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Ryan's 4.45 gallon acrylic AIO pico


Ryan_H

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So a while back ericrm built me this cool little tank. It's been sitting on my desk empty, and now that I have a little extra cash I decided to fill it up.

 

Tank:

12x12x9 Acrylic AIO

Display Volume- 3.4 gallons

Filter Volume- 1.05 gallons

Total Volume- 4.45 gallons

 

Equipment:

MJ 900 Return (impeller modified for less flow)

Viper 70w HQI

80mm fan

1w Coralife Lunar Light

2x10w Fountain light for refugium

Hydor Theo 25w submersible heater

Standing thermometer

 

Filtration:

Refugium w/chaeto

DIY egg-crate media rack

Chemipure Elite

Seachem Matrix

~3.5 lbs Live rock

~2 lbs Aragonite, dry

 

Live Stock:

Fish:

-2x Gold Neon Eviota Gobies

 

Inverts:

-3x Sexy Shrimp

-1x Candy Pistol

-1x Flower Anemone

CUC:

2x blue leg hermits

10x nerite snails

4x nassarius snails

 

Corals:

-eagle eye zoas

-orange nipple zoas

-yellow ricordea

-blue ricordea

-armor of god zoas

-riddler palys

-red mushroom

-green pipe organ

-dragon's breath favia

-unknown blue branching lps

-gold zoas

Tank Pictures:

0225092101-2.jpg

 

0226090026.jpg

 

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0227092027-1.jpg

 

0307091423-1.jpg

 

005.jpg

 

downsized_0503091957a.jpg

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Sweet tank, time to roast some corals.......... :P

 

now ty that almost sounds like you are referring to "overkill". that word is not in my dictionary lol.

 

i was actually going to use a MJ900 as the return pump, but the overflow slots weren't as wide as planned and when i plugged the pump in it almost overflowed the tank. If it had worked, there would be water and rock in it right now. I'm just going straight to the 400, and I'll be changing the stock viper bulb to a 20,000k. I'm still undecided on livestock for this tank, but I will most likely focus on ricordeas for coral selection.

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damn that thing is insane, good job

 

thanks :)

 

lets just hope i can keep it looking good and not scratch it to hell like i did the last acrylic tank i attempted.

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so i decided that instead of spending another $20 on a MJ400, i would make the 900 work. I clipped the impeller blades down and now the flow is perfect :)

 

so it has water now!

0226091442-1.jpg

 

downside is i have no idea exactly how much flow is going through this thing now. I clipped less than half of each impeller blade, so i would guess there's at least 1/2 of the 230 gph, or 115 gph. maybe more.

 

i'll be picking up some tatoka live rock from work tomorrow :D

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you should keep a flaming prawn goby AKA spikefin goby perfect tank size for one.

hers a pic.

Greissingeri5copyright.jpg

 

i will if they're still in season when the tank is cycled :)

 

problem is, they tend to disappear from our wholesaler's list after february until about december :(

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well after only 8 hours of the tank running it has become quite apparent that i am going to need a small fan and an ato lol. heater's set at 76 but between the pump and the light the temp's at 82 :eek:. my room's not even close to being as hot as it get's in the summer, either. don't have problems with my other tanks, but i guess it had to start sometime.

i also had about 2" of evap in the pump chamber, and after topping off another 1/4" has vaporized in the past hour.

any suggestions where to get a good deal on some float-switches?

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Got bored. Made a media rack for some filter floss and eventually some chemipure elite and a bag of seachem matrix.

 

0226092357a.jpg

dropdown door to secure media when removing rack

0226092357.jpg

0226092338.jpg

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Thanks for all the compliments guys :happy:

 

let there be live rock!

 

oooohhhhh tatoka :happydance:

0227092027-1.jpg

 

view from my computer chair

0227092029-1.jpg

 

0227092034.jpg

 

believe it or not, that is only 3.5 lbs of rock! this stuff is ridiculously porous/low density. i was wanting a more open aquascape, but also wanted 5 lbs of rock. didn't meet either requirement lol. but there are lots of little nooks and crannies for corals and caves for other inhabitants. my crappy cell phone pics don't do this stuff justice, but i'm too lazy to pull out my camera until there is more life in the tank.

 

i raised the light from about 4.5-5 inches off the surface to 7 inches, and my temp was only 78 today. i have an 80mm fan and ac adapter coming in the mail soon though, just in case it heats up when the outside temps rise. after pay-day i'll be adding an ATO of some kind. I think if i went away for a weekend with noone checking on the tank, i would come back to a dry-running pump.

 

now to wait a week :(

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Not to good. I ended up smashing it when I was bringing it down from the second floor in our garage. All I remember is my foot slipped and the tank went one way I went the other. It was better anyway now Im probably going to build 36" X 12" X 18" LXHXW

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Not to good. I ended up smashing it when I was bringing it down from the second floor in our garage. All I remember is my foot slipped and the tank went one way I went the other. It was better anyway now Im probably going to build 36" X 12" X 18" LXHXW

 

eeew yeah that sucks. well, i guess you have experience to build the bigger tank now! don't throw this one ;)

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haha I wont but my dad walked in and he was like why the hell did you throw the tank down the stairs?

 

don't you love it when dad's react without thinking? haha

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yea he was pretty pissed actually until he saw the blood all over my arm, the tank sliced me too. It just wasnt a good day.

 

ooh, injury added to insult. that tank had to have been possessed :eek:

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