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Gabe's PicO is Back


gabe3eb

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Much like my last tank, I ordered this one entirely in Afghanistan. Just got home and now its time to set it up.

 

 

15134879147_3796b3eb8c_z.jpg
Goodies by gabe3eb, on Flickr

 

First impressions:

-Why doesn't the RO Buddy come with instructions or necessary parts!?

-Bluefish is pretty damn cool so far.
-I don't think I can fit the TLF150 reactor in the rear and I'm not really sure I want to run biopellets anyway.

-Probably go with the PicO skimmer instead, which would be required anyways.

-Mr Aqua Stand is ok (Rocksmom told me as much).

-PicO Chris made the best quality pico I have ever seen.

-Dave Fason will continue to kill it on cool factor alone for years to come.

 

To Do/Buy:

-Finish stand/buy a handle for the door.

-Buy missing parts for the RO Buddy RO/DI kit.

-Totally forgot a calcium test kit - any recommendations? Hannah seems cool.

-Buy MicroBacter7 (Big Brightwell fan) for the cycle.

-Buy Seal Gel or other TBD chemical filtration media (suggestions welcome!).

-Find an American DJ style power strip that fits in the stand (and doesn't have plugs on the top like the ADJ PC4) - Suggestions really appreciated - I have about 10.5" squared to work with in the stand.

 

Plans:

-Cycle tank, buy really nice corals, make corals look even nicer :).

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Looks like you are off to a great start! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

Thanks! Any suggestions on the power bar? I was planning to avoid a Reef Keeper Light or Apex in favor of the upcoming Bluefish expansions.

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WOW, you outta open your own equipt shop. LOL

 

I absolutely love my PicO 5 also. You can talk about the quality but until you see one up close, you just can't imagine.

Is your tour done over there?

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Tank is up!

 

I stained the outside of the stand and sealed (semi-gloss) both inside and out. I did not chose to sand the stand. I'm not sure if that will end up bugging me or not. So far it doesn't and I kind of like the look and texture.

15175913190_1a0a1529c7.jpgStain and Seal by gabe3eb, on Flickr

Cord Management Holes (2.5" holes - too small - should have planned better for the actual MP-10 control and nano-box driver box to fit through a 3" hole - standard cords and some devices fit no problem):

15362601865_fbca9b6206.jpgBack of Stand by gabe3eb, on Flickr

Not many other progress shots - but here she is cycling (will try to get the DSLR out and play with settings sometime soon):

 

15359432011_d5f3f81c8a.jpgCycle Time by gabe3eb, on Flickr

Aquascape took about 2 minutes. I got 7 lbs of BRS Reef Saver rock and it came in two big chunks. Two hammers turned one of the pieces into 4 smaller ones that were really easy to set-up. I like the rock scape a lot. It's simple and will still give the tank a nice wide open look once its full of frags. Rinsing the rock with RO/DI was critical. It took less than a gallon of RO/DI to do and the amount of nastiness it took off the rock meant that my water was crystal clear the next morning.

15362298822_689c85f049.jpgRight Side of Tank by gabe3eb, on Flickr

Bonus picture (visiting my wife at work yesterday at the humane society and these guys were seriously creeping me out):

 

15176025218_7acf6ed03f.jpgCreepy Llamas by gabe3eb, on Flickr

I'm heading out of town for the weekend, so this will be a nice test run of the Tunze Osmolator. I predict it will be bullet-proof. I have a 2-gallon jug with RO/DI in the base of the stand, which should be sufficient for 5-7 days would be my guess. I also started dosing Microbacter7, which I have used with good results during cycles before.

 

Other thoughts:

 

-Need to buy the PicO Skim and a TDS meter. The RO Buddy with the DI attachment is great so far but I can't believe they sell it without the $0.50 worth of spare parts it needs to function. 7 extra feet of 1/4" OD tubing from Lowes was sufficient.

 

-Didn't need the MP-10 Shallow shield that I ordered (thankfully). The MP-10 is on 40% reef crest mode and is about halfway between the sandbed and waterline. I'm using coarse Aragalive live sand. The sand blows a very small amount slowly. No issues with that, I will just move it back into place every few days. I have seen a few folks wonder if an MP-10 would be worth it in a tank this small. 40% reef crest and the small footprint speak for itself. I recommend it to anyone on the fence.

 

-I'm looking for an LED strip that fits inside the stand and it activated by opening the stand up. Any suggestions?

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-Didn't need the MP-10 Shallow shield that I ordered (thankfully). The MP-10 is on 40% reef crest mode and is about halfway between the sandbed and waterline. I'm using coarse Aragalive live sand. The sand blows a very small amount slowly. No issues with that, I will just move it back into place every few days. I have seen a few folks wonder if an MP-10 would be worth it in a tank this small. 40% reef crest and the small footprint speak for itself. I recommend it to anyone on the fence.

 

I bought one and didn't use it either. And I also agree that the mp10 is definitely worth it. Before it was installed I was having a bit of buyer's remorse because the rw-4 is very nice for the price, but now that it's in there I'm so happy I went with it. I think I have mine on 50 or 60%, but I also don't have sand to worry about.

 

Your stand turned out very nice! Can't help you with the led thing. Cool idea though. I would have gone ghetto with it and bought one of those closet touch lights. :lol:

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Nice tank and equipment!

 

Thanks :)

Hope you enjoy the light!

 

-Dave

 

I do Dave, thanks so much for being awesome!

Nice!

 

nice!!

Thanks guys.

 

I bought one and didn't use it either. And I also agree that the mp10 is definitely worth it. Before it was installed I was having a bit of buyer's remorse because the rw-4 is very nice for the price, but now that it's in there I'm so happy I went with it. I think I have mine on 50 or 60%, but I also don't have sand to worry about.

 

Your stand turned out very nice! Can't help you with the led thing. Cool idea though. I would have gone ghetto with it and bought one of those closet touch lights. :lol:

 

Thanks! I think it would have been pretty slick if I sanded it and put a full gloss finish on it too. After coming back from the weekend the sand was a much bigger disaster than I expected so I'm going to have to figure that out. I don't see a scenario where I use the shield though :).

Nice start, and yes, Lama's are weird...

 

That pic didn't fully capture how creepy they are when they just stare at you and follow you around with their eyes.

The pools that leave from the creation of the support in me great charm. Nice central rock.

Thanks!

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  • 6 months later...
  • 11 months later...

Looks like I did a really poor job on this thread the first time around :). The tank was set up for about 6 months before moving from Colorado to Tennessee and has been sitting in a box since then. Will be buying a new house this summer, so this tank is really just going to be set-up so I can pick up some frags over the next few months before moving into a new house (and possibly a new tank). The neighborhoods we are looking at are all within a couple miles, so it should be a really easy move.

 

I have been cycling for a couple weeks now, Live Sand and BRS Reef Saver Rock with Microbacter7 make for hardly any cycle. I was out of town on business last week, but before leaving I had a small amount of ammonia. Now, it's not registering ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. Threw some SeaGel in there with Purigen, so I doubt I will have too much of a nutrient issue moving forward, but I will keep a close eye on it.

 

Couple challenges:

 

-NanoBox Tide drivers were not functioning. Sent them back to Dave a couple weeks ago and they should be here tomorrow. My only complaint about the Tide specifically was that the fan couldn't be scheduled. Dave fixed this, and looking forward to being able to control it on the Blue Fish controller.

-Blue Fish controller - I kind of feel like I was sold a false bill of goods. It's a slick user interface and does what it is supposed to. My gripe is that they specifically marketed this product as an aquarium controller and made a lot of statements about expansion modules being added in the future (power bar, probes, etc). They even had some of these on their website as coming soon for a while. I recently found out they have not prioritized this at all. I ended up just ordering a Reef Keeper Lite to do the pumps and temperature control, Reef Radiance had one on sale for $90 that I just purchased. First time ordering from them, but shared an e-mail with the owner, Rick, and he seems like he has a really nice operation going.

 

-Tunze Nano Osmolator - This thing never worked right for me. It would switch the ATO pump on and off one time and then not again unless I unplugged it and replugged it in. I kind of got busy and never engaged it with Tunze, but as you can imagine the problem has resolved itself over the past year and a half. Good news is that it came with a 24 month warranty, which I am still within. I am not a huge fan of small float switches as a single point of failure. The best ATO I ever had was the full Tunze Osmolator. The optical primary and mechanical back up switch gave me a good piece of mind. I think it's too big for this tank though, so I am stuck for the time being (but will definitely upgrade once I have a sump that can fit it).

 

Pics when the Tide gets here; will try to do better with the updates this time around too :).

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  • 2 weeks later...

No picture updates yet primarily because of this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/G-U-S-Corral-Cable-Organizer-Power/dp/B00TRKMBWY/ref=pd_sbs_229_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41BLlm2qpRL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=11BXWMS4037SE5MCCDF6

 

Anyone use one of these? I got my RKL in from Reef Radiance. Took them a while to ship it, but I'm happy with a new RKL for $90, so no complaints. The tank temp was around 84* (oops) so that's going to get under control real quick. The link I posted said its length is 10.6" I just measured the PC4 at right at that. I might be able to use it by snipping off the mounting tabs. Will keep you posted.

 

One coral in the tank ::ninja:: that I picked up from a local swap a couple weekends ago. Lights out now, but will get a good pick up when I can. No diatoms yet, and all values are reading zero in the nitrogen cycle. I will probably hold on to what I have until I get the diatoms and order a clean-up crew from John (everyone on this site should get theirs exclusively through him - no brainer).

 

First big stock will be from either Darwin at Legendary Corals or another really sick site I found. I have never gotten to buy from Darwin, but I did have a shopping cart full almost ready to pull the trigger the other day, but I couldn't quiet find enough corals I wanted to make the $350 free shipping. Maybe some day he will have more he zoas I'm looking for and few high end pieces to get it to $350.

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nice! Where from?

California Reef Company - careefco.com. They have a lot of great stuff with really reasonable prices. I believe they used to be the same folks that did Reef Raft US. Their SPS is beautiful online and I'm thinking that if this order goes as planned I will probably order again :).

Edit: looks like the discount got cropped. They have free shipping at $250. It wasn't working last night and I posted on their Facebook page and they quickly fixed it at like 8:30pm their time. Maybe they were watching the ducks get beat then ha!

 

Cant wait to see this in action. The Rastas and Sunny's will shine.

-Dave

Thanks Dave. Appreciate the upgrades and will be in touch. Those Hybrids are amazing and will hands down go on any 24"+ tank I have in the future. Unfortunately it might be a littttle overkill on this tank.
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26672213561_7cf40e4c63_b.jpgwelp by Gabriel Manis, on Flickr

 

Well... I guess that means these corals will be in a warehouse or on a truck until Monday. The shipping company was NEX, which contracts with both Fedex and UPS for discounted rates. I'm guessing because this went through Memphis that it's on Fedex. I saw the Fedex guy drive by at like 10 this morning :(. High of 82 tomorrow and low of 59... Frustrating to say the least. Not sure how this will play out, but I will really hate to see the two WYSIWYG pieces die.

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Package arrived today. Not surprisingly the corals didn't fair well. The toxic green bounce shroom is super bleached, but in tact. The second shroom was in a super brown/cloudy bag (I assume) and nowhere to be found. The only zoanthid that is open is the Utter Chaos. The rest of the zoas are in various states of being pissed off (from "that's probably not going to make it" to "that tissue vaguely resembles zoanthid tissue'). All the zoas were in one bag and a second bag had the one shroom and some rubble.

 

The store I ordered from is closed today. I don't have any e-mail contact from them, so I was only able to send a private facebook message to them with all the pictures. Hopefully I get a call back from them tomorrow when they open and they can make it right.

 

:angry:

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