Marineland Portrait Pico

AzMechE · 01/25/2019, 10:56 PM

Hey everyone!

Jumping back into the hobby after 10+ year hiatus. Decided to try hard mode by choosing a pico reef.

Wife bought me a Marineland Portrait pico for Christmas and I had been itching to get back into reefing for a while. Been keeping busy with planted tanks in the meantime.

Equipment:
Marineland Portrait 5 gallon
Aqueon Quietflow Submersible Aquarium Utility Pump 600 (upgraded return pump)
25W hydor submersible heater
DIY 15w led light (2x RB 1xCW @ 1.5A)
Light controller: Arduino + LDD 1500H

Decided to go with a tile bare bottom and Started with "a bunch" of dry rock but purchased a piece of live rock as well to kick start cycle. The live rock ended up having two different kinds of mushroom and unfortunately aiptasia and possibly hydroids.

I'm surprised how much I like the tile bottom. I really like sand but didn't want to buy a whole bag for the pico so I decided to try a bare bottom. I layered with travertine tiles cut to size.

I also got impatient and found a zoa frag at LFS for next to nothing so I figured I would pick it up since mushrooms seemed to be doing fine. Still cycling though so am sitting on my hands until it completes before getting any other livestock.

The plan right now is to fill in with zoas on rockwork, yumas on the bottom/tile, maybe blue trumpet or a hammer or pink birdsnest near the top.

Also in the works/planning is a different DIY led light that uses Cree RGBW leds. I don't like the disco effect with the current setup so am hoping I can mitigate that some by using the integrated RGBW led emitters. Will end up being around the same wattage but hopefully better color and coverage.

Seeing if image works:

01/25/2019, 10:56 PM	#1
AzMechE Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2016 Posts: 7	Marineland Portrait Pico Hey everyone! Jumping back into the hobby after 10+ year hiatus. Decided to try hard mode by choosing a pico reef. Wife bought me a Marineland Portrait pico for Christmas and I had been itching to get back into reefing for a while. Been keeping busy with planted tanks in the meantime. Equipment: Marineland Portrait 5 gallon Aqueon Quietflow Submersible Aquarium Utility Pump 600 (upgraded return pump) 25W hydor submersible heater DIY 15w led light (2x RB 1xCW @ 1.5A) Light controller: Arduino + LDD 1500H Decided to go with a tile bare bottom and Started with "a bunch" of dry rock but purchased a piece of live rock as well to kick start cycle. The live rock ended up having two different kinds of mushroom and unfortunately aiptasia and possibly hydroids. I'm surprised how much I like the tile bottom. I really like sand but didn't want to buy a whole bag for the pico so I decided to try a bare bottom. I layered with travertine tiles cut to size. I also got impatient and found a zoa frag at LFS for next to nothing so I figured I would pick it up since mushrooms seemed to be doing fine. Still cycling though so am sitting on my hands until it completes before getting any other livestock. The plan right now is to fill in with zoas on rockwork, yumas on the bottom/tile, maybe blue trumpet or a hammer or pink birdsnest near the top. Also in the works/planning is a different DIY led light that uses Cree RGBW leds. I don't like the disco effect with the current setup so am hoping I can mitigate that some by using the integrated RGBW led emitters. Will end up being around the same wattage but hopefully better color and coverage. Seeing if image works: