5 Gallon Office Pico

jhadaway · Mar 28, 2023

I've had this blue eyed leptastria for almost 2 years. It never grew, never died, never turned blue. I moved it to this pico and BAM, it's puffed up and turned blue where the light hits it and neon green where it doesn't. The electric lemonade annacropora is also coloring up like crazy. I don't know if it's the water params or the kessil.

LegalReefer · Apr 12, 2023

Love the tank! Good luck

jhadaway · Apr 12, 2023

Thanks!

jhadaway · Apr 12, 2023

New frags going in saturday!

jhadaway · Apr 26, 2023

Ive got some extra montis on top but she’s full. Had an aptaisia and a vermatid on 2 frags so they are chillin on the bottom until i know they are clean. I have a little hair algea growth but thats it for problems so far. The pods that came from my other a tank devoured the brown algea. It was cool to see them eat it in patches. Its completely gone.
The kenya tree may have to move to my home tank since its growing so fast. The little fan i added isn't doing enough for cooling. It hits 80 from 77 every day. I may try adding a second fan.The plexiglass lid i made started to bow and it was .25”. I may leave it open for now. I have a second led strip on the way for supplementation and shadowing. I will do an update after i add it. I will add 2 more blue strips in the next 2 months.

jhadaway · May 8, 2023

Ok, so easy funtime has come to an end. I am trying to get a grip on alkalinity but its all over the place. Im closing in on about 3ml of all4reef per day. Without dosing my alk drops a full point in 5 days. My annacropora have about had it. Luckily they were just extra frags from my home tank. Hopefully this thing will settle down soon. The sunset monti is also stressed. The spaghetti worm is happy. Anyone have a doser for 3-4ml per minute?

ptrusk · May 8, 2023

I think you need to dial back your lights or move them down. The anac you gave me is 26 inches under reefbreeder photon set at 70% blue, 20% white. Growing nicely.

I don't use all4reef but that seems like a large dose. I been dosing 2ml B ionic every other day in my newish 15 gal (different tank) along with 2 gal water change every week and alk hovers at 8.3. Uses about 1Dkh per week. I can't find a calculator for all4reef but I am seeing 5ml per 100 gallons daily. I really think you could dose a ml or 2, twice, 3 times a week. Is you sand getting hard? might be precipitating.

jhadaway · May 8, 2023

This little kessil is putting out more than i thought. It's only 15 watts but i think the center of the cone is strong. I cut the lights today to about 50%. I bet the alk consumption goes down with the light. Afr is about 1.2 to 1.0 brs soda ash i have read. It has everything in it for dosing. I highly recommend it. The sand is nice and loose. Calcium and magnesium were in mid range last week. Doing 2 gals water change per week. I wasn't expecting a stable tank so soon but man this thing can swing. Thanks for the advice! Glad the frags are well.

jhadaway · May 23, 2023

I finally have this stable at 2.8ml AFR per day. Since I don't have fish and this is a low nutrient tank I'm keeping ALK at 8.0. My salt also mixes at 8 so life is easier. The instability has taken some casualties but I can always bring in more frags from home. I'm leaving it be for a bit to make sure the stability isn't short lived. The clove polyps and anthelia are growing like crazy already. 2 snails and pods are keeping the tank clean. Pics soon.

jhadaway · Jun 9, 2023

Biggest animal in the tank. Well, was in the tank. Now its in the trash can.

jhadaway · Jul 14, 2023

The Pico has reached the 4 month mark and It's starting to stabilize. I have the all4reef dosing dialed in and it's almost enough daily to add a doser. 2-3 gallon water changes every week and a little bit of Acropower. It's been strange which corals were sensitive to the Alk instability. The red candy canes and the chalice are completely washed out but it looks like they are recovering. The sunset monti died on the tops but are recovering from the sides. The annacropora died (not a big surprise).

On the upside, the spongedos, purple digitata and monti caps have exploded. There are a few other things that never grew in my big tank that are doing well here. I have monti caps, papaya cloves and anthelia growing up the back glass. The Kenya Tree grew so much I had to take it to my home tank.

I've got some peppermint shrimp coming from ORA that are going to grow up in here and hopefully knock out a few aptasia. I've got a few mega bristle worms in there too. I'll be adding some green monti cap from home on top of the red and maybe some psammacora. All the inexpensive equipment is running strong.