Inland Reef’s Pico Mangrove Tank

[inland_reef]

I’m just now creating a build thread for this tank even though it’s probably 2 and a half years old. So let’s go back to the start and work our way through the last couple years with pictures...

first set up photo in my old apartment:

removed the grape caulerpa because it grows super fast

this was its prime when I was at the old apartment and also my novice stage with macroalgae. Really didn’t know how to keep it or well keep it happy. Tank sort of went down hill as I prepared it to move to my new place.

the emergent rock lowered my salinity through some crazy salt creep. This type of rock is extremely porous. So it was adjusted and all rock was placed in the tank.

this is the part where I tried some seriatopora in the pico cause why not make a pico tank harder to keep lol

The tank looked incredible, but I got tied up dealing with Dino’s in my other tanks and if you know anything about seriatopora, one little thing and they die really quickly. (no excuse for letting tanks suffer but was still learning how to manage 3 and soon to be 4 tanks)
This tank, even though saltwater, is essentially like a freshwater aquascapers tank. It’s loved then changed and used to try new things. I have always heard it was frowned upon to add driftwood to saltwater tanks... so I added driftwood to saltwater tanks. I tend to never take what I read on the internet at face value until I try it myself and see the results.

present day: 8.7.2020

Tank: Betta fish 3 divider 2.5 gallon with the glass dividers removed
Heater: 50w cobalt neotherm
Pump: Eheim surface skimmer pump disassembled for the height of the tank
Substrate: mix of Fiji pink sand and miracle mud
Hardscape: Tonga branching/driftwood

Fish: super tiny mollies converted to saltwater
Invertebrates: handful of snails
Corals: xenia
Macroalgae/Mangroves: Caulerpa prolifera and Gracilaria hayi/ (4) red mangroves

This is the tank that began my love of macroalgae and helped me create my newest build. If you haven’t seen it, check out that build thread here:

Build Thread - Inland Reef's Coastal Lagoon

Lets talk about gorgonians... They're an underappreciated coral that can be very beautiful if highlighted in the right way. About a year and a half ago, I started seeing them pop up in my local stores and I started collecting (more like hoarding) all of them, at least the photosynthetic ones...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Nice tank

 

[inland_reef]

Nice tank

Thank you!

 

[inland_reef]

Gotta love cats

 

[inland_reef]

Oh shoot forgot to post the close up of the mollies that I converted from freshwater to saltwater. Little 1/4-1/2 inch baby mollies are a great short term addition for the pico

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Gotta love cats

The cat is purrr-tecting the tank

 

[inland_reef]

mangrove growth 8.21.20

 

[samnaz]

Love this little macroalgae tank! Glad you finally made a thread for it ;-)

 

[inland_reef]

Appreciate the kind words. And I’m glad too! It’s fun to look back and see how much this tank has changed over the years!

 

[cosmicbread]

Love this tank! I frequently look at your insta for inspiration Has the driftwood had any negative effects that you've seen? I have some mangrove branches that I am considering adding to my own macro tank, or to an experimental smaller tank. Tons of people successfully keep *living* mangroves in their reefs, but as an original planted FW person I've been so curious about adding dead wood to marine tanks. I get the argument against them, especially with certain corals, but tbf I haven't exactly seen anyone experiment/document with it.

Been hoping to do that, so it's super neat to finally see someone using driftwood. I would think that in a macro-focused system it would be fine...

 

[inland_reef]

Love this tank! I frequently look at your insta for inspiration Has the driftwood had any negative effects that you've seen? I have some mangrove branches that I am considering adding to my own macro tank, or to an experimental smaller tank. Tons of people successfully keep *living* mangroves in their reefs, but as an original planted FW person I've been so curious about adding dead wood to marine tanks. I get the argument against them, especially with certain corals, but tbf I haven't exactly seen anyone experiment/document with it.

Been hoping to do that, so it's super neat to finally see someone using driftwood. I would think that in a macro-focused system it would be fine...

So I’ve had the driftwood in for a while now and it hasn’t seemed to cause any adverse problems although I haven’t kept any crazy difficult corals in there. This piece of driftwood was originally in a friend of mines freshwater tank that he tore down. So it’s soaked for a while leaching most of the tannins out. I had a friend add a piece of driftwood to his macro saltwater tank and it tinted his tank water from the tannins but nothing died in his tank (mostly softies and macroalgae). Soak it first for a while and you should be good. I would just be cautious about what type of wood you add. Dried mangrove roots are fine. I added some in before I decided to remove them for this awesome looking branch. The big thing people told me to look for was ph and the influence of the tannic acid to the alk/calc balance. So monitor those with anything more difficult to care for than soft corals and you should be fine. My gorgonians and xenia don’t seem to mind it being in the tank at all.

 

[inland_reef]

Picture dump!

 

[Lemon]

nice tank

 

[inland_reef]

nice tank

thank you! It’s a fun little tank!

 

[Lemon]

where did you get the tank?

 

[inland_reef]

where did you get the tank?

I got the tank from a tropical fish store. It was originally meant to be a betta holding tank as it came with three glass dividers you could insert to separate bettas from fighting. I’m not sure the brand name but really any shallow tank would work to do something like this

 

[thedon986]

Awesome setup!!

 

[Lemon]

I got the tank from a tropical fish store. It was originally meant to be a betta holding tank as it came with three glass dividers you could insert to separate bettas from fighting. I’m not sure the brand name but really any shallow tank would work to do something like this

thanks

 

[inland_reef]

Awesome setup!!

Appreciate it!

 

[inland_reef]

It’s been a minute since I’ve done an update on this pico. This tank is now scaped with Hakai river stone. An inert stone that’s on the rarer side in the freshwater hobby. I think it adds a cool tidepool style look to the tank. Oh and I moved the tank over to the fish corner. I think having all the tanks in one area makes a fun vibe.