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Cultivated Reef

Reid's 5.5 Pico Reef


Reid_bry

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Set up date: August 20, 2016

 

So this is my first venture into salt water. I have had very minimal experience with fresh water tanks too so this is all very new to me. :lol:

 

However I have been obsessing with nano and pico reefs for about a year now! Hopefully it all goes well fingerscrossed

 

Aquascape:

 

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It was super important to me that the aquascaping looked great from four places.

 

First my door when you first walk in. First impressions are important and most people only ever see my room from the hall.

 

 

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It sits on the right side of my desk and I really love how it looks from my computer chair. I have a perfect view of the cave on the right side and I hope something neat moves in.

 

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Finally you can see it from my bed. Now this angle is probably the least important and looks the worst. However I'm sure a few corals would make it look ok.

 

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So I was wondering if anyone had any advice for my aquascape? I really am not to happy with the left rock I got from brs but don't know what to do to make it interesting :( .

 

Equipment:

  • Hydor pico power head
  • 25w hydor heater
  • Painted 5.5 gallon aqueon tank
  • I ordered an incandescent lid for it that i am going to put a coralife 50/50 bulb in until I save up for a nicer sps capable light. Overall I am so so excited for this tank and I can't wait for it to be cycled!!!!

 

Full sized pictures: http://imgur.com/a/fga3z

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Light update:

 

So the hood came in yesterday and it looks okay I guess. The coralife 50/50 bulb looks great on the left size where it is more powerfull but is underwhelming on the right side. But for $20.00 I think it is a good place holder for a month or two untill I upgrade. As of now I am planing to buy the sBox sprite!

 

Upgrade:

 

I ordered an aqueon quiet flow power filter that should arive on tuesday! Also in that shipment I have my test kit finally coming :lol: it has been absolutely killing me to not know my water paramiters but online was the right choice beacuse at my lfs it was double the price :scarry:! In the hob filter I will be running a bag of chemi-pure, and the final item is a timer for my light!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I am cycled now! However I have been having a pretty bad diatom bloom :scarry: :scarry: :scarry: I don't think that it is anything unusual. Now the next challenge arises. I am moving the tank about 9 miles on saturday wish me luck! Any moving tips would be greatly appreciated.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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  • 8 months later...
On 10/22/2016 at 3:43 PM, elev8 said:

Hey, I hope you didn't just give up.

The diatom bloom will come and go, it's part of the process of a new tank.

Wishing you the best

Well I kinda did. The move went fine but then I got swamped with a new job and life but I still did my top offs and water changes. I am done maintaining a empty tank... Parameters are okay and I am going to the lfs to buy a fish and or some softies tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement!

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19 minutes ago, Reid_bry said:

Well I kinda did. The move went fine but then I got swamped with a new job and life but I still did my top offs and water changes. I am done maintaining a empty tank... Parameters are okay and I am going to the lfs to buy a fish and or some softies tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

Welcome back!!!

 

I kinda did the same thing you did, set up a Pico and then did almost nothing with it for a year cause of life. 

Jumped back into things and got going this last January and have all kindsa cool Reefy Stuff going on now!!

 

Also, I'm jealous that you're in Colorado Springs, I'd love to be there right now. 

I've lived in Denver twice and have really been missing it out West lately. 

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On 6/23/2017 at 7:25 PM, Reid_bry said:

Well I kinda did. The move went fine but then I got swamped with a new job and life but I still did my top offs and water changes. I am done maintaining a empty tank... Parameters are okay and I am going to the lfs to buy a fish and or some softies tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement!

Personally, I think 5.5's are pretty awesome. :D There is a slight possibility of bias, though.  Hope you will share your haul with us!  Pics are good. ;)

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So at my lfs there was a clown goby that I think I may have to add to my tank. But for today I decided to pick up a green star polyp frag! I'm not sure what all my coralife 50/50 bulb can support so I just went with something undemanding. I would appreciate everyones input on what coral and fish should be next in my tank! Now for what you are all waiting for, pictures!

 

 

First off is the picture from my door, the frag will not really be noticeable here.

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Now a closer shot that can give you a better idea of my scape.

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And now the GSP! It has opened up awesomely, this was taken about 24 hours after it was introduced to my tank!

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Nice little frag!  With that bulb (you have just one?) definitely stick to low light stuff and look into getting a better one when you can.  I see what you mean about your rocks, it can be hard to scape with big rocks in a small tank!  But I think you've done well working with what you have.

Oh, other low light stuff- maybe xenia, mushrooms, some zoas/palys.

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2 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Nice little frag!  With that bulb (you have just one?) definitely stick to low light stuff and look into getting a better one when you can.  I see what you mean about your rocks, it can be hard to scape with big rocks in a small tank!  But I think you've done well working with what you have.

Oh, other low light stuff- maybe xenia, mushrooms, some zoas/palys.

Thanks! I am starting to be a little worried that there is not to many places for coral in the scape though. And yeah just one bulb, the hood is pretty basic. I hope to upgrade lights soon but I have no clue what I want to upgrade to. 

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On 6/23/2017 at 7:47 PM, Weetabix7 said:

 

Welcome back!!!

 

I kinda did the same thing you did, set up a Pico and then did almost nothing with it for a year cause of life. 

Jumped back into things and got going this last January and have all kindsa cool Reefy Stuff going on now!!

 

Also, I'm jealous that you're in Colorado Springs, I'd love to be there right now. 

I've lived in Denver twice and have really been missing it out West lately. 

Same here, we lived in the springs for a while and I loveeed it there. I've heard it's kind of been ruined now, but let's pretend that's not true :)

 

 

You definitely should go with mushrooms and zoas next. They're super hardy and grow fast, yet have equally great color and patterns IMO. They're also a little less spendy than other types. For fish, I've been looking at a yellow clown goby, a yasha/pistol shrimp pair, or just an invert tank. Porcelains are awesome filter feeder crabs, sexy shrimps are also adorable and quirky. Though it's a small tank you still have tons of options so make sure you check them all out!

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7 hours ago, JoeR said:

Same here, we lived in the springs for a while and I loveeed it there. I've heard it's kind of been ruined now, but let's pretend that's not true :)

 

 

You definitely should go with mushrooms and zoas next. They're super hardy and grow fast, yet have equally great color and patterns IMO. They're also a little less spendy than other types. For fish, I've been looking at a yellow clown goby, a yasha/pistol shrimp pair, or just an invert tank. Porcelains are awesome filter feeder crabs, sexy shrimps are also adorable and quirky. Though it's a small tank you still have tons of options so make sure you check them all out!

The springs are not ruined, but there has been a lot of people moving here and that always changes things... 

 

Zoas are next up! Hopefully the lfs will have some pretty ones! I would love a yasha/pistol but my rocks are not completely on settled through the sand and for that matter my sand is kinda shallow. porcelains and sexy shrimps would be a great idea! I am yet to see either at any of my lfs but maybe I will luck out :) thanks for your advice! 

 

 

11 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Some people break up rocks with a hammer and chisel, might that be an option?

I had to do that a little before I got the tank wet, the caveish thing on the right was 100% man made! I am not sure if I would be willing to do that again while the tank is wet. I have been looking around at some slightly larger tanks (8-12 gal) and if I do ever make the transfer I will chop up the rocks. 

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So I guess it is update time! I found an AI prime on craigslist for $100 and it comes with a jbj biocube in 12 gal! Sadly that means I am going to have to leave the Pico forum :( I will  be starting up a fresh journal soon! If anyone has any advice on transfers I sure would love to know it :) Looking forward to buying a little more rock and re-scaping!

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3 hours ago, Reid_bry said:

So I guess it is update time! I found an AI prime on craigslist for $100 and it comes with a jbj biocube in 12 gal! Sadly that means I am going to have to leave the Pico forum :( I will  be starting up a fresh journal soon! If anyone has any advice on transfers I sure would love to know it :) Looking forward to buying a little more rock and re-scaping!

Have lots of water ready lol. :lol: Congrats on the great find!

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Update time! Looks like I am moving again in two months:P

 

The plan is to run the 5.5 until then, I have rock curing for the cube and am thinking about having two tanks instead of one:D

Since last I posted I have picked up some xenia and zoas. I think that I had a problem with my tank overheating because my gsp closed on the hottest day of the year. Never connected the dots until I got a thermometer with the biocube purchase... Turned it down and will be taking more heat related precautions in the future. I will have pics soon!

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The LFS in denver was SOOOOOOOOOOO much cleaner than anything in the springs... May have to just make the drive for anything else that goes in my tank. Seriously the LFS in cos have crappy algae and parasite covered frags for prices three times as much as denver. I paid $10 for the xenia and $15 for the gsp here in the springs and $5 for the zoas in denver, with the added benefit of not having to worry if the frag had hitchhikers that could be a huge pain. anyways now what you have been waiting for pictures!  

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The rest will be in a separate post :)

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xenia! Hopefully it will pulse soon!fingerscrossed It pulses so much at the lfs I got it but not at all in my tank :(IMG_0050-min.thumb.JPG.13e97e898aed0c0b0a911fcfee0f7c95.JPG

 

The gsp is starting to come back...

IMG_0054-min.thumb.JPG.910f373cdb0b568552697208f44bbac7.JPG

 

Oh yeah and the snails I had in the tank a few months ago had alot of kids that are starting to become apparent:(IMG_0055-min.thumb.JPG.ab4c43f0f3ad26efa7206f3e130a750a.JPG

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39 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Once the GSP and xenia get over being mad about coming to a new tank, they will probably be fine. ;)

Thanks for the encouragement! Sorry to hear about your LA shipment. Wanted you to know that you are one of the main reasons that the cube will be bare bottomed! 

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11 hours ago, Reid_bry said:

Thanks for the encouragement! Sorry to hear about your LA shipment. Wanted you to know that you are one of the main reasons that the cube will be bare bottomed! 

Aww, thanks!  That's a big compliment to me! :blush: I do like the look of sand and may do it again someday, but bare bottom can be so much easier to keep clean.  Although my macros might appreciate some sand to hold detritus and nitrates lol.

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I picked up a favia frag and a zoa frag while in denver. They both had some nice coraline :D 

When I figure out how to embed from flickr or imugur I will upload the rest :rolleyes:

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I am sorry about the two pictures below this. They are out of focus and reveal my messy room! I feel so technologically helpless not being able to delete these and not understanding how to embed :(

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From Flickr--open the pic on its own page, at the bottom right of the pic is a little swoopy arrow, click on it and it should give you the link to embed in your posts.  Never used imagur so can't help ya there lol.

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