Lifegard Aquatics 4.14 Pico

[Daniel92481]

Hello everyone,

I recently made a lifestyle change after having a few small reef tanks in my house. Long story short, I made the switch and chose to go full time RV about a year ago. I sold all of my furniture, including all of my reefing supplies and tanks, thinking a small reef was impractical in a RV. As many of you know, the “reefing itch” never leaves you once it hooks you lol. After some irrational mixed with rational thoughts and planning, I am happy to say that I have set up a pico reef…in the Airstream! One of the best parts about this reef is that if I do decide to travel somewhere in the RV for a weekend, the pico can be completely taken down and transferred to a stable environment with one 5 gallon bucket. For some that may remember, I used to have the same tank setup as a pico reef before I moved, but I will be using different equipment this time. Here is a breakdown of my tank and equipment…

-Lifegard Aquatics 4.1 AIO

-Kessil A80 tuna blue

-25 watt heater

-ReefBreeders Prism ATO

-5 lbs Caribsea life rock

-Sicce nano return pump (100gph)

-Hawaiian live black sand

-Red Sea coral pro salt

-InTank media basket

-Kraken Reef custom lid

-BRS 4 stage RODI

As far as the media basket filtration, I have one Chemipure nano packet, additional minor amount of Red Sea carbon, one bio ball, and some poly filter balls that are from a desktop IM purity pack. I only use the filter balls from the pack. Fits perfect in the media basket and is easy enough to rinse out 2x/week.

I set this tank up at the beginning of August with a fishless cycle, added a raw shrimp from the local grocery store. The guys face was priceless when I asked him for only one shrimp at the seafood deli.

Yea, just one man! I’m on a strict diet!

I added Dr. Tim’s one and only to get things going. My ammonia spiked up to about 8ppm using an API test kit, so I took the shrimp out after three days. The whole initial cycle took about 26 days to complete.

The maintenance plan for this tank will be minimal, including a 75% water change every week, siphoning sand and back chambers as needed.


When I was planning this tank, I had thought about making it a zoa dominated softie tank. I have since decided to make it a mixed reef complete with goniopora varieties, high end zoas, and maybe some easier SPS. As of right now, I have a few zoa varieties, a neon green goni, baby fungia, and probably my favorite so far, a Koji Wada pink nepthea. I added a few small trochus snails to start doing their thing. As far as fish, I picked up a baby neon dottyback who absolutely loves being the only fish in the tank. I can tell that he has a lot of attitude for as small as he is. Currently at about an inch long, he is the king of the reef.

Current parameters-

Salinity 1.025 (Hanna), temp 78.9 (Hanna), ALK 12.5 (Hanna) phosphates 0.11 (Hanna), nitrates 2 (Salifert). I plan to use the Red Sea kit for calcium and Aquaforest for magnesium. Just haven’t picked up those two yet. Last time around, I used the Red Sea blue bucket salt, but decided to switch it up and try the Red Sea coral pro with higher ALK this time. It will be neat to compare growth and color vs using the blue bucket.

I plan on attending Reefapalooza-Texas here in a few weeks and am really excited about it. I am hoping to pick up some fire and suck up some deals going on!

Well, I think that sums things up for now. Thanks for checking out my setup. I have attached a few pics of my current setup, and one from before

 

[Dan_P]

Hello everyone,

I recently made a lifestyle change after having a few small reef tanks in my house. Long story short, I made the switch and chose to go full time RV about a year ago. I sold all of my furniture, including all of my reefing supplies and tanks, thinking a small reef was impractical in a RV. As many of you know, the “reefing itch” never leaves you once it hooks you lol. After some irrational mixed with rational thoughts and planning, I am happy to say that I have set up a pico reef…in the Airstream! One of the best parts about this reef is that if I do decide to travel somewhere in the RV for a weekend, the pico can be completely taken down and transferred to a stable environment with one 5 gallon bucket. For some that may remember, I used to have the same tank setup as a pico reef before I moved, but I will be using different equipment this time. Here is a breakdown of my tank and equipment…

-Lifegard Aquatics 4.1 AIO

-Kessil A80 tuna blue

-25 watt heater

-ReefBreeders Prism ATO

-5 lbs Caribsea life rock

-Sicce nano return pump (100gph)

-Hawaiian live black sand

-Red Sea coral pro salt

-InTank media basket

-Kraken Reef custom lid

-BRS 4 stage RODI

As far as the media basket filtration, I have one Chemipure nano packet, additional minor amount of Red Sea carbon, one bio ball, and some poly filter balls that are from a desktop IM purity pack. I only use the filter balls from the pack. Fits perfect in the media basket and is easy enough to rinse out 2x/week.

I set this tank up at the beginning of August with a fishless cycle, added a raw shrimp from the local grocery store. The guys face was priceless when I asked him for only one shrimp at the seafood deli.

Yea, just one man! I’m on a strict diet!

I added Dr. Tim’s one and only to get things going. My ammonia spiked up to about 8ppm using an API test kit, so I took the shrimp out after three days. The whole initial cycle took about 26 days to complete.

The maintenance plan for this tank will be minimal, including a 75% water change every week, siphoning sand and back chambers as needed.


When I was planning this tank, I had thought about making it a zoa dominated softie tank. I have since decided to make it a mixed reef complete with goniopora varieties, high end zoas, and maybe some easier SPS. As of right now, I have a few zoa varieties, a neon green goni, baby fungia, and probably my favorite so far, a Koji Wada pink nepthea. I added a few small trochus snails to start doing their thing. As far as fish, I picked up a baby neon dottyback who absolutely loves being the only fish in the tank. I can tell that he has a lot of attitude for as small as he is. Currently at about an inch long, he is the king of the reef.

Current parameters-

Salinity 1.025 (Hanna), temp 78.9 (Hanna), ALK 12.5 (Hanna) phosphates 0.11 (Hanna), nitrates 2 (Salifert). I plan to use the Red Sea kit for calcium and Aquaforest for magnesium. Just haven’t picked up those two yet. Last time around, I used the Red Sea blue bucket salt, but decided to switch it up and try the Red Sea coral pro with higher ALK this time. It will be neat to compare growth and color vs using the blue bucket.

I plan on attending Reefapalooza-Texas here in a few weeks and am really excited about it. I am hoping to pick up some fire and suck up some deals going on!

Well, I think that sums things up for now. Thanks for checking out my setup. I have attached a few pics of my current setup, and one from before

Good luck! Tank is beautiful.

 

[Daniel92481]

Good luck! Tank is beautiful.

Thanks. I appreciate it! I am enjoying it for sure.

 

[Daniel92481]

Hello everyone, just wanted to give an update on the progress of my pico reef! Currently, the tank has been setup for coming up on 4 months now. Things have been responding well to the weekly 75% water changes. I changed it up a bit as far as rinsing off the filter sock/filter balls. I started out rinsing 2x/week, but have reduced to cleaning once per week during water changes. Switching to once per week has allowed my nitrates to hover around 5ppm and phosphates anywhere from 0.01-0.1 using one chemi pure blue nano packet in the media basket. I also stopped using additional Red Sea carbon inside a mesh bag. The nano packet does the trick as far as water clarity, eliminating the need for additional. Other than those two things, my routine/maintenance has been the same. I am starting to see some good corraline growth on the plastic bits of the tank. I want this tank to thrive with minimal maintenance on my part. So far so good I would say.

I was able to go to Reefapalooza-Texas and pick up a few corals. For the most part, most of the corals have been doing good. I did have a couple frags with some aiptasia. I tried to superglue some of them with success, but only to see new ones pop up. As much as I wanted to try and save the frags, I ended up tossing them to save the reef from an outbreak. Some of the newest additions are some JF gobbstoppers, pink goni, small clam, rainbow monti, purple stylo, green/yellow milli, rainbow plate, pink constellation zoas, purple monster zoas, rainbow acan, small RFA, clove polyps, and a few others. I purchased the clam from “clam mania” at RAP. This guy has some amazing clams like you wouldn’t believe! The clam is an ultra blue measuring at about 2 inches. I have always loved clams because of their mesmerizing colors as well as their natural water filtering skills. My daughter named my neon dottyback “Astro”, who is doing well and enjoying being the king of the reef. He is really cool to watch and has been growing well. My favorite coral is the Kodi Wada pink nepthea! Anyone who has one of these, probably understands why. In the mornings when the sun shines through my window, the nepthea fluoresces pink, then turns purplish throughout the day. This piece is incredible with natural light. The newest member of the reef is my orange/red starfish. Not sure of the exact species, I was told linckia from the LFS. He was named “Orbit”, another awesome name from my daughter. He is a bit bigger than what I was looking for, but seems to have adjusted well. I am hoping to have him for at least a year. I have heard many horror stories about starving, losing limbs, etc. He is definitely interesting to observe! I love how they wave one limb in the water, catching microscopic organisms in the current. Wish him well for me! Please?

Parameters have been almost spot on. I still haven’t tested Calcium or Magnesium. Here’s what I have…

Salinity 1.026
Temp 77-78
ALK 10.7 (Red Sea coral pro)
Phosphates 0.01-0.1
Nitrates 2-5

The plan for this pico is to maybe add a few more small corals, keeping them happy, and watching it grow out. The fastest growing coral for me so far has been the purple monsters. Easily 25-30 polyps on this plug now. Loving the growth. I think that’s it for now reefers, thanks for reading and following along. I have attached a few pics. Thanks for checking out my pico reef!

 

[TruRacr314x]

How are things going on the tank?

I am setting up the same tank now and was trying to decide what to do about the filtration. Are you using the middle chamber for anything? I was thinking about just having filter floss and heather in the first compartment...making a diy media basket for the middle...and ATO and return pump in the last compartment. Is there any reason this would not work?

Also...what frag holders are on your walls? I like them...but haven't had much luck finding similar ones.

Any insight is appreciated!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is looking great. Always love looking at Picos!!

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

Loving this tank. One of my business partners just tore down his 150 gallon tank because he plans to travel more in retirement. He keeps eyeballing tanks and saying, "I think I could keep that in the RV." This is what he is looking for.

 

[nuxx]

That's awesome my wife and I put about 8k miles on a camper we bought during the pandemic and the two times our brewpub was shut down we'd just go with our dogs for a month long drive, no real ideas of where to go. Was fun, but now we have new born twins, that's not happening again soon. Also had two different campers over two years. Sold them both for more than we bought them for used than new.

 

[Daniel92481]

How are things going on the tank?

I am setting up the same tank now and was trying to decide what to do about the filtration. Are you using the middle chamber for anything? I was thinking about just having filter floss and heather in the first compartment...making a diy media basket for the middle...and ATO and return pump in the last compartment. Is there any reason this would not work?

Also...what frag holders are on your walls? I like them...but haven't had much luck finding similar ones.

Any insight is appreciated!

Thanks for checking out my reef. Things are going pretty good, just trying to keep things stable.

As far as set up, I have an InTank basket on the left hand side with floss and one chemipure blue nano packet. In the middle I have the light mount, heater, and ATO, on the right side I have the return pump. Seems to work out well like this. Start off simple.

The frag plugs are from Ocean box designs here in Texas. Top notch quality. Check out their website. I think these plugs were a limited run, but you might be able to find some.

Good luck with your setup! I am excited to see.

 

[Daniel92481]

Loving this tank. One of my business partners just tore down his 150 gallon tank because he plans to travel more in retirement. He keeps eyeballing tanks and saying, "I think I could keep that in the RV." This is what he is looking for.

Sounds like a dream. Tell your partner that it definitely can happen if he plans to be stationary at one spot for a while. You would have to break down in a 5 gallon bucket for transport. It can be done, but not ideal. I live in a “RV resort” which makes it possible. Thanks for checking out my reef.

 

[829282610]

Love your tank. I had an ocean box designs tank years ago. Great owner and craftsmanship.

 

[Daniel92481]

Love your tank. I had an ocean box designs tank years ago. Great owner and craftsmanship.

Thanks a lot. I bet that was a nice one. They have some interesting frag displays. Could be fun to make a mini frag tank too.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Do you still have the starfish? I know they are very sensitive and hard to keep so I can’t imagine trying to keep one in a 4 gallon tank especially long term.

 

[Daniel92481]

Do you still have the starfish? I know they are very sensitive and hard to keep so I can’t imagine trying to keep one in a 4 gallon tank especially long term.

Yea, I still have him. Seems to be healthy. He is a bigger one, not sure if that plays to his favor. Here’s a recent pic.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Yea, I still have him. Seems to be healthy. He is a bigger one, not sure if that plays to his favor. Here’s a recent pic.

Okay that’s good make sure to feed him try giving him a variety of food and try Masstick.

 

[Daniel92481]

Hello reefers, it has been a long while since I have made an update on my 4.1g and figured I would put one together.

Where do I begin? I have had lots of challenges, aka headaches with this aquarium but have managed to keep things going. The tank is coming up on a two year birthday in August. When I started it this time around, I was living in a stationary RV full time. Although that life was exciting, I did go back to a more traditional brick and mortar style of living within the past year, or so. The RV presented some unique challenges with the reef, including running out of propane in the middle of the night and waking up to a 60° unintentional cold water reef tank. I lost a lot of my corals and snails, as well as my beloved red starfish. My neon dottyback proved to be a trooper and managed to survive my ridiculous mistake of not refilling the propane before a cold Texas night. Most of the newly acquired corals I got from a recent reef show suffered. The few that survived, I was able to sell and trade locally to some LFS’s in the area, along with fellow hobbyists. A few months later, I made the move to a more stable location and decided to sell my RV. Once at the new spot, I focused on keeping things consistent with water changes, temperature checks, and all the required husbandry that goes into keeping a somewhat stable mini reef. I have since learned that new challenges are always presenting themselves one way or another and your reef tank is essentially always a work in progress. While trying to attain stability over a few months, I noticed some aiptasia on a few remaining frags that I had. I had immediately pulled them from the tank, superglued them as best I could, and thought I was done with them. (Insert devilish laugh here) Little did I know, they would spread like wildfire almost overnight! With my crazy work schedule and just life in general, I was having a hard time keeping up with them. Plus I was running out of superglue. I decided to remove the few remaining frags from my rockscape and just toss the whole rock. I was not sure how this would turn out for the basics of the system, but it did have some biodiversity within the sand. I felt like this could sustain the tank until I was able to replace it with a new scape once I figured out the aiptasia problem. Now to the new challenge, the aiptasia started popping up from the sand. How does this happen I wondered!? I just couldn’t believe these little devils. Every time I would see one, I would pluck him from the sand making sure to keep them intact while I pulled them out with my tongs. One day, although I had no idea at the time, I managed to pull the very LAST one. I thought for sure that I would see more, but nope! 3-4 months had passed without me spotting one, so I decided to add some Fiji pink sand to the Hawaiian black sand that was already in there for a cool looking mixture between them. I really like the effect that it gives. I also added another clean piece of dry rock to try and get another scape going. Everything played nicely together as far as the new sand and rock with the existing bacteria. I only had a minimal algae bloom from these additions. I purchased some turbo snails to help with the clean up. At about this same time, my neon dottyback decided to jump during a water change and I was not able to save him in time. Sigh. That was heartbreaking. It really seemed like it was one challenge after another and I was on the short end of the stick. A couple of months later, things were finally looking up for the tank…then it happened. The dreaded dinos! After some research and help from some fellow local hobbyists, I came up with a plan to raise the nutrients, increase the flow, dosed some MB7 over the course of a few weeks, and did a lot of manual removal. It finally disappeared after all that and started to settle in again. A fellow reefer who you might know, (RDA) hooked it up with a fresh media basket fit for the 4.1 with his custom Vasablue namesake that has worked out 100% awesome, just like I knew it would! Thanks again RDA! I bought a baby orchid dottyback after my neon jumped to be the new king of the reef. She has adapted well and seems happy. I also found another red starfish at my LFS that I had to get and try my hand at again. It has been doing well for about six or eight months now. Another addition that I made a few months ago is my mandarin fish. She is a wild caught species and has also been doing well. I did add some pods to the tank when I added her even though I had seen a lot of them even before I added her. The starfish, orchid, and mandarin were all added at different times throughout the course of nine or ten months just to make sure they had all adapted before a new addition. These two fish, along with the starfish are the only “fish” I will be adding to the pico reef. As far as the turbo snails, I have three of them that are decent in size. They do a pretty good job of mowing down the new algae growth. After I added the new rock and sand, I started adding more corals (aiptasia free) to the tank after a few months. I am happy to make this post since it has been such a long time since my last one, and finally starting to feel rewarded for all of my hard work of weekly water changes and manual topping off of RODI almost two years into it. I have added a few pics. Sorry for the long post, just so many things to mention. Thank you for reading and following along!