background (black or something else) would really help make the corals stand out and keep the eye from being distracted by cords and what not.

Thanks for the advice! I like the upgrade too, I think a good background is definitely a good choice. I do need to figure out what to do with all the cords to clean things up visually, but I don't have a lot of space sadly. A background will solve some aesthetic issues. Your tank looks amazing, by the way!

 

[LegalReefer]

Updated aquascape and a pic of my male clown goby perching happily in a birdsnest. I’m hopeful that my crown gobies may try to breed eventually, tho I doubt I’d see any success raising fry, considering I have zero ideas as to how that actually works, fundamentally. It’s something I want to learn and do down the line tho