curvilinear II_the Pico.Reef

[rickjg]

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Finally made some progress on my pico today. . . .

Drilled two 1" holes in the glass for my supply and return lines to/from the canister filter.

I found a fishnet pendent light yesterday which I added to my floor lamp setup. (it's open top for airflow)

Using a plastic fountain base for the tank base, which should work great for catching any water spillage.

The old TV tray table setup is just for testing with FW to see if everything works.

I'm moving to a new office next month and that's where this pico will be setup.

Still need to makeup a DIY inline heater setup or DIY the heater into the canister filter.

Also still thinking about what I want to run in the canister filter; maybe live-rock, Chemi-Pure &/or PhosBan?

 

-Rick

[Weetabix7]

I am really, really liking this.

That lamp you picked out to put the bulb in is perfect, you've got style.

What kind of cover is that over the return for the canister into the tank?

Is that the usual canister return?

How do you plan to handle top off and salinity swings with this tank?

With such a small water volume and the tank being open top, you're likely to get a decent bit of evaporation.

I'm interested to see what you end up doing with a heater.

 

I wouldn't put live rock in the canister, probably just Chemi-Pure and Phosban, stuff like that.

How often do you plan on cleaning out the canister?

You gonna add some LR soon and get this thing cycled?

What are your livestock plans?

 

You're off to a great start, can't wait to see more progress on this.

[rickjg]

I am really, really liking this.

That lamp you picked out to put the bulb in is perfect, you've got style.

THANKS a bit different than the normal track light setup for sure.

 

What kind of cover is that over the return for the canister into the tank?

Is that the usual canister return?

I found the return cover in my box of fish stuff, must have come with a pump, don't remember. The return is just sits in the bulkhead. The return that came with the Fluval was way to big for this tank.

 

How do you plan to handle top off and salinity swings with this tank?

With such a small water volume and the tank being open top, you're likely to get a decent bit of evaporation.

I think I'll be doing two part dosing on this pico, so I'll just keep two bottles of pre-dosed top-off water handy and top off with one in the AM when I come into the office and again with the other in the PM. Once I figure out the amount of evaporation and dosing needed I may setup a couple of aqualifers on timers to automate the top-off/dosing.

 

I'm interested to see what you end up doing with a heater.

I'm really thinking about putting the heater into the canister, but I hate to risk wrecking the canister, we'll see.

 

I wouldn't put live rock in the canister, probably just Chemi-Pure and Phosban, stuff like that.

How often do you plan on cleaning out the canister?

Not really much room for L-R in the canister anyway.

I'm hoping not to have to open up and clean the canister more than once per month since it's so over-sized for this tank, but that's really pushing the limit on Chemi-Pure and Phosban. They start turning into biofilters after a couple of weeks.

 

You gonna add some LR soon and get this thing cycled?

What are your livestock plans?

You're off to a great start, can't wait to see more progress on this.

As soon as I get the heater in and work out some of the bugs I'll start looking for live rock. Still have a month before our new office is ready.

[blibo]

deflector?....BRILLIANT!!!

[c_k_kuehne]

Looking good. I definatly like the pendant like you picked out and the fountain base looks good for the setup.

[bruce922]

Pretty nice Pico you have there!

[phoenix]

Liking the start of your build, will be following

[rickjg]

 

I added rock and water today, so I have to post the obligatory cloudy water pic.

 

I wasn't really planning to add rock and water yet, but I was getting something out of my storage shed and noticed a small ice chest. I opened the ice chest and found several pounds of what was once live-rock, but after a couple years of damp storage it's now pretty much dead-rock. I'm not in anyway a fan of using dead rock, but WTH it was there, so I made a run down the coast to Scripps Pier for 10 gallons of their filtered sea water.

 

I may still replace the dead-rock with live-rock if I find some nice pre-cycled live-rock out of an existing reef tank that will fit the pico.

 

I'm planning to add a heater to my canister as well as fuge lighting. I ordered a double underwater light for fuge lighting and I'll mod my canister when the lights arrive.

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/DOUBLE-Underw...-DOUBLEQL02.htm

 

Rick

[Weetabix7]

Rock looks big in there.

[rickjg]

Rock looks big in there.

 

the curved glass magnifies everything

[rickjg]

 

Picked up a couple of fittings today to run the heater cord & lighting cord into the canister.

[schgr.cube]

I ####ing love this, very similar to my setup!

Great job.

[bruce922]

I know I have commented on your Pico before, but I must say I really like it, cool bro!

 

 

Bruce

[rickjg]

I ####ing love this, very similar to my setup!

Great job.

going for that clean, no equipment look too

[rickjg]

I know I have commented on your Pico before, but I must say I really like it, cool bro!

 

 

Bruce

Thanks Bruce . . .

[quickfinger]

totally wicked

[rickjg]

Working on the canister filter

 

 

drilled holes for the electrical fittings and installed heater

 

put together a turf scrubber in place of the canister sponges and installed double inTank lights

 

The plan is to have algae grow on the yellow plastic parts, then I can replace 1/2 of them when I do maintenance, instead of using Chaeto. Turf scrubbers are typically exposed to the air, so this may or may not work.

 

passed the wet test so far

 

 

I'm running 1/3 bag of Chemi-pure with a tablespoon of Purigen mixed in the bag.

Don't want to hear any BS about not using the full bag, a full bag is way too much carbon for a pico!

 

 

-Rick

[c_k_kuehne]

Canister turf scrubber -- if it works you will be Santa Monica's new best friend

 

For what it's worth (and it may only be my 2 cents worth) I do think a turf scrubber can be a legitimate form of Nitrate/Phosphate control if implemented correctly.

 

Can't wait to see the outcome.

[rickjg]

Canister turf scrubber -- if it works you will be Santa Monica's new best friend

 

For what it's worth (and it may only be my 2 cents worth) I do think a turf scrubber can be a legitimate form of Nitrate/Phosphate control if implemented correctly.

 

Can't wait to see the outcome.

 

I've seen lots of algae growing underwater, so I'm inclined to think it will work. If not I can always throw in some Chaeto.

[rickjg]

Well I broke down and bought a few pieces of Fiji rock at AW (LFS) to use as base rock in my pico. Basically I bought Fiji rock because it had been in their holding tank the longest and I tried to fish out rock from the very back and bottom to minimize cycling time. AW had some really nice looking Indonesian rock from a recent shipment, but the Indo rock was loaded with little crabs, a couple of which fell out just while I viewing it on the holding platform. Didn't really want to deal with fresh LR cycling and hitchhikers, so that clinched it on the Fiji rock.

 

 

The 1st thing I did when I got home was start drilling holes thru the rock for the Hydor flo and the return.

 

The holes worked pretty well to hide both the Hydor flo and the return, yet still provide good flow.

 

I'm amazed at how good the light from Evils66's Par 38 makes the pico look, even without any corals. With the Hydor flo rotating around it makes the shimmers come in waves. Too bad it's so hard to catch it with the camera, might have to try video one of these days.

 

I had some good news on our new office today, found out we are installing Solatubes. I will not have one dedicated to the tank, but will have one right over my work area, so maybe I can get some nice supplemental light over the pico. Going "green", got the LED's and el natural light, too.

 

-Rick

[escaudio]

This build is flipping sweet!!!!! Love the canister ideas!!

[rickjg]

This build is flipping sweet!!!!! Love the canister ideas!!

Thanks escaudio

Canisters can work great as long as you do regular maintenance,

and of course remove the sponges and ceramic rings ...

[c_k_kuehne]

I was wondering how you were going to do the LR with the center water lines. Looking sweet.

[.Newman.]

the real question is how he is going to do sand

[rickjg]

the real question is how he is going to do sand

I don't want to go BB ... ... so I have been contemplating using two-part reef epoxy to seal the base of the drilled out LR to the base of the tank. This would create a barrier between sand and Hydor flo / sand and return. The sand would stay outside of the LR and not foul the Hydor flo or get sucked into the return. It would also prevent the LR from sliding around and contacting the Hydor flo, which could prevent it from spinning ...