My Franken-PicoTank

[wrasse2123]

Hey Everyone! Ive been out of reef keeping for several years and recently decided to get back in, so I set out to make a peninsula pico reef tank based off of spare parts I had lying around, and thought it would be fun to document it so without any further ado here is my pico franken tank

So the Equipment is as follows
Tank: old fulval spec v 5 gal I got from my buddy
Sump pump: a cobalt 606
Flow pump: ???
Doser: Jebao 4 channel auto doser
Heater: Random 10watt I just kinda had
Sump light: mingdak submersible led (on 24/7)
Main light: Kessil a80 with super stripped screws I got from another buddy (on 10 hrs daily)
ATO: Smart aqua ATOmicro

Filtration consists of 1 packet of chemipure nano blue, some filterfloss (not very useful), and a bunch of chateo

live stock consists of
2 separate acan frags
1 og mummy eye chalice frag
3 other random chalice frags
1 goldeneye chalice colony
1 (greedy) croc island scoly
1 og bounce frag
1 rainbow ricordea florida
2 trochus snails
1 astrea snail
1 star astrea snail

So far I've been running for 3 months with no major issues

Mantience includes
Occasional glass cleanings, and coral pellet feedings
Weekly 20% water changes, and auto doser function checks
Monthly Chemipure replacement and cheato pruning

So far I'm loving this tank, I designed it to be a chalice dominated mixed reef since I love chalices. Let me know what y'all think, if yall have any questions, or if you want to see close ups of any frags

 

[AngryMike2016]

Pretty cool; any plans for fish?

 

[brandon429]

Great job it's perfect

The number one thing you could occasionally do for that reef is blast feed it where highest quality reef feed in vast amounts is littered all over the polyps one morning so they can eat full

Leave in tank for an hour, feeding better than ever just occasionally

Then do three back to back full water changes and reset it back to clean...with full polyps. It's the single fastest way to build mass, to establish coral attachment and positive nitrogen mass building

It's an algae free way of feeding better than ever, occasionally

makes best use of the size of your tank to deliver corals feed better than they could in a large tank with typical sparse feeding system to avoid algae.

 

[brandon429]

You've designed a tank that can run without a biological lifespan limit because you have total access to the water column easily, waste has no where to hide and compound, and the live rock is great looking + contributing to food web, seems nicely aged. Your tank cannot develop old tank syndrome due to design.

 

[wrasse2123]

Pretty cool; any plans for fish?

No plans for fish so far, I think I might add a fire shrimp, but I'm mostly in this for the coral!

 

[wrasse2123]

You've designed a tank that can run without a biological lifespan limit because you have total access to the water column easily, waste has no where to hide and compound, and the live rock is great looking + contributing to food web, seems nicely aged. Your tank cannot develop old tank syndrome due to design.

Thanks! that a real honor coming from you, your reef bowl is amazing, I especially love your blastos

 

[wrasse2123]

Hurricane Dorian Update!
So the tank survived two days without power by me basically chucking ice in a tupperware container, and I had no losses, I do have some new additions as well!
1 blue-tip green frogspawn
1 indo dragon soul
1 Rainbow acan
1 WWC flamethrower chalice

All in all the tank is doing great and Im seeing good growth from the mummy eye, and random rainbow chalice, also I'm still loving my croc scoly. The new torches look amazing too, but I can't quite master taking pictures of them... Anyway let me know what y'all think!

 

[brandon429]

And an og bounce too?? My goodness they’re awesome man ha nice

 

[tinoracha]

Stuff looks SUPER sweet! I also have a fulval spec v 5 and a kessil a80 that I run for about 10 hours a day too . Becuase its a dial it might be kinda hard to answer this questions but how high do you turn it on during the day? do you use a controller and let it ramp up and down? and is it all the way blue all the time or do you switch it around?

 

[wrasse2123]

Stuff looks SUPER sweet! I also have a fulval spec v 5 and a kessil a80 that I run for about 10 hours a day too . Becuase its a dial it might be kinda hard to answer this questions but how high do you turn it on during the day? do you use a controller and let it ramp up and down? and is it all the way blue all the time or do you switch it around?

Hey sorry it took me awhile to get back! I don't use a spectral controller or let it ramp up or down or anything, color-wise I keep it about 20% whites and 80% blues because it looks nice, intensity-wise I keep it at about 50% (via dial) since it seems the lords don't really like anything above that, since I'm growing and sps the lighting is more than sufficient. I find that simplicity is the best option. Let me know if you have any more questions and good luck!

 

[chaostactics]

Since it's been about a year. How's this tank doing? @wrasse2123