Adam's Pico Reef- Old School Entry ***I’m Baaaaaack***

[ksadam]

A little background, been fish keeping for 16 years or something crazy. Got back into reef tanks last year with a 30 gallon and sump, swapped to a IM 25 Lagoon, now I'm in a standard 29 gallon. Saw the pico contest, told the Mrs and she said go for it as long as I don't spend more than $75....challenge accepted. I had a bunch of random filters, heaters, pumps, lights etc from over the years so this should be easy.

 

Aqueon Jank 2.5G -$12.57

Aquaclear 50(chopped the internal basket to allow for floss pad and marinepure blocks)- $Free

Hydor Theo 50W- $Free

Schuber Wright Base and Light- $24.99

Finnex Ray2 for retrofit- $Free

Nano Box Retro fit- $277.50

Aqamai KPS- $107.99

Smart ATO Micro- $80.99

Ikea Cabinet- $Free

Sand: $Free

Rock: $Free

Purigen

Chemipure Blue Nano

Bio Spira

 

Equipment Total: $37.56 $71.01$504.04

 

Livestock

2 Red Leg Hermits $5

Red Leg Hermit

Zoa Colony $15

God Fist Acro $18

Planet Doom Favia $6

Radioactive Lord Acan $12

Roadkill Acan $Freebie

GSP $Free

Zoa Frag $Stolen from other tank

Paly Frag $Stolen from other tank

Red Monti Cap $Stolen from other tank

"Hank" The Yellow Damsel $6

Gracilaria Hayi- Pom Pom Macro $Free

Gracilaria Parvispora- Red Ogo Macro $Free

 

Livestock Total: $56 62

 

4/9/19 FTS

 

4/18/19 FTS

FTS 5/3/18

FTS 6/19/19 Just did a water change so everything is a little closed up

FTS 01/01/2020

[Ratvan]

Liking the budget build 

[debbeach13]

I love budget builds. Because I am too poor to pay attention. You can not beat free!

[Christopher Marks]

👏

 

Welcome to the competition @ksadam!

[This guy is extra salty]

Welcome to the “team budget” side of the competition!

[Wendy]

Oh, this is going to be interesting with that budget! Did she happen to say what the $75 covered? Hopefully she didn't ever mention corals (;

[ksadam]

14 minutes ago, Wendy said:

Oh, this is going to be interesting with that budget! Did she happen to say what the $75 covered? Hopefully she didn't ever mention corals (;

Well that's a gray area lol I mean so far with only spending 38 bucks I already have a complete setup so if I could only spend 40 more on coral it'd be a stretch for sure.

[Wendy]

At least you have another tank that you could possibly get frags from.. I haven't checked out your 29 yet.

 

Gosh, if my husband had given me a budget I'd be having a very difficult time! He's just concerned now that I've gotten back into SW reefing that it'll effect his hobby spending. He'll live -(;

[Ratvan]

2 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

Welcome to the “team budget” side of the competition!

Do we get a funky signature thing like the janky's?

[This guy is extra salty]

27 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Do we get a funky signature thing like the janky's?

I think we should!

41 minutes ago, ksadam said:

Well that's a gray area lol I mean so far with only spending 38 bucks I already have a complete setup so if I could only spend 40 more on coral it'd be a stretch for sure.

Keep an eye out at your LFS for 5$ frags!

[ksadam]

1 hour ago, Wendy said:

At least you have another tank that you could possibly get frags from.. I haven't checked out your 29 yet.

 

Gosh, if my husband had given me a budget I'd be having a very difficult time! He's just concerned now that I've gotten back into SW reefing that it'll effect his hobby spending. He'll live -(;

Actually just transferred over to the 29 gallon and haven't put up any pics yet, I had a Cobalt 100W heater malfunction that did a number on the Lagoon 25. 

 

58 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Do we get a funky signature thing like the janky's?

We definitely need a "Team Budget" signature!

 

31 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I think we should!

Keep an eye out at your LFS for 5$ frags!

The LFS I usually go to is pretty good about deals buy 3 get 1 free kinda thing. I may just snipe the coral that is left over from my heater disaster and put that in there. 

[Lingwendil]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15eSxFhqK6dzw_jCBZOn6KuJS1hOWkkVV/view?usp=drivesdk

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WXxdXn4FyEI_nHbBnOYg3WadNjls5oOU/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Won't let me attach, but try these out

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Do we get a funky signature thing like the janky's?

 

[Tigahboy]

Welcome to the contest!  Looking forward to seeing this develop.   $75 does sound hard.

[ksadam]

Holy picture dump...so I retrofitted the Finnex Ray2 10k/Actinic Led into the fixture. I had filled it with water from the water-change I did from my 29g to get it running, made a fresh batch of saltwater with Fritz RPM and water I buy from work. Did a water-change this morning, added rock from my outdoor tub(yes it's very cold water, yes it cycled, yes they turned green really fast in the sunlight). Added Chemipure Blue Nano(change monthly), Purigen(shouldn't have to change ever), new filter floss(change weekly), and two marine pureblocks to the AC50. Dosed 3ml of BioSpira. Now I gotta figure out what to put in it 🤔One side note: The Mrs said I could only spend $75 on this tank, she didn't say anything about my other tank....so I could steal all the frags from the other tank and just buy more stuff for that one 😂

[minimal]

This looks like a sweet build. Love the aquascape as well! Gonna be cool to watch this develop.

[748S911]

Nice set up so far, I like your light set up.

[Wendy]

Wow, very minimal scape, looks NICE!

 

Oh, so that's the outside "tub"...

Do you change up what you put into it each summer?

[ksadam]

1 hour ago, Wendy said:

Wow, very minimal scape, looks NICE!

 

Oh, so that's the outside "tub"...

Do you change up what you put into it each summer?

Well right now it’s just curing the live rock, here in May it’ll get freshwater, plants, shrimp and maybe some tetras. The saltwater tub is kind of a short term experiment. 

[Wendy]

4 minutes ago, ksadam said:

Well right now it’s just curing the live rock, here in May it’ll get freshwater, plants, shrimp and maybe some tetras. The saltwater tub is kind of a short term experiment. 

That'll be neat to have a outside freshwater tub/pond, your son will really enjoy that!

[MetaTank]

Nice work on the Finnex, good to have another tank in the mix!

[ksadam]

Well I can't help but mess with my tanks, decided to forgo the two smaller rocks for 1. Also went to one of my LFS and told them about the contest and they gave me a piece of rock covered in coralline algae for F R E E

[ksadam]

So my LFS has a Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish (Plectranthias inermis) I can't decide if he would be suitable for the pico reef. Max size is 2" would obviously be the only fish along with one other hermit crab, just would like some other input before I go back and buy him. Thanks guys

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, ksadam said:

So my LFS has a Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish (Plectranthias inermis) I can't decide if he would be suitable for the pico reef. Max size is 2" would obviously be the only fish along with one other hermit crab, just would like some other input before I go back and buy him. Thanks guys

I have a Perchlet. He's not an active swimmer, but he does like sneaking around my tank and move from overhang to overhang/coral to coral. I have no idea what he eats until today, because he's avoided all attempts of me trying to feed him both live or frozen. But I've caught him actively moving into my in-tank fuge, and he's at a healthy weight, so I assume he eats pods. I think a nano is more suitable for this fish rather than a pico. You may luck out and get yours eating prepared though, in which case feeding would be a whole lot easier. Just make sure you have a lot of 'shadowy' areas because this fish likes being cryptic. 

[ksadam]

@Snow_Phoenix Yeah as cool as that Perchlet is I might just grab a neon cleaner goby to cruise the pico reef.

[ksadam]

Livestock update: So @AquaSD hooked me in with their spring cleaning sale so I snagged some frags for 40% off, grabbed two hermits and a zoa frag from my LFS and finally I fragged some GSP from my other tank and added that as well. I also got my mangroves planted outside for the summer hopefully being outside in full sun will really help their growth, they didn't do so hot inside in the lagoon when I had it.