Pico Fluval Spec V

rons_reef · Oct 15, 2020

Hey everyone, finally decided id start documenting my little pico tank that i started back on Dec 30, 2019. I was away from the hobby for a good amount of years, and only ever played around with freshwater planted tanks but after being away from the hobby for so long i decided id mess around with saltwater. I started this endeavor with no previous saltwater experience or knowledge and quickly learned its not as easy as i thought. Anyways my build consists of the following:

Fluval Spec V Tank
2x Current USA Orbit Marine IC 18" light fixtures
Current USA 660 GPH eFlux wave pump
Aqueon 50W preset heater
10lbs of CarribSea Arag-Alive Bahamas Oolite Sand
11lbs of Walt Smith Reef Rock 2.1
AutoAqua Smart Micro ATO

Dec 30, 2019

Jan 1, 2020

Feb 14, 2020 Bought my first batch of corals that included a hollywood stunner chalice, green stylophora, Halle Berry Zoanthids and Red Blastos. Lost the stylo and blatos rather quickly and right behind them the hollywood stunner, or so i thought...

June 18, 2020 Had a gaming buddy give me a ton of free coral frags out of his main display including a bird of paradise, bubblegum digi, radioactive zoas, eagle eye zoas, two pieces of a unknown acro, red monti cap, another unknown cap, 1 head of a green torch, and some blue mushroom

Aug 17, 2020 I never removed the fully bleached hollywood stunner but had noticed that it had one eye that wouldnt die so i finally removed it out of the sand and glued it on the rock work to see if it would come back to life

Aug 19, 2020 Bought 6 frags of zoanthids off a fellow R2R member, and this is the progress of my zoa garden

Oct 11, 2020 Couple progress pictures of select corals in my tank
After months of doing nothing the acro has been encrusting its frag plug with some new greenish flesh

Red monti cap has grown since ive gotten it but really slow compared to other peoples experience with it, im sure something about my tank is slowing it down

Hollywood stunner has been coming back to life slowly but surely

Had to remove a couple zoa frags that had some nuisance algae growing until it was gone but some were added back and this is how it sits now

Bird of paradise has been doing really good, seen a huge amount of growth out of it over the last few months but i wish i had more color

Oct 15, 2020 Finally all caught up to todays date, this is how the tank is currently sitting

brandon429 · Oct 15, 2020

Bravo and well done on the growth succession pics, you navigated the uglies phase well and the outcome is + coral mass well done!

rons_reef · Oct 15, 2020

brandon429 said:
Bravo and well done on the growth succession pics, you navigated the uglies phase well and the outcome is + coral mass well done!

Thanks its definitely been a adventure, but sometimes it still feels like im in that ugly phase when i look at other peoples journals on here. I still have so much to learn and experience in this hobby.

jcosta98 · Oct 17, 2020

Don't worry, it will come with time. it is looking very good , keep going!

saltnut · Oct 17, 2020

You have a good looking tank and some nice growth. Glad you decided to share it. Pico tanks can be a challenge but your doing great.

rons_reef · Oct 17, 2020

Thanks for the kind words guys i really appreciate it, and heres a couple pictures i got after my water change today.

The main mushroom had a piece of its foot split off, and if you look closely at the top left you can see it starting to form its head.

Also got a top eye view of my unknown acro that i think is pretty cool

rons_reef · Nov 5, 2020

11/5/20 Update
Hard to tell from the picture but my torch has finally split into two heads instead of one which i'm really happy about.

My unknown mushroom has been busy and split off its main foot again, so now there is two little shrooms developing on the rock work left of the big main one.

Lastly just a full tank view, not much else has seemed to change but then again i look at the tank 100 times a day lol

Oh almost forgot i recently setup a 2.6 gallon frag tank to hold some of my zoa frags (fire and ice, bob marley) and a toadstool that's been dying for the longest in my main tank.