Ackshee's 2.5 gallon / 10 litre Pico Reef

[ackshee]

Thanks for reading.

I 'inherited' this tank yesterday (25th May 2024) from someone who is moving across the country. It's a 2.5 gallon / 10 litre aquarium. It's a very low-tech setup. It has a heater, a sponge filter, and that's it. I don't think I can call it a reef, because it doesn't have any live rock or any corals/anemones.


The current inhabitants:

1. A masked goby (Coryphopterus personatus) named Bripp
2. Two small hermit crabs named Dexter and Deedee
3. Mexican Cerithium snail
4. Chaetomorpha
5. Hammer coral (Euphyllia sp.) added 28th May 2024
6. Green star polyp (Pachyclavularia violacea) added 30th May 2024
7. Green hairy Rhodactis coral added 1st June 2024
8. Added another Cerithium snail and an Astraea snail on 1st June 2024

 

[tzabor10]

Looks cool. What is your water change plan?

 

[ackshee]

Looks cool. What is your water change plan?

The original owner was doing a 30% water change, twice monthly.

Waiting two weeks between water changes seems risky with a tank this small, so I'm going to start doing 20% water changes every week.

 

[ackshee]

The snail finally made an appearance! Looks like a Mexican Cerithium snail, although I'm certainly an amateur when it comes to ID'ing marine species.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[ackshee]

Got a cheap NICREW LED light off of Amazon. This will get the Chaetomorpha growing again. It's not ideal but I think it will be fine. I found an Amazon review from someone who tested this light with a PAR meter and the results were decent.

I can't resist diving headfirst into my hobbies... I was on Craigslist today and I saw a post from a gentleman selling frags of branching "mint green" Hammer Coral (Euphyllia sp.)

He was only asking $10 for a frag, so I drove over after work today and picked one up. The gentleman that grew this coral had a large head of it that fell over and broke. So, he grew it out as smaller frags and has been selling it on Craigslist. Dave, if you're reading this, you're the man!

 

[ackshee]

Less than 24 hours later, the hammer has opened up. It's a beautiful animal.

For work, I manage a laboratory. Lucky for me, it's really convenient for me to test my water at my lab. We have an ICP-OES as well as a couple of automated spectrophotometers (and some other minor instruments). I took a water sample last night and brought it into work this morning. Everything looks like it's perfectly within the recommended range, with a few minor exceptions:

• Magnesium is 1102 ppm. Recommended range is 1250-1350.
• Iron is 0.94 ppm. Should I get this lower?
• Sulfur is 627 ppm. What's the target range? I'm seeing conflicting numbers.
• Iodine is 0.55 ppm. Recommended is 0.03 ppm.

I'm not too worried about any of these water parameters yet. Nothing a few water changes won't fix.

 

[ackshee]

A couple updates:

The tank had very little water movement/flow. So I went ahead and purchased an appropriately sized "powerhead." It's this tiny little 3W PULACO submersible pump. I stuck it on the glass and it seems to be working totally fine. It's just a steady stream of water rather than a proper wave-maker, but it's providing flow. The hammer coral seems happy, and my masked goby has been swimming around in the current, picking at bits of food.

I stopped by a local reef store called Cuttle Fish and Corals and met some cool people and bought some cool stuff. I got a magnesium supplement to dose the tank, as well as some phytoplankton and some frozen food for my goby. I wanted to get a sexy shrimp, but they were sold out. However, I did get an Astraea snail and another Cerithium snail. The staff member, Pete, was extremely kind and gifted me with a couple small pieces of live rock which are covered in various types of macroalgae and other organisms. I spotted a small reticulated brittle star (Ophionereis reticulata) and some sort of tiny little shrimp-type thing. I'm hoping it will survive and get bigger, so I can find out what it is! Pete also was kind enough to gift me a small little piece of green star polyp (Pachyclavularia violacea). It's just a loose fragment, not attached to any rock or anything. Right now it's just resting on a rock in my tank, but I need to glue it down eventually.

The live rock seems to have introduced a lot of detritus, so I'm going to do a couple water changes throughout the week, and "clean" the sponge filter in the old tank water.

 

[ackshee]

Continuing with the occasional water change, trying to get the detritus cleared. Water parameters are still testing great. Got the magnesium levels up to where they should be.

It seems like one of my two hermit crabs molted and upgraded his shell last night. At first I was worried he died, but then I noticed his legs poking out of this shell to the right of his molted exoskeleton. This shell is comically large for his body... There are other, smaller shells he could have chosen, so I don't know why he picked this one.

 

[ackshee]

My hermit crab that molted is doing well. His new shell is really big, but I'm sure he'll grow into it.

I'm a little bit concerned about my green hairy Rhodactis coral. One edge of it has turned sort of pale/white. I moved it to an area with lower flow and lower light. Hopefully that helps.

I noticed a very, very small polyp of Aiptasia poking out of a corner of the live rock. Not looking forward to dealing with that. I may just get a peppermint shrimp. Here's a blurry, out-of-focus, zoomed-in photo of the Aiptasia:

 

[ackshee]

I pulled out the Chaetomorpha. I prefer the look of the Acid Rain. I decided I want this little tank to look like a tide pool. So I want to get some more live rock and macroalgae and whatnot.

There's a bit of Aiptasia popping up on my live rock that I will need to deal with eventually. I've heard mixed things about Aiptasia-X. I don't want to deal with a constant ongoing struggle. So I think I'll get a peppermint shrimp. I wanted to get sexy shrimp, but alas. I also have some hydroids popping up, pictured. I've heard peppermint shrimp may deal with these as well.

I noticed somebody's digging tunnels in the sand. Not sure who the culprit is yet.

 

[ackshee]

My LFS got in a shipment this week so I was able to pick up a sexy shrimp and a peppermint shrimp. After getting home and taking a better look, the peppermint shrimp appears to be L. boggessi.

I'm hoping he takes care of the Aiptasia.