The Fool's 5 Gal (Foolish) Pico Reef!

[TheFool]

Presenting the 5 gal deep sandbed mixed reef (formeely nps build)

(I will continue to update this list in the original post as well as note any changes in thread posts)


Equipment:

-5 gallon rimless tank (dimensions 14” x 8” x 10”)

-50 watt heater ( via aqua quartz)

-Inkbird thermostat

-Eheim classic 250 canister filter

-Size 13 glass lily pipe inflow and outflow

-Aqua Clear 110 hang on back filter

-Water proof L.E.D strip light (for hob refugium)

-Asta 20 Marine light (for display)


Products being used:

-Seachem stability (live bacteria)

-Polyplab’s polyp booster (in testing)

-Polyplab’s reef roids

-Mysis cubes

-Vitalis LPS pellets

-Raw frozen shrimp

-Life Rock by Carib Sea

-Local lfs chaetomorpha


Current stocking:

(corals)

-Yellow sun coral colony

-3 black sun coral frags

-Pink sun coral frag

-Branching dendrophyllia frag

-Various palythoa

-Discosoma Mushrooms

-Firework cloves

-Green Sinularia

-*revival project of unidentified dendro colony*

(inverts)

-Two tube anemones

-Giant feather worm

-Pink and black Brittle star

-3 small colored tube worms

-Copious amounts of pods (amph. and cope.)

-Equally copious amounts of bristle, spaghetti, spionid and spirorbid worms


Maintenance:

-50% to 75% water changes weekly (sometimes twice a week)

-Feed every other day + small daily doses of reef roids and bacteria


Specs:

-Temperature between 78-79

-Salinity 1.025

-616 total G.P.H (ive recebtly dialed this down and modded the outflow of the ac110)

(This sounds high but it's surprisingly decent due to the rock work )


The idea:

To come up with a 5 gallon build able to support these kinds of heavy feedings and still remain simplistic to the eye was very interesting. The obvious things like the A.C filter is common on these budget nano tanks but until now I haven’t seen anyone use the A.C 110 on a 5 gallon, so this was interesting nonetheless. But the real interesting part comes in when you see that all I’m running in the canister is live rock. The goal for the canister is fairly long term (as it will take time to develop). The idea is that it will be a cryptic fuge housing nothing other than live rock, critters and nps hitchhiker sponges. The end goal is to have a stable 5 gallon reef with some odditties and simple soft corals who will also appreciate the high nutrients.


Some noted behaviour:

Up to date (Nov 2nd 2018) the sun corals have yet to extend their tentacles (only two specimens have extended- Yellow sun coral colony once, dendros regularly), though the main section of their polyp is extended and inflated (see 4th picture). I have recently not noticed any polyp extension, but the behavior I noticed is very interesting (Now I’m not 100% sure this is actually what is going on but I will continue to observe and hopefully catch footage)

The observation: the corals seem to inflate themselves with water and mucus for a long while before completely expelling the water over a short course of time to then refill themselves again. I believe they are processing particles in the water during this time and release + refill once they’ve exhausted the nutrients in that portion of water, as you can see in the first picture, inflating and deflating interchangeably. (Still just a weird theory, probably not the actual case, let me know what you think)

The tube anemones have rebuilt their tubes super quickly and are growing very well.

Softies opened uo instantly eithout acclimation (a good sign) and have remained open and healthy.

 

[TheFool]

Typical meaty resting state:

Fed reef roids with pumps off:

Extended with no tentacles:

I do believe in given time they will extend, I think they’re simply sulking. But what is interesting is their ability to survive during this period. I also believe that with the intense level of nutrient export I’m providing for this tank that it will be successful and we will see noticeable growth over the next year. This will be a fairly long progress but I’m up for the challenge, sun corals are known to be finicky but once they are open and feeding regularly the growth will begin.


I’ll be posting a lot of progress pics and documenting any behaviour I see. The larger colony of suns has been with me for around 4 weeks (october 3rd 2018). And the smaller colonies have been with me for 2 weeks (october 17th 2018).



Here is how the tank looks:


(November 2nd 2018)

 

[Devaji]

1st of all welcome to R2R!

2nd yess!!!!!! love it I have been thinking of a nano build with a canister filter to.
curious how often you have to clean your lilly pipes.

keep us posted!

 

[Oscaror]

Typical meaty resting state:

Fed reef roids with pumps off:

Extended with no tentacles:

I do believe in given time they will extend, I think they’re simply sulking. But what is interesting is their ability to survive during this period. I also believe that with the intense level of nutrient export I’m providing for this tank that it will be successful and we will see noticeable growth over the next year. This will be a fairly long progress but I’m up for the challenge, sun corals are known to be finicky but once they are open and feeding regularly the growth will begin.


I’ll be posting a lot of progress pics and documenting any behaviour I see. The larger colony of suns has been with me for around 4 weeks (october 3rd 2018). And the smaller colonies have been with me for 2 weeks (october 17th 2018).



Here is how the tank looks:


(November 2nd 2018)

Welcome to R2R! I love the tank looks super clean. Keep us posted

 

[TheFool]

1st of all welcome to R2R!

2nd yess!!!!!! love it I have been thinking of a nano build with a canister filter to.
curious how often you have to clean your lilly pipes.

keep us posted!

Hey thanks so much! I'd imagine you'd have to clean the lily pipes fairly often if you had light running, but so far I haven't cleaned them once as I only run the light for 2-3 hours on it's lowest setting ( very dim ) therefore I get literally no algae buildup anywhere (that's what caused me to get the Aqua clear hob and stuff it with chaeto!

 

[TheFool]

Welcome to R2R! I love the tank looks super clean. Keep us posted

Thanks a lot! And I will definitely do so!
(I'm not actually new to R2R I also have a 2 gallon mixed pico reef I just created a different account for this tank XD )
This 0ne --->

 

[Oscaror]

Thanks a lot! And I will definitely do so!
(I'm not actually new to R2R I also have a 2 gallon mixed pico reef I just created a different account for this tank XD )
This 0ne --->

Wow!!! I didn't completely read your post before looking at the pictures (can't resist the eye candy ), thought I was looking at a full sized reef tank! How do you manage to make so little space look so big?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Typical meaty resting state:

Fed reef roids with pumps off:

Extended with no tentacles:

I do believe in given time they will extend, I think they’re simply sulking. But what is interesting is their ability to survive during this period. I also believe that with the intense level of nutrient export I’m providing for this tank that it will be successful and we will see noticeable growth over the next year. This will be a fairly long progress but I’m up for the challenge, sun corals are known to be finicky but once they are open and feeding regularly the growth will begin.


I’ll be posting a lot of progress pics and documenting any behaviour I see. The larger colony of suns has been with me for around 4 weeks (october 3rd 2018). And the smaller colonies have been with me for 2 weeks (october 17th 2018).



Here is how the tank looks:


(November 2nd 2018)

Nice thread, looking at sun corals, looks like atrophy of tentacles. Did you get these like they look?
The coral has not been feed properly. Bummer. Not to late to heal. Sorry. IMO

 

[TheFool]

Wow!!! I didn't completely read your post before looking at the pictures (can't resist the eye candy ), thought I was looking at a full sized reef tank! How do you manage to make so little space look so big?

Haha! Angles!

 

[TheFool]

Nice thread, looking at sun corals, looks like atrophy of tentacles. Did you get these like they look?
The coral has not been feed properly. Bummer. Not to late to heal. Sorry. IMO

I'm not sure if it's tentacle atrophy as I have gotten them to extend only once. This is what it looked like :

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Has it been one week or longer since it expanded? Few days? The longer they don't expand, they start waisting away.

 

[TheFool]

Has it been one week or longer since it expanded? Few days? The longer they don't expand, they start waisting away.

It's been two weeks. Most of the other suns haven't expanded at all. I find that to be an odd statement. I've seen many people with sun coral colonies that don't open fully for 4 months and do perfectly fine. Do you have proof that they start wasting away just because they don't extend their tentacles? Because my sun coral colony has been growing and remaining fat despite not extending their tentacles.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

It's been two weeks. Most of the other suns haven't expanded at all. I find that to be an odd statement. I've seen many people with sun coral colonies that don't open fully for 4 months and do perfectly fine. Do you have proof that they start wasting away just because they don't extend their tentacles? Because my sun coral colony has been growing and remaining fat despite not extending their tentacles.

They must open when your sleeping. Still, first, when I buy them they must open fully, healthy looking . I've bought some without them opened and they don't last. When I've had them they stay open 2/3 the time in 24hrs, day & night. What brand test kits you have?

 

[TheFool]

They must open when your sleeping. Still, first, when I buy them they must open fully, healthy looking . I've bought some without them opened and they don't last. When I've had them they stay open 2/3 the time in 24hrs, day & night. What brand test kits you have?

I use red sea test kits. Like I've said I stayed up certain nights just to monitor even after feedings and I don't see them open, though it's possible I miss them anyways.
We don't have access to very many NPS corals here in my area so I ordered mine online without being able to see them in person, so it was a gamble.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I use red sea test kits. Like I've said I stayed up certain nights just to monitor even after feedings and I don't see them open, though it's possible I miss them anyways.
We don't have access to very many NPS corals here in my area so I ordered mine online without being able to see them in person, so it was a gamble.

Have to wait in out. From the info you mention. I buy some corals online, till I get healthy specimens from the net.

 

[TheFool]

Have to wait in out. From the info you mention. I buy some corals online, till I get healthy specimens from the net.

You're probably right! I just started using another method of feeding, to ensure they stay alive. I drop a piece of mysis on each closed polyp while the flow is off, and they eat. I'm thinking this will assist with their recovery or boost their health (Doing it as we speak they are all eating)

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

You're probably right! I just started using another method of feeding, to ensure they stay alive. I drop a piece of mysis on each closed polyp while the flow is off, and they eat. I'm thinking this will assist with their recovery or boost their health (Doing it as we speak they are all eating)

Key to success, patience of Job

 

[Katrina71]

That tank is gorgeous!

 

[TheFool]

That tank is gorgeous!

Thanks so much Katrina!!!

 

[TheFool]

Key to success, patience of Job

They are eating as we speak