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Innovative Marine Aquariums

2g rimless custom pico cube, 9x9x7in


airman_verde04

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Does the light get in the way during water changes or when you get the bug to rearrange things? I was thinking that it might be simple enough to cut that acrylic your light is mounted on straight from side to side just behind the light, find some plastic hinges somewhere, and fasten them on top where you made the cut, hence giving you the ability to flip the light back to do things within the tank a little easier. Just something that popped in my head when I saw that side picture of your setup with the light mounted and stand painted black.

 

Edit: Missed the gate hinge fastening the whole thing to the back, disregard the above. :)

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airman_verde04

well, I just ordered 4 pounds of dry rock from bulk reef supply as well as Tunze Reef Excel salt, I was going to order H2Ocean Pro+, which if the Tunze doesn't work out for me, is what I'm going to use.. but I saw this and it looks just as good. lets hope I'm not disappointed, I dont plan on dosing for anything.. EVER!! just water changes. I think my 10g had issues with the PH and KH from the start, so If I have good PH and KH levels this time, I should have stable prams in all the other departments. I'm selling a few more things to make a little extra cash, so tomorrow I'm picking up my new filter, going to test it, so either at the end of next week or the week before Halloween I'll be setting up my tank! I might wait till the first of November so I can set up the gravity feed ATO. I'm just going to use a bottle of some sort for the time being, but hope to find a rectangular shaped plastic thing that I can make into a resevor for the ATO, I want it to fit nicely behind the light without spilling all over the place.. anyways.. other than a picture of a water test, I'll be off the NR till I get my rock and set up the tank! :)

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airman_verde04
Does the light get in the way during water changes or when you get the bug to rearrange things? I was thinking that it might be simple enough to cut that acrylic your light is mounted on straight from side to side just behind the light, find some plastic hinges somewhere, and fasten them on top where you made the cut, hence giving you the ability to flip the light back to do things within the tank a little easier. Just something that popped in my head when I saw that side picture of your setup with the light mounted and stand painted black.

 

Edit: Missed the gate hinge fastening the whole thing to the back, disregard the above. :)

 

 

HAHA, yeah, I have a hinge on there, and I have screws holding the light so it can slip around.. its really easy to work around.. Right now I'm messing with the filter area alot, so its not so user friendly, but as far as getting into the tank, it will be really easy to access the tank.

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I just started up my own 10g, and reading through this post makes me want to attempt a custom build for an eventual new tank. Love some of your simple yet effective solutions. Tank Looks great so far!

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wait.... did you mean to add a pictures or something.. or are you just noting that my tank is awesome... hehe.. I'm really happy with it though, so I think its close to awesome. 78% awesome.

 

 

i was attempting to illustrate your tanks awesome futuristic-ness......

:D

 

 

1000% awesome.

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airman_verde04
I just started up my own 10g, and reading through this post makes me want to attempt a custom build for an eventual new tank. Love some of your simple yet effective solutions. Tank Looks great so far!

 

Thanks alot dirkgent, I had a 10g myself and one of the first things I did after getting my 10g was start planning my pico which after 2 years, this is what I managed to work out.

 

i was attempting to illustrate your tanks awesome futuristic-ness......

:D

 

 

 

1000% awesome.

 

haha.. thanks for the nice comment, I had some much going on with my 10g, I wanted the least about of things to worry about on this tank. but thanks again!

 

anyhoo, my rock and salt should be here Monday, so I'm really excited!! not to mention I'm off Tuesday, so the Wife wont be pissed off if I set up the tank while shes at work... hehe.. now If I did it while she was home, not so smart. HEHE!! WOOT WOOT!

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airman_verde04

ROCKS and salt are IN!! WOOHOO!!! 4 pounds of rock is a crap load, so I'll have alot left over. should have the tank ready tomorrow, and up and running for the first day.. if not, Thursday. more to come

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Glad to hear things are coming along for you David.

 

How did the EcoRox turn out for you? It's pretty light rock so I'm sure 4 pounds was PLENTY for your tiny tank :)

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airman_verde04
Glad to hear things are coming along for you David.

 

How did the EcoRox turn out for you? It's pretty light rock so I'm sure 4 pounds was PLENTY for your tiny tank :)

 

holy crap Adam, I had no idea it was going to be that much rock, I have so much left over.. HAHA the rock is great. I'm going to eat some breakfast and get to the rock scaping. I should have some pictures tonight. Picking up my sand as well..

 

as far as the tank goes, its good to go, though I'm still lost on the ATO set up, I actually dont have anything yet, but I just haven't found the right container yet.. so I think I'll just give in, and use whatever till I find the one.. less hassle for me.

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airman_verde04

Hello world!!

 

The day is here!! well, it happened last night, and my tank is up and running.. I think I have about 2 pounds of rock in the tank, and no more than 1/2 inch of sand, its a bit higher in a few places, but I think its good.. I'm having some trouble keeping the tank warm at night, so I think I'll be ordering a heater in a week. I didn't want to pack my tank full of rock, so I kept it nice and open. I'll be picking up a mini nalgene bottle which will become my ATO reservoir.

 

anyways, on to the good stuff.. PIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Front

IMG_0449.jpg

IMG_0453.jpg

 

right side

IMG_0451.jpg

 

Left side

IMG_0452.jpg

 

Enjoy!! I'll be getting a little piece of rock from Divecj5 this week, so I should start seeing some good stuff growing in about 3 weeks or so.. I'm pumped!

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airman_verde04
your rockwork is AWESOME. get some coral in thar, QUICK! :haha: ahaha jk.

wait for teh cycle to end. ;)

 

HA... thanks though. I'm excited, I cant wait for this thing to cycle .

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Looks really great David. I wouldn't add anymore rock to it as I think you have the right balance right now. I may end up having to take a rock out of my tank and breaking a piece off to get you some seed rock. I thought I had some rock rubble in the back but I forgot that I took it out a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty particular about having a clean sand bed free of debris so I forgot I removed it.

 

Let me hunt around the tank this evening to see if there is something that I can either break off for you or scope out the back of the tank to see if there isn't something back there worthwhile to get your going. Honestly, I'm not really sure the little piece of rubble that Karen gave me when I started to cycle my EcoRox ended up helping or moving things along faster. Naturally the rock and sand will start to cycle with just the addition of a sprinkle of food.

 

I'll let you know what I find.

 

-Adam

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airman_verde04
Looks really great David. I wouldn't add anymore rock to it as I think you have the right balance right now. I may end up having to take a rock out of my tank and breaking a piece off to get you some seed rock. I thought I had some rock rubble in the back but I forgot that I took it out a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty particular about having a clean sand bed free of debris so I forgot I removed it.

 

Let me hunt around the tank this evening to see if there is something that I can either break off for you or scope out the back of the tank to see if there isn't something back there worthwhile to get your going. Honestly, I'm not really sure the little piece of rubble that Karen gave me when I started to cycle my EcoRox ended up helping or moving things along faster. Naturally the rock and sand will start to cycle with just the addition of a sprinkle of food.

 

I'll let you know what I find.

 

-Adam

 

well, I can just toss some mysis shrimp in there and get the ball rolling. we can just just meet up out of shear boredom. hehe. I'd like to swing by your place something soon and take a look at your tank..

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well, I can just toss some mysis shrimp in there and get the ball rolling. we can just just meet up out of shear boredom. hehe. I'd like to swing by your place something soon and take a look at your tank..

 

I'll take a look at things this evening and let you know. I may have some rubble hiding in the back of the tank that I can pull for you. Since your tank is small and you want to keep rock to a minimum, I'll make sure that it's a small piece.

 

We'll definitely get together soon. I'd love to see your tank in person and vice versa. We need to see what Karen's been up to as well.

 

-Adam

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airman_verde04
I'll take a look at things this evening and let you know. I may have some rubble hiding in the back of the tank that I can pull for you. Since your tank is small and you want to keep rock to a minimum, I'll make sure that it's a small piece.

 

We'll definitely get together soon. I'd love to see your tank in person and vice versa. We need to see what Karen's been up to as well.

 

-Adam

 

sounds good on the rubble, yeah I'm about maxed on what I would be willing to put in the tank, my scape worked out so well. And I didn't know Karen was still in town! we'll have to plan something for sure this time around.

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airman_verde04

well, still having alittle heat issues.. my heater went caput, so I just got one that works today.. should solve the issues.

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airman_verde04

uggg... so for whatever reason I'm still having heat issues.. I'm ordering that flat heater thing, I didn't want to put a round standard heater, it just didn't fit inside the display well, so I guess if this flat thing works, I'll just deal with the heater in the display... I'll be testing the water at the end of the week... should be ready for a CUC by next Monday.

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  • 2 weeks later...
airman_verde04

Well I got my mini heater from DFS.. I though I would get the bigger of the two... so far I think it was kind of a bad Idea.. the heat works great, I was able to fit it into the filter and keep it out of the display... only problem is that is way to powerful and I came home to find my tank at like 88 degrees.. (I think) anyways.. so it took all night to get back down to around 76degrees... I'm going to be plugging the heater up to a timer with multiple settings to have it set at interval, I'm thinking that way it will be able to keep a more steady temp all day... uggg... I'm starting to think it would have just been easier to not have a tank at all at this point... very frustrated. :angry:

 

anyways, luckily I don't have any life stock in the tank yet. I'll give it two more days and see how the heating thing pans out.

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Sorry to hear about the issues with the heater. What wattage did you go with? Doesn't it have a way to adjust the temperature?

 

Don't let it get you too down....like you said, it's better to find and test these things out now before there is any livestock in there.

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airman_verde04
Sorry to hear about the issues with the heater. What wattage did you go with? Doesn't it have a way to adjust the temperature?

 

Don't let it get you too down....like you said, it's better to find and test these things out now before there is any livestock in there.

 

its that pre-set temp mini heater from DFS, though it doesn't mention that it can boil water.. HAHA, its only 10watts, that things a beast

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its that pre-set temp mini heater from DFS, though it doesn't mention that it can boil water.. HAHA, its only 10watts, that things a beast

 

Let me check my box o' reef stuff when I get home. I may have a 5-10 watt adjustable heater that you can have. I'll let you know if I do.

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airman_verde04

well, so far today was better, I set up the timer to the heater.. so far the temp is staying between 77.9-79. I have it set up on 1 1/2 hour intervals with two hours of off time.. though its only running at night so far, the next cycle is about to start up, so I'll see how hot it gets.. then if it works out well after the lights stay on, then I dont have to run the heat when the lights are on... I'm feeling better about my tank..

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Glad to hear that the temp is remaining more stable. I checked through my box o' reef stuff and I must have either moved the small heater I had or it's tucked away in another box. Either way, if I find it for you today or this weekend, it's yours.

 

Any recent pics?

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