Pico Reef Tank?

Alexkos23

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So I have a 5.5 Gallon top fin aquarium that was housing my freshwater puffer and due to and insane amount of ich I unfortunately lost my puffer. Got to clean it out.

So now i have this tank sitting her with nothing in there and trying to put some ideas together on what would be a cool set up for it and started considering a pico reef tank.
What are your guys’ thoughts on that?

image.jpg image.jpg
 

KingTideCorals

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Picos are super fun!

Be careful and make sure you get that tank SUPER clean with the ich being in it. A resilient bugger.

Regardless though, would be fun... also one thing to remember smaller water volume allows for harsher swings and sometimes harder time to keep stable parameters.

Think it would be fun though!
 
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Alexkos23

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That’d be a w e s o m e. Got any stocking ideas?
Honestly don't know what would be good to stock in this tank, as well as I'm not 100% sure if i should change anything in it or leave it as is? Looking for some ideas and figured this would be the place to ask :D
 
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Alexkos23

Alexkos23

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Picos are super fun!

Be careful and make sure you get that tank SUPER clean with the ich being in it. A resilient bugger.

Regardless though, would be fun... also one thing to remember smaller water volume allows for harsher swings and sometimes harder time to keep stable parameters.

Think it would be fun though!
Yeah definitely im going to clean it all out make a brand new tank just to be sure that there is no ich in here
 

footgal

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Personally, I think a carpet of zoas (lots of different varieties) around an island of euphyllia, nems, or acros would be killer. Here’s an artists rendition (a bad one). Red dragon acros are low light, low flow, beginner acros and I think they’d fit the bill perfectly. As for stocking I think a fire shrimp and some sexy shrimp would be super happy in there as well as maybe one of the smaller species of goby. What kind of corals are you into? A rock anemone dominate system could also be incredible. Mushrooms, zoas, even a softy tank full of cloves, xenia, nepthea, and toadstools could be breathtaking. The choice is yours, we can just help you achieve your dream :)
6469EB4D-5E50-49E2-A62E-B94DC0D82188.jpeg
 
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Alexkos23

Alexkos23

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Personally, I think a carpet of zoas (lots of different varieties) around an island of euphyllia, nems, or acros would be killer. Here’s an artists rendition (a bad one). Red dragon acros are low light, low flow, beginner acros and I think they’d fit the bill perfectly. As for stocking I think a fire shrimp and some sexy shrimp would be super happy in there as well as maybe one of the smaller species of goby. What kind of corals are you into? A rock anemone dominate system could also be incredible. Mushrooms, zoas, even a softy tank full of cloves, xenia, nepthea, and toadstools could be breathtaking. The choice is yours, we can just help you achieve your dream :)
6469EB4D-5E50-49E2-A62E-B94DC0D82188.jpeg

So i was thinking about some zoas, xenia, nepthea and euphyllia corals. Along with a fire shrimp and maybe sexy anemone shrimp. Fish wise Put in a goby or 2? Was thinking the clown goby.
 

WiscoFishNut

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Honestly don't know what would be good to stock in this tank, as well as I'm not 100% sure if i should change anything in it or leave it as is? Looking for some ideas and figured this would be the place to ask :D

I'm pretty sure I have one of those exact tanks in my collection of fish stuff. I was thinking about cutting out the AIO section and adding an AquaClear 50 HOB or something similar to it. Adding an ATO will definitely help keep things stable. Throw in some macro algae and you have a nice little tank that isn't too much work to maintain. Check out my 7.5g nano build if you're interested - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-build-7-5g-cube.706850/ I just recently added a torch to the tank and its doing great. For a little tank like that you definitely want to think about maxxing the "cool" factor on everything you put in there since space is so limited.
 
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Alexkos23

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So did a bit of looking around to get this pico tank started and this is what i have kind of landed on to do -

Tank - Topfin 5.5 gallon tank
Lighting - Kessil a80
Filter - Aquaclear 50
Filter Media - Activated Carbon - Seachem Matrix- BioMax
Substrate - Natures Ocean Natural White
Aquascape - Live rock (same as my 20g)
Heater - Topfin heater has been keeping my tank at a stable 78-80 degrees

Would love some feedback if i should change anything out or this should be good enough! :D
 

WiscoFishNut

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So did a bit of looking around to get this pico tank started and this is what i have kind of landed on to do -

Tank - Topfin 5.5 gallon tank
Lighting - Kessil a80
Filter - Aquaclear 50
Filter Media - Activated Carbon - Seachem Matrix- BioMax
Substrate - Natures Ocean Natural White
Aquascape - Live rock (same as my 20g)
Heater - Topfin heater has been keeping my tank at a stable 78-80 degrees

Would love some feedback if i should change anything out or this should be good enough! :D

Looks like a great start! You really want to add an auto top off system to it tho. I have three of these ATO's running and have had no problems with em - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/smart-ato-micro-120p-auto-top-off-system-autoaqua.html
 

Aclman88

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I have ran a 5 gallon pico successfully for over a year. I just recently took most of the coral to use it as a mini frag tank since Irecently acquired a 20 gallon that I moved everything into.

This was the tank before I took is down:
IMG_6815.JPG


For fish you would be limited to a clown goby. I had a green clown goby that did really well in the tank. I would avoid two since they can be territorial and 5 gallons does not leave much in the way of territory for them to split. You would most likely end up with a dead goby.

Two things you must absolutely stay on top of in such a small tank is maintaining salinity via an ATO (or topping off by hand) and keeping a stable temperature. I DIYed an ATO using float switches and an automotive relay. For temperature control I have an ink bird controller that operates my heater and a small usb computer fan that sits on top of the open HOB filter. Other than that, weekly water changes and switching out filter floss was all I did. let me know if you have any other questions!

Edit: To add on, if I set this up again I will most likely do softy dominant. I wanted to avoid dosing in such a small tank and if you have more than a few LPS growing (which I did) they will easily consume 1-2DKH alkalinity in a week; generally water changes will not be able to keep up with that usage over time and you would be forced to use something to supplement your nutrient levels.
 
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DSEKULA

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Here's my pico, it's still in the stocking stage obviously. I set it up to put a colony of sexy shrimp in there. The stock list includes the five of them, a blue leg hermit, 3 dwarf ceriths. A couple minimaxi nems, a mix of zoas and shrooms, candy cane, and a a duncan. The tank has a little gravity ato for stability and when I ran a par test for fun my six led diode build was giving between 120- 300par. The tank is 2gals and 10" tall by 8"dia

IMG_20200802_114421.jpg IMG_20200803_224456.jpg
 

DSEKULA

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Here's the cheap ato I use, it works but I had to diy a container to use cutting the threads off an evian bottle and attaching to something smaller they pretty much only fit evian that I found.
 

DSEKULA

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I eventually want to try a piece of pocilipora up top in mine, since a frag still has the features to look like a small colony even if you keep it small.
 

Squeaky McMurdo

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I have trouble getting good pictures of my 5 gallon. I have a tuxedo urchin, 6 blue leg hermits, and 3 sexy shrimp. Corals are a Kenya tree, orange ricordea, zoas, green star polyps, and pulsing xenia.

Clown gobies are probably the only marine fish you could put in a tank this size but guppies can be acclimated to saltwater

45D3F9DD-D627-4D64-9EEF-1A1362697886.jpeg
 

KingTideCorals

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This is an awesome article/video by Jake. Hands down one reason I thought a pico would be so fun! I have a huge love for baby.. ONLY BABY.... domino damsels. Just something about them in their juvenile state that is so precious

Check out the link below! Good read!


 

DSEKULA

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I have trouble getting good pictures of my 5 gallon. I have a tuxedo urchin, 6 blue leg hermits, and 3 sexy shrimp. Corals are a Kenya tree, orange ricordea, zoas, green star polyps, and pulsing xenia.

Clown gobies are probably the only marine fish you could put in a tank this size but guppies can be acclimated to saltwater

45D3F9DD-D627-4D64-9EEF-1A1362697886.jpeg
I considered doing a barnacle blenny in mine, I had one I'm my big dt for about a year they literally spend their whole life in what ever hole they choose. The reason I didn't was more based on the added bioload from feeding them. I'd consider one if you were doing a macros or higher nutrient build tho.
 

DSEKULA

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This is an awesome article/video by Jake. Hands down one reason I thought a pico would be so fun! I have a huge love for baby.. ONLY BABY.... domino damsels. Just something about them in their juvenile state that is so precious

Check out the link below! Good read!


This was an awesome article I came across when planning my tank as well. For me, my pico experiment was great for bringing reefing back to basics and that's exactly what's discussed in the article. My big system has a lot of bells and whistles, I have tons of euphyllia and acros in there. The tanks is very automated with dosing pumps etc and when everything is going well I can see daily growth differences. Planning the pico really made me step back and consider bare bones of what would make a tank work and stay stable. I did just as much or a little more planning with this tank as my large system. When space is that limited every aspect took a lot of research deciding what was important and how I wanted to "spend" space. Not just on the rocks, but how I was going to fit in the equipment I want/need or things like which diodes I'd choose to put in the led fixture. For me it was also important that I could fit everything in a hood and stand. Since I was building those features as well I could have made them larger but wanted to keep the asthetics of the small build intact. I know this isn't as important to everyone but it really bothers me when I see an awesome tank but there is light spilling out everywhere and wires all over the place, In my mind this is magnified when the tank is smaller but the wires and light spill are still roughly the same size.
 
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