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Our Wal-Mart Pico contest entry thread


wee luv daycare

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wee luv daycare

CURRENT PHOTO / DWARF SEAHORSES ADDED

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At the beginning of the year my wife opened a daycare (Wee Luv Daycare) in our home in Arizona. We have had many saltwater tanks over the years from fish only, species tanks, and the last one being a 150 gallon reef tank that was sold to a retail store when we moved to another home. We currently just started a 12 gallon clear for life nano in her daycare and the kids love it. My son is 2 and named his blue head jaw fish irsh, he gets a kick from him swimming from his underground cave when its time to eat. We recently saw this contest and I thought it would be something fun for the kids to enjoy. We just received the tank in the nick of time today so please enter us in the contest. We look forward to giving you guys some decent competition.

 

Ok so the last couple of weeks I had a chance to get some work done to the tank, we are excited on how it came out. Here is our build.

 

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Taped off and painted back using Krylon Fusion, chose color that will make things stand out a bit. Painted around the curved edges so whole backside was covered.

 

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Picked up a 10 gallon glass tank for sump from pet store, then bought 2 glass plates from Home Depot to silicone into tank.

 

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Had to do a bit of cutting to the glass plates then siliconed them into place, this will be a low flow sump so baffles will not be needed.

 

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I think I may be first to find this little goodie, found add on from Toms to convert filter into a skimmer. I don't like a lot of equipment showing so this piece works out well for having a skimmer in the sump.

 

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Simple sump set up that will have sand bed in middle where I can grow macro to help with nitrates. Purchased sicce pump to do the flow work which I will control with a ball valve. You can also see where the skimmer location will be. The filter box itself will sit on glass divider attached to skimmer.

 

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The Pico tank is so small I thought it would be best on top of a desk. This cabinet is next to our computer desk and we use it to put our printer and misc stuff on top of it. This is where I will be hiding the sump and will use a hole saw to cut holes into the back side so the lines can reach the Pico tank. You can also see the hardware that I will be using in the photo.

 

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Drilled and ready to plumb the lines. I also used the JBJ overflow box as it is the smallest on the market, everything else I found was just way to big and would over take the look of the tank. JBJ's instructions for install were to just use the suction from the drain to attach the box. This would not work well with the Pico because the walls are curved so water will just seep through the opening at the bottom so the overflow would lose its purpose. So I decided to silicone this piece in as well.

 

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Now since I did not use the strainer for the filter box due to the skimmer attachment, I found use for it at the drain instead. This will safeguard any snails going where they are not supposed to.

 

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The clamps for wires on the side of my computer table really helped make the plumbing unnoticeable. We have a Mac Mini so not many wires and they are tucked away from the tank.

 

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Sump all set up with mini corallife PC that I had laying around from previous tank. Sand bed in middle, skimmer in front with filter, and pump in back. Can grab whole tank and turn side ways in cabinet.

 

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Full equipment shot

 

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Full tank shot 12/13/11, used some sand and water from water change on my other tank to aid in cycling.

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:welcome:

 

Indeed the games have begun and I'm glad to see we have more competition although I would not consider my two entries has competition, it's more like a serious learning experience for me. Anywho, best of luck to you and all our contestants. Be sure to keep us posted on your progress. :P

 

Rob

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At the beginning of the year my wife opened a daycare (Wee Luv Daycare) in our home in Arizona. We have had many saltwater tanks over the years from fish only, species tanks, and the last one being a 150 gallon reef tank that was sold to a retail store when we moved to another home. We currently just started a 12 gallon clear for life nano in her daycare and the kids love it. My son is 2 and named his blue head jaw fish irsh, he gets a kick from him swimming from his underground cave when its time to eat. We recently saw this contest and I thought it would be something fun for the kids to enjoy. We just received the tank in the nick of time today so please enter us in the contest. We look forward to giving you guys some decent competition. May the games begin. LOL

 

Sorry to be such a newb, but I'm just getting back into the hobby and would like to try a pico... Is this CF light that comes with the tank enough for coral growth and coraline growth?

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Seano Hermano
Sorry to be such a newb, but I'm just getting back into the hobby and would like to try a pico... Is this CF light that comes with the tank enough for coral growth and coraline growth?

Yes, for this size tank, it is good for corals. Many people on NR have this tank (hence the contest thread) and people have grown coral with he provided light.

 

It is an inexpensive setup and I think it's an excellent way to get your feet wet in the hobby.

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wee luv daycare

Hello everyone, thought I'd throw in a picture of my wife's daycare set up. If you look to the left side of the room you can see our 12 gallon clear for life tank. Everyday the kids get excited when its time to feed the fish. They also read books and sit in front of the tank. We are excited to add the pico as an addition in our house. The tank is extremely small so we have placed it on top of our computer table that is in our family room, where the kids watch videos during the day with my wife. I am working on the set up and should have more pics up soon. This is going to be a lot of fun. (click on picture to make larger)

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Again, welcome to the contest. Seeing kids get excited for all of the life in saltwater tanks is a great motivator to keep one (or two) up and running! Can't wait to see what you have in store for your pico.

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  • 2 weeks later...
wee luv daycare

Thanks guys and gals, the color my wife and I picked out is "Sun Dried Tomato" and is a Krylon Fusion color that bonds to plastic well. The picture actually doesn't do the color true justice as it has just a little bit of orange in it rather than a traditional red. Thanks again.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
wee luv daycare

So finally got a day to relax and see whats going on with all the pico entry's. The other Pico's look really great! So thought I'd give an update on ours.

 

Took some caulerpa from our other tank and put it into the sand bed of the sump. It is starting to spread nicely.

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Started doing a little landscaping to get a little closer to what we set out to do with our Pico. Added some Macro. Added a Red Grape, Red Dragon, & a Halimeda.

 

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You can't see them very good from the above pictures, but the front of the pico is covered with copepods. This is due to me using some of the sand from my established tank. More updates to come soon, these Picos are looking good!

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  • 3 weeks later...
wee luv daycare

So some new additions to our tank has recently happened. We added some barnacles as a decor piece behind the macro. Also we are going for a sort of setting for our pico so we added some volcano shrimp that are native from Hawaii. These fit right in with the black rock since they live on the lava rocks in Hawaii.

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They all seem to gather here from time to time especially at night.

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Water parameters are ideal so far also, I do a 2.0 gallon water change every Sunday. Nitrates are even down to 0, Macro helps with this.

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Stay tuned I have begun to build a separate phytoplankton and rotifers set up that will be helpful to this tank.

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wee luv daycare
are those the shrimp that is in the litlle spere thigy that live forever?

Exactly. They live to be around 12 to 15 years, but have been known to live for more than 20 years. They are hawaiian volcano shrimp that live on the lava rocks in Hawaii and feed on the algae on the volcanic rocks. In aquarium set up they feed on flake food and algae on rocks. I chose the black thicker substrate for this reason. Thanks for the compliments guys!

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  • 2 weeks later...
wee luv daycare
Are you ever going to get lr and coral? Or is this going to be an all macro tank?

Big plans. No live rock because of the livestock I am eventually going to stock in this tank. Can't have hitchhikers or hydroids. I will eventually add some zoas. Stay tuned

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  • 1 month later...
wee luv daycare

Hi guys, so have a bit of time so I thought I'd post some pics on the brine shrimp hatchery and copepod culture setup that I started for the pico. This will be the main source of food for what lives in our pico.

 

Got little tank at Petco for the copepod culture. Ordered Rotifer and Copepod culture from Aqua Farms along with photo concentrate. (I may start my own phyto culture later) Fill tank with culture and make water green then watch them reproduce to make my own food source.

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I then decided not to put the Rotifer bottle to waste. I drilled a hole in top and put bubbler down inside for a Brine Shrimp Hatchery. I also ordered decapsulated brine shrimp eggs from Aqua Farms. IMG_0100-1.jpg

 

Also a bit of update, the macro in my sump is doing great lots of growth!!! I feed my volcano shrimp flake food which creates a bit of nitrates for the macro. Nitrates still at zero.IMG_0228.jpg

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Come on guys lets keep these Picos thriving!

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