Well, after fully stocking my Biocube 14, I was itching for a new project. I decided the do the DIY route this time and build a pico! My build will be heavily influenced by this photo of Sandeep's tank I saw on El Fab's pico guide.


(Sandeep's thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...32714&st=0)

However, the tank in this photo is a 5.5g, and I am using a 2.5 AGA tank.

I am kind of figuring things out as I go along, I don't really have any set plans. I know I am using a false wall off to one side of the tank to hold the return pump, a bit of chaeto, and maybe some filter floss.

Here is a photo of my stuff so far!



At the time I was shopping, I thought the 10w 50/50 screw in bulb would be enough. It's a cool concept, but I couldn't turn down the special at Drs Foster & Smith right now, so I just bought the 2x18w Coralife 12" fixutre for $50 shipped:



Basically, so far I've water tested the tank, and built the false wall and fuge assembly. I tested the Rio 90 in the tank, and it seems like a great amount of flow! Pretty heavy flow, actually. The nozzle comes with a valve so I can lower the flow if I find it to be too much, though. My priority is to have as much view space as possible, so I made the fuge as thin as possible. It is currently drying from a few coats of Krylon Fusion.



I am going to let it dry for a few hours, then silicone the assembly into the tank.

I have no plans for stocking yet, except that I'll probably just pull frags from my 14 gallon. As far as coral goes, I want to keep zoas and maybe some ricordeas. I don't really have plans for livestock, but I'll probably stick a hermit and a snail or two in there (no fish). If any of my LFS gets sexy shrimp in, I may get a few.

Wish me luck!

sweet. cant wait to see it stocked!!!

nice!
keep us updated.
looks good so far :]

How much of the tank are you going to partition off?

I've been working hard on it tonight, and got a lot done.

I was not very comfortable with the wall I made for a few reasons. Firstly, I wasn't 100% comfortable with the paint on it. I know a lot of people use Krylon Fusion, but I still wouldn't feel right having chemicals like that in the tank. Secondly, the cuts were not really 100% straight. Also, the hole for the pump nozzle was too large, so water would have been able to pass through. So I spent the night making a new wall assembly.

I scavenged the house looking for some black plastic, and I found this lap table:



The plastic is also nice and textured a bit. Another plus was that this plastic is a lot softer than the acrylic I was using, so I can cut all the way through it with 20-30 passes of the razor for super clean cuts (no dremel wheel )

I also found this organizer in the office. It has fins on the side that I thought would work perfectly for the skimmer intake at the top, so I cut a panel out:



I cut a panel out of the wall, and sanded the fin assembly until it flush fit in there perfectly. Also, I drilled the hole a bit small, then filed it out so the pump would fit perfectly. It does!:



Next I measured and cut the divider wall. I left about 3/4 inch at the bottom for the water to pass through. Every part of the wall is "welded" with superglue:



And a pic of the old assembly on the left vs. the new one on the right. I think the new one is way better!



Lastly for tonight, I siliconed the wall assembly into the tank. First I positioned the wall where it was even and I tacked it on with drops of superglue. Then I went to town with the silicone. My silicone work is pretty sloppy, but I will try to clean the visible side up with a razor blade tomorrow. The white stuff is powder from the gloves:





I'm really glad I rebuilt the wall. Now I will not have the thought in the back of my mind that the paint may be leeching chemicals. Also, this wall has a skimmer intake. Not sure if that will actually do any good, but most tanks seem to have it.

Tomorrow I plan to build the panels to hide the fuge from the same black plastic. It should look really sharp with the texturing on the false wall, and the fuge panels. It will hopefully look like a 4 sided box!

These are great builds. Im dismantalling my 2.5 gal FW so it might open a new door for me. Ill be watching

WTF??

12" 2x18 for $50/shipped? Everytime I check Fosters... their price is always $94.99.

The CORALIFE 12" fixture is on sale not the CURRENT USA

Ahhh.... hence, the price difference. Thanks for clarifying.

The only difference is no moonlight. The Coralife is $35 before shipping. $70 is a pretty big savings over the Current!

Does the Coralife come with two separate plugs for the daytime and actinic bulbs.... allowing you to turn on the actinics separately?

Probably not, because the bulbs included are both 50/50 (see the pic I posted of it). It also doesn't have a fan, so I'll probably have to rig one up for heat reasons somehow. The current is definitely a better fixture, but I'm trying to do this project for not a lot of money, so I couldn't say no to the $70 savings.

Sometime in the future I may end up installing an extra switch when its time to replace the bulbs, and I could do an actinic bulb and a 10000k. It shouldn't be hard to do, really.

After reading up on it, I called Drs F&S to try to exchange the light for a Current before it shipped, but they wouldn't do it . I'll make the Aqualight work, though.

The silicone was dry enough this morning, and I did another water test. No leaks from the display to the fuge! I also built up the fuge cover panels. Unfortunately, one of my panels has a slice part of the way through it, because I didn't have enough real estate on the plastic board to choose a pristine panel (I overcut some of the other cuts), but it is barely noticable, and I put it on the panel that will be facing the wall, anyway.

Here's the board when I was done with it. Just barely had enough! I also cut two trim pieces later:



I also installed the pump. Here's the tank in all her beauty!





And a view from the top:



Here's what the paneling looks like. I tried to make it as flush as possible (sorry, photo is a little blurry):



Though the stock black plastic of the tank looks to be a different color than the panels, in actuality they are the same. It is just the gloss vs. the textured finish of the panels throwing different light from the flash to the camera.

I also cut these 90* trim pieces from the tray, as I thought I might use them thusly:



It looks pretty good this way, but I'm still not sure which way I want to go, full glass or the trim pieces. What do you all think?

I go to the coral store tomorrow to pick up a frag I have on order for my main tank, would it be OK to put sand and rock in this tank with no light? Just to start the cycle? I could run a CFL desk lamp over it for a few days until my real lighting gets here...

Thats a great build and yes you can put the sand and rock in with no light to start the cycle. A lot of people run no light throughout the whole cycle because it cause algae to grow.

Sweet, thanks for the reply. I guess I'll pick up a rock or two tomorrow, then. I may run the CFL desklamp over it for 4 hours a day or so, though, just so I don't lose anything photosynthetic that may have come with.

Sweet build on your 2.5 gallon.


Adolfo

I would make that a sexy shrimp tank with tons of corals just make sure to keep them well fed.

Love those file organizer teeth, what a great idea.

Very resourceful use of non-standard materials. Looks great.

Makes me want a pico.

Wow!! Good job.

Here it is!



The light is temporary, of course, until the Aqualight fixture comes in.

Do you guys think it has too many rocks? Here are my two options:

1) As it is currently:



2) Removing the canopy rock:



Which looks best to you?

The rock has been in the LFS curing bin for a good month or two, so hopefully the cycle will be quick. I'll test later tonight. The flow seems perfect! Every part of the tank gets some amount of flow, with the far side of the tank across from the pump and the top getting the most.

I tested the fuge earlier, and it keeps the water level in the display constant when the water levels drop (the level drops in the fuge). Sweet! The display water level seems to sit right in the middle of the skimmer teeth, so I guess it is getting enough flow through there.

I guess now I just sit back and wait. When the light comes i have a few ideas on modding it to deal with heat. I also want to add a few strong blue LEDs for a faux actinic only look, and a solitary weak LED for a moonlight.

As for stocking, will zoas, acans, and chalices wage war with each other? All of these will be fine with the 36 watts of light and the flow in there, so it is more about compatibility.

Just a little update, there is basically no evap with the glass top on so far. The light ran for a few hours last night and several hours today, and the tank was sitting at 81 degrees when I got home. The tank will run cooler without the glass top but evap will be drastic, I think.

very nice and clean build just take the glass top and see if the evap is really bad. If the evap is bad then put the top back on. I would test all the different things now before you have anything in the tank.

I like it with the black trim as you have it in the more recent pics.

IMO, leave the canopy rock.

As Jer said, good use of non-standard materials. Per an elementary school report card "uses resources wisely!"

Nice tank!

With the lamp off the several hours, the tank is still at 79.3*F. I guess the pump keeps it warm. Cool, now I don't have to buy a heater! Now I'll just have to figure out a way to keep heat out of the tank from the lights. I'm thinking of installing fans, or maybe even doing LEDs.

+1

+1

Got my light in today! It was running quite hot, so I modified it . I cannibalized an old PC for it's CPU fan, and found a cell phone charger with matching voltage, so this project was free. I didn't think it was going to move much air, but there is actually quite a bit of air exiting from the fixture. If this doesn't cool it enough to leave the light on the tank like I have it now, I will build some risers to raise the fixture an inch or so off the glass.







Before I modified it, both of those side panels were solid plastic. I am letting it run for a few hours then I'll check the water temperature to see what happens.

Also, I did a water test last night:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0
pH: 7.8

My biocube pH started low too, then slowly raised to it's current 8.2. So I will wait to see what happens with this tank. But other than that the parameters look good! Still no evaporation of the original water volume.

I also added a tennis ball sized piece of chaeto in the back. Hopefully this will introduce some pods and take care of the nitrates.

Well, after being on for a few hours, the water temperature was 81. Before the light was on, it was 79.2, so that's about a 2 degree swing. Do you guys think these temps are fine? I'm used to my biocube always being at 79, since it's open top.

Canopy rock by far!

Those temps seem fine to me.

My tank is just about 80 degrees during the day at its peak... and dips down to 78 or so at night. My apartment stays relatively cool though and not to mention the high today is still only going to be 55 degrees.

I woke up a few days ago, and the tank temp was about 76! So I found a 25 watt heater that fits in the pump chamber. After a few days with it, the temps are pretty stable. It goes down to 80 and maxes at 82. So I am pretty happy with that. I put the light up on some PVC lifters, too.

Did some more tests:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
pH: 8.2

I guess the chaeto is doing its job! Also, my tank is having it's diatom outbreak, which is a good thing. I will get a few snails for it in a few days. How many do you all think I need? I was thinking 3 astreas and a hermit should be enough. Too many?

Added an astrea from my BC14, a cerith, and a really cool black and white striped hermit. Also got a cool frag for $10!

New FTS:



Frag:



Hermit (I named him Beetlejuice due to his black and white stripes, can't really see them in the pic, though):

I got the tank to a stable 79 degrees by removing the glass top. The light is still standing on those PVC risers (very close to the water), but I glued them to the tank. So I guess the fan mod is working.

No new stuff, I'm putting all my money into the 90g, but hopefully I will put a few frags in soon

it looks great man. and nice frag for $10! smart fan mod too

What power head are you using for this project? Is it a rio 180 by any chance? If so, how strong is the current around your tank?
Do your chambers stay all at the same water level?

I am actually using a Rio 90, and it is plenty of current. Whenever I drop a pellet or piece of seaweed in there if whips around, and my zoas sway in the current, too.

The display keeps a constant water level, the back chambers lower in water level due to evap. This was part of the reason for going with the fuge.

I like the frag, tank is looking cool. I'm picturing a Yellow Clown Goby and shrimp combo chilling on the canopy rock!

Clown gobies don't pair with pistol shrimps.

thanks for stopping by my tank design page the other day!! your Pico is epic! I love how you used whatever you could find! I could do something like that.. just using old supplies I find at work (thank you Air Force for waist lots and lots of money!) what light are you using again?

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I am using a coralife 2x18w PC fixture, Airman. They were (maybe still are) on sale at DFS for $35, so I couldn't resist.

I got a ricordea frag yesterday, I will try to get a pic tomorrow.

I am doing a 1/2 gallon water change every week, I hope that is enough! I feed the hermit pretty much by hand (with tweezers) because the pump blows the pellets away otherwise, lol. Evap is about a half cup per day, but worth it for the cooler temps. The pump has broken in to become pretty quiet, which I am happy about! The two snails are keeping up with the algae and are always on the move. I think they have enough to eat, though.

If the LFS gets a blue neon goby in ever, I am going to get one. Otherwise, no fish! I don't think the tank is big enough for a cleaner, and sexies are out (they are coral eaters).

Pics of the ric!!

A pic of the ric. Of course, like all ric pics, it looks a lot more vibrant in real life:



The rock its on has a bleached out LPS of some kind on the other side (can anyone ID?). It still has some color on it, maybe it will come back?



I think I may steal some frags from my biocube to add some more life in there today. I'll put some pics up if I do

FTS:

I love the ric, is it two mouths or just the one?

That lps skeleton is what used to be an acan echinata. It won't grow back if it doesn't have any mouths.

very impressive DIY skills man .... any updates?

Thank you!

The tank is still up and running but to tell you the truth I haven't been doing much with it. I think the light is too powerful because it causes zoas and rics to shrink. So far all I've found that work really well under the intense light is xenia and GSP, so there is not a beautiful coral garden in there like in some picos. I might try raising the light a few inches...

Hey Brian, What kind of heater are you using? We just set our Fluval Edge up, actually for freshwater, and I will be monitoring its temps, but Imagine it will end up needing a heater....how small is the one you have?

Hey Mitch,

I am pretty sure it is this one (25w):

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...mp;pcatid=21322

I'll have to check to be 100% sure (it is at a different house right now). But looking at DFS, this one seems like it might be a better deal, as it is shorter, and 50w instead of 25w.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...mp;pcatid=11368

Tank looks sweet. I like the mod you did on your light fixture. I have the same one and it gets hella hott. Did you notice a difference in tank temp?