Getting Ready to Pico

[the curious]

I got my 90 Gallon all up and going...woo hoo. While doing some spring cleaning over the weekend I decided to break down my beautiful Oceanic 30G cherry-wood cube to make more space in the living room. I just traded a few corals for 2 Marineland double-bright LEDs for the tank a week before deciding to break the cube down, which made the decision even harder.

Then I pulled out the measuring tape and realized that 1 of the Marineland fixtures would fit perfectly over my 5G Fluval Spec that is currently running as a freshwater planted tank. So this week I'm going to move the residents of the freshwater tank to a 10G upstairs, and use the sand and water from my cube to convert the 5G into my first Pico Reef. :thumbs: I'm pretty **** excited.

For now...I plan on filling the filtration chamber of the tank with live rock rubble, adding no skimmer or fish, and stocking the system with a mix of slow-growing marco algae, corals, and a invert or 2.

I've been keeping tanks for a good while now, but a pico is definately what I've been dreaming about the longest :up:

 

[the curious]

Here is the first pic

Last night I took the tank out back and spray painted the back glass black w Krylon Fusion. After it all dried up I brought it in, put in some black substrate from a 30 gallon that I am breaking down at a very convenient time, and filled it with water. This morning...I got to wake up to my own PicoReef for the first time :thumbs:.

I have a bunch of mushrooms that are going to take up alot of the real-estate for now. Not sure what the long term plan is going to be with this tank though. The "Reef capable" Marineland LED fixture has 21 1watt LEDs, totaling 1305 Lumens...not bad for a 5 gallon tank. I figure i should be able to keep anything I want in here.
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[dball711]

Not bad but it almost looks too bright. Off to a good start, I love picos.

 

[the curious]

I was thinking it might be too much light too, but I'm gonna run it for awhile and see how things go. I just stocked it last night with all my zoanthids and mushrooms. It looks great. Once everything opens up I'll get a better picture, but for now...here is my progress.

My camera sucks BTW. When my girlfreind gets back from her business trip I'll get some better pics.
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[dball711]

I really love the rock work, just enough. I dont like a small tank that is just rock, no room for corals to grow. Your tank is looking great, keep the pictures comming!

I have a 6gal nanocube I am working on, very slow process. Check out my build thread under "custom Nanocubes".

 

[the curious]

Thanks Dball. I just checked out your set-ups. Pretty stuff.

Here are a few pics now that everything is starting to open up and be happy. went down to SEA Atlanta and picked up a couple frags too. I love reefing

Edit: I fragged the mushrooms in the seventh pic from a mid-sized piece of live rock, Then I decided to brake it into pieces that would fit properly into the Fluval Spec's built in "refugium".
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[cobergas]

That looks awesome.

 

[butch]

That's a sweet looking little setup!

 

[bulkrate]

Very nice! I'm digging a lot of the SpecV builds I've seen popping up on various fora - seems like the tank's a natural for reef conversion.

A comment on the fuge section, though. I wouldn't put any live rock in it at all... just a sleeve of Matrix media or some other zeolite material - would give you a much more effective biofilter which would be easier to keep clean and save some space in there for other chemical filtration medias and/or actual refuge (say some macroalgae or just a place for exiles to live).

 

[the curious]

I'll look into replacing the lr...been thinking about it anyway.
You are right too...these lily Spec Vs are good reef tanks. I do want to upgrade the return pump though. With a little more flow this tank would be a bit closer to perfect.

 

[jdavid]

Today while on break at work my brother met me in the parking lot and gave me one of these tanks. It's all stock parts. They are sleek!

I guess not much of anything can be done with the stock lighting though.

Enjoyed the pics.

 

[the curious]

JDavid;874154 wrote: Today while on break at work my brother met me in the parking lot and gave me one of these tanks. It's all stock parts. They are sleek!

I guess not much of anything can be done with the stock lighting though.

Enjoyed the pics.

Thanks, and yeah...the stock lighting works for freshwater plants. I kept the system FW for about 9 months, but ever since I stepped into the reef, FW just kinda bores me...haha.

The marineland "reef capable" lights are...ugh...better than the Spec V stock. I can't complain too much, they do the trick for this lil tank very well, I just prefer 50/50 white and blue.

I need to get some new pics up. The tank is fish-less, but the substrate from my 30 was full of pods, so the tank is now crawling w microscopic life :thumbs:. However, my lighting is sooo much better in my 90 that I have removed all SPS and zoas from the V, and have left only the mushrooms, which are doing great .

I also had a serious Majano problem in my 90. The way I dealt with it was to take a sm/med rock with 10 Majanos already on it and moved it all around my 90. If I saw a Majano, I'd just put the rock already covered in nems on top of it, within 2 days the covered Majano would move onto the rock; then there were 11...12...13...27...etc. This took a lot of patience. I know that Aptasia performs nutrient export fairly well, so I figured the Majanos would too. So now I have 40+ in the V, along with all of the mushrooms...I love it. I'm actually thinking longer term about removing all corals from the tank and trying to "collect" nuisance nems from ppl to create an intentional nuisance tank with a variety of pests :yes:.

OH yeah, I use the stock lighting from the V to light my 90's sump full o Chaeto...works perfectly.

 

[the curious]

Also...I apologize to all true pico reef keepers. Mine is over 2.5g :unsure: