5 Gallon Pico Tank w/ all repurposed equipment

greetl01

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This is going to be a slow build. Everything except sand and ATO is old equipment. I had a 5 gallon tank I took back from my niece B/C she refused to do her water changes. Since it was just sitting around I opted to use this instead of my 10 gallon QT tank.

I took a small piece of rock from my existing Waterbox 20 & cracked some leftover dry rock I had for the scape. Then I bought 5 lbs of sand. It was finer than I would have liked but it was all the LFS had. I found early on this would be an issue when I tried to add an old power head I had. Any suggestions? Do I even really need one? I had a Tidal10 from a freshwater tank I had & it seems to provide a lot of water movement.

Had an ammonia alert leftover from QT tank & a thermometer that’s been on at least 3 of my tanks LOL. Had a 75 watt heater. I know that’s a lot for a pico so I’ll need to get an inkbird for it. Bought a nano MAGA float. Didn’t know they existed so I grabbed one for my 10 gallon as well. I love it!
I’m using a huge light I had on my 29 gallon LOL. Any suggestions for a light that will grow some torches & LPS? Cheap please. Ideally I’d like to spend no more than $50 on it.

Stocked w/ 3 nassarius snails, one fire shrimp, one emerald crab & I have a yellow watchman goby I plan to move over from my Waterbox. Then I will add A pistol shrimp.

Coral will be a while bc I’m still stocking the WB20 but I will add a pulsing Xenia to help w/ the nitrates. Please leave your thoughts. Is that too many CUC?

I will be using water from the WB20 to do water changes. I change about 25% every week so it should be okay to use in the Pico to avoid making extra saltwater. Got the idea from YT.
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Nice project! To address the question about the powerhead, IMO it isn't necessarily a yes or no response. I think it depends on the aquascape and if there are dead spots in the aquarium. One approach is to add a random flow generator (or comparable) on the end of the return. Good luck with your new adventure!
 

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