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Cultivated Reef

2.5 Gallon Alley Oop - Retired 1/10/2015


Roshan8768

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Been reading through a lot of threads on this forum and others about pico reefs. I would like to set up an ultra low tech project with what I already have lying around. I currently have a 2.5 gallon AGA and a coral compulsion par 30 lying around. Do I absolutely need to have flow? Kinda curious to see what it would look like with a bunch of softies, maybe some xenia for water movement (think I saw a thread in this section with this concept)... any thoughts/opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.

I will probably add a cheap HOB filter at some point when I find a good deal for a used one. I can always grab a handful of Livesand from my main tank, just enough for a 1-2 cm layer. At this point not planning on adding a heater, we'll see how things go. Not planning on stocking with anything other than soft corals as of now. Will top off as needed, but I'll have a full fitting glass top, so evaporation should be minimal. Probably will do a 100% waterchange with old tank water from my 40 breeder once a month. Hoping this should be enough since I won't be feeding anything of note really.

Edit 06/01/14 Restart

 

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FTS 6/17

 

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FTS 6/23

 

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6/29

 

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7/14/14

 

 

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7/24/14

 

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Equipment:
2.5 Gallon AGA
Aquatech 5-15 Gallon HOB filter w/purigen
50 Watt Tetra Heater
Coral Compulsion PAR30 w/ clamp

 

Stocking:

Pulsing Xenia

Florida Ricordea

Green Millepora

Acans

Pipe Organ Coral

Red and Green Favia

Zoas

Dragon eye

Candy Apple

Fire and Ice

Hypnotic Iceman

Rastas

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Flow is what delivers the food and takes away the waste so I would think it is necessary. I don't see how Pulsing Xenia could possibly move enough water in a tank that size to keep the whole tank happy. I also think a HOB would be enough flow by itself. Hopefully you will find a good deal on a HOB soon.

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yea you'll want movement in a tank that size. get a hob first and then set it up.

 

xenia helps in sub one gallon tanks i think.

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Flow is what delivers the food and takes away the waste so I would think it is necessary. I don't see how Pulsing Xenia could possibly move enough water in a tank that size to keep the whole tank happy. I also think a HOB would be enough flow by itself. Hopefully you will find a good deal on a HOB soon.

 

I agree with this in principle, but I'm curious to see how it ends up with minimal flow starting up. Will add a HOB filter soon after setup if I feel it isn't working well. Do you guys think I need to wait for the tank to cycle before adding my starter frags? I plan to just leave it be for 2 weeks and then add a couple, does this sound like a feasible plan?

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I have a 2g pico sitting on my desk next to me at work and I have 98gph in it right now. You 100% need flow. I ended up getting a 2g Aqueon Evolve (it had a "broken filter") for $25 from petco and with the rock, light, etc. it was under $150 with the new EcoPico LED. I have 5 happy Rics, a happy Acan Lord, Bowerbanki, and 2 happy chalices so far which are surprisingly growing as fast as they did in the 20g I pulled them out of at home.

 

I have like 10 more thigns sitting on my frag rack that I keep forgetting in the morning but the tank is about 1.5 months old now and thigns are settling in nicely. It is SUPER easy to keep.

 

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Yeah I know - I REALLY have to remove those ugly ass frag plugs... I haven't glued anything down yet though. The rock is starting to purple up nicely too.

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I'd also move those acans down to avoid fading out of their initial color. they are lower light corals.

 

yes you should make sure the tnak is cycled before putting corals in. but even before that you need a CUC. it will also help for you to see whether the tank is cycled. 2weeks -4 weeks should be good before starting to add the CUC.

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I have a similar tank and keep revisiting the idea of a pico in it. You will need flow for sure. I was thinking a small Hydor pump for flow with maybe a Y fitting on the outflow to split the stream and avoid the jet blast effect. Or a Hydor rotating deflector, but those things are just as big as a 240 or a 425 prop pump.

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Tried setting it up as a peninsula, but with it being on the far corner, it just didn't make sense.

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps7176a881.jpg.html'>temporary_zps7176a881.jpg

 

2 Liter for reference



Will I really need a CUC with just coral? I'm not planning on feeding anything, just using the dirty water from the tank to feed the softies. I guess I could use 1 astrea to take care of algae, but I honestly don't think there will be too much of that with such minimal feedings. Thoughts? Will I have a noticeable cycle if I use live sand and rock from my existing tank?

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2.5 on a budget:

 

  1. Aquaclear 70
  2. Filter Floss
  3. 25 watt heater

Done and done. That might total $40 tops if you're willing to look around. Looking forward to it, it's been a long time since I've seen a pico in an AGA tank.

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I have a similar tank and keep revisiting the idea of a pico in it. You will need flow for sure. I was thinking a small Hydor pump for flow with maybe a Y fitting on the outflow to split the stream and avoid the jet blast effect. Or a Hydor rotating deflector, but those things are just as big as a 240 or a 425 prop pump.

 

I thought about a pump/powerhead, but it would be such a huge eyesore. All I can handle at this point is a HOB filter with the heater in it, just the intake in the display

 

2.5 on a budget:

 

  1. Aquaclear 70
  2. Filter Floss
  3. 25 watt heater

Done and done. That might total $40 tops if you're willing to look around. Looking forward to it, it's been a long time since I've seen a pico in an AGA tank.

 

At this point, this is basically what I'm thinking. Wouldn't the AC70 be too much flow, doesn't that push like 300 GPH? I want my softies to open up fully and not get blasted with flow like my main tank.

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Plenty of corals love flow. Put gorgs or trees nearest to the flow. You are overthinking this flow thing. I have 500gph in my five gallon. I think your tank would be fine with an ac70. If not perfect. Just filter floss it and done.

 

If you don't have flow, then you won't remove the corals wastes that they secrete and that means bad news for the coral. So flow that puppy up! Lol....man it's too late to be online for me...

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Plenty of corals love flow. Put gorgs or trees nearest to the flow. You are overthinking this flow thing. I have 500gph in my five gallon. I think your tank would be fine with an ac70. If not perfect. Just filter floss it and done. If you don't have flow, then you won't remove the corals wastes that they secrete and that means bad news for the coral. So flow that puppy up! Lol....man it's too late to be online for me...

 

Will get a decent HOB filter for this tank, thanks for the input

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no you do not need too much CUC if you will not feed corals. you should however get some dwarf ceriths as they are nice, useful, they will breed, and eat a variety of algae.

 

i just thought it might get a bit boring with only corals in there, so you could have some mobile animals there too.

 

will you be housing any pico invert like an anemone shrimp/sexy shrimp/something else?

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no you do not need too much CUC if you will not feed corals. you should however get some dwarf ceriths as they are nice, useful, they will breed, and eat a variety of algae.

 

i just thought it might get a bit boring with only corals in there, so you could have some mobile animals there too.

 

will you be housing any pico invert like an anemone shrimp/sexy shrimp/something else?

 

Yeah, I would like some motile life, just don't want to have to feed the CUC because there are too many of them and not enough for them to eat. Will look into finding 4-5 dwarf ceriths locally, and maybe 1 astrea. I will probably do a Porcelain Anemone crab at some point. I like the sexy shrimp, but I need this tank to be collapsible (i.e. if anything goes wrong, I should be able to throw it in my main tank.) ... And I would never find a couple of sexy shrimp in my 40 breeder :D

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likewise a porcelain may get lost in there too, but less so than sexy shrimp for sure.

 

i think if you go porcelain route, you're going to end up feeding your tank's corals because of all the zooplankton and phytoplankton food you would want to offer the porcelain. These also will take more solid foods like frozen mysis from spot feedings, so you can try that instead if you don't want to feed the tank filter feeder foods. porcelains can take any food they can grab really...

 

you'll want a nice mushroom or ric or maybe even LPS for the crab to host and be more comfortable in. plus that way you will see him all the time.

 

I miss mine. i have a pic of him in my sig. he really liked my blasto wellsi.

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I will probably have some of the nicer mushroom color varieties for this tank, maybe some rics if I can find some that are reasonably priced locally. Maybe a maxi-mini if I find a really special color combination. I plan on just directly feeding some mysis to the porcelain if I get one.

Honestly I just want a really low maintenance coral tank with some movement. Minimal upkeep and cost is the main goal... will be using Instant Ocean salt for this tank, compared to Oceanic for my main tank. Also plan on picking up some live rock later this week for the tank.Cycle for two weeks, and then some test frags from my main tank? (Probably some common mushrooms, xenia, and GSP)

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I'd still get the CUC snails first, because you'll see diatoms when the cycle is near the end. then leave for a week or two more before corals. best to be safe than sorry.

 

also unfortunately minimal cost on a pico is very difficult to achieve as you would need to seriously compromise equipment quality to keep the build cheap. most notably the lighting. if you were to get everything you already have for this tank from scratch, it would likely cost you well over $100 by the time you add in your first corals.

 

how much have you spent to this pico so far?

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I know what you mean about the cost, but I think it can be set up from scratch for less than $100 with everything included.

 

Currently I have spent:

$60 on the PAR 30 Coral Compulsion bulb and clamp (bought used from a guy who ran it on his tank for 2 weeks)

 

$15 on the 2.5 gallon AGA

 

$10 on the live rock

 

All I need at this point is a HOB filter... I will pick up a used one on my local forum or Craigslist for $10

 

Salt, Test Kits, Refractometer, Sand, and starter frags are obviously not included in this calculation because I would just share/pull from what I had for my main tank.

 

So $95 for the all the setup costs. Probably will push 130 with a nice CUC and corals, but not bad IMO

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Needs a Catchy title you say?

 

"The terrible titillating tiny tank"

 

"The pocket Universe"

 

"2.5 times better than you"

 

"It's not the size of the tank, it's the motion of the AC70"

 

"Doesn't get fed...lives anyway."

 

I've got more.

 

Wait...ultimate:

 

"2.5 Alley Oop"

 

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Needs a Catchy title you say?

 

"The terrible titillating tiny tank"

 

"The pocket Universe"

 

"2.5 times better than you"

 

"It's not the size of the tank, it's the motion of the AC70"

 

"Doesn't get fed...lives anyway."

 

I've got more.

 

Wait...ultimate:

 

"2.5 Alley Oop"

 

 

These are all pretty good, although the first one is a bit wierd... but whatever. Alley Oop for the win, just too epic!

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So I picked up some "Live Rock" from Petco today. Not exactly top notch stuff, but it's definitely not the worst I've seen there either. Has a fair amount of smaller bristle worms, saw a couple of stomatella snails, and there's already plenty of pods. (BTW excellent way to see how many pods you have is to turn off all your pumps/filtration and let the water settle. Then turn off all the external light sources you can and shine a flashlight in one location over your tank. The pods will congregate in the light.)Will probably add an additional smaller piece later on. Live sand will be transferred from my existing tank in a couple of weeks.

 

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yeah what is that string in your pics?

 

nice rock but you may want to break it up into smaller pieces so you can scape better.

also alley oop is a great thread name haha!

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