Restarting the Old School Pico Reef

[Ratvan]

So for a long time since I took part in the 2.5G Old School Pico Reef contest back in 2019 I have been lamenting shutting down the little desktop reef. I do love my Fluval Evo and the Red Sea Max 130D and the livestock within them both, but the Old School Pico held and still does hold a very special place in my heart. It was the first reef tank that I owned and I somehow managed to get the tank to limp over the finish line, something that I have yet to manage in any contest since. 

 

I also decided that I wanted a change of direction after getting annoyed by the BTAs constant wondering around the Evo and fishing them out of the AIO filter section on a regular basis, the maxi mini anemone also didn't do too well in the fluval which is fine as I can focus on soft corals and macroalgae.

 

So for the time being the return of the old school Pico reef will act as a Maxi Mini Anemone hospital tank.

 

 

This is not going to be the final position of the tanks, I want to rotate the Evo to more of a peninsula look to get it away from the Window (could help explain my algae woes). 

 

Hardware.

Tank: L31.5cm x W13cm x H18.5cm

Heat: 25W Preset on Nicrew Digial Temp Contoller

Light: ASTA 20 Marine LED

Flow: 600LPH HOB filer.

 

Sand: 500g of sand from both mantis and lionfish tanks

Rock: 1KG Live cycles rocks again from both established tanks. 

 

I started the tank running after a leak test on 14/06/2022 to allow heater to get to temperature and added the rock and the sand on 16/06/2022 after reviewing the temperature and seeing it settle within my acceptable range 25.5C-26.5C.

 

I will give it a week or two to process and clean out detritus from the water before adding some CuC (ordered mantis snacks) more live rock rubble and finally the Mini Maxi Anemone.

 

I have nem proofed the intake with a small section of filter floss, meaning most of the water is drawn in from the surface intake of the skimmer and a small amount from the water column.

 

I have also picked up the storage cubes for free off of Facebook to act as a stand, the overhang seen is the plastic frame of the tank and not the glass itself, will make a cover to hide the wiring and equipment also.

 

Happy reefing 🤘

[seabass]

I have three mini carpet anemones that have survived a number of tanks and conditions over the last fifteen years.  They seem noticeably stickier than BTAs and RFAs; and I might have lost a perching yellow clown goby to one of them.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing this tank all setup.  Do you plan on adding more?  I think it could make a striking display.

[Ratvan]

I would like to at some point, I do love the colours and the textures, it would also allow me to look into other interesting inverts such as the Anemone Crabs and Shrimp. However I do want to closely monitor the temperature and evaporation rates over the next couple of weeks before adding anything after receiving amber and red warning for high temperatures in the area. 

 

Will also give a DIY ATO a go as I have plenty of space to hold a container and hide cables and pipes. 

Most likely try and replicate this one from @el fabuloso

 

 

[Pjanssen]

just curious, what's the purpose of the air stone?

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Pjanssen said:

just curious, what's the purpose of the air stone?

The air pump will pressurize the air in the jar, which will displace the water, forcing it up (and out of) the tubing.  It functions as a dosing pump.  Ingenious little gadget.

 

I assume that you'd put the pump on a timer to control how much water will be provided each day.  Or maybe just control the air supply with a valve.  But obviously a float cutoff switch would be an ideal failsafe.

[Ratvan]

5 hours ago, seabass said:

The air pump will pressurize the air in the jar, which will displace the water, forcing it up (and out of) the tubing.  It functions as a dosing pump.  Ingenious little gadget.

 

I assume that you'd put the pump on a timer to control how much water will be provided each day.  Or maybe just control the air supply with a valve.  But obviously a float cutoff switch would be an ideal failsafe.

Float cut off is the way I plan to go with this, that's if it is needed. It's been 29c here the past couple of days but a nice chilly 21c in my house so currently not required but DIY is always fun. I'm sure I have a float switch somewhere around in one of my many spare bits boxes

[Ratvan]

So have encountered the first failure of the spare box parts, the preset heater does not keep the tank warm enough. 

I have tested the temp probe against the Fluval next to it and it matches the other controller and stick on heater, so I can be confident that it is the heater that is either not up to the task or needs chucking.

 

I would also ideally like to move the intake away from where it is to somewhere next to the HOB Filter, definitely in the corner or near too.  

 

I've had this HOB a little while now so the carbon cartridges have been cut out and i install a little floss towards the bottom and rinse once the detritus has been taken from the water. 

 

[Ratvan]

New thermometer shall arrive tomorrow, went with another probe sensor for some redundancy

 

 

Gone with the 25w as that should be suitable for my of my Pico/Nano Tanks (5US Gallons), plus the 50w was out of stock

11cm also means I can potentially hide it in the HOB filter

[Ratvan]

So new heater is here and fitted and tank now up to temperature.

 

 

Backup by Nicrew

 

So might as well call this started, more rock on the way which i will bag and add to the back of the fluval to cure

 

 

Still need to get the other BTA from the Murder Manor but have life in here and the Mini Maxi looks good to the eye

[Ratvan]

So have ordered the main occupant for this tank (not counting the Anemones) which shall arrive on Friday

 

I also splurged on the £10.00 CuC pack which I will split between this tank and the Mantis Murder Manor

2x Nassarius Snails 

2x Rounded Turbo Snails

2x Astrea Snails

2x Cerith Snails

2x Algae Hermit Crabs

 

Both the Ceriths will go into this tank and most likely the smaller out of the Turbo and Astrea snails I will make a decision on the rest of them when they arrive, definitely no Hermits in this tank however. Should keep Vergis happy for a little while

 

[Ratvan]

So since i am working from home the rest of this week that means the co workers will be feeding swim shady and ghost faced krilla so i have ordered more frozen food, will be picking up the Lionfish on Monday as well. I took the time to tidy my fish cupboard and found my macro lenses, might order a stand or something for more detailed phone shots but these are a step in the right direction

 

Finally managed to get the last remaining Bubble Tip Anemone out of the Murder Manor and added to this little tank today, doesnt look great but time and effort and stable conditions I think i will be able to coax it back as the other is already showing improvements

 

This one is showing colour after a single night in the tank so i am hopeful, I will give it until sunday before i attempt to feed it for the first time in the tank

 

The Green Kenya Tree branch is perking back up also, probably glad to not have its foot smashed off the snail shell for the Mantis Redecoration attempts

 

Pulsing Xenia,, looks different in every one of my tank set ups so will interesting to see what form this takes

 

Baby Green Mushrooms, loving it as they do everywhere

 

And finally the Mini Maxi, my phone doesn't like all the bleached colours in this one but it is looking better and larger already today 

[dferrari13]

Looks great....I love that light, I use it over my 5.5 gallon pico also.

 

[Ratvan]

15 hours ago, dferrari13 said:

Looks great....I love that light, I use it over my 5.5 gallon pico also.

 

Lovely tank you have there, yeah I really like the light and have had decent growth in many different corals in a 5G Cube (Softies, LPS, SPS) really glad i hung onto it. 

 

Anyways we have diatoms, good thing the CuC is arriving tomorrow, waiting on the rock at the moment. Have given the sandbed a little stir to mix things up in the interim

[Ratvan]

So the rock has arrived and came wet with a few mushrooms, a couple of which have come loose. I will be expecting the livestock to arrive in a few hours, I do love delivery day. So a new aquascape in the making 

 

Weird to be doing this on a tank again after having and keeping a Mantis Shrimp entertained 

 

One of the shrooms

 

These again are split between the Pico and the Mantis Murder Manor2

 

HURRY UP CRAB

[Ratvan]

Yay

[Ratvan]

So Cute!!

 

Chilling next to the Anemone that I hoped it would forma  symbiosis with

A little closer

 

Yeah these Macro Lenses are awesome

[seabass]

22 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Chilling next to the Anemone that I hoped it would forma  symbiosis with

They are definitely very cool.  Unfortunately for me, I've never had great luck keeping porcelain crabs.  I'm sure it was due a lack of feeding filter feeder foods.

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, seabass said:

They are definitely very cool.  Unfortunately for me, I've never had great luck keeping porcelain crabs.  I'm sure it was due a lack of feeding filter feeder foods.

You can try target feeding reef roids or even squirts of live copepods and rotifers. I think they're more challenging to keep in cleaner/pristine tanks. 

[Ratvan]

I dont think pristine will be an issue in this one 😂

[Ratvan]

Seems it likes the mushrooms more at the minute 🙄

 

But seems to be feeding

That fan 😍

[Ratvan]

Lets see

[Ratvan]

So it seems that it was the baby bubble tip anemone that thr Crab was liking and not the mushrooms above.  I readjusted the rock slightly to give the anemone more light. 

 

Interesting behaviour, wonder if it will speed up or impede the anemones recovery.

 

Feeding the anemone

 

And guarding it

[seabass]

Nice shots.  Man, that's one bleached out BTA.  I hope that it recovers.

[Ratvan]

So Crab is still preferring the mushrooms as the BTA is very bleached still but my eye can pick up smallest amount of colour creeping back.

 

Don't know why the green, personally I would have gone for these

 

Kenya looks perkier as well

 

Mini Maxi doesn't want to play tonight so had to grab a top down ish photo

 

[Ratvan]

Mini Maxi now tip top of the flat rock at the front and getting that lovely red/pink back

 

BTA has enough colour for camera to pick it up

Also seems slightly more inflated