Humble 5 Gallon Pico Tank

[Poison Dart Frog]

Finally did a permanent install of my RO Buddie in my laundry room tub. It's a relief not to be lugging gallons of distilled from the grocery store. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I noticed lately that since the mushrooms are kind of shaded they've been getting huge during the day. My chameleons too lol.

[Poison Dart Frog]

[billygoat]

Still one of my favorite picos out there. I just love the diverse collection of soft corals that you've put together. I have a 4 gallon Waterbox cube just sitting in a box on my floor, and every time I look at this tank I feel an urge to set it up again immediately. 😂

 

I see that the orange sponge is starting to look a little bit haggard, though. Those things are really difficult to keep alive for extended periods of time. 😥 I can't recall if you've mentioned this already, but do you feed your corals/sponges with anything?

[Poison Dart Frog]

Just now, billygoat said:

Still one of my favorite picos out there. I just love the diverse collection of soft corals that you've put together. I have a 4 gallon Waterbox cube just sitting in a box on my floor, and every time I look at this tank I feel an urge to set it up again immediately. 😂

 

I see that the orange sponge is starting to look a little bit haggard, though. Those things are really difficult to keep alive for extended periods of time. 😥 I can't recall if you've mentioned this already, but do you feed your corals/sponges with anything?

Thanks. I think you should set it up for sure, lol. Yeah, I may move the sponge to my little bow front tank because the one in there looks as good as the day I got it. I do think the other tank is dirtier and that's probably better for sponges. I've been trying to spot feed it phytoplankton but I'm not sure it's helping. I also wonder if maybe I accidentally exposed it to air when I transferred it to the fluval tank. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

My 20 gallon tank. Still very new. I have a couple gorgonians and 3 rock flower nems. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I just did a water change on all my tanks. I added a small short polyp leather coral to the magnetic rock. 

[billygoat]

31 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

I just did a water change on all my tanks. I added a small short polyp leather coral to the magnetic rock. 

Looks pretty good! You're building quite the collection of leather corals in there. 😁 Seems like they are all loving life with good polyp extension.

[Poison Dart Frog]

3 hours ago, billygoat said:

Looks pretty good! You're building quite the collection of leather corals in there. 😁 Seems like they are all loving life with good polyp extension.

For some reason leathers seem to do well in there despite not a lot of water flow. 

[billygoat]

10 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

For some reason leathers seem to do well in there despite not a lot of water flow. 

Many leather corals are commonly found in low-flow regions such as lagoons in nature, so I imagine they are okay with pretty gentle water movement. Of course, I've also seen them thriving under rather vigorous flow, so who knows really. 😅

 

How's the 20 gallon doing? Are things starting to grow in?

[Poison Dart Frog]

20 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Many leather corals are commonly found in low-flow regions such as lagoons in nature, so I imagine they are okay with pretty gentle water movement. Of course, I've also seen them thriving under rather vigorous flow, so who knows really. 😅

 

How's the 20 gallon doing? Are things starting to grow in?

It's going pretty good. I have a favites coral that has grown some. And the mushrooms in there seem to be starting to grow. I want to add some LPS type corals but I'm moving on it pretty slowly (mainly because this is an expensive hobby lol).

[Poison Dart Frog]

My newest leather coral, not sure what kind. It appears to have short polyps even when fully extended though today were longer than they had been. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

Everything is extra fluffy today. Maybe because I have the windows open to let fresh air in? The tank is really starting to fill up. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I did some rescaping. I moved the mushrooms and glued the toadstools to rocks. I've moved most of my gorgonians to my 20 gallon as well as the favia I had in this tank. 

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

I did some rescaping. I moved the mushrooms and glued the toadstools to rocks. I've moved most of my gorgonians to my 20 gallon as well as the favia I had in this tank. 

Looks good. Somehow looks more full but opens it up nicely for more

[Poison Dart Frog]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

Looks good. Somehow looks more full but opens it up nicely for more

I think the open spot on the sand in the middle would be a good place for something that's not tall. Maybe a small brain coral or something similar.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I turned the whites almost all the way down and the blue all the way up for filming 

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Pom pom crab is still doing well.

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Tired]

Lovely little fella! He looks like mint chocolate chip made fancy. 

 

The tank looks really nice, too. I do wonder a little what's going to happen with those multiple large leather corals in a small tank- kinda picturing a sardine tin situation. I guess you can always cut them down to size.

[Poison Dart Frog]

39 minutes ago, Tired said:

Lovely little fella! He looks like mint chocolate chip made fancy. 

 

The tank looks really nice, too. I do wonder a little what's going to happen with those multiple large leather corals in a small tank- kinda picturing a sardine tin situation. I guess you can always cut them down to size.

Thanks! Yeah, I may have to move one or more of the leathers to my 20 gallon tank at some point. I am for sure going to frag the green tree leather sometime soon.