pmang6's 5.5g Pico: 3rd Time's the charm.

[pmang6]

Previous retired reef: 

 

 

 

The stuff:

Tank: Standard 5.5g tank, back painted dark navy blue with rustoleum enamel paint, glass lid

Light: Hipargero 30w ghetto rigged running full blue and minimum white

Filter: Azoo Mignon 150 (I think? Its the bigger one) Filled with rock rubble, some ceramic media, and some bits of a "biobar" porous media that was in a live rock tank at a trusted lfs, as well as a piece of blue and white filter floss.

Flow: Hydor pico mag 180

Light: Current USA IC Marine

Flow: Current USA eFlux

Heater: Cobalt mini therm 10w

Rock: some reef saver, about a pound of nice coraline encrusted rubble from an lfs, and some chunks of that same biobar that i crushed to put in the filter.

Sand: Probably a bit too much aragonite, maybe 2", going to remove some with the first water change before it becomes an issue.

"Controllers": Current USA LOOP system for light and flow, Inkbird 306t for temp.

 

The plan:

The contents of the tank in the thread linked above ended up being moved moved to fluval spec v and eventually that was dismantled all together. Neither was very successful, I think mostly due to my own laziness as well as adding way too much live stock way too fast to the original 10 gallon. The spec v has quite a bit of evaporation which made things even more volatile. I also kind of told myself that I wanted a dirty saltwater planted tank but the reality of that didnt really scratch my itch for a reef tank. Anyways, Ive decided to try the salty side of the aquarium hobby again, but this time, no biotope theme, no macro algae to turn the tank into soup and much, much more patience. I just want to keep some easy soft corals and LPS. My inspirations from the thread above are mostly still the same, particularly the tanks of @Nano sapiens and @WV Reefer . 

 

Basically I want to rely on regular water changes for everything. No dosing, and I'm toying with the idea of removing the filter all together and replacing it with a Reef Glass Nano Skimmer (http://www.reefglass.com/) that I found for sale used, partially because I think a filter full of media will become a big ol' nutrient sink over time and partially because I've never used a skimmer before and this one looks really cool. I really want to keep this as simple as possible, as i think that is the most realistic path to success for me and the idea of a natural style reef that relies mainly on biology and simple nutrient export appeals to me. 

 

For stocking plans, as I said, mostly softies, namely rock flower nems, ricordeas, zoanthinds, shrooms as well as lps and possibly a pretty color stick or two down the road if i play my cards right. The scape, if you can even call it that, is basically a big rock and a pile of rubble. I plan to fill the rubble with ricordeas and rfa's (will they play nice together or will i have to split them up?) and put something encrusting on the rock, but we'll see how everything plays out. As far as fish go, I'd like to find some kind of captive bred goby that will stay nice and tiny, maybe even a pair.

 

Questions:

• Better way to hang the light? Its pretty... diy. The problem is the mounting bracket that comes with it puts the light in front of the tank, and there is nowhere on the top to screw in wires. I'm thinking about getting some 3M command hooks or similar and using those to hang it instead of the zip ties. Maybe I'll just tie the thread directly around the light, I don't know, it works for now.
• Stick with mechanical filtration or grab the skimmer?
• Ammonia has fallen to what seems to be .25ppm, nitrite is gone and nitrate is up to 40-60ppm or so. Wondering why ammonia isn't fully going away when nitrate is so high and nitrite has already done its usual spike and drop. Beginning to think its just fuzzy test results. I used biospira once and added a pinch of tiny pellet food twice over the two weeks or so its been running. Diatoms popped up today, and I think there's a touch of red cyano on a couple of the rocks. Going to do my 1st water change when the bucket for mixing I ordered gets here.
• Thinking about setting up some kind of easy manual top off system. There is a shelf above the tank, so I could put a vessel of some kind up there with RO in it and run an airline tube with a valve down to the tank. This way i could simply fill up the container every couple of weeks and have what amounts to a gravity fed RO hose to top off at a glance. Now that I think of it, I could also use it to top off the freshwater pond tank thats next to it. Yea, I'm doing that. Anyone know of a fitting I can use for 1/4' tubing into a bucket or similar container?

 

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for all the help I know I'll get from this awesome community!

 

 

Pictures:

Guess I'm gonna need one of those fancy orange filters if i want to run things this blue...

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

5 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

Previous retired reef: 

 

 

 

The stuff:

Tank: Standard 5.5g tank, back painted dark navy blue with rustoleum enamel paint, glass lid

Light: Hipargero 30w ghetto rigged running full blue and minimum white

Filter: Azoo Mignon 150 (I think? Its the bigger one) Filled with rock rubble, some ceramic media, and some bits of a "biobar" porous media that was in a live rock tank at a trusted lfs, as well as a piece of blue and white filter floss.

Flow: Hydor pico mag 180

Heater: Cobalt mini therm 10w with inkbird controller (barely needs to come on, the pump and filter seem to keep things warm, mostly added these because i like to let my room get cold in the winter)

Rock: some reef saver, about a pound of nice coraline encrusted rubble from an lfs, and some chunks of that same biobar that i crushed to put in the filter.

Sand: Probably a bit too much aragonite, maybe 2", going to remove some with the first water change before it becomes an issue.

 

The plan:

The contents of the tank in the thread linked above ended up being moved moved to fluval spec v and eventually that was dismantled all together. Neither was very successful, I think mostly due to my own laziness as well as adding way too much live stock way too fast to the original 10 gallon. The spec v has quite a bit of evaporation which made things even more volatile. I also kind of told myself that I wanted a dirty saltwater planted tank but the reality of that didnt really scratch my itch for a reef tank. Anyways, Ive decided to try the salty side of the aquarium hobby again, but this time, no biotope theme, no macro algae to turn the tank into soup and much, much more patience. I just want to keep some easy soft corals and LPS. My inspirations from the thread above are mostly still the same, particularly the tanks of @Nano sapiens and @WV Reefer . 

 

Basically I want to rely on regular water changes for everything. No dosing, and I'm toying with the idea of removing the filter all together and replacing it with a Reef Glass Nano Skimmer (http://www.reefglass.com/) that I found for sale used, partially because I think a filter full of media will become a big ol' nutrient sink over time and partially because I've never used a skimmer before and this one looks really cool. I really want to keep this as simple as possible, as i think that is the most realistic path to success for me and the idea of a natural style reef that relies mainly on biology and simple nutrient export appeals to me. 

 

For stocking plans, as I said, mostly softies, namely rock flower nems, ricordeas, zoanthinds, shrooms as well as lps and possibly a pretty color stick or two down the road if i play my cards right. The scape, if you can even call it that, is basically a big rock and a pile of rubble. I plan to fill the rubble with ricordeas and rfa's (will they play nice together or will i have to split them up?) and put something encrusting on the rock, but we'll see how everything plays out. As far as fish go, I'd like to find some kind of captive bred goby that will stay nice and tiny, maybe even a pair.

 

Questions:

• Better way to hang the light? Its pretty... diy. The problem is the mounting bracket that comes with it puts the light in front of the tank, and there is nowhere on the top to screw in wires. I'm thinking about getting some 3M command hooks or similar and using those to hang it instead of the zip ties. Maybe I'll just tie the thread directly around the light, I don't know, it works for now.
• Stick with mechanical filtration or grab the skimmer?
• Ammonia has fallen to what seems to be .25ppm, nitrite is gone and nitrate is up to 40-60ppm or so. Wondering why ammonia isn't fully going away when nitrate is so high and nitrite has already done its usual spike and drop. Beginning to think its just fuzzy test results. I used biospira once and added a pinch of tiny pellet food twice over the two weeks or so its been running. Diatoms popped up today, and I think there's a touch of red cyano on a couple of the rocks. Going to do my 1st water change when the bucket for mixing I ordered gets here.
• Thinking about setting up some kind of easy manual top off system. There is a shelf above the tank, so I could put a vessel of some kind up there with RO in it and run an airline tube with a valve down to the tank. This way i could simply fill up the container every couple of weeks and have what amounts to a gravity fed RO hose to top off at a glance. Now that I think of it, I could also use it to top off the freshwater pond tank thats next to it. Yea, I'm doing that. Anyone know of a fitting I can use for 1/4' tubing into a bucket or similar container?

 

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for all the help I know I'll get from this awesome community!

 

 

Pictures:

Guess I'm gonna need one of those fancy orange filters if i want to run things this blue...

 

 

 

 

I like it! 😀 

 

A pair of cute gobies would work well in there. 

[pmang6]

5 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

I like it! 😀 

 

A pair of cute gobies would work well in there. 

 

Thanks! Your 12g long is probably my favorite tank ive seen on the internet. Pretty crazy what youve been able to do with just heat light and flow. I have to ask, what do you think about going filterless? Also, how's the tap water experiment going on the 12g? Seemed like a pretty bold move to me!

[Nano sapiens]

15 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

I like it! 😀 

 

A pair of cute gobies would work well in there. 

Agreed.  A pair of ORA Neon or Yellow Striped Gobies could be a good fit for such a small tank.

[pmang6]

1 minute ago, Nano sapiens said:

Agreed.  A pair of ORA Neon or Yellow Striped Gobies could be a good fit for such a small tank.

Yep, ORA has the captive bred goby market cornered lol. The yellow stripped ones are really neat, you dont see them nearly as often as the neons. They also have a few other species on offer and I believe biota does some gobies as well. I'll have to do some more research. I wish ora still did the green banded gobies, those are like my dream fish, and theyre pretty readily available from the wild, but I'd really like to find a captive bred example or two. GBGs may be a bit to chunky for this tank anyway.

 

Quick question for you, I remember reading that you run no chemical or mechanical media in the 12g (magnificent tank by the way), do you think this style of au naturel filtration is viable in a smaller tank with less available surface are on rock etc? My heart is telling me to ditch the filter and just go with the flow, but my brain wont let me. 

[WV Reefer]

7 hours ago, pmang6 said:

 

Thanks! Your 12g long is probably my favorite tank ive seen on the internet. Pretty crazy what youve been able to do with just heat light and flow. I have to ask, what do you think about going filterless? Also, how's the tap water experiment going on the 12g? Seemed like a pretty bold move to me!

Filterless sounds scarier than it really is..... I say try it! 😊

 

the tap water experiment is still happening slowly but surely. 

[Nano sapiens]

10 hours ago, pmang6 said:

Quick question for you, I remember reading that you run no chemical or mechanical media in the 12g (magnificent tank by the way), do you think this style of au naturel filtration is viable in a smaller tank with less available surface are on rock etc? My heart is telling me to ditch the filter and just go with the flow, but my brain wont let me. 

Personally, I'd be fine with running a 5.5g with just LR and LS, but I'd keep fish stocking/feeding light (especially in the beginning) and diligently perform maintenance and WCs.  But if you feel more comfortable having some mech and/or chem filtration, nothing wrong with that as long as you maintain those regularly, too (the more things you add, the more things you have to properly maintain).

[pmang6]

4 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Filterless sounds scarier than it really is..... I say try it! 😊

 

the tap water experiment is still happening slowly but surely. 

 

1 hour ago, Nano sapiens said:

Personally, I'd be fine with running a 5.5g with just LR and LS, but I'd keep fish stocking/feeding light (especially in the beginning) and diligently perform maintenance and WCs.  But if you feel more comfortable having some mech and/or chem filtration, nothing wrong with that as long as you maintain those regularly, too (the more things you add, the more things you have to properly maintain).

 

Ok, I went and did it. I just sprinkled the rubble from the filter all around the tank because I was kinda worried about removing all that surface area thats been in there since day one.

 

 

As far as stocking, I'm not even 100% sure I want a fish in this tank. I may end up just going with something like a cleaner shrimp or a trio of sexy shrimp, but not until the tank gets more established. If I do go with a fish I think I'll just stick with a single goby. Thinking about picking up a snail or two soon. Any ideas on cerith vs astrea or other species?

[WV Reefer]

6 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

 

 

Ok, I went and did it. I just sprinkled the rubble from the filter all around the tank because I was kinda worried about removing all that surface area thats been in there since day one.

 

 

As far as stocking, I'm not even 100% sure I want a fish in this tank. I may end up just going with something like a cleaner shrimp or a trio of sexy shrimp, but not until the tank gets more established. If I do go with a fish I think I'll just stick with a single goby. Thinking about picking up a snail or two soon. Any ideas on cerith vs astrea or other species?

Get a few snails for the glass and rocks and a few for the sand. I have several different types in my 12...... I think a diverse crew works best. 

[pmang6]

9 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Get a few snails for the glass and rocks and a few for the sand. I have several different types in my 12...... I think a diverse crew works best. 

Got it, makes sense.

 

Figured some might be interested in my latest freshwater endeavor. Its a 9 gallon long with a mish mash of different pond plants and the same pencilfish from the 20g mentioned in the previous thread as well as the one remaining peacock gudgeon and 3 amano shrimp. The filtration set up is a little ugly but there's not too many better options for this set up, as a canister filter with glass lily pipes wouldn't reach the low water level. I digress.

 

[WV Reefer]

28 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

Got it, makes sense.

 

Figured some might be interested in my latest freshwater endeavor. Its a 9 gallon long with a mish mash of different pond plants and the same pencilfish from the 20g mentioned in the previous thread as well as the one remaining peacock gudgeon and 3 amano shrimp. The filtration set up is a little ugly but there's not too many better options for this set up, as a canister filter with glass lily pipes wouldn't reach the low water level. I digress.

 

I like the plants. I’ve been missing freshwater a bit lately. 

[pmang6]

Grabbed 2 ceriths and 3 astreas today (asked for 2 astreas but ended up with 3, oh well). Theyre on the drip currently.

[pmang6]

So it looks like there is more change coming for this tank (constantly changing everything from day one is the way you have a stable reef, right?). After tagging along for a few LFS visits, one of my friends has been bitten by the reef bug, so I'll be giving him the light and pump I have on this tank. As for the replacement, I may have done a bit of an impulse buy...

 

https://current-usa.com/nano-reef-bundle/?attribute_select-model-and-size=18"-24"+Orbit+Marine+IC+LED

 

150$ for a fully controllable light and pump was just too much to resist. I cant wait to have something truly controllable on one of my tanks instead of the cheapest chinese lights i can find lol. Having random flow will be awesome too. Current usa should really slap a temp controller onto their "loop" system and it would be pretty much everything you need to run a simple tank. 

[WV Reefer]

56 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

So it looks like there is more change coming for this tank (constantly changing everything from day one is the way you have a stable reef, right?). After tagging along for a few LFS visits, one of my friends has been bitten by the reef bug, so I'll be giving him the light and pump I have on this tank. As for the replacement, I may have done a bit of an impulse buy...

 

https://current-usa.com/nano-reef-bundle/?attribute_select-model-and-size=18"-24"+Orbit+Marine+IC+LED

 

150$ for a fully controllable light and pump was just too much to resist. I cant wait to have something truly controllable on one of my tanks instead of the cheapest chinese lights i can find lol. Having random flow will be awesome too. Current usa should really slap a temp controller onto their "loop" system and it would be pretty much everything you need to run a simple tank. 

It’s a nice system for the price. The model I have comes with a temperature probe for monitoring the temp...... so they are getting closer. 

[pmang6]

4 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

It’s a nice system for the price. The model I have comes with a temperature probe for monitoring the temp...... so they are getting closer. 

Do you have one of the "loop" systems? I'm hearing different things about the controlability of this light. Are you able to adjust the length of the sunset/sunrise and moonlight phases? Sorry if im asking too many questions haha.

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

Do you have one of the "loop" systems? I'm hearing different things about the controlability of this light. Are you able to adjust the length of the sunset/sunrise and moonlight phases? Sorry if im asking too many questions haha.

You can adjust it to your preference or run default programs.  I’ve run three different models and they are great lights for the price. 

[pmang6]

On 10/16/2019 at 8:33 PM, WV Reefer said:

You can adjust it to your preference or run default programs.  I’ve run three different models and they are great lights for the price. 

Awesome. Now I just gotta figure out how to hang it...

 

Have you used their brand of powerheads?

 

[WV Reefer]

4 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

Awesome. Now I just gotta figure out how to hang it...

 

Have you used their brand of powerheads?

 

I ran them for a few months and then switched them out for wireless mp10s. They were good little powerheads.....with decent controllability. My biggest beef is you have to clean them way more than other powerheads I’ve had or they slow waaaaay down. 

[pmang6]

12 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

I ran them for a few months and then switched them out for wireless mp10s. They were good little powerheads.....with decent controllability. My biggest beef is you have to clean them way more than other powerheads I’ve had or they slow waaaaay down. 

 

Huh, good to know. Considering that the pump will be the only equipment that will really need to be regularly maintained, it sounds like a decent trade off for the level of controlability and price, at least in this particular application,

[pmang6]

Went to the LFS with my buddy to get some dry rock for his tank, ended up buying a 10$ Zoanthid frag as a "canary in the coal mine." It has started to open up in the 5-6 hours I've been home, so that seems like a good sign. Here's the kicker though, as the guy at the lfs was grabbing the frag, he said something to the effect of "they're growing on a mollusk" I didn't think anything of it. On the way home, my friend took a look at the frag, and whadda ya know, there's a hermit crab in the bag with it. It turns out the frag I bought was about a dozen polyps growing on what looks like the shell of a mussel cut in half. Inside this shell was the crab, so the whole thing just looked like a rock. I didn't really want a hermit in this tank, because I hear they'll eat snails for their shells, but almost all the snails in this tank are smaller than the hermit, so hopefully that wont be an issue. Anyways, here's some pics. I messed with the settings on my phones camera and I think I got some decent results:

 

 

 

Also, I did a freshwater (with prime) dip on the frag, not much came off. What are the opinions on dips? Coral RX? Revive? Iodine? Bayer insect stuff?

[pmang6]

New light and pump got here, pretty slick I must say, but man what a tangle of cables. The zoas seem happy enough and the surge mode on the pump is pretty cool.

 

 

@WV Reefer what settings do you have for your daylight mode? Im running 100% rgb and 25% white. Probably gonna mess with it more.

 

I'll get another pic of the zoas once they settle into the new light and flow.

[WV Reefer]

20 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

New light and pump got here, pretty slick I must say, but man what a tangle of cables. The zoas seem happy enough and the surge mode on the pump is pretty cool.

 

 

@WV Reefer what settings do you have for your daylight mode? Im running 100% rgb and 25% white. Probably gonna mess with it more.

 

I'll get another pic of the zoas once they settle into the new light and flow.

I’d have to check but I’m sure it’s pretty similar to that. I always keep whites below 30 or I see algae. 

[pmang6]

I need to stop going to LFS's everyday. I've been trying to scope out the best ones in the central fl area (there's a hilarious amount of reef stores here, I'm not exactly sure how they all stay open), but in reality it is an excuse to get stuff I dont need lol. It's fun buying the ugliest, grungiest clearance rack corals. Picked up a nicely sized mushroom and some brown/green paly's for 10$ each and a two mouthed ricordea for 20$. Ended up buying some Coral Rx as well, none of the lfs's i went to had anything good to say about bayer, and it seems like Rx was the consensus pick, so i just bit the bullet and paid 25$ for the tiny bottle.

 

Corals are on the drip for now:

 

[pmang6]

Picked up a toadstool leather the other night. What a cool coral, cant wait to see it get big. One question though, it fell the other night onto my ricordea and when I moved/glued it back to its original spot during a water change a few minutes ago, it dumped a bunch of stringy mucus into the water. Normal? Cause for concern? I hear theyre toxic and can piss off other corals.

 

Also, what do you guys do for surface skimming on your nanos? Thinking about picking up this thing: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/sumpless-ato-auto-top-off-system-xp-aqua.html

It would knock out like 4 birds with one stone: Surface skimmer, ATO, place for floss or carbon (I'm digging the no filter life but it'd be nice to be able to run some floss after water changes) and a hiding spot for the heater. I wish it was acrylic isntead of cheesy plastic but that shouldnt be a big deal. The XPA duetto is the ato I was looking at anyways so worst case scenario if the skimmer thing sucks I just slightly overpaid for an ato 🤷‍♂️.

 

 

 

This was like 20mins after it went in. Now the polyps are almost 2 inches long on full extension! It was sold as a "neon green toadstool" but it isnt very neon green, looks more like the long polyped toadstools from what I've seen, but the more I read about coral taxonomy the more I realize we really know very little about how corals are related to each other and what the proper classification for them is, particularly in situations like this, where the lines between discreet species are blurred or nonexistent.

 

FTS:

 

 

 

Final couple questions: My shroom is having a real hard time grabbing onto the rubble, its staying put but not attaching. Cause for concern? From what I've read you kinda just have to let them do their thing. Also, the ricordea frag I got has two mouths, but it doesnt look very "puffy". Its not closed up, just kinda flat looking. Is that just how they look when small or is there something going on there? 

 

Zoas continue to close halfway through the day, long after the lights are fully ramped up. The more i read about zoas the more I'm starting to think their reputation as beginner corals is a bit of a misgiving. Theres just so many issues that can cause them to close and theres really no telling why. Though I suppose you could say the same about most coral.

[pmang6]

Everything looking happy this morning: