rangertex Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 howdy everyone, I finally received my AIO pico that I plan to take to college this coming fall! It is a 9" x 9" x 9" glass cube made out of 1/4" glass. The tank has an 1/4" acrylic false wall which extends 3.25" into the tank. For the actual DT it contains 1.8 gallons and in total(including the filtration section) it holds 2.7 gallons. The filtration section is broken up into 3 different compartments. the first: is an overflow onto a (soon to be build) media rack. It will will hold a poly pad/filterfloss, a passive chemical bag(I'm still undecided) and some marine pure balls. the second: contains a neotherm heater and the room for a gnome glass skimmer(if needed) the third: a Ehiem 600 return. My plan is for a minimalist reef with mainly LPS and no fish. I'm hopping for a simplistic maintenance plan to follow a weekly 2ish cup of water change and monthly/whenever is needed change out the chemical media. here are some dry photos of the tank as it sits: Goals for the upcomming week include bulding the media rack, water testing it, picking out a light, and eventually cycling it. Link to comment
Paaatz Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 wow man! really nice and clean AIO ! Will be following your thread !!! Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Thanks! I spent alot of hours to make sure everything will fit in the smallest space possible Link to comment
Paaatz Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Yea, I did too when I launched my tank. Cause once filled up.. s**** to mods ! Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 today's water test went smoothly and I also spent some time building a DIY media tray. In order to make a media bag fit I had to cut it and then re-stitch the bottom edge. Man sewing is a pain lol here are the results http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150104_162822_zps83989c31.jpg.html'> http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150104_162803_zps5387a5c1.jpg.html'> http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150104_162807_zps119515c6.jpg.html'> Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 To sand or not to sand is now the question. if I only put a tiny layer for aesthetic purposes would i really see any negative effects? especially since I wont have any fish?? Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 This is going to be pretty good !! Following along. Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 After some plumbing issues I finally got everything running! We did had an issue installing the bulkhead and the pipe thread piece since it is such a tiny space... Since the bulkhead I bought was threaded on the output side, but not on the connecting side, I decided cut the bulkhead to where only the portion containing the inner threads remained(see the stock image to see what I'm referring to). Thankfully the threads were long enough to share it between the tubing fitting and the Loc-Line return and now the fittings fit perfectly and room to spare. I had to tune the eheim 600 down a bit, so right now its running at about 3/4 speed. Also, since the water volume is so tiny and slight displacement really affects the overall water level. My hand alone can dramatically change it. Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Today I managed to get quite a bit done. I got my new frags cut courtesy of the parent colonies from my main tank. I was able to frag my bi colored branching hammer, bi color branching frogspawn, and dark green torch colonies into thumb sized frags. I was also able to frag some of my zoa colonies, but I've forgotten what their names are... On top of that I was able to finish my DIY light that will serve as a space filler till the AI Prime comes out. It's composed of 3 solder-less Cree XTE royal blue and 1 solder-less cree XTE white all connected to an Meanwell LPC 35-700 driver. I already had some of the supplies so this fixture ended up costing my about $20 in parts/LEDs. Please excuse the carboard cover as this is only a temporary cover lol. Luckily I was able to hide the driver and all the cables! The lighting cables plus whatever cables I'll need will all run through the false wall of my desk http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150114_183157_zps4badf81a.jpg.html'> http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150114_183140_zpsf9fcca9a.jpg.html'> http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150114_183309_zpscdac9144.jpg.html'> http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/IMG_20150114_183420_zpsca7af714.jpg.html'> Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 the new arrivals:and here is everything all organized and hidden away out of sight. Link to comment
rangertex Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 here are some frags http://s1229.photobucket.com/user/turtlesoup23/media/DSCN5613_zpsqpb2o4q3.jpg.html'> Link to comment
rangertex Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 The two acans together Link to comment
NorthGaHillbilly Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Lovin the build, it looks great! I tried having a tank at school, ended up spending too much time chasing young ladies and drinkin liquid bread. Good luck with freshmen year! Link to comment
VW_TDI_02 Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Those hammer corals look amazing. Definitely on my list of corals to buy for my tank. Would love to see the light once you get the new hood on it. Link to comment
rangertex Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Lovin the build, it looks great! I tried having a tank at school, ended up spending too much time chasing young ladies and drinkin liquid bread. Good luck with freshmen year! Thanks! i'm hoping that I will manage my time decent enough Those hammer corals look amazing. Definitely on my list of corals to buy for my tank. Would love to see the light once you get the new hood on it. Thanks! it took me a long while to find my colony of bi-colors. here are some current pictures Link to comment
rangertex Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 Earlier this week i added my purple elegance coral plus some corals from reef current. I was lucky enough to pick up a fancy red milli frag that offsets all the green Link to comment
rangertex Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 wow, its been a bit. As far as tank updates are concerned, I managed to kill the milli due to my laziness, but afterwards I've picked it back up and everything looks awesome. Ill snag a pic tomorrow! Link to comment
rangertex Posted May 26, 2016 Author Share Posted May 26, 2016 Post first year of college post: wow things have changed in the past few months. the transition of school life took a toll on the tank as i figured out a proper schedule. After an entire year the tank currently looks like this: I've recently added two snails to combat the algae growing on the center rock, its quite distracting. Other than the nuisance algae growth on the rock, the tank is now doing wonderfully. I'm currently trying to promote the colorization of the center mushroom and the tiny Zoa frags on the rock. Link to comment
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