Start of my new Pico

[evilc66]

I have been looking around on the Pico section of this forum for a while now and I am so impressed by the tanks that everyone has done here. I have been intrigued by doing a tank this small, and as most of you, I want a tank I can fit on my desk at work.

 

One of the tanks in particular stuck out in my mind, and that is Ninjafish's 2gal starphire cube. I love the fact that there is no equipment in the tank and you can view it from all sides. So with that as inspiration, I came up with my own rendition.

 

 

It will be made out of 1/4" extruded acrylic (I know, cast is better. But I have a ton of this stuff), 8x8x8" with the bottom at 6". So 8x8x6" actual volume (1.6gal).

 

I'm going to run a closed loop system under the desk using a mj600 or something similar, 50W Finnex titanium heater, with LRR and chaeto (and lights). The closed loop system still has to be worked out and would like suggestions on some of the equipment.

 

Lighting will be taken care of by a custom led hood that I have been working on. I'm going to start a seperate thread on that one once I get a little further along.

 

Stocking will consist of zoas, shrooms, rics, pallys. I'll probably get some sexy shrimp too.

 

Substrate and rock will probably be black sand, with fiji live rock. I'm trying to hide all the plumbing inside the live rock. I'm sure the dremel will get a workout getting that accomplished.

 

 

So, what do you guys think? Please give comments and critisism on this. I'd really like to know if that pump will be able to supply the flow at a 3ft head. If not, can someone suggest something?

[sammy113]

I like the idea of the raised bottom to hide the plumbing down there without drilling the stand or where its going to sit. How is the sump gonna look like? Isn't an open top sump a problem when power failures because the whole tank will drain? Probably a canister with LR and the heater should work nice. I think Ninjafish's has chaeto with a small light in the canister.

[evilc66]

It will be closed loop, so the "sump" will be sealed and will be full of water. That way you have no syphoning effect. It's a similar concept to a canister filter, just DIY

[el_santo]

i like this concept, when you get it all setup and ironed out, make me one.. for cheap.

[sammy113]

Thats cool. I can't wait to see it running!

[evilc66]

Thanks everyone for the comments. El Santo, I like your pico. Not so "pico" anymore with that huge sump behind it . I always liked the Toms Deco tanks, but thought that I needed something different.

 

Once I get the bugs worked out, I'll make you one if you are still interested.

 

 

Keep watching, there is more to come

[evilc66]

Ok, I got my acrylic cut over the weekend. Just need to clean up the edges and start letting the glue fly.

 

Still working on the closed loop sump and LED hood. Can anyone suggest a pump that would work well for this? Gonna need about 20gph @3-4ft head. Anyone?

 

Will have pics up soon. Been difficult getting things done during the week with my work and school schedule.

[Matty1124]

if im not mistaken there was a thread about a DIY heater chamber for pico tanks... it was a closed loop... ill see if i can find it

[Cuervo420]

tagging along. i can't wait to see this one. the smallest rio and i think the micro/mini jets have flow control.

[evilc66]

Steelhair has the closed loop thread in his Top DIY Projects list over in the DIY forum. That is what I'm going to base mine from, but I'm going to try to get the pump internal so it is more like a canister filter.

 

I thought a little more about the pump situation. I could always go with something like an MJ900 and use a ball valve on the return to control the flow.

 

Any one have any better suggestions?

 

Pictures to come this weekend!

[hyewiz]

I love the setup but how do you control in case of power failor isnt the water going down the sum?

[evilc66]

this question was answered before, but a close loop system is much like a canister filter. It's a closed chamber that is filled completely with water. One of the reasons a sump will syphon is bacause there is somewhere for the water to go, and it will drain your entire tank. There is nowhere for the water to go in a closed loop system, except for back in the tank. The tank wont flood, drain, or even move. It's all good. Like I mentioned before, it's really just a DIY canister filter.

[evilc66]

For anyone that is interested, I have started my LED thread that will tie into this

 

Click Here

[el_santo]

cool! the led thread was a good/informative read for me so i'll be tracking that one and this one.

[Yurei]

I'm so tracking this one. I loved Ninjafish's nano. I discovered it on youtube lol.

[evilc66]

Thanks a lot everyone. This is a learning experience for me on many levels so I'm glad there are people who are eager to see me succeed (or completely screw up ) with this project. The LED thread will be a good one, provided it doesn't get hijacked.

 

Please, keep reading. There will be more.

[evilc66]

And here is more. It's not as far as I wanted to get today, but things may move forward better tomorrow.

 

 

These are my acrylic sides and bottom for the pico. Today I took these parts over to my Dads place to get the edges finished. It's great having access to tools like edge planers, and the edges came out great.

 

 

And here is an example of that. Perfectly square, smooth finish, ready for bonding. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow. Once the glue has dried properly, it's off to the router to clean up the corners. With any luck that will be on wednesday. Maybe I'll even get to the "sump" this weekend. That would be nice.

 

As always, more picture when I get further.

[evilc66]

Ok. All done!

 

Even though I was using extruded acrylic, things came out a lot better than I expected. Edge finish was nice. There were some bubbles in the glue seams, but overall it look great (at least to me )

 

 

Here I am getting set up for my first glue joint, with the obligatory bright orange Home Depot speed squares. I think everyone that works with acrylic has these.

 

 

A little more progress. picture came out slightly out of focus for some reason.

 

 

And there it is. All sparkly and new.

 

Next thing to work on is the sump. I'm still wainting on some fittings to arrive so I can leak test the tank, but I'm pretty confident there are no leaks. I went over the seams again with the solvent after the first run just to make sure.

 

Hopefully by the weekend I'll have a running tank

[evilc66]

Could someone throw some opinions in as to how I should arrange the supply and return to the sump? I'm undecided as to which would be better; return high supply low, or return low supply high. Are there any advantages either way? Keep in mind that the plumbing will be hidden as much as possible in the live rock. I want to keep it clean looking.

[spanko]

Seems to me if you are going to have the aquascape trying to hide the plumbing return low would have a better chance at mixing up the detritus on the rock work so that it could get taken out by the supply high.

 

Just sayin...............

[evilc66]

that makes sense. Having the return too high could make excessive turbulance on the waters surface.

[spanko]

True that, but now that you bring up surface turbulence will you have enough to keep a film from forming with return low-supply high? May have to run some small Tunze powerhead or something aimed at the top to mix it up a bit.

[evilc66]

At this point I think I'm going to run a mj900 for a power head, and use a ball valve to control flow on the return side. Instead of pointing the return straight up, I bought end caps for the tubing I bought with the idea of drilling it at different points and different angles to create turbulence. Surface film may just have to be taken care of during weekly water changes.

[evilc66]

Got the leak test done today. I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out so far.

 

 

You can see a little bit how I'm planning to set up the plumbing. The LR will have to be carved pretty well on the inside to clear everything, but the work will be worth the clean look. You will also see here the first test of the new LED lighting that will be going over this tank. This is only 6 of the 12 LEDs that I am planning on putting over this tank. Should look great, and almost no heat!

[sammy113]

I love how this tank is turnig. You make me wanna set up mi 1G Cube again but this time with the bottom drilled and a canister. Do you think I can make some kind of fixture with two LED panels from a sunpod (6 whites and 6 blues)? I currently have a coralife aqualight with two 9W 50/50's but that thing runs very hot.