Deeznutz 1.2 HD pico

[deeznutz]

Hello, like others here, I've been around and lurking for a while. I always found picos fascinating. This is my first post and I' would like to say hello to all members and I hope i can contribute to this forum as I've taken a lot ideas from the numerous build threads of followed

 

Well I was out shopping and i found a fish hotel. I decided that this is the one that I'm going to build.

 

I'm not sure what I plan on keeping coral wise. But I know I want a few small gobies and such. I'm thinking of just doing a zoo tank, but it will most likely end up being a mix of zoos and sps.

 

The tank

It's a really cute tank that measures 7x7x6 making it a whooping 1.2g.

 

Tank ideas and plans are welcome but this is what I plan on doing.

 

The tank will be drilled with a single 1" drain(doesn't seem to be tempered, I will find out soon enough). I'm going to use just 1 stand pipe with teeth. I plan on running all the wiring through the pipe as well. I was also thinking of make a skinny overflow that I've seen lately, but I've never seen one built. Any ideas how to set one up???

 

A few more pics

 

 

The Sump with be somewhat the same size of the tank, so total water volume might be 2.5g

 

Lighting

I have a 12 led light that I built with 12 crees that I might use. I'm also thinking of using one of those PAR 38 lights. I think anyone of those will be more then enough to sustain life for anything I would be considering.

 

Flow

I'll be using a maxi jet 400 or something for the return and a maxijet 1200 for in tank flow. I plan on aqua-scaping and forming the live rock around the pump and making it a closed loop to keep it nice and clean looking. I'm going to try to keep the amount of live rock down to a minimum and keep thing low. Who knows ??? lol

I hope the two pumps will produce enough heat that I won't have to use a heater.

 

Stand

As you can see, the stand is not really the stand. The tank is suppose to fit inside the box and you are suppose to view it through the windows, hence the fish hotel name.

I think I might just build a nice maple stand and paint it with white melamine paint.

I have scrape cabinet grade wood and my 12" slide and table saw is out anyways so why not

 

Maintenance, Auto top up and filtration.

As for WC, I can't see this being that hard. 10% is only 1 liter worths

I'll be topping it off with r/o for now or until I get tired of it. But I do plan on an ATO for sure. The tank will be skimmer less due to the pico size. I might add a small fuge with some cheato just cause I got some kicking around.

 

Sand bed or lack of one.

I plan on doing a SSB as a DSB is out of the question. I also like the natural look the sand provides. I'm not opposed to BB either, but I want to line the bottom with something. Any ideas what I could use? Maybe I can make a concrete base or something that might look a bit more natural.

 

Fish list

Well since it's only 1.2g the list will be somewhat short. But I'd like to get some ideas on what fish i should be looking at and what fish to avoid. I was thinking a Naso tang or a grouper

 

The tank is now running now and cycling. I'll post more pics when I get a chance. I sure hope the pics work.

 

thanks for looking

 

-dan

[weeber]

very nice tank. i love the stand. i think you should keep it. if you want a fish some sort of trimma or eviota goby would work. also my personal favorite a flaming prawn goby.

[21093r53]

nice stand, and nice little tank!

[Fluffeh]

nice tank, nice stand, nice name

[Kazooie]

Just an idea, attach the IMG instead.

[lljdma06]

What a cool stand! That tank in the background is pretty sweet too.

 

Looking forward to see this develop.

 

L

[castiel]

I like the stand too, keep! A sump/fuge with some macros inside the stand would be awesome.

[deeznutz]

very nice tank. i love the stand. i think you should keep it. if you want a fish some sort of trimma or eviota goby would work. also my personal favorite a flaming prawn goby.

 

Thanks for the comments and I've decided to keep the stand. It causes some problems, but I'm willing to live with it Also thanks for the fish advise. Keep them coming if possible. I want to keep sexy shrimp, like a lot of others here. But what fish can I keep with them?

 

 

nice stand, and nice little tank!

 

Thank you, really excited about this one.

 

 

nice tank, nice stand, nice name

 

Lol, thanks man

 

 

Just an idea, attach the IMG instead.

 

Please show me how, this is my first post and I can't find the add picture button

 

 

What a cool stand! That tank in the background is pretty sweet too.

 

Looking forward to see this develop.

 

L

 

Thanks alot! My DT is a 150 sps tank 48x30x24 tall

[castiel]

To add a pic, just wrap the link in LINK[/img ][/b] (without the final space) .

 

Or there should be a picture icon next to the smiley icon when making a post.

[deeznutz]

Update...

 

Here she is painted and drilled. Super clean look

 

 

 

Here's the sump that a fellow reefer built for me. 3 sided black acrylic and 1 side clear.

 

 

Installed Within the sump is 1 50w tetra heater and a Ehiem 40-140 gph pump. I've managed to get about 2 lbs of LR in there.

 

 

Assembled and water testing I've changed out the drain. This was just a stand pipe with teeth cut. I found out that this drain was just too noisy for my wife lol. I've changed it to a durso style drain which is

much quieter, but it takes up quite a lot of room. I might have to redesign it to a 1/2" drain and have the return come over the top of the back of the tank. I haven't decided yet but I feel that's how things with go eventually.

 

 

and another one

 

 

 

Kazooie, I hope you are happy hahaha

 

As the tank sits right now. Im happy to say that it's up to temp, salintiy is 1.026 and cycling baby!

I had to make some changes to the flow. The ehiem at 140gph was just too much for the tank. I had to turn it down to about 60gph which is pretty respectable.

 

I've decided that this will be a sps tank with some zoos here and there. I sure hope that I can keep sps corals in such a small tank. I know it can be done, so any advice would be great.

 

More to come when my Boosted par 30 bulb comes in. 2 royal blue, 1 blue, 1 natural and cool white. I've decided that butchering my existing frag tank light is pointless and I don't have time to build another one. the par 30 bulb just fits my schedule

 

thanks for looking

[AnthonyPf]

Very clean, very nice! Like this build a lot.

[pismo_reefer]

Seriously....

This is prolly the best pico tank setup I've ever seen.

[castiel]

Epic, absolutely love it.

[deeznutz]

Very clean, very nice! Like this build a lot.

 

Thanks man, my vision is turning into reality

 

 

Seriously....

This is prolly the best pico tank setup I've ever seen.

 

Wow, that's a bold statement lol. I've seen a lot of nice set-ups but never thought of mine would be of the same caliber. I have the members here to thank for their inspiration

 

 

Epic, absolutely love it.

 

Again, I'm blushing hahah Thanks so must for the commnets.

 

Update, no pics though...

 

The tank running does not lose much water over the course of a day. I find a lot of condensation is building underneath the tank. I guess it is pretty air tight and the water vapour seems to sticking to everything underneath.

I know that this is the reason why I'm not getting tons of evaporation, but I'm worried about salt creep.

 

Should I just leave it and deal with the potential of salt creep or should I vent it some how?

Your ideas and thoughts? I want to make this as low maintenance as possible.

 

I also found a few zoos floating around my DT and one of my fish broke off and piece of purple sps. Guess where they went? So far the zoos haven't opened and the sps is just chilling no PE yet. I'm not expecting them to make it, but I wanted to see what happens.

 

I'm also wondering if I should try to add more live rock? I have about 1-1/2 to 2 lbs in the sump right now to seed the other 1lbs of rock in the display.

 

As for tank fish...

 

Can I keep a pair of trimma gobies with trio of sexy shrimp? Or how about a shrimp and goby combo exclusivly?

 

How are people acclimating tank buddies with such a small amount of water?

 

Thanks again for all the comments and hopefully I can get some answers and some more advice

[deeznutz]

Noones go any answers for the following?

 

"The tank running does not lose much water over the course of a day. I find a lot of condensation is building underneath the tank. I guess it is pretty air tight and the water vapour seems to sticking to everything underneath.

I know that this is the reason why I'm not getting tons of evaporation, but I'm worried about salt creep.

 

Should I just leave it and deal with the potential of salt creep or should I vent it some how?

Your ideas and thoughts? I want to make this as low maintenance as possible.

 

I also found a few zoos floating around my DT and one of my fish broke off and piece of purple sps. Guess where they went? So far the zoos haven't opened and the sps is just chilling no PE yet. I'm not expecting them to make it, but I wanted to see what happens.

 

I'm also wondering if I should try to add more live rock? I have about 1-1/2 to 2 lbs in the sump right now to seed the other 1lbs of rock in the display.

 

As for tank fish...

 

Can I keep a pair of trimma gobies with trio of sexy shrimp? Or how about a shrimp and goby combo exclusivly?

 

How are people acclimating tank buddies with such a small amount of water?

 

Thanks again for all the comments and hopefully I can get some answers and some more advice "

[AnthonyPf]

I know I get a lot of condensation on the underside of my lid with no salt creep issues. The evaporated water does not actually contain any salt.

 

I like your display. I say leave it. Maybe add sand but that is a personal preference.

[deeznutz]

Thanks, I know most of the condensation is pure water, but lets face it, there is always salt and salt creep is just around the corner

 

I'm going to just let it run it's course for now. I've add sand as well and I got my boosted par 30 bulb today.

I am happy with the colour, but sometimes I wish I had of gone a little whiter and got a 14k bulb. But whatever.

 

Pics coming tomorrow

 

thanks

 

-dan

[lljdma06]

Perhaps I'm wrong but I'll tell you what I do when I'm acclimating. I usually do a waterchange the day before or the morning I know I'm going shopping for critters. Then I save about 1-2g of SW I used for the change. The clean stuff, not the waste water. When I'm acclimating & I see that the water level's dropping, I replace the water that's lost with the clean SW. This isn't loss due to evaporation, but for little tanks, there can be a loss in water level if you're doing a careful acclimation. Not a huge amount, but I found it significant enough to have spare clean SW when I'm going to add something. So far, everybody's done fine with this. Fire shrimp's doing great.

 

Love the build, by the way.

 

L

[deeznutz]

Thank you lljdma06, a lot of people seem to be digging this tank including myself. The only person who really doesn't like it is the wife... go figure lol.

 

As for your technique, sound like a great idea. I will be using that for sure

 

thanks for the idea.

 

-dan

[deeznutz]

Update time with pics

 

So I received my bulb the other day and it consist of.

2x RB

1x B

1x CW

1x NW

 

da bulb

 

Daytime pics of the tank

 

 

Night time pics with my new bulb.

 

money shot!

 

and a few more

 

So my tank has been running for a week now. Even with establish rock and some sand from my display to seed the new sand bed. My tank is still not ready for corals I've tried a few things I had laying around my sump and so far they have not opened after a day, so I removed them.

 

I still can't decide on a what fish to stock it with. So my question is can i keep say a trio of sexy shrimp with a goby of some sort? Will the goby eat my shrimp? Also would a pompom crab eat sexy shrimp?

 

thanks for looking. I'm going to leave off with a few pics from my DT

 

[lljdma06]

It's purty... I like the new light. The stand is too cool.

 

I don't think pompom crabs will do anything to other livestock. I want those for my 2.5g. And Harlequin shrimp. Then for a fishy, I'll put a GCG.

[1.0reef]

Flaming Prawn goby tank right here!!! I think some sps in front of the return and zoas along the rest of the tank would look awesome!! Have you thought of a ric garden of mini maxi tank with sexy shrimp and anemone crabs?

[kristoffer]

Awesome photos from your display! And I love the hotel mod build! Did some research, and apparently the hotel tank is by Teddy Luong, an industrial design student at Carlton University. His design of the hotel won a Canadian competition. Pretty neat and very modern!

 

As for the stocking. A trio would be great! You might want to check into the Catalina Goby, too. My LFS has 3 in a small 5g Fluval Chi. They are TINY (could be babies). And, I wouldn't worry about the pom-poms. The only time they'll eat your sexies is if they die.

 

Edit: Scratch the Catalina. I was just informed that they are cold-water fish.

[1.0reef]

Awesome photos from your display! And I love the hotel mod build! Did some research, and apparently the hotel tank is by Teddy Luong, an industrial design student at Carlton University. His design of the hotel won a Canadian competition. Pretty neat and very modern!

 

As for the stocking. A trio would be great! You might want to check into the Catalina Goby, too. My LFS has 3 in a small 5g Fluval Chi. They are TINY (could be babies). And, I wouldn't worry about the pom-poms. The only time they'll eat your sexies is if they die.

Catalina gobies are cold water. They live in 60-72 degree water.

[deeznutz]

It's purty... I like the new light. The stand is too cool.

 

I don't think pompom crabs will do anything to other livestock. I want those for my 2.5g. And Harlequin shrimp. Then for a fishy, I'll put a GCG.

 

Thanks man, I really like pompoms, but I've never seen one in person. Harleqin shrimp are cool, but you have to feed them star fish. I'm not sure how that would effect the tank in bioload? GCG are sps nippers apparently. So stay away if you want sps

 

 

Flaming Prawn goby tank right here!!! I think some sps in front of the return and zoas along the rest of the tank would look awesome!! Have you thought of a ric garden of mini maxi tank with sexy shrimp and anemone crabs?

 

I never thought of that, sound like a good idea. I've never kept max minis. Ric seem to be hard to attach in such a small tank. As for the flaming pawn goby, these are pretty rare fish aren't they?

 

thanks for the advice.

 

 

Awesome photos from your display! And I love the hotel mod build! Did some research, and apparently the hotel tank is by Teddy Luong, an industrial design student at Carlton University. His design of the hotel won a Canadian competition. Pretty neat and very modern!

 

As for the stocking. A trio would be great! You might want to check into the Catalina Goby, too. My LFS has 3 in a small 5g Fluval Chi. They are TINY (could be babies). And, I wouldn't worry about the pom-poms. The only time they'll eat your sexies is if they die.

 

Edit: Scratch the Catalina. I was just informed that they are cold-water fish.

 

Thanks man, the hotel tank is pretty cool. I did read briefly about this tank when I first got it. I was looking for build threads. Funny things is, I couldn't even find one

 

Great fish info and I'm aware of the catalina gobies being a cooler water fish. I was going to go that route, but I really want to do sps in here or at least try.

 

Catalina gobies are cold water. They live in 60-72 degree water.

 

Thank you we are now aware of their requirements. Cool fish though.