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rocksmom's Nano Box Powered PicO 5G - upgrade! #220


rocksmom

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Finally starting up a tank again after moving back in December from San Diego to Pittsburgh. I had started a nanocube before we left that my husband is now using in the nano in 90 contest. I knew I wanted to upgrade my tank, but I had a hard time deciding on what to get. Finally settled on the new PicO 5G AIO system. Got a bunch of equipment and supplies today, and I even ordered my corals which will be in the frag tank until my tank and light are ready. On to the goods...

Equipment

  • PicO Aquariums 5 Gallon AIO
  • Nano Box Tide w/ Storm Controller
  • MP10w ES
  • Apex Jr
  • Manual
  • Air stone skimmer - PicO Skim 2.0 added 9/22/14
  • Archaea 25w mini heater


Filtration, etc

  • CeramEco Vida Rock Bonsai
  • Bare Bottom
  • BRS Rox carbon
  • Filter Floss
  • ESV Seawater System
  • ESV B-Ionic


Livestock (as of November 1)

  • Pom Pom Crab
  • Trochus Snail
  • Some type of turbo
  • ORA Tiger Goby (Elacatinus macrodon)


Corals

  • Tyree Orange Rainbow
  • Gonzo's Ironman Palys
  • Gonzo's Orchid Palys
  • LC Razzmatazz
  • Pink Acan
  • ASD Rainbow Acan
  • Tyree Japonica
  • Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
  • Gonzo's Red Hot Stylocoeniella
  • Gonzo's Lava Lamp Mushrooms
  • Pink/White Mushroom
  • LC Rainbow Yuma
  • Rainbow Stylo
  • Magenta Birdsnest
  • CR Flame On
  • ORA Joe the Coral
  • CR Blueberries and Cream
  • Gonzo's Monster's Inc
  • Gonzo's Pink Panther
  • Miami Hurricane Chalice
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Following! This set up sounds almost identical to what I have planned when I receive my PicO 5G. Good luck with the tank

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Got some pics today of all the goods that came in. Some basic supplies:

 

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Some hardware:

 

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Picked up the rock for this tank and my husband's tank last week at a LFS. Already cured, which is nice. They keep it in their basement curing for awhile before adding it to their sale tanks. Already has some nice spots of coraline growing on it, although it's hard to tell with the purple color. It's now residing in our frag tank, but here it is when we brought it home:

 

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And finally my stand with ghetto cardboard "tank." That's the size of the display area on the 5G. I went with a curbside chic purple and white paint job with a black glaze. Just happens to be the same colors of my Nano Box.

 

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Did some coral shopping as well. Placed an order with Legendary Corals and Reef Gardener this morning. Got some stuff from Aqua SD's live sale on Saturday. They will all be coming in next week and going in our frag tank until mine is ready. A few examples (vendor's photos, not mine):

 

EmeraldsonFire_zps0c9790d3.jpg

 

FruityPeblesAcanB-Retail-200-LiveSalePri

 

ASDRoyalSeductionAcanB-Retail-100-LiveSa

 

P6040110__09525_zoom.JPG

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My light has arrived!

 

I was on my way out the door this morning and saw the box sitting downstairs. I almost turned around and came right back up with it. The thing sure is purty.

 

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I got it set up with the controller and held it over the frag tank. Makes the acans look amazing. I didn't play with the settings much though since I couldn't clip it to the rim. Kudos to Dave for a great product and customer service to match.

 

Now I just need my tank. Soon, soon. I think I read they they are going to start shipping the beginning of August.

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Really getting excited about this tank. Got an order of frags in today from gonzo's corals and they look awesome. Also found some really nice mushrooms at a LFS. Grabbed two rainbows and one pink one, but my husband will probably take one of the rainbows for his nano in 90 tank. Took a couple pics of the frag tank tonight. Sorry the mushroom one is blurry, I didn't turn off the powerheads.

 

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That's just a preview of what's to come. Haven't even taken any photos of my Legendary Corals yet. Heh heh heh. These are also taken under a 10K kessil. Can't wait to see how everything looks under the Nano Box. :wub:

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So it looks like all the live rock we got at our lfs came with a most unwelcome hitchhiker - bryposis.

 

I'm guessing it was dormant from a lack of light and food and now in the frag tank and my husband's tank it's starting to pop up in patches. I guess it could have come in on a frag as well. Not sure what to do at this point. The tech m treatment? Get new rock (probably dry) to start my tank and just hope it doesn't hitch a ride with any of the corals? I'm thinking the latter, although we'll probably have to try the tech m thing on my husband's tank.

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I ended up ordering a pico bonsai piece from aqua-tecture. Not 100% sure I'm going to use it though. The bryopsis is making an appearance on a couple of the frags and there are probably a half dozen or so little patches of it my husband's tank, so we're going to try treating both tanks with Tech M. I ordered it and a salifert mg test today, should be here on Friday. I already have the Red Sea mg test, but our mg reads higher than it should based on our salt mix, so I want to see if the salifert gives us a different baseline before we start dosing. If the Tech M treatment works I'll probably go with the original rock and sell the bonsai rock.

 

On a different note, I've been terribly depressed lately. Fun topic, huh? Starting last November I lost my dog (he was 14, but it was sudden... the one in my avatar), sold our house, moved across the country, bought a house after living with my sister for too long, and lost my mom. All within about 6 months. Things are finally starting to calm down and the loss of my mom and dog are really hitting me all over again. Having reefing as a hobby and nano-reef.com to spend too much time lurking around on has been a nice little distraction from everything. So I guess even though I haven't really made any personal connections on the board, just wanted to throw out a general thanks to anyone reading this for contributing to this community.

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nice coral selection! this is gonna be a gooood build.

 

sorry to hear about your troubles in the last 6 months. i hope the tank takes your mind off things. change is hard but if you embrace change with positive attitude, things will only get better. looks like you are off to a great start!

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Your coral looks really good, I'm jealous :P

Sorry to hear that things have been so terrible for you though.

Spending too much time on here and messing around with tank can be a great way to forget other stuff for me too.

 

Following along to see how things go with the tank!

 

~ Hester

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Thanks for the comments guys! I just hope the build actually lives up the nanobox/pico hype. Standards are set pretty high around here. First step is to deal with this bryopsis. Didn't think I'd be fighting algae before I even had my tank :blink:

 

I've decided to make two changes since my initial post and will update it accordingly. I'm going with an ORA tiger goby instead of sexy shrimp. As cool as they are, I've decided it's not worth the risk. I actually already have the little goby in a quarantine tank. He's a cute little bugger. He comes out of the rock and hops around on the sand until I get too close, and then he dashes back in. This is only the second full day I've had him though and he's already eating well and looks fat and happy. I'm going to wait to get the pom poms until the actual tank is ready. I don't think I'll quarantine them. I'm going to get the Life Net mesh lid for the tank now that I have the fish.

 

The other change is with the ato. I've read multiple times on here recently about the nano osmolator malfunctioning. Besides dropping the salinity on the tank, I worry about our building. I live on the third floor of a loft building that used to be a school built back in like 1850. National historic landmark and everything. Don't really feel like flooding the place. I'll either top off by hand if the evaporation isn't too bad or possibly a JBJ ato which I already own. Could potentially just do a little pump on the apex jr timer once I figure out how much topping off the tank is going to require.

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Oh, and while not really reef related, I have a couple pictures since my thread has been boring so far. I got a new camera a couple weeks ago, mainly to try to get some good pics of the tank once it's going. It's a Sony NEX-5T. I took these pictures right after I got it, still need to figure the thing out. I don't have lightroom so they have some editing done in photoshop. The one of Pittsburgh I actually removed some electrical lines that are outside our building.

 

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First off,amazing coral selection already !!! This thing is going to off the chain. Those Zoa's and acans though :D !!! So picO releasing a new air stone skimmer ?!!??

 

Tagging along for this one :thumbsup:

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First off,amazing coral selection already !!! This thing is going to off the chain. Those Zoa's and acans though :D !!! So picO releasing a new air stone skimmer ?!!??

 

Tagging along for this one :thumbsup:

 

Thanks! Yeah, I think he originally said they would be ready by the time the tanks started shipping, but it looks like they might be taking longer than expected. Unless he announces them this weekend. Not sure.

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Great looking corals! Were you able to get your briopsis under control? Also, I plan on getting a bunch of corals and fishes within the next couple of months online for my 40B so if you want in on a buy since your in the burgh let me know! Save on some shipping! :)

 

Got a FTS?

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Great looking corals! Were you able to get your briopsis under control? Also, I plan on getting a bunch of corals and fishes within the next couple of months online for my 40B so if you want in on a buy since your in the burgh let me know! Save on some shipping! :)

 

Got a FTS?

 

I don't even have a tank yet to take a FTS :lol: I did a pre-order and I think they are supposed to start shipping on Monday. Right now everything is just in a frag tank. The tech m is supposed to get here today so I'll start dosing that today or tomorrow after doing the mg tests. Hopefully that takes care of the bryopsis, but it will be awhile before I know for sure.

 

Gah, I'd love some more coral, but I already have too much for my tiny tank. Where are you planning on ordering from?

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Haven't decided where I am ordering yet. It will all depend on who's got what available when I order. Could be a couple of months depending on how long it takes me to get this tank operational. :)

 

Definitely following cant wait to see those corals in the DT!

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Fun build you have here!!! I love your style (loft, furniture, paint colors, etc :D). I'll be following along for sure :).

 

Sounds like a very rough 6 months :(. This hobby will be a great distraction for you!

 

As for the bryopsis, I've been there. It came in on a frag plug and I was lazy and did nothing about it, when I should have from the get-go. It ended up making me break down the entire tank. If it were me, I'd start with new rock. You can get beautiful live rock from the Gulf. I personally order from KPAquatics sealifeinc.net. But there are a few others in Florida to choose from. I've never had bryopsis come in on that rock.

 

Anyways....looking forward to following along :).

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Spiderguardnano

I have heard a lot of the tunze failing so I went with the full version with the dual sensors. I love that thing man nothing was worst than topping of by hand. There was times I would come home and my water is super low causing a lot of salinity swings with my tank

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Fun build you have here!!! I love your style (loft, furniture, paint colors, etc :D). I'll be following along for sure :).

 

Sounds like a very rough 6 months :(. This hobby will be a great distraction for you!

 

As for the bryopsis, I've been there. It came in on a frag plug and I was lazy and did nothing about it, when I should have from the get-go. It ended up making me break down the entire tank. If it were me, I'd start with new rock. You can get beautiful live rock from the Gulf. I personally order from KPAquatics sealifeinc.net. But there are a few others in Florida to choose from. I've never had bryopsis come in on that rock.

 

Anyways....looking forward to following along :).

 

Thanks gena! This was the first place we looked at when we started searching and I told my husband I didn't even want to see any other places. Escrow only took three weeks and I was in here painting the next day. Love it.

 

I actually considered the KPA rock, but ended up ordering a cerameco piece. It just arrived today actually, I'll post a photo shortly. Since it's on some of the frags I'm still doing tech m on the frag tank. Hopefully it works, what a shame to have to start over purchasing new coral.

 

I have heard a lot of the tunze failing so I went with the full version with the dual sensors. I love that thing man nothing was worst than topping of by hand. There was times I would come home and my water is super low causing a lot of salinity swings with my tank

 

Yeah, I've heard really good things about the full size one. Never considered that the nano version wouldn't be just as good. Haven't decided what I'm doing yet. I want to see if I can find how big the full size setup is considering how small the rear chambers are going to be in this tank.

 

Very nice stuff u got there :) I'm loving that stand. Did you make it yourself?

 

Thank you :) I didn't make the stand, I just finished it. It was a raw wood kit from Mr. Aqua which I painted white then purple, sanded, and finished with a black glaze and polycrylic.

 

really like the stand. well done

 

Thanks!

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Here's the pic of the cerameco rock. It's definitely "pico" sized.

 

bonsai.jpg

 

At first I thought it was going to be too small, but I think with some sps pieces on top it will be perfect. I like that the bottom is flat since I'm going to go bare bottom. No place for detritus to hide. I do still need a couple small pieces of rubble for my acans though.

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