2.5G Pico Contest! Team Jank!

[Lingwendil]

Been distracted too much by the 40 breeder build, I'm putting together a stand/bookshelf setup for that one and my free time was spent on that last sunday, so still no fancy completed LED light... Although I'm not in a hurry as everything seems happy with the current state of things. My main setback for the pico lighting is that I need to figure out where my smaller heatsinks are, then fab up some sort of light mount/hanging arrangement. I have the test array built into one side of a 6x20 RapidLED premium enclosure, but have no way to mount it currently, since it's primarily set up for hanging.

 

Pic of the stand, in progress for the 40 build-

 

 

 

I'm considering building a miniature double stand for both 2.5 gallon tanks, would be a cool idea and pretty affordable 🙂

 

Just no idea where to put it, as the current setup is the top of an old desk that is just above windowsill height, and space is at a premium currently 🤔

[Reefkid88]

Hell yeah brother,that array looks awesome. 

[Lingwendil]

Well, got the light almost done. Might tweak the color ratios a bit but very pleased with it so far. Need to make a set of legs or something but it fits for now.

 

Also rescaped the shrimp tank. Added more substrate, installed one of the Azoo palm filters (the sponge wasn't cutting it anymore, too much detritus) and added some rock collected on a camping trip last year.

 

The shrimp seem happy :)

 

 

 

I also picked up my first three corals purchased specifically for this tank, pics later when the light is on full blast and everything is open.

 

[Tempestas]

I really dig that custom light setup. Two different spectrums in one casing is so cool.

[seabass]

There seems to be a couple of twin 2.5 gallon entries.  I really like the contrast between the two tanks.  Looks great so far.

[Lingwendil]

Ok, some more pics for y'all

 

Hitchhiker mushroom coloring up nicely (spy that handsome vermetus snail next to him :))

 

 

The hitchhiker zoas are starting to look nice as well, nice yellow-green mouths.

 

 

Got some red octhodes (supposedly) from a seller on ebay, and it was delayed four days in shipping. Some of it fell apart but it looks to be happy overall. fingers crossed 🙂

 

 

Got a $10 Acan that had a nice texture to it and some handsome subtle color-

 

 

Leptastrea rescue from the 20 long is bouncing back, colored up nicely and has great extension in here. Hard to believe this piece was completely choked out by prolifera, it took a couple peroxide dips to fight it off. It used to be full of healthy polyps but the tank partially crashed from the prolifera going sexual a few months back.

 

 

Cyphastrea? Porites? Guy said it was a Monti but I don't think so. $10 so I grabbed it.

 

Nice little $10 Favia too. Almost looks metallic.

 

 

 

I think I want to chop the bottom stem of the frag plugs off on the Acan and Favia, and I'll just place them on the sandbed for now, emulating how most people display brain corals in larger tanks, at the fringes of the rockwork. Should match the scale of the tank nicely 🙂

[Lingwendil]

Also, in other reefing events,

 

The stand for the 40 is in the room. I'm in a hurry to get it set up after waking up to cloudy brown water and labored clownfish breathing in the 20 long yesterday morning. Did an emergency 75% water change and scooted the tank stand over to get the 40 in place. I'll be finishing the shelves sometime this week or next weekend and putting finishing touches on the setup over the next week or so. Hopefully I'll get it wet within a couple weeks. Still need to bleach and soak the dry rock, pick up sand, and figure out the details. Once the 40 is cycled the 20 is going away.

 

 

I'm digging the 35.5" height on the new stand, and it's sitting on 1/2 plywood spacers to keep it from teetering on the uneven floor, so 36" tall makes for a very dramatic presentation in room, especially with our dining table right next to it. 

 

Maybe I should start a thread for the 40? I have one over on R2R but it's not all that exciting.

[asting]

Why are you upgrading from the 20L to 40? What is up with the clownfish? I like the 40! You aren't smiling it though?

[Lingwendil]

Upgrading mainly because I want to, and the fact that I want a couple more fish  and better room to scape with. 

 

The clownfish were breathing very rapidly in the 20 yesterday morning, and the water was very cloudy and brown. I pulled the filter media from the Aquaclear on there and it was absolutely packed with muddy crud and half rotten caulerpa... I just can't get a handle on the crap in there so the tank is coming down. The Starry blenny and Royal Gramma in the tank seemed fine.

 

After the Caulerpa prolifera orgy-induced crash a while back the tank has been a nightmare, prolifera keeps growing back and then spontaneously going nasty, the tank itself I guess got a bad case of "old tank syndrome" on top of that for lack of a better idea of why it's getting weird. I can literally pull out pounds of the stuff a week and have actually cut off the lighting entirely to force it to go dormant, so the poor fish get to hang out with just ambient light from the room in the meantime. It's just begun to get manageable again but I am going for scorched earth on the 20, nothing comes over but well cleaned sand and equipment in addition to the fish and whatever cleanup crew I can find. I already traded most of the rock in to an LFS to place in one of their holding tanks so the prolifera can be stripped by hermits and tanks, that's actually how I traded for the LR that's in the pico now 🙂

 

 

Caulerpa- not even once.

I despise the stuff with a passion now.

[748S911]

3 hours ago, Lingwendil said:

Ok, some more pics for y'all

 

Hitchhiker mushroom coloring up nicely (spy that handsome vermetus snail next to him :))

 

 

The hitchhiker zoas are starting to look nice as well, nice yellow-green mouths.

 

 

Got some red octhodes (supposedly) from a seller on ebay, and it was delayed four days in shipping. Some of it fell apart but it looks to be happy overall. fingers crossed 🙂

 

 

Got a $10 Acan that had a nice texture to it and some handsome subtle color-

 

 

Leptastrea rescue from the 20 long is bouncing back, colored up nicely and has great extension in here. Hard to believe this piece was completely choked out by prolifera, it took a couple peroxide dips to fight it off. It used to be full of healthy polyps but the tank partially crashed from the prolifera going sexual a few months back.

 

 

Cyphastrea? Porites? Guy said it was a Monti but I don't think so. $10 so I grabbed it.

 

Nice little $10 Favia too. Almost looks metallic.

 

 

 

I think I want to chop the bottom stem of the frag plugs off on the Acan and Favia, and I'll just place them on the sandbed for now, emulating how most people display brain corals in larger tanks, at the fringes of the rockwork. Should match the scale of the tank nicely 🙂

great coral selection, thats an awesome hitchhiker!!

3 hours ago, Lingwendil said:

Also, in other reefing events,

 

The stand for the 40 is in the room. I'm in a hurry to get it set up after waking up to cloudy brown water and labored clownfish breathing in the 20 long yesterday morning. Did an emergency 75% water change and scooted the tank stand over to get the 40 in place. I'll be finishing the shelves sometime this week or next weekend and putting finishing touches on the setup over the next week or so. Hopefully I'll get it wet within a couple weeks. Still need to bleach and soak the dry rock, pick up sand, and figure out the details. Once the 40 is cycled the 20 is going away.

 

 

I'm digging the 35.5" height on the new stand, and it's sitting on 1/2 plywood spacers to keep it from teetering on the uneven floor, so 36" tall makes for a very dramatic presentation in room, especially with our dining table right next to it. 

 

Maybe I should start a thread for the 40? I have one over on R2R but it's not all that exciting.

That stand is amazing. I've built a couple of stands and wish It looked as good as this. 

[Tempestas]

11 hours ago, seabass said:

There seems to be a couple of twin 2.5 gallon entries.  I really like the contrast between the two tanks.  Looks great so far.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if it's something that's going to become something mainstream, having two different tanks of the same size scaped to have some level of continuity. Or maybe having a single long tank with a built-in partition.

 

4 hours ago, Lingwendil said:

Ok, some more pics for y'all

 

Hitchhiker mushroom coloring up nicely (spy that handsome vermetus snail next to him :))

 

 

Corals are looking great. Really like that favia.

[Lingwendil]

Well, mixed news. Had a really bad heatwave a couple days ago, tank got to 86...

 

Lost a head on the Acan, and the other was covered in slime last night. I doubt it will make it. Water change after work today either way. Everything else seems fine. Some algae on the walls from the heat too, so it'll get some attention tonight.

 

 

Relocated the two tanks to our entertainment center, away from any windows, and it seems not to have gone over 80. 

[This guy is extra salty]

Have you tried more flow to the tank?

[Lingwendil]

Not yet, flow seems to be good currently, but I'm going to change the filter media out to something more coarse now that it's all established. Once changed over I'll crank up the flow a bit more.

 

Just confirming, I did lose the Acan  It was pretty far gone once I got to it after work, so I figured it wouldn't make it as it had stopped reacting or extending.

[Wonderboy]

Sorry about the acan - you have a good handle on things though - looking forward to the growth!

[yoshii]

Oh no sorry to hear about the acan 😞 How are the other corals doing?

[Wendy]

Sorry to hear about the heat wave & the loas of your acan... Here's to hoping that things are going better for you!

[Lingwendil]

Everything else is doing great! the extension on the yellows is fantastic, I forgot how much I loved these cheap corals! The Favia is opening up nicely and the colors are getting a smidge more vibrant, I may try target feeding it some soaked pellets. The Leptastrea has colored up a bit more, so hopefully it gets to growing soon. Other than relocating the tanks nothing much else has happened other than topoff, but I may be moving things around soon. I hope to try and make it out to the reef LFS on saturday to grab another ~$10 frag of some sort, there were a bunch of nice ones I picked the Acan instead of last time, but might grab something like a chalice or monti, I want something that will encrust so I can get to fragging sooner 🙂

 

Also- started a separate thread chronicling the 40 breeder build-

 

[fishfreak0114]

I really love those yellow polyps!  Sorry about the acan 😕 

[Lingwendil]

Soaked some Spectrum pellets, and tried target feeding, and the Favia really liked it 🙂

 

 

About an hour after feeding I did a water change, and got as much of the algae off of the side walls as I could. I tend to leave the back wall alone on my tanks unless it gets bad. Also went ahead and swapped out the filter pad included with the filter and the additional polishing pad I had added, and cut up an Aquaclear sponge. I cranked up the flow now that there's less restriction and we'll see how the increase flow goes.

[Lingwendil]

Grabbed a frag of monti cap, and pavona- which is one of my absolute favorite corals and is pretty uncommon around here. Lovely neon green. I also moved things around a bit.

 

 

 

heres a pic of the tanks as they sit under our TV.

[This guy is extra salty]

That light is huge!

[Lingwendil]

Not really, it just has a piece of foamboard across the front to block light from spilling-

 

[Lingwendil]

UPDATE TIME!

Moved things around, and removed a couple corals from the plugs in order to mount them on rubble. I hate frag plugs 🙂

 

Not too much but some notable additions-

 

Cat (Momo) has a new favorite spot-

 

 

Terribly blurry FTS, but it's here to prove I'm bad at pics-

 

 

Picked up a frag of Meteor Shower Cyphastrea-

 

 

Mounted the duncan and my single_polyp chalice to some rubble-

 

 

This is one of my favorites, the tentacles and flesh look almost glittery in person 🙂

 

 

Monty is getting some growth-

 

Zoas colored up, Laptastrea and Duncan getting great polyp extenstion. These are rescues from the tank crash of the 20 long a while back. The duncan had very tiny tentacles for a long time after. 

 

 

 

Love that center piece. Astreaopora? Hard to tell. Little bit of growth on him too. It was in the back but has a really nice texture so brought up to the front.

 

 

 

Picked up a single head of blastomussa from the sediment of a tank at an LFS, it's doing great, maybe 1/4" diameter skeleton, almost 1/2" extended.

 

 

 

Yellow polyps spreading 🙂

 

 

 

Hitchhiker mushroom getting nearly 3" when open completely, nce blue cast to it too. One of my favorites 🙂 

 

 

Full tank shot with potato cameraphone-

 

 

 

 

Shrimp tank doing great as well, little Dario dario sneaking into the shot too 🙂

 

 

 

 

[This guy is extra salty]

Love growth pictures!