Lalani's Pico Upgrade

[Lalani]

Nice woodworking. Can't wait to see it setup and running.

this looks like it is going to be great. I like the tank placement

Thanks!

 

Cool idea, I bet it'll look sweet.

Nice looking setup, I bet it turns out great.

Thanks, but maybe you need to get some more sleep?

[O-man21]

The pistols are ok with the sexies?

[Lalani]

Yup! The pistols stay inside the rock 24/7. I only see a glimpse of them when they are hungry for flake food.

[CarterNichols]

I really like the placement of this tank, it should turn out awesome!

[GrandeGixxer]

Should be a cool little tank!

[Duncan]

i can imagine you and your mum sitting side by side, with the tank in the middle. it's a really nice idea and i like it!

[Lalani]

Thanks guys!!!

 

Little update:

Finally received the drill bit, and.... 5 minutes later, the hole was drilled! The false wall has been set it place with aquarium sealant, and tomorrow afternoon it should be cured well enough to hold water. In a few minutes I'm going to go put the powerhead nozzle through the hole and seal it in place.

Tomorrow we'll drill a hole in the back so that all of the cords will run to the power supply, in the cabinet, and will be hidden by the door that we'll eventually install.

The rocks are already cycled, so it won't take long to have everything transfered to this tank.

Every time I have gotten new LR, my cycles have lasted no longer than a week.... I must be lucky.

 

Pics with flash and without:

 

 

 

 

[Jungle_John]

awesome! i want to make something like this lol.

got questions. is the middle piece glass or acrylic? what the blue, paint? what the black? a plastic wrap?

were the over flow back to the pump?

[Lalani]

Let's see.....

False wall is glass.

Both the blue and black paints are Krylon Fusion for plastics. I sealed the paint on the false wall with aquarium sealant.

The overflow: The water will simply spill over the false wall. This way, there won't be any need for surface agitation, and the surface will be perfectly still. I cut it shorter than the tank rim for this purpose, and the water in the back will be slightly lower than that in the display. I'll probably add a piece of eggcrate to the fuge area so I can section off an area for chaeto.

 

Edit: Holy cow.... 1500 posts already!

[lakshwadeep]

Pulchritudo praeter sensus (beauty beyond the senses)!

[Lalani]

Gee thanks, lak!

I just hope it works as well as I want it to.

[irishtexan]

Looks great! I really like the placement, and it looks really clean and simple.

 

What kind of lighting do you have on there? A SunPod?

 

-texx

[Kamao]

Very impressive work on that little hole.

[Lalani]

Thanks Tex, it's the Current Orbit 2x40w PC fixture.

[irishtexan]

Ohh

 

It looks exactly like my SunPod.

[Lalani]

Very impressive work on that little hole.

I know! That little hole took quite a while to become a reality..... I think it is one of my most incredible accomplishments.

 

Tex, yup, Current likes to use that shape!

[Jungle_John]

were you get the pc light?

[Lalani]

Where did I get it? It was actually a graduation gift, but it was ordered from marineandreef.com, through Amazon.com.

[Lalani]

Freshwater test was a success! The maxi-jet 900 was too strong, so I switched it out for a 600.... It was still a bit too strong, but I didn't feel like waiting to buy a new ph.... so I shaved down the impeller and found the perfect flow amount. We'll see if I can position the deflector to have the surface still, but not blow the sand around. Anyways, filling it with ro/di.

 

 

[Rehype]

wow looks really good lalani!

[Lalani]

Thanks Rehype!

 

The tank is full of water and I'm mixing the salt in right now.... but I realized something just a few minutes ago. We forgot to get a piece of glass for the tank to sit on, in order to protect the furniture. So, I'm going to have to drain the tank tomorrow, touch-up a couple of spots where the paint has chipped off and wait for it to dry. May try to seal the paint while we're at it, then we'll set it back up again and add the rocks and sand.

 

So it probably won't be up and running until the middle of next week or so.

[Featherduster]

That tank design is amazing. I also like it's location. You can view it easily from the three sides.

[Lalani]

I stole the idea.

[Lalani]

Slight change in plans. The Krylon Fusion did not hold on to the false wall.

 

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the paint at the bottom started to pull away from the glass and create a pocket of water. It did this all the way to the top edge on half of the wall, but the other half remained completely secure to the glass... I had to scrape that side off with a razor blade, and it wasn't going anywhere otherwise. Luckily, because I had coated the back side of the paint with silicone, none of it floated away, but it all stuck to the silicone and I just peeled it all off.

 

So, I went to the glass shop and picked out a plain decorative/frosted glass pane and had it cut to size. I had to tell mom 'no' to a mirror false wall many times! Drilled the hole for the powerhead nozzle, sealed it in place, and sealed the wall in place again. Now it's back up and running with just saltwater.

 

As soon as the water gets back up to 79F, I'll put the new rock and sand into the tank. I'll be leaving for Mobile, AL this weekend, so I'm not going to transfer everything from the sexy shrimp pico until I get back.

I should have the rocks and sand in in a little while, but here are pics of the set-up as is:

Some of them are a little crooked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I MUCH preferred the blue false wall, but this is alright too. I can just let the coralline grow and provide a natural look.

[TR3XX]

very cool set up. i think allowing the coraline to grow over the clear wall will look awesome!