Help me brainstorm my new Pico tank

[zeszes]

Hey everybody, I recently moved across the country and as such tore down most of my setups, after selling off stuff, I finally got my reduced stocklist and put everything into a single lifeguard 24, I love that thing, it's my first AIO I've ever done and the second smallest tank I've done
Well I'm starting to get the itch again and I Loved my old 5G pico zoa tank and it just so happens that my new stand has some extra real-estate for a nice little pico, and that's why I'm coming here. I want Ideas, everything from a parts list you guys think might work, to stocking Ideas. It's all white noise to my wife, but she's given me the go-ahead as long as I don't entirely kill our wallets (a tall ask of course but I think we can make it work)

here's what I'm working with at the moment:

The stand:
The stand is broken into 2 sections, the first is the main area where I keep the 24. It's a 31.5" x 15.7" surface, and to the left are 3 shelves, the bottom one shares the same surface as the main bottom area at 42.9" across, this is where I keep my rats nest of cables that I really need to get around to fixing, and my dosing resivoirs. the middle shelf is slightly below the main surface where the 24 is, and I keep all my chemicals here. my log book, refractometer, ect, and the top shelf sits just above the main area, at 43.31" high with a surface of 15.75" x >11.5" (it's just shy of 11.5")
This is a really long winded way of saying, I would like to get a tank that can maximize that space, 15.75" x 11.5
If anybody has any ideas of what tanks would work well there, I'm all ears

Lighting:
I actually have a second kessil a360x tuna blue that I've never used due to kessil sending me 2 on accident and they were super cool when I told them and just said to keep it.
I have the 55 degree reflector too, but honestly for a pico, I know thats super overkill so I might try to trade it, if anybody has any ideas for that, let me know

Other equiptment:
of course I know I'll need a second ato, I'll proably just throw a second pump into my current 5 gallon res, I keep in an ottaman next to the tank
heater, if it's not an ato, then a filter, and maybe a nano skimmer if one can be fit in there, doser later down the line but I can always just steal the line off my current tank thats not in use.

Once thats established, I can buy it all and get to the fun part
Aquascaping:
There's this awful lfs here that I've never NOT gotten some kind of illness from their fish, and their coral always come with more pests than coral, but they have this giant bin of sand and all the dry rocks, you could dream of, any ideas would be great for scaping, I'm definitely not afraid to get the drill out and inset fiberglass rods and use cement to keep it all together, i'm not a big rock stacking fan. so I'm all here for fun and interesting scapes
Alternatively, if there's a way to buy ocean liverock is small quantites, I'm also open to that.

and finally stocking:
I know in pico size, there's so little that can be done for lifestock regrading fish or inverts, so whatever works, works, maybe just a sexy shrimp army, or I'm unsure if a pistol/ goby pair would be too big fo that tank. the LFS's here can be kinda limited in their livestock for fish so I'll get what I can get. The bigger and more fun task is deciding on what type of coral, macros, nems, all that stuff. is there anything I can frag from my current tank? could this become a solo specices with a hellfire nem that I can never touch again? bta's? maybe bare bottom, no rocks, just a single acanthophyllia that can smush himself against the walls when he tries to eat. nothings off the table with me, NPS, SPS, LPS, Euphyllia, softies, xenia only. as far as livestock goes with nems, coral, and macros' the skys the limit here, and if need be and it gets too big, It can either move tanks eventaully to the 24, or I can sell frags off to lfs as they grow.

This entire project I'm hoping I can get some good input from the community as I'm still pretty new here and have been enjoying the fourms so far, I kinda just wanted to see what kinda of Ideas a brainstorming thread like this could bare fruit to.

Thanks in advanced everybody

 

[TX_REEF]

I'd keep the kessil, turn it down and mount it higher. No other LED can beat the shimmer, IMO

 

[zeszes]

I'd keep the kessil, turn it down and mount it higher. No other LED can beat the shimmer, IMO

My only fear is with it being a 360x and such a small area, is there could be a lot of light bleed. But I guess it can't hurt to hang onto it and try at least, and I guess if it doesn't work, I can always try to trade for 2 160's. But I absolutely agree. The shimmer is what makes me love them so much.

 

[TX_REEF]

My only fear is with it being a 360x and such a small area, is there could be a lot of light bleed. But I guess it can't hurt to hang onto it and try at least, and I guess if it doesn't work, I can always try to trade for 2 160's. But I absolutely agree. The shimmer is what makes me love them so much.

you can fix that light spillage with some barn doors like the one linked below. if you check out the fuge section of my build thread, you'll see what I mean. I added these barn doors to prevent spillage and algae growth into the sump.

Amazon.com

 

[zeszes]

you can fix that light spillage with some barn doors like the one linked below. if you check out the fuge section of my build thread, you'll see what I mean. I added these barn doors to prevent spillage and algae growth into the sump.

Amazon.com

that's a thought, I believe I saw somebody use a type of stage light barn door once for 360x that fit the same diameter of spot light

 

[zeszes]

So I've settled on this tank, it's going to be a tight fit for sure.
Its 16 x 7.5, which is a 1/4" bigger but it thats outside to outside, plus it has feet, which i don't know how i feel about but we'll see. think I'm going to wait till i actually have it home and see if my current ato and heater for my 24 fit. And if they do, I may just use those but one size down for the heater, and I'll replace that dinky little light of course with the a360x and if it's too much with a shade and low power and a reflector. A 160 might be more the way to go.

 

[zeszes]

Update, we got the tank
And i built a little simple scape with some epoxy and glue that should be appropriate for a few coral. Its under the other a360x at 13" above the tank with the 55⁰ reflector. And my wife wants to use my left over cement from my other tank to mold it like clay into a little bird to get coated in coral.

from my calculations, the center of the tank should be a ~190 par on the scape, ~160 on the substrate and ~110 at the edges on the substrate based off a spreadsheet I made a while back for my other tank adjusted for this one
So I should run the light at like 50% -75% for the LPS and softies (or I could get a tiny powerhead and bring the light down a bit for 600 par at 6" above the tank

I'm thinking of getting a little ato and just. dropping a second pump into my 5g reservoir
I'm only using like 2 gallons a week right now, so I can't imagine I'd use the other 3 on this little 5g tank, I just wonder if it would have the head pressure needed.

Any stocking ideas would be great as we're almost there, I'm dosing microbacter so once we're cycled, It's coral time.

Somebody at one of the lfs recommended acan echinada and gsp and just let them fight forever as the GPS grows across the center rock.

A different store said just get a jawbreaker and let them take over.

My wife wants caulerpa lentillifera so we can eat it while it grows, I've actually never done macros so that'd be a thing

Any suggestions would be great

 

[jabberwock]

Update, we got the tank
And i built a little simple scape with some epoxy and glue that should be appropriate for a few coral. Its under the other a360x at 13" above the tank with the 55⁰ reflector. And my wife wants to use my left over cement from my other tank to mold it like clay into a little bird to get coated in coral.

from my calculations, the center of the tank should be a ~190 par on the scape, ~160 on the substrate and ~110 at the edges on the substrate based off a spreadsheet I made a while back for my other tank adjusted for this one
So I should run the light at like 50% -75% for the LPS and softies (or I could get a tiny powerhead and bring the light down a bit for 600 par at 6" above the tank

I'm thinking of getting a little ato and just. dropping a second pump into my 5g reservoir
I'm only using like 2 gallons a week right now, so I can't imagine I'd use the other 3 on this little 5g tank, I just wonder if it would have the head pressure needed.

Any stocking ideas would be great as we're almost there, I'm dosing microbacter so once we're cycled, It's coral time.

Somebody at one of the lfs recommended acan echinada and gsp and just let them fight forever as the GPS grows across the center rock.

A different store said just get a jawbreaker and let them take over.

My wife wants caulerpa lentillifera so we can eat it while it grows, I've actually never done macros so that'd be a thing

Any suggestions would be great

I would not eat anything out of your tank. I may be wrong, but it does not sound like a good idea.

For fish stock, look at opossum wrasse, pink streaked wrasse or clown goby.

 

[zeszes]

I would not eat anything out of your tank. I may be wrong, but it does not sound like a good idea.

I've heard of a few people eating from their tanks, provided it's macro only system. It's basically hydroponics

As far as I understand it, you just have to prep and wash it pretty thoroughly to make sure you're not eating any pods but as long as you're not keeping coral its OK. It's just an option.
I personally want more coral unless I can get any good recommendations for a macro tank, though I feel 5g is a little small for a macro only tank

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

In the 5 gallon you could look at flaming prawn gobies. They are very small but neat looking. I have had a few. Benepets worked well for feeding them and coral. Never fouled up my tank. For some neat critters for cleanup and also be interesting are blue knuckle heemits, holloween hermits and polka dot hermits to name a few. Most corals can do well if small enough. Just ensure that they dont have long sweeper tentacles like galaxia coral. If you do give plenty of space. If wanting macro there are a few but some are harder than others. Dragons breathe and blue hypnia are nice.

This is just a small list of the possibilities.