Langer6 Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Hey guys. I’ve been lurking for a while and finally moved into my new office at work where I’ll be setting up a 2.5 gallon pico. Hopefully things will be salty and wet by early October. Thanks to all for the inspiration and education the past few months. I always had tanks growing up. In high school I worked at a pet store and kept several tanks (fresh, salt, and reef). In 2003 I went to college and sold everything and have pretty much been out of reefing since. Now that I’ve gotten married and had a kid, I’m excited to get back into it after 12 years. This isn’t the most sophisticated setup but I can't justify spending too much yet when I have barely kept a guppy tank the past decade. If all goes well I’ll update things along the way. Tank 2.5 Gallon Grreat Choice from PetsmartLighting 2- 1-10W Coralife 50/50 mini-compacts from Amazon and 2 outdoor sockets from Home Depot - Would like to upgrade to a DIY Cree fixture in the future Cheap blue LED glo-lite for added color Filtration AC50 with typical reef mod Filter Floss, Chemi-Pure Blue, Chaeto (using an under cabinet puck light from Lowes for Chaeto) 5-6 3-4 lbs dead rock from Premium Aquatics Bare Bottom Other Instant Ocean Reef Crystals Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water Deep Blue Heat Stik 30W 25W Hydor heater DIY stand/canopy since it’s going on my desk and needs to look sharp Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Now on to the photos! Spray painted back and bottom black Tank with AC50 Pieces cut for the stand/canopy Stand assembled Canopy assembled Stand and canopy together With the tank Fitting outdoor sockets for the mini compacts Holes filled, caulked, sanded and ready to paint Another view...also added feet and took an inch off the canopy Link to comment
aquarium Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 very nice! I really like the stand. I might be worried about the lights overheating the tank. keep it coming Link to comment
NinjaReefer Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Great job. I think you are on the right path. I love the stand you built. I use 1 screw in power compact for my 1.6 AIO (1 gallon display). I think the lights will work out good for you. Maybe some air holes drilled in the back or top of the top would help with temps and keep things from getting to steamy under there. I will follow along. I am excited to see this develope. Link to comment
PicoSavvy Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 Have you thought about adding one or two small fans on the back of the hood for air movement, it may also help with keeping humidity down inside the hood. Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 5, 2015 Author Share Posted September 5, 2015 Thanks everyone! I'm excited. I've thought about the possible heat issue with the compacts as well. I pulled the fan out of a broken MacBook from work. It's slim, powerful and quiet so I'm thinking I'll put that in the canopy. Maybe I'll punch some holes through the bottom as well to help with the overall air flow. I'd like to avoid holes in the back if I can but we'll see I guess. Thanks for the feedback keep it coming! Link to comment
brad65ford Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Looks amazing! great work on the stand and hood the hard work has paid off! Also glad to see your using PC lighting too! Look forward in seeing more Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 Got the stand primed and some air holes drilled in the bottom. Also picked up some supplies! Here is the fan from the MacBook Link to comment
BRN Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Im not able to see the pictures from ficker? Link to comment
PicoSavvy Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Yea like BRN said some of the photos show and some don't Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 Sorry, can you see them now? Link to comment
gkarris Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 photos from original post not showing... Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 I'm a noob. Better now? Link to comment
PicoSavvy Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Yes I can see them now, what link do you use to post flicker photo, I have a account been wondering what link it is to post on nano-reef. You should add a apple sticker on the hood, apple cool lights Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 I use the BBCode link but only the part of it between the "'s" if that makes sense. Kind of a pain but seems to work unless you make the photo private Link to comment
PicoSavvy Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Thanks Langer6, I am going to give it a try when I get more update photo of Rembrandt Link to comment
Anden Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Nice work. Following (May copy stand) Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Go for it Anden! Your picos are really nice. I received some goodies from Premium Aquatics. The dry rock exceeded expectations! Sorry for the glare in the pics. Seachem Reef Glue, Coral Dip, and basic test kit (pH, Alk, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate). Chemi-Pure Blue. 6 lbs of dry rock. Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Any feedback on the bare bottom? Anyone have experience with it or advice? Thanks. Link to comment
NinjaReefer Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Any feedback on the bare bottom? Anyone have experience with it or advice? Thanks. You asked for it. lol I kept a 2.5 gallon pico several years ago. What worked for me might not work for everyone, but I will try to share what I learned. The Specs 2.5 gallon same as yours. I ran mine peninsula style with the an AC20 on the short end and an additional 40gph tunze mini power head. (10 years later that same powerhead is going strong and powering my 1.6 pico) 18 watts power compact fixture. and a heater. Bare bottom and rubble rocks. Some would call my tank over stocked yet others would say it is way overstocked. It contained 5 tiny gobies of different species. I added them one at a time and trained them to eat from a feeding stick. This allowed me to keep them fat but also have high water quality. They are tiny fish about an inch long. They all seemed happy perching on corals and begging for food when I looked at the tank. Aquaclear filters are great for moving water, but they dont really work very well as filters, They let the water pass around the filter material to easily. Those intank media baskets look like they fix the problem or you can modify it yourself with a little plastic and super glue for a fraction of the price. Thats what I did. After I modified mine I noticed the little bit of hair algea and cyno I had melt away over night. I ran polyfilters, carbon and purigen. Before you change your filter media take a turkey baster and blast all the junk out from the rocks and let it get trapped in the filter pads. Its good to blast out the rocks a few times over an hour or 2 to get as much material into the filter as you can. Then change out the filter pads and do a water change and you have removed a lot of nutrience and gunk from your system. (if you want to feed your tank some cyclopeeze do it right before this) Water changes are the best way to keep things healthy and fix mistakes. Get a good water change system and change the water often. The tank is so small you can do this very frequently without using very much water at all. I had it worked out where I could do a 50 percent water change in just a minute or 2. I would do a water change 2 or 3 times a week. Many people say not to do large percent water changes, but my tank seemed to love them. Even with room temp water and large 75% water changes everything seemed happy and the coral grew very fast. I average temp of the tank was 83-84. I think the warmer temp and 12-14 hours a day of light contributed to faster coral growth. So pretty much I did everything people told me not to at the time. Overstocked, SPS under 18 watts PC light, huge water changes,Majanos as a show coral, temp swings from the 70s to the hight 80s on occasion, Everything thrived and the coral grew faster than any tank I have had before or since. I had it for a little over 2 years and then parted out the livestock when I moved. I am not saying to ignore everyones advice, but think for yourself and do what makes sence to you. Every tank is differnt and it takes some trial and error to figure out what works for you. Go slow and and make gradual changes. Also, no actinics. Im a rebel like that. Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 Thanks as always Ninj. I like your style and that tank looked sick. Good sick not bad sick. I'm going to attempt a media rack similar to the inTank one and if I fail miserably I'll buy one from them. I like your turkey baster filter pad water change system. Seems like you were able to keep so much because you were on top of the maintenance. Since this is at work I probably won't be able to be as diligent but if things are going well I'd like to add a goby. Thanks bro. Link to comment
Langer6 Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 I got the dry rock cooking this weekend. As you can see it's in about 3 gallons of water with just a sponge in the AC50. I'm running one of the lights for about 5 hours a day. I added a pinch of food to start the cycle so I'll do my first water test next week. I also painted the stand using a flat finish oil based enamel. It left a lot of streaks and I decided against the flat so I sanded it down and am going to try a high-gloss latex mixed with some Floetrol. Look at all that black dust! I looked like a coal miner. Hopefully that will give it a cleaner, sharper look. Also thinking about adding some trim but not sure what kind yet. Link to comment
NinjaReefer Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 The stand looks great! I cant wait to see it setup. Link to comment
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