Humble 5 Gallon Pico Tank

[Poison Dart Frog]

The other pico tank in my office. Also I may start another thread for my 20 gallon tank instead of showing it here.

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

[Poison Dart Frog]

I've been using Reef Energy which makes the corals really puffy. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

 

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Pico tanks are still doing ok and growing. The small anacropora has about doubled in size. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

The coral banded shrimp was out and about so I snapped a pic.

[findingnemo23]

On 7/22/2020 at 1:09 AM, Poison Dart Frog said:

The coral banded shrimp was out and about so I snapped a pic.

Does your shrimp ever kill bristle worms?

I just picked up a CB shrimp today. I'm hoping he will eliminate all of them in my tank.

[Tired]

They're predators of worms, but can do more damage to your tank (i.e. your small fish) than bristleworms ever will.

[Poison Dart Frog]

I removed corals from frag plugs and glued them to rocks in the 7 gallon bowfront tank. I also bought a 40 gallon breeder. The flame cardinal will be the first fish to go into that tank. 

[Poison Dart Frog]

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

The pom pom crab is still doing well. Had him for ... 10 months maybe. 

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Montipora setosa and green toadstool in the 7 gallon tank. Overall the tank is doing good. I am dosing Kent Marine 'Nano Reef' A & B to maintain calcium and alkalinity. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

Montipora setosa and green toadstool in the 7 gallon tank. Overall the tank is doing good. I am dosing Kent Marine 'Nano Reef' A & B to maintain calcium and alkalinity. 

Your tank looks very beautiful. Love the full PE on the corals and the amount of color you have in there. 😊

[Poison Dart Frog]

Just now, Snow_Phoenix said:

Your tank looks very beautiful. Love the full PE on the corals and the amount of color you have in there. 😊

Thanks! The nice thing is that anacropra and montipora are supposedly "easier" than acropora but they are really colorful still. 

[debbeach13]

The corals all look great. Just to recap, you currently have a 5, 7, 20 and are setting up a 40?

[Poison Dart Frog]

6 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

The corals all look great. Just to recap, you currently have a 5, 7, 20 and are setting up a 40?

Thanks a lot. Yup, I just got the 40 cycling a few days ago. I guess the condition is called Multiple Tank Syndrome? 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I skipped the weekly water change and the corals seem to appreciate it since they're fluffier than normal. The downside is that there is a brown film on the water surface. Nitrates have trended down over time until now they're less than 10 most of the time and I get very little algae growth. It took about 9 months to mature to the point where I only need to clean the glass occasionally. 

[Tired]

Since soft corals like nitrates, you may want to try more infrequent water changes, and just stir or 'mop' the surface of the water to deal with the film. Everything looks good!

[Poison Dart Frog]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Since soft corals like nitrates, you may want to try more infrequent water changes, and just stir or 'mop' the surface of the water to deal with the film. Everything looks good!

Thanks  Yeah sometimes mopping the surface with a paper towel absorbs a lot of the surface film.

[Poison Dart Frog]

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

Two and a half weeks since the last water change on the 5.5 gallon tank. The corals are at their best with elevated nutrient levels apparently. The mushrooms have never looked nearly this happy and the favites is more colorful. 

as for the 7 gallon, I did do a water change like normal because it helps with alkalinity and I have a lot of sps corals. I added a green slime acropora frag. That and the derasa clam will be going in my newly setup 40 gallon when the tank is ready. 

My 40 breeder is going through the ugly stage with diatoms everywhere. I only have 2 fish and a couple leather corals in it so far. I sold my AI Primes and got the Current USA IC Pro lights. I've checked the PAR and they are plenty to strong to grow about anything on top of the rocks. Even the sandbed gets 150 PAR with a 200 PAR peak in the middle where my clam will eventually go. Just have to get past the ugly stage. I'm dosing Microbacter7 in the hope that it will speed the process along. 

 

[Poison Dart Frog]

I moved my giant nephthea tree coral to the 40 gallon. It had outgrown the tank. I replaced it with a gorgonian out of the 20 gallon and a small frag off of the nephthea. The frag is about the size I started with a year ago. 

[billygoat]

Been awhile since I checked in here, but everything looks very beautiful as usual! I'm excited to hear that you're putting together a 40 breeder too. I bet that will be awesome! How long has it been up and running so far?

[Poison Dart Frog]

3 hours ago, billygoat said:

Been awhile since I checked in here, but everything looks very beautiful as usual! I'm excited to hear that you're putting together a 40 breeder too. I bet that will be awesome! How long has it been up and running so far?

Thanks! I think it's been going a bit over a month. I cycled it with biospira and added a fish right away. It's going through a diatom stage but I think it's ok for soft corals right now. The nephthea tree coral is starting to look happier after 24 hours.