Welcome to d'Espresso's Secret 5.5g Pico Tank

FTS: October 2009


Tank Specs:
-5.5 Gallon tank (rimless)
-2x32w Dual Sunpaqs w/lunar lights plus RED leds
-Aquaclear 70 HOB (modified refugium w/ picotope 9w light custom fitted "growing Chaetomorpha")
-50w Heater (maintained at 76-80`F)
-12lbs of cured live rocks
-1’1/2lbs of live fine sand
-Nano Nimble
-Manual handed top off using RO/DI



Lighting Schedule as follows:
-Actinic: 11:00a.m.-11:00p.m.
-Daylight: 12:00p.m.-10:00p.m.
-Lunar L.E.D.: Always on
-Reverse photoperiod lighting for refugium "growing Chaetomorpha": 11:00p.m.-11:00a.m.



LiveStock:
Mainly Yumas, Rics, mushrooms and zoas, montiporas. My tank is filled with the usual hitchhikers: pods, snails, worms brittle, asterina stars, and feather dusters.



Invertebrates:
-1 Blue-legged hermit crabs
-2 nass snails
-1 cerith snail
-1 cleaner shrimp



Fish:
"Ben steeler wheeler" (wheeler Goby)
"Sunkiss" Picasso Clown fish (healthy and happy)




Soft corals:
-Assorted mushrooms
-Assorted florida ricodeas
-Assorted Yumas
-Assorted zoanthids
-Green star polyps
-Neon green toadstool
-Blue clove polyps
-Neon candy cane



LPS corals:
-Hulk green Acan.
-Rainbow Echinata Acan.
-White cloudy day Acan.
-Purple red death Acan.
-Ozzi teal Acan.




SPS corals:
-Orange Montipora
-Reverse Sunset Montipora
-Undata Montipora



i love all zoas and rics. i started with 3 polyps of this tubb blues and now i have about 50 of them.



This is all for now, thanks for looking!

go to sleep!

Haha. i will! i made a promise to all the pico reefers that i finish writing out my pico tank thread and post it up by this week. Due as promise to everyone. hopefully you guys will enjoy this one like i am at the moment. time for bed now! good night -david

Is that the RSM I sent you? It's gaining back its colors VERY nicely!

Nice colors

Wow!

Nice colors combination you have there.

NICE.

How long have you had the SPS in there, and has it been growing?

Was the light a DIY project?
What made you think of Red LED's, and how and why did you integrate them?
Are the colors in the pics pretty true to life?

I'm impressed.

yes it is the RSM you have sent me. It is worth every pennies! it have taken a long time to recover but I am happy I have purchase the piece from you. Thank you so much!

Very nice! I'm loving all the beautiful colors, fish included. Nice job!

fantastic.

Damn David!!!



Now you're makin' me want one!!!

Wow!!! Amazing tank!

The Ric and Yuma island







start off with one and now i have 2

awesome tank man! glad you're back.

Thank you for the nice comments, yours is beautiful too btw. i love my sunkiss



DO IT DO IT!!!! thanks dave..

Looks great! Can't believe it's only 5.5g, looks a lot bigger

Thanks for the welcome back.. i am sure glad to be back! i can not resist of not having pico in my home. It's just one of those reason just to have them on your list. lol

very very very nice little tank.

thanks man, yes it's a small tank smile.gif but everything is happy in there.

i feed it 2 times a month only and feed my fish regularly feeding.

I have been thinking lately that my tank is starting to get crowed and my zoas is showing a lot of growth covering my tank in different places. My point is i would like to share some of my zoas but i have no idea of how to sell them away on nano reef plus i didn't want to sell them to the LFS around me. If anyone interested in purchasing some, i'll probably start off selling my zoas collections and other few corals for a good reasonable price but let me get the names of them first and stay on the look out for my first sale. Thanks, -david

I am just trying to make more room in my tank. A few corals to name and put on the sale item:

- Orange Bam Bams
- Green Bay Packers
- Green Implosions
- KeddRedds
- Oreos
- Wam'n Watermelon
- Twilight Pink

Some new updates











Just added this one to the tank today


More growth on the mushies showing


One of my all time favorite

Last night I finally got the chance to do a water change the tank. I discovered little small pod and found a mini green crab but it was very quick and went hiding behind the rocks. I also saw alot more hitchhikers which was very interesting to the naked eyes.

This morning I checked my tank again before I go to work I have notices 2 more babies Yuma have develope a small bud on one of the rocks. What a good day to start off.

This is a very sweet little tank. The assortment of coral is awesome keep up the good work

this is a pretty sweet tank, i love that orange monti on top lots of colour, keep it up this thing is going to look sweet when those corals grow out.

you let me know when you are ready to get rid of one of those pink and one rainbow yumas....

AWESOME ON A STICK!!! It's so beautiful, colourful and healthy! You're also a whiz with a camera.

Man, I can't wait until my tank matures more and I get a lighting upgrade.

Following this thread!

wow D....this 5.5 is amazers!

I'm lovin' this setup!

I actually just de-rimmed and setup a 5.5g myself... they look awesome! Check out my build thread sometime in the future once I get some cool stuff in there and let me know what you think!

Water change is done plus just added a new member to the tank. I have asked and placed an order of a Tail spot blenny for more then 3 months. Just recently i stopped by my LFS and found out that they carried them. It was amazing that they got them in so i bought 2 tail spot for one for this tank and the bigger one for my other tank. They are some nice blenny and very active funny to watch them perch off bottom rock and sticking their little head out scooping out the reef.

i will get some new picture updated soon!

I love this awesomeness in such a small tank

Are you worried about having 3 fishes in a 5.5?

Im a little hesitant with putting 3 in my 10gal... shouldnt be too bad right?

This is an awesome tank! So beautiful and full of life. (Shh.... don't tell anyone... Three fish in a 5.5 freaks me out unless its three neon gobies.)

lol.. I didn't wanna broke out the bad news but last week was a very bad week for both of my wife and i. then my power went out at night when we was sleeping, i woke up the next morning to find out that my little picasso decided to jump out and lay on the carpet all stiff up. So nothing could of replaced my picasso so today i finally got the fish that i always wanted. So now there is only 2 fish in there. My Ben steeler wheeler and my new Tail spot Blenny. It's about 1" 1/2 small and cute. No worries!

i was looking at getting the same. they help control algea too. sweet..

Awesome tank.!!! Love everything about it. Great works. Some very nice pics.

Tank looks great! If my pico can look 1/2 as awsome as yours I'll be happy.

Today did some pruning, fragging, moving, and re-aquascape. Also did a water change and tank is looking more healthy each day. I was babysitting the one piece rock that had my orange montipora in the tank recently but i have moved back to my big tank. So there is no montipora in my tank for now.

bad news: Disappointed my picasso decided to suicide.

Well, new picture will be posted up soon..

Sucks to hear about the picassos, they jumped?

Well both fish jumped out the tank. 3 weeks ago my picasso jumped out and now my wheeler goby jumped out this week too.

I have taken care that jumping issue by fitting a piece of acyclic on top to help keep the fish from jumping or surfing.

There is some new member to the tank, i got my order in this week and brought home a Pom-pom crab, transfer my other TR clownfish over to the tank because i found a paired designer clownfish that will be going to be in the big tank. Also got some baby small NASS, should help me with my light brown algae on the sand bed. Let see how they will do for now.

Couple new shots of my collections:

Can you all name a few for which i am not sure of the names thanks!

Is that a Biocube hood with DIY legs on it over your pico? If so, very innovative use of it!

sweet man!

Very sweet.

sick, sick tank!

I love this tank
AMAZING!!!

It's a AQUAPOD 12 gallon hood with DIY legs from the SUNPOD 150MH, i use a drill to drill small holes on the legs and hood then i use small screw to secure them on the hood. i have measure everything to make sure it snug fit on top of the tank. It stick out on the front but doesn't look to shabby but thought i did good by putting the hood light in good use.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

*you can find the universal legs anywhere at your LFS but i just happen to make use of it and not put it to waste.

Excellent "recycling" idea. Sure beats buying a whole new fixture too!

I love this tank!
This one as well as others have inspired me to work with 5.5 was just given. Who makes the light fixture?

I had custom fitted the legs of the Sunpod onto the hood of an AP12 and recycling to be used on this tank. It works out pretty well.

this tank is rediculousss! do u mind explaining how you did the ato on your old tank??

Beautiful tank! Great images!

Could you tell us about the red LEDs? I'm curious about the wattage, type, and system. I've read the 3 Watts can be too much and very distracting.