Hello post - 5g Pico

[hwk7072]

Hi there. I’ve been lurking on the site for a few months, learning quite a bit, and getting inspiration from the TOTM and others. I set up a 5g EcoPico reef about 6 weeks ago, and thought that I should probably introduce my tank for the record. Nothing exciting here, just my introduction. I'm in Bloomington, IN. Here’s the setup

 

Tank: Ecoxotic EcoPico 5g

 

Lights: Ecoxotic EcoPico strips (5 blue/white, 1 blue, 24W total) with dimmers. I put a Razor Nano 16k on it, but ended up returning it. My corals liked it, but I didn’t. Everything looked pink/violet, no matter my blue/white percentage. Algae went nuts on the glass, practically opaque, even though I had it at about 40%. I wonder if it’s the 16k rather than the intensity? I went back to these little 4w strips and most are doing OK. The caulastrea isn’t bulging as much and the hammer isn’t stretching, but I’ve got Nano Box build underway.

 

Filtration: In addition to cured live rocks, I converted an Aquaclear 30 into a HOB refugium with Purigen, Chaeto, and Caulerpa. I put one of the blue/white strips above directly above (just taped on top for now), and can’t really tell if the macro algae is growing/eating.

 

Powerhead: As with the lights, I ended up going back to the little powerhead that came with the EcoPico Reef. The combination of this and the outflow from the Aquaclear 30 seems like a good amount of flow. I tried a Jebao WP10, but it was way too much in all but wave mode - which is what I wanted to use anyhow. The problem was the pulsing sound in wave mode - dzzzt…dzzzt…dzzzt. Drove me nuts. Maybe it was just mine. I returned it.

 

Coral (sorry about mixing and matching proper and common names)

• Xenia (2)
• Star polyp
• Caulastrea
• Blastomussa
• Hammer
• Zoa (2)
• Cyphastrea (really lovely color under good lights, yellow with pink polyps. Could be a favorite. It’s not so happy right now)

 

Fish (I’ll be setting up a larger tank later in the fall, and will transfer the fish, keep the coral)

• Ocellaris clown (kind of frantic - that's in my first post. Eating well)
• Bicolor goby (absolutely love this guy - what a goofball. Total pig. They're supposed to be mostly vegetarian, but this one eats a whole PE mysis or more twice a day.)

 

Inverts

• Hermits (2)
• Snails, not sure what kind (2)
• Emerald crab
• Very sexy, really hot shrimp
• 3" brittle star that I've only seen the end of an arm sticking out every now and then, usually when I feed.
• Hitchhikers - a couple really cool limpets, a couple small white (brittle stars?), a few asterinas, some amphipods

 

That's about it for now.

 

See you in the forums

 

FTS white only: have a bit of a diatom bloom going

 

FTS with blue:

 

Closeup:

 

Blasto eating mysis

 

 

 

 

 

 

[k4ndyk1ng]

Looks nice

[hwk7072]

Thanks. Really awful pictures. I'll try to get some better ones. Freshwater is really easy to get good pics. Saltwater isn't.

[DodgerDave]

Nice! Looks really good! Really digging the white stripped candy cane colony you have.

[cju84]

Cool setup/pics. I have the same tank, really like it. I only have 3 strips and my corals have been doing amazing thus far.

[chumpy]

I like it the water looks very clear

[hwk7072]

Thanks. Turns out that is cyano on the sand. I'm not doing much about it now other than dimming the lights. The water is super clear, maybe the perigen in the filter.