Going to attempt a Pico

[S.O.MLemos]

So I bought a 5 gallon tank and a Fluval coral Nano LED at a store closing sale for 5$ each last week and I had some extra supplies at home so I figured I might as well try it out. I like how it’s turning out so far. Anybody else have a pico tank they wanna share?

 

[neverdie]

I support this. what are you socking plans?

 

[chefjpaul]

That came out great.

 

[S.O.MLemos]

I support this. what are you socking plans?

For now I’ll probably just put some mushrooms and LPS out of my big tank that are getting picked on by my new coral beauty. But other than a couple snails/crabs I probably won’t put any critters in it

 

[Katrina71]

I have a friend with a 5g and she has a Tailspot in hers. Happy as can be. She also does 20% weekly water changes to keep him healthy.

 

[JonPhillips]

So I bought a 5 gallon tank and a Fluval coral Nano LED at a store closing sale for 5$ each last week and I had some extra supplies at home so I figured I might as well try it out. I like how it’s turning out so far. Anybody else have a pico tank they wanna share?

Get it.

 

[JLowder]

Oooo. I’m definitely watching this thread.

 

[JonPhillips]

4.9g aquamaxx no rim. El cheapo breeder box. Sicce nano pump. Heat. Kessil a80. Dead coral. Two happy chromi (not pictured). Bedside. Happy.

.

 

[don_chuwish]

That is very cool and is a perfect example to get my mind going. Ever since seeing a nice pico tank at the LFS I've been flirting with the idea of starting one. Love how you did the filtration section.

 

[Ranjib]

Happy owner of two pico tanks
Imagitarium 3.7 g

Fluval spec 3

All my tanks with my own controller

 

[revhtree]

Cool following! And great tanks @Ranjib

 

[S.O.MLemos]

Happy owner of two pico tanks
Imagitarium 3.7 g

Fluval spec 3

All my tanks with my own controller

They look very good/clean, surprised to see monti in a pico. Would you say they are a challenge compared to larger tanks? Btw a 5$ roll of cable wrap will clean up that cluster of wires hahaha just messing with ya

 

[S.O.MLemos]

All together it ended up costing more than I was expecting but still a pretty good deal.
Tank- 5$
Light- 5$
Pump- 5$ (bought 2 just in case)
Loc line nozzle- 9$
Heater- 17$
Custom glass lid- 7$
Everything else was free so all together 53$ for an experiment lol

I’ll post pictures of it finished this weekend

 

[Ranjib]

They look very good/clean, surprised to see monti in a pico. Would you say they are a challenge compared to larger tanks? Btw a 5$ roll of cable wrap will clean up that cluster of wires hahaha just messing with ya

I know that wiring needs some work. Actually I am doing a lot of work on my DIY controller, hence that side is pretty messy now.. I'll tidy it up once everything is settled.

Pico's are surprisingly easy to keep. I followed few simple things

• Don't stock fish. You can keep a clown goby or something like that. But avoid. I had fish in both of them. I could not take care of them properly, some of them end up munching corals.
• I can keep almost all Monti (except setosa), most pociliopora, seriatopora
• Zoa, gsp , palys all are kosher.
• Acros are harder (for me). It can be due to my limited knowledge when I attempted. I 'll give it a shot again once I have the dosing and ph control features implemented in my controller.
• Don't feed a lot, just feed a tiny bit of flake or reef roid. stuff that does not collude water (remember I dont use any fuge). I feed right before water change. You can do a HoB filter based fuge, that will make things more happier. I used the HoB filter only for emergency (have chemipure blue, nano packs). They are turned off normally. I may tune it to start for sometime after feeding is over.. we'll see
• 70% water change , once every two weeks. If you go lps/softy route you can do less. If you have fuge, even lesser. At some point when my tanks are older and more stable I should attempt to go without water changes (need fuge), my tanks are only 1.7 years old now,
• Go for a good light. You can use cheap par bulbs. Careful during acclimation, things can bleach, use a paper or something similar on top of the tank to reduce the intensity. I started with LED bulbs (20$ ABI tuna blue), then switched to kessil for dimmable features. You dont have to do that, but kessil can give you sps. and bleaching can be avoided without the ugly hacks . but those a80s are 130$
• One good thing about these picos is irrespective of what problem they have, I can fix it easily. Including bubble algae. I can wage a mechanical war and win it. no chemical needed. Elbow grease for the win. Otherwise I dont touch the tank (like i didnt change/touch anything for past couple of months in the fluval spec 3)
• Dont do thick sand base, unless you can do thorough cleaning peridically.
• Flow is king, i went with rio 90 return pumps. You can go with low flow, but your coral choice will be limited

I think overall they are surprisingly similar to big tanks in term of goals. i.e good light, good flow, good chemistry, stability is king. The only difference is due to their size things can go bad rapidly, things manifest much faster (coral aggression, and other related behaviors). It also means you can do many things like 100% water change. Frequent water change. Attach a disproptionately large fuge , mechanically remove any bad stuff etc etc

 

[JonPhillips]

Happy owner of two pico tanks
Imagitarium 3.7 g

Fluval spec 3

All my tanks with my own controller

Nice. What percent are your a80s peaking at if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[Ranjib]

Nice. What percent are your a80s peaking at if you don’t mind me asking?

Both below 50%
Imagitarium ( gsp, challice, candy cane, red monti capricornis, purple monti capricornis)

Fluval spec 3 (zoa, paly , ricordia, chilli pepper monti ? )

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Really great work!

 

[S.O.MLemos]

Well it’s up and running to get it cycled but I still need to build the slip over canopy/cover and a new nightstand so it will be next to my bed.

 

[Ranjib]

Well it’s up and running to get it cycled but I still need to build the slip over canopy/cover and a new nightstand so it will be next to my bed.

Nice :0-)

 

[S.O.MLemos]

Getting back at it!