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3 Gallon Contour Pico


hryder77

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What size hydor pico did you get? and how tight was the fitting?

its the 180 gph pico eco-mag

 

I also made a graph of how I set it up in the back chamber since I can't get a good shot of it and right now I don;t want to remove it.

 

graph_pump.jpg

 

*clap pot is a clay terra cotta pot. I was a bit drunk when I made this graph hahaha

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  • 2 weeks later...

*UPDATE*

 

So I ditched the hydor pico power head for an actual pump for the back chamber.

 

 

A Aquatop NP-302

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It came with allot of nice connections, but I've only really utilized the nozzle piece. The stock nozzel for this tank did not ipress me at all and was the first thing I wanted to replace when 1st setup.

I've been loving Aquatop lately. their products are affordable and high quality. This pump is super quiet and strong. has a nice option to turn the flow down but since I need the full GPS rating I keep it cranked up. plus bonus it only cost me $12 including shipping from Amazon!

 

 

Here's what it looks like set up in my tank

 

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I used the false wall connector from the original nozzle and just stuck the new nozzle in its place.

 

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please ignore the ugly oil film build up :blush:

 

 

 

Also I ditched the HOB refugium I set up and have a rough back chamber refugium setup now.

 

 

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You can see the ball of cheato (being lit by an Azoo PC light) on top a layer of de-nitrite and sand are at the bottom.

 

 

 

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I need to throw in a big bag of carbon or purigen. There's been an outbreak of some kinda hair algae.

 

Seems like a good time to pick up a clean up crew :wacko:

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Long over due update! new layout, equipment, and stock!

 

I decided to break up the rock give it a more "spread out" look. oh and I also did a hydrogen peroxide dip, killed the hair algea flat! But I think it also killed some life...

 

Bought 3 corals Saturday, a hairy mushroom, green zoa, and some kinda flower pot looking coral. they all had a dip when the pic was taken so their none too happy looking.

 

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I also picked up 2 hermit crabs as a temporary clean up crew. as far as I can tell they don;t do anything except move around. I threw some pellets there way so they wouldn;t starve but they never touched them so I'm not sure what their eating. one looks to be a red leg and the other (smaller one) a blue leg.

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I also bought some Halimeda Macro algae off someone on ebay. I'm leaning towards doing a part reef part macro algae setup.

 

when I got it was covered in hair algae, which obviously I didn't want to introduce into my tank. reluctantly I proceeded to do a 2/10 h202 dip. it definitely killed the hair algae but unfortunately I might have killed off some of the the macro too. I know this because its supposed to be green, not white. I did notice a bit of green showing so maybe its not dead all over. right now though it looks pretty sad and droopy

 

I'll give it a week or so to see if it recovers before pullin' it.

 

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Also I'm not sure if you noticed but my LED wasn't showing any blue, its not the photo it looked like this in person.

 

It happened when I turned the fixture off for a bit to acclimate the new coral. turned it on and the actinic was gone. I'm starting to get a bit iffy on the longevity of this LED.

 

I might order a different light come next month, or hopefully score one off craigslist *fingers crossed*

 

Anyhow I also added a zoomed canister filter (picked up from Petco for $7 bucks!). It has really helped ALLOT! the back chambers of this tank is CRAMPED! adding media to it was pretty difficult, and the canister filter has significantly improved this predicament.

 

I'll probably still run chaeto in the back cambers but for now I just have the chaeto in the display.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Been pretty busy but I finally found time to update this post ;)

 

So far I've rearranged the scape and added some corals. I traded in a bunch of stuff with another reefer for some frags, apparently your not so average variety, the designer type that is.

 

as follows zoas and palys:

 

Pink hallucination
Pink lemonade
Space monster
Purple hornets
La Lakers
Car zoa

 

there all pretty small and I wont see some nice growth for awhile :/

 

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My utterly useless hermit crabs have proved to be very entertaining.. albeit still useless hahaha

 

They always scramble to the front of the tank when they see me. kinda weird but what eves!

 

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well I still need a cleanup crew so I'll be picking up an astrea snail and some ceriths. probably gonna get rid of the hermits as cute as they are their useless and add to the bio load. .

 

I'm have some issues with...sigh... hair algae...

 

Every time I set up a saltwater I battle this foe.

 

Anyway I've decided to try dosing Kent Marin Tech M magnesium. Picos make it pretty much impossible to house the normal critters that make a great clean up crew for nuisance hair algae. I've tried emerald crabs in the past but those are a mixed bag.

 

 

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forgot to show off my DIY back chamber cheato rack. It came out pretty well. Its crafting squares pulled together with zip ties.

 

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After (allot of ) adjustments it fits snug as a bug in the back chamber. This way the cheato doesn't fall to the bottom and prevents stray strands from clogging the pump.

 

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Oh and I ordered a Coral Compulsion 14w Par30 LED 18k Vibrance Reef Light tonight!

 

I've been unhappy with the current LED (some Chinese Ebay knockoff)

 

updates to come soon!

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New light came in today! a coral compulsion 14W PAR30 LED 18K VIBRANCE REEF LIGHT

 

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Here's a comparison of my old LED to the new

 

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LED comparison:

 

-As you can see the Vibrance LED is allot well..more vibrant then he ABI variety.

-The vibrance is also more "purple" in person due to the ultra violet led versus the ABI which is always a cold blue/white color.

-My corals definitely pop more under the vibrant but under the ABI there more washed out.

-Both are 18k and can grow coral easy.

 

 

 

check back for more updates!

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  • 2 weeks later...
JMCollins24

Really liking the look of this tank! Thinking about picking one up to set up a pico! How satisfied are you so far?

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Really liking the look of this tank! Thinking about picking one up to set up a pico! How satisfied are you so far?

 

H ijosh.m.collins24

 

Thank for checking out my tank!

 

I am pretty happy with this setup. The curved glass and glass top make it very elegent which I like, helps with evaporation.

My only real grip is the back chamber. It s small and the skimmer grate is too small. There's these two plastic tab things that keep the chamber wall stable so putting any equipment in the back takes some consideration.

 

Having said that I'm still able to fit my upgraded pump 50watt heater azoo palm filter ( fir gfo and carbon)and diy cheato rack. The back of the tank is some kind of roll on vinyl black sheet. It was easy to cut a square out of the back chamber so I could light my cheato.

 

I would definitely recommend upgrading the stock pump. Mine died after 3 months.

 

Even with some it's draw backs, I still love is far more than my old aqueon evolve 8 that scratched so easily ヽ(´ー`)ノ

 

I hope this helps with your decision. If you have any other questions just ask(^~^)

 

 

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Nice! How are you liking the contour? I just found out about this tank over at doctorssmith and it looks pretty cool. You're probably the only nr member who has this tank, so I have a little favor to ask. I was wondering if you could take some photo shots of the bottom front corners along with the bottom side corners. I'm trying to figure out whether to get this tank or the im nuvo4-8g. Thanks.

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I got the 5 gallon, I'm looking at this thing and the quality is amazing except the back chamber is small and the little pump that vibrates even when I have it on the display...

 

Might end up returning it and looking into something else not so noisy

 

I thought the owner of this thread said the stock pump was quiet no?

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chlwodud85

I thought the owner of this thread said the stock pump was quiet no?

 

Im guessing the definition of quiet is different for each person... for me it was loud,

 

Now I have a WP-10 (first one I had was nosiy but got it replaced and it is very quiet) and a bare 10g tank

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Nice! How are you liking the contour? I just found out about this tank over at doctorssmith and it looks pretty cool. You're probably the only nr member who has this tank, so I have a little favor to ask. I was wondering if you could take some photo shots of the bottom front corners along with the bottom side corners. I'm trying to figure out whether to get this tank or the im nuvo4-8g. Thanks.

Hi!yeah thats no problem! Ill pm you some shots this evening.

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Ive been having a dino out break. To be more specific Dinoflagelates algae. But im starting to think its cyno.

 

I did ceck ph and alk. Alk ws fine 125 ppi, but ph was really low (7.0) barely read on the chart. I even implimented a 3 day blackout (covered in a towel) but it was still there and more when that time was up.

 

Heres an image of it.

 

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Yeah those dinos are pain in the ass to deal with.. Best way to deal with it imo, is to siphon the dinos out then flip the rocks in a reversal way(dinos side is burried into the sand) and do big water changes.

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I actually did the rock flip trick out of desperation and they just spread quicker. I've actually heard water changes fuel this stuff IMO seems strange not to do a water change when you have a toxic pest.

 

I think I'm going to boil the rocks and basically start over this weekend. I ordered some kalk supplements so that my PH can go up. needs to be at 8.2 minimum :/.

 

Thanks for the help illuiix!

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So I think I've found the source of my dino and turf algae breakout (just found some turf algae last night boo)

 

My RO water system read 25ppm! I guess its new filter time. Not sure if I have to replace the membrane yet since they last 3 years, and I'v only had my unit for one year. I've been thinking of getting the DI attachment since my RO couldn't get any lower than 4ppm on most fill ups.

 

can anyone confirm that dino (much like everthing else) spawns from high ppm in RO water?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This weekend I gave into the dino and re-started my tank :tears:

 

I h202 dips the rocks and equipment and ran freshwater through the empty tank. Its been four days since and I haven't seen dino which is good but hopefully it stays this way.

 

Casualties have occurred. I lost my thriving dragon's breath macro algae. It never touch h202 but I think the freshwater dip I gave it was too much for it to handle :scarry: .

 

 

I picked up seachem stability so that I can re introduce good bacteria and hopefully out compete any other dino or algea that might come back.

 

My corals are doing ok, most are closed, but a few have opened up a bit. the only coral death is from one of my mushrooms. It disappeared over night. I'm pretty sure the hermits took advantage of its weakened state for a quick meal.

 

I'll be adding carbon tonight so the bio goodness has another home.

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During my last water change I took advantage of this and decided to epoxy my live rock. No easy task I may add. Epoxy is tricky.

Anyway heres a shot of the epoxy job. pretty amature level but I think I'll do a second pass next water change.

please ignore my sad corals, I'm going through a re-start and some are non too happy right now.

 

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I also took this time to move the tank. it's now officially a desktop tank

 

 

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Things are looking a little better this week. the tank is not as hazy though I'm not entierly sure why its been hazy besides its re-cycling.

 

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The epoxy was a messy failure! It was only useful in securing one coral frag :/. I pulled off as much of the epoxy as I could. I lost a hermit last week and I think it might have snacked on some epoxy :? not sure though.

 

This morning I was messing around a bit with the tank and found the perfect interlocking combination for all three "live" rock peices! FINALLY a scape I can stick too! Ever since I've gone BB its been a bitch to make the rocks look "natural".

 

So that all is good news.

 

a bit of bad has been the lose of three corals including my favorite, the hairy mushroom. the upside is that I've only spent about $20 on corals. My LFS has great priced frags. \

 

I'm not giving up! This has just been a learning experience so far.

 

oh bonus! I managed to wire some led moonlights.

 

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The wires are a bit messy right now, but soon I'll be cleaning all that up.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Things are looking really good this week! tanks now 100% cycled...again. All clear!

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unfortunately I wasn't able to recover all my corals, even with GH and carbon increases. I only have 2 left :unsure:

 

Some kind of macro algae is growing on the rocks. It was the same un-identified algae growing on the rocks before i reset the tank. Hopefully this doesn't mean dino will rear its ugly head. :furious: If thats the case I don't know what i'll do.

 

Anyway let's not think about that... :wacko:

 

Here's some shots of the macro growing on my rocks:

 

 

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anyone have an idea what these are?

 

By the way I have absolutely no regrets going bare bottom! Keeps everything nice and clean!

Anyone with long term bare bottom feel the same?!

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Angel<3Nanos

Get a turbo snail. The smallest you can find. For that algae. If you get dinos again. Buy dry rock and start over. Love the fact that you haven't given up on your tank. Keep up the good work!!

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