a1rabbit Posted January 7, 2007 Share Posted January 7, 2007 After recently starting my first salt water aquarium, a 10g Nano that I enjoy an enormous amount I decided to start another tank; a 3g pico. There were lots of tanks to choose from between 2.5g and 5g. I decided on a 3g tank that had built in lighting and a fairly crappy looking filter that sucks water up and runs it over a bridge type structure with filter media in it, then the water fell back into the tank. I actually used this for a few weeks just to mix salt water for the Nano. I wanted a sump to be behind my pico, it would have to be small... a 2.5g AGA was the order of the day. The sump would have one small section for a return pump, a bubble trap and a fuge section, actually, it's pretty much the “Model A” design at www.melevsreef.com, only smaller. Here's the start of the process. The Box. The first thing I did was decided where I wanted the bulkhead/drain to be. I wanted it as close to the top as possible and on the left hand side. I drilled an appropriote sized hole to fit my bulkhead using a hole saw. Make sure to pre-drill and use very little pressure or you will crack the tank. Here's the test fit of the bulkhead, it's a ¾ inch, I should have got a 1”, but this will do. The tank has three main parts, the tank, trim (at least that's what I call it) and the canopy. After drilling the bulkhead and attaching it as high up as I wanted to have it, the result was needing to cut away some of the trim to fit around the bulkhead with a Dremel. With a bit of thought and messureing I etched the shaped I'd needed to cut using a protractor similar to this one. The etch. Finished. After this was done I set about making a lexan cover for the light to sit on within the trim under the hood. The inside of the hood had some clips for the stock light fixture, those had to be removed. Clips removed. The current light will be a Coralife Mini that I had hardly used. It has two 9 watt bulbs, One 10k, one Actinic. I'm thinking of building a matching base and hood out of some left over Oak ply I have, if I do I might swap to the coralife screw in lights. This light was used for our fuge at one time. Hood, trim, light and the plexi trim cover. Clossed Hood. More updates as I get the parts. The fuge is pretty much built, I just need to find out if the lexan I have is reef safe or not. It has UV protection on it so I don't know if I should use it in water. Here's a link to the thread about it. Next I need to add fans to the hood, decide how the return will work, etc. Might be a couple days before anything new is done. I might also paint the hood and trim eventually. I don't really enjoy the color, but that's easy to change. Link to comment
Matty1124 Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 oh great now this tank is giving me the urge to do a pico... must start saving... looks super so far cant wait to follow as this comes together Link to comment
Happan Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 Looking good. Nice annd clean work for sure. I'm gonna keep an eye on this one Link to comment
a1rabbit Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share Posted January 17, 2007 Well here's another update. Since my g/f was getting rock for her pico I got mine at the same time. Used rock from the coral place we go to was 4 bucks (Canadian) a pound, was pretty cheap. So we got 11 pounds total. So I rushed a bit to get things going. I had some problems but worked them out. It's funny, durring testing it worked perfectly as I wanted but once I added real salt water and the rock it changed. The overflow could not keep up with the MJ600 and would raise the water level too much and then the pump chamber of the sump/fuge would run dry. The Baffles in the fuge were too tall so I said screw it and removed one and removed part of another one to help the flow a bit. The only reason I added them was for filter media and to keep the sand/particles out of the pump section. With some fiddleing and slowing down the flow of the MJ600 things worked out. The only thing that is still bugging me is that the overflow is not also skimming as I had hoped it would, or at all for that matter. I might have to work this out, I have some ideas. I still need to add the fans to the hood and build a base for it to sit on (it's on a yellow pages atm). I also have get all the hoses for the overflow built instead of what I have. I might also see if I can find some 1/2" loc-line rather than the 3/4". So here's some pics of it's current state. FTS from a distance. FTS up close. From the Top. Hole I made for the Loc Line. This is the return water. Fuge. Fuge. Fuge. If I had it to do over again I'd really go with a bigger bulkhead, 3/4" is just not enough, though I'm sure if I had the bulkhead deeper down it would have been, but at this hight i'd have gone with a 1.5" I think. I could always restrict flow if needed. And yes, if for some reason the pump stops there is enough room int he sump for the water to drain into. Link to comment
John Bloch Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 FTS from a distance. lol.... Xbox360 anyone? Link to comment
a1rabbit Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share Posted January 17, 2007 lol.... Xbox360 anyone? lol, ya, we got a 360. Link to comment
mandarin dragonet Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 So do i! yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Link to comment
Matty1124 Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 at first i couldnt figure it out but is that a strainer with filter flos in it... what a good idea Link to comment
a1rabbit Posted January 18, 2007 Author Share Posted January 18, 2007 at first i couldnt figure it out but is that a strainer with filter flos in it... what a good idea Ya, it's actually a funnel, I just had to figure out somewhere to put the filter floss and had some funnels left from a 5 pack that I got from the dollar store when I first started my other tank. It makes the running water silent and creates a nice slow flow in the fuge. Link to comment
a1rabbit Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 Well one of my LFS's is getting a new shipment of rock on the 29th, even though I already have ample rock I think I'm going to wait it out and see what they get. Maybe I can get 3-5 chunks for the tank, if it's nice rock. Any way to store the live rock I remove? I don't have room for another tank lol. Link to comment
dryice000 Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 i have a water home2 lying around here somewhere i might do the same as you Link to comment
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