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
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