cdelicath Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Hey Chris! Now that you're done planning everything... how about a cover for the refugium? I got the glass cover for the display to hold down evaporation, but I've been thinking that I should probably throw a scrap of acrylic over the refugium too - I'll get to that eventually. If I was buying a Barracuda all over again I'd probably buy a refugium cover too, especially if it was cut glass or black acrylic (which my local Home Depot & Lowe's don't have). If there is a need for covering the sump I will add it to the list of addons. My main concern with covering the sump is proper air exchange in the tank along with the loss of light mounting points. I am open to ideas for designs for sure and I do think it would be nice. For someone that ran open top and had a hanging light it would be ideal for sure. Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 I see. I've always set the display height by flow. I just thought it was the norm. Someone else mentioned adding a second pump to chamber 1. I actually did this (I've done it on almost every AIO I've ever owned.) The water level in the display is raised by about 3/4". I'm still working out the kinks on this mod. I occasionally get a small amount of microbubbles from one of the pumps. Keeping a constant water level would eliminate this. However, I'm finding that rather difficult with an open top in the middle of winter with no humidifier on the furnace. Link to comment
DPRoberts Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 If there is a need for covering the sump I will add it to the list of addons. My main concern with covering the sump is proper air exchange in the tank along with the loss of light mounting points. I am open to ideas for designs for sure and I do think it would be nice. I'm not sure how many other non-canopied AIOs are out there, but here's the one from my 12g (made by Aqua Euro). I'm not sure how much you can see from this photo, but the refugium cover is basically U-shaped: there's a cutout in the back for cords and light mounting. I'm not really sure if it gets enough aeration or not. Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 I see. I've always set the display height by flow. I just thought it was the norm. Someone else mentioned adding a second pump to chamber 1. I actually did this (I've done it on almost every AIO I've ever owned.) The water level in the display is raised by about 3/4". I'm still working out the kinks on this mod. I occasionally get a small amount of microbubbles from one of the pumps. Keeping a constant water level would eliminate this. However, I'm finding that rather difficult with an open top in the middle of winter with no humidifier on the furnace. Now that I am moving to a standard format for all my tanks I could do that but then the tanks would be useful with only the pump provided and you wouldn't be able to change out the pump for more flow without raising the display height. I do like the idea of having another pump in 1. I'm not sure how many other non-canopied AIOs are out there, but here's the one from my 12g (made by Aqua Euro). I'm not sure how much you can see from this photo, but the refugium cover is basically U-shaped: there's a cutout in the back for cords and light mounting. I'm not really sure if it gets enough aeration or not. That's what I had in mind for the most part. I am trying to figure out a clip or riser of sorts to keep the lid 3/4" or 1" above the tank. Kinda like a floating lid. Link to comment
Mitch619 Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 No kidding. This thread only started 8 days ago. Is that the infamous pudding bowl halide? Been a while since I've seen that. LOL it does look like a pudding bowl. That's a good idea. Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 Another quick progress update. The Hydor nano skimmers are a perfect fit and I will be adding them to the site when we open back up. Update on the MAME style skimmers coming soon. Link to comment
RK_tek Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 How much of this will be able to work in the older models? Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 I will be offering a stand alone ATO for older units and the modular ATO for new tanks. The skimmer above needs 4" x 3.5" or 4" x 4" to fit and 11" deep. However the MAME style units will fit the older tanks. Media baskets will not fit or be made for the older units. If you wanted to make your own Media basket there is a small tab on the wall that will need to be snapped off with a pair of needle nose. Lids are always available for any unit. Link to comment
Funktastic Wint Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 hi im actually a designer by trade and heres my concept. feel free to use it as long as u build me one too! i designed this for style and function. a pico that u can place right on your desk and and its go time. no cords, no ugly hang on back filters. no powerheads. the light fixture i have implemented could easily be taken out but is meant to accomodate a par bulb. the water overflows out the back of the tank like a water fall and into the sump area. it passes through the filter floss area and in through an eggrate material (indicated in yellow) this area is for chaeto to grow. the side glass in the fuge area is clear to allow lighting such as led strips to provide enough light for the cheato to grow. and then the water gets to the pump area where it is diverted into the tank through the two outlets and giving varied flow. the way the water overflows on the top will also be a natural surface skimmer. this is about a 1' x 1' cube with a 3" tall sump area. any questions? just ask thanks oh yeah and you can pull the tray sump out to work with the pumps n such. Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 don't know what this guy's talking about. but my new hydor pico 1200 is awesome in the cuda. quiet, double the flow that was in there, power consumption is probably on par or less. win/win imo. Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 don't know what this guy's talking about. but my new hydor pico 1200 is awesome in the cuda. quiet, double the flow that was in there, power consumption is probably on par or less. win/win imo.Told ya you'd like it. Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 don't know what this guy's talking about. but my new hydor pico 1200 is awesome in the cuda. quiet, double the flow that was in there, power consumption is probably on par or less. win/win imo. Good news! Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 hi im actually a designer by trade and heres my concept. feel free to use it as long as u build me one too! i designed this for style and function. a pico that u can place right on your desk and and its go time. no cords, no ugly hang on back filters. no powerheads. the light fixture i have implemented could easily be taken out but is meant to accomodate a par bulb. the water overflows out the back of the tank like a water fall and into the sump area. it passes through the filter floss area and in through an eggrate material (indicated in yellow) this area is for chaeto to grow. the side glass in the fuge area is clear to allow lighting such as led strips to provide enough light for the cheato to grow. and then the water gets to the pump area where it is diverted into the tank through the two outlets and giving varied flow. the way the water overflows on the top will also be a natural surface skimmer. this is about a 1' x 1' cube with a 3" tall sump area. any questions? just ask thanks oh yeah and you can pull the tray sump out to work with the pumps n such. A few things right off the bat you may want to change that I can see: The return is too low and will create a siphon if you loose power. You may want to move the returns as far up as possible. Unfortunately you are going to get some water back to the sump regardless of what you do and your sump looks as though it would not accommodate the added water needed to break siphon. You would need to calculate the amount of water drained and add a overflow chamber to collect that water. Next is the overflow. Water will not fall over the edge like you would expect it too. You need to curve the edge of the overflow to gently channel the water down and not over. I don't see this being possible with conventional glass work. However acrylic will work. Take a look at a zero edge aquarium for a example. The edges have a distinct bevel. There may also be the need for a splash guard near the bottom. Next would be the sump chamber. The pump would need to be positioned to allow your drawer to slide in and out without making contact so the pump would need to be suspended and have its own long chamber front to back. and finally there would be a absolute need for a ATO unit because there is going to be a huge amount of evap from the falling water. This means you would need multiple float switches in the pump chamber. There are a lot of variables in this design that can easily cause issues and that's probably why you don't see them on the market. However with that said... It sure would be a bad ass tank!!! Link to comment
RK_tek Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 The new website is looking good. Any idea of a timeline for the other skimmers?(don't want to call them a copy of those Japanese ones) Link to comment
Klink67 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Make the price of the barracuda $99 including everything pumps, heat, light, skimmer, etc. There are ways to cut costs in order to achieve this but I feel that more people would rather buy your barracuda versus a nanocube 6 if it was the same price and included everything. Not saying that nanocubes are even close to your picos but people that are new to the hobby will look at the two units realistically. At the very least you could offer a basic low light barracuda that includes everything but is good only for softies and lps. Then on your site you could offer an upgrade if they wanted to do high light coral. Just a suggestion Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 I don't mind I should refer to them as MAMEKO "MAME knock off" No updates yet but i'm sure I will have something soon to share. I am adding new products to the site now so we should be back up next week. Not all the new products will be ready but they can always be added later. I am hoping to stay open year round this year but we will see how it goes. Link to comment
RK_tek Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Make the price of the barracuda $99 including everything pumps, heat, light, skimmer, etc. There are ways to cut costs in order to achieve this but I feel that more people would rather buy your barracuda versus a nanocube 6 if it was the same price and included everything. Not saying that nanocubes are even close to your picos but people that are new to the hobby will look at the two units realistically. At the very least you could offer a basic low light barracuda that includes everything but is good only for softies and lps. Then on your site you could offer an upgrade if they wanted to do high light coral. Just a suggestion That's quite a price cut. When you consider the cost of materials and then the time involved and the narrow profit margins it just isn't realistic. If you want cheap, buy AGA; if you want quality, buy PicO. Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Unfortunately the way to build a complete unit as described for $99 would be through China where the cost of labor is all but removed from the calculation and also offer sub par products like generic heater, skimmer and light. IMO we have enough of those tanks flooding the market already. So the tank cost you $99 and comes with a cheap glass heater from China that is very likely to fail and you loose $100's in coral. The tank also came with a skimmer but how good does that skimmer really work. And the most important thing in this hobby... Lighting. The tank comes with a 25w PC or a cheap 1w LED unit that supports mushrooms and maybe some zoo's. What's the point of buying something like this only to spend more adding in what you need and creating more landfill with the stuff that came with it. That being said there are some really nice units out there like the BioCubes and RedSea's. They do what they do very well and on a much larger scale allowing them to bring things to market at a great price. I do this at a much much smaller scale by hand and cut by cut. Every dollar has gone back into PicO aquariums since I started doing this in 2008 and I have been building piece by piece to compete when I can. I would love to be a major player in the market like Current or JBJ but when you start a company with $300 it can take a while to get there. I am in the process of taking a major step to invest in a CNC that will cut my labor in half and allow for more design options. This will also help me to reduce cost and that will reflect in the cost of the tanks also. I will get there one day it will just take some time and great people like the customers I do have to support a product built in the US and built with quality. Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Oh My God! I go check out Picoaquariums.com and damn near crap my pants. I bought a tank from a hippie! Where did I go wrong? Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 I occasionally exhibit one of these traits Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 Oh My God! I go check out Picoaquariums.com and damn near crap my pants. I bought a tank from a hippie! Where did I go wrong? I knew there was a reason I felt the need to dookie in your tank before you picked it up........ Now you know why your water always smells nutty Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 adding options when you purchase a tank will save you some $$ yay!!! Link to comment
NUWildcat928 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I'm interested in getting one of the larger size pico tanks - will the glass still be 1/4", or will you have an option for thicker glass, like 3/8 or 1/2"? And is the biggest dimension still going to be 18" x 18"? Link to comment
cdelicath Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 I'm interested in getting one of the larger size pico tanks - will the glass still be 1/4", or will you have an option for thicker glass, like 3/8 or 1/2"? And is the biggest dimension still going to be 18" x 18"? I will not be doing any custom units anymore just whats on the site. 18" will be the largest....For now! Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I new there was a reason I felt the need to dookie in your tank before you picked it up........Now you know why your water always smells nutty Knew, IMO. Go back to school, hippie. Link to comment
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