alfiefive Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Equipment - Ecoxotic Ecopico 5g Tank - EcoPico LED Strip, 453nm Blue - EcoPico LED Strip, 12,000K White - EcoPico LED Strip, 12K White/453nm Blue x2 - EcoPico 4-Way Splitter x2 - Fluval 25W heater, turns off automatically at 78 degrees - AC70 HOB mod - Mag-float - Algae scraper - Turkey baster - Bone cutters - Forceps - Toothbrush - A net - Test kits for ammonia, pH, nitrites, nitrates, alk, calcium, magnesium, phosphates - An amazing LFS (skiptons, boston ma) Filtration - 7 lbs LR from LFS - 5 lb CaribSea Arag-Alive LS - Chemi-pure elite - Phosban - Filter floss - Chaetomorpha sp., i have cheetos in my tank - RO/DI & saltwater from LFS Clean-up Crew/Inverts - 2x Margarites pupillus, Pink Margarita Snails - 3x Nassarius vibex, Nassarius Snail - 2x Cerithium sp., Cerith Snail - ?x Cerithium sp., Dwarf Cerith Snail - 1x Stomatella varia, Stomatella - 1x Mithrax sculptus, Emerald Crab - 2x Clibanarius tricolor, Blue Leg Hermit Crab Fish - Acanthemblemaria macrospilus, Barnacle Blenny from LFS Corals - Ricordea Florida, many varieties from Coral Morphologic - Zoanthid sp., many varieties from Coral Morphologic - Clavularia viridis, green star polyps from nano-reefer - Acanthastrea Lordhowensis, acan lords (added 5/18/2011) from LFS - Xenia sp., pulsating xenia from LFS - Montipora undata, tyree monti undata from LFS - Actinodiscus sp., red mushroom from LFS - Rhodactus sp., neon green mushroom from LFS - Seriatopora hystrix, pink birdsnest from LFS Feeding - Mysis/cyclop-eeze to acans weekly. - One drop of arctipods every other day. - 1/4'' square nori if emerald is being a bad girl. Dosing - NONE. FTS 5/24/2011 Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 Hey all, I think this is my second post here. Anyways, I'm starting a 5g Ecoxotic Ecopico pico and just unboxed, lighted, put in substrate, and added my live rock. I thought I would share, and hopefully that I would continue to share pics in this thread. The ultimate goal is to have a few inverts and MAYBE one fish, but mostly to learn about having such a small tank and to try, fail, try again, and potentially succeed. This is very new project for me and questions and comments and the like are 100% appreciated. Anyway, some pictures! The tank, freshly unboxed, with the lights on for show. In addition to the stock 12K White/453nm Blue, I picked up a full strip of actinic led and a full strip of 12k white led. They all fit inside the stock light fixture. I picked up a four way switch to turn them on individually. I'll probably have to get another switch for one of the strips because they all share one power source and I'd like to have the lighting on a timer. I live in a downtown apartment and the best bet for water is from Skipton's. I'm in Boston. This was like 60c/gallon or something similar. Leak testing and warming the water. CaribSea Arag-Alive. 7.5 lb of colorful live rock from Skipton's. Was something like 3-5$/lb? The pieces are surprisingly large for their weight and fill the 5g tank without reasonable room for more. From the ground outside the LFS Completely cloudy and stocked and clearing up quite quickly... Will rearrange the build once everything is settled and will update once that happens! Aquascaping done. Time to wait. Can I shrink these images using forum code? Link to comment
jojoe972 Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I dont know how to shrink those pictures sorry but nice build. Why does your larger rock resemble a person hunched over for some reason from the top? Looks sweet though How many watts is that light? Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 I dont know how to shrink those pictures sorry but nice build. Why does your larger rock resemble a person hunched over for some reason from the top? Looks sweet though How many watts is that light? It does look like a person. I noticed it as soon as I looked at the pic. Or some giant grinning smiley face. I'm not sure exactly what the wattage is on the lights. The stock system comes with one strip, but the product spec for the entire tank and one strip merely says "total 8W," which may include the wattage from the pump. There isn't even a wattage listed on the additional strips themselves Link to comment
jojoe972 Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 hmmmm well that not very nice of them. I like the look of it but was curious what kind of corals it would support. Im guessing just lps maybe.... Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 hmmmm well that not very nice of them. I like the look of it but was curious what kind of corals it would support. Im guessing just lps maybe.... Probably. I'm going to take it super slow and see what the cycle is like (using water/rock from decent LFS and some live sand not from LFS) and try to infer how strong the lights actually are. Will probably spend a month or two with just CUC. The pump and lights feel surprisingly strong. We'll see. Link to comment
jtgordon20 Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Just order 13 $10 crags of mrcoral to test it out. Haha just kidding. Looks good. I want to try out a pico. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Just order 13 $10 crags of mrcoral to test it out. Haha just kidding. Looks good. I want to try out a pico. I don't get it Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Test results, day four. It's hard to identify the ammonia test on the spectrum. >< The sand is live aragonite and both the water and the rock came from the same place at my LFS, so I am curious to see what the cycle will be like. tick tock tick tock Link to comment
Rain24 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Love the rocks as well as the tank! And yeah, those tests do look like that. My ammonia test was the exact same color. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Love the rocks as well as the tank! And yeah, those tests do look like that. My ammonia test was the exact same color. It's so frustrating when you do the ammonia test and you're like... I think there is some ammonia? Did you ever get a strong showing from the API ammonia test during cycle? I may take some water to LFS to see if I'm confusing yellow and green. LOL. Edit, I kept the ammonia test tube filled for a while (a few hours) and looking at it now it is identifiable on the spectrum, pretty clearly between .25 and .5. I think I'll still have LFS test water and maybe do the API ammonia test before I go to them, so that I can see if our results are the same. Maybe the ammonia test on the API requires a longer wait than the instructions specify. I'm bored. Link to comment
BoricuaNY Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Really nice Little aquarium, I look forward to following this thread Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Really nice Little aquarium, I look forward to following this thread Thanks! Is that your... tattoo? Link to comment
BoricuaNY Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 No just a funny pic I found,. I do sketch tattoo flash and such,. I was looking at the new nano aquariums from cadlights they look nice, I just have to pull the trigger and get started on my first tank. Link to comment
jdl Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 nice build i love how clean this looks! Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 nice build i love how clean this looks! came back from brunch and the tank temp was at 87. it's usually a steady 79. hopefully nothing is horribly wrong and hopefully my cycle didn't just double in length. x'ing fingers. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 came back from brunch and the tank temp was at 87. it's usually a steady 79. hopefully nothing is horribly wrong and hopefully my cycle didn't just double in length. x'ing fingers. Ammonia is close to zero so it's time to put in the tang that i just bought. You all think that is fine for a 5 gallon tank, right? Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Ammonia is close to zero so it's time to put in the tang that i just bought. You all think that is fine for a 5 gallon tank, right? Ya, 5 gallons is fine. Just remember to give them an anemone to host otherwise it'll die. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 Ya, 5 gallons is fine. Just remember to give them an anemone to host otherwise it'll die. There is no way I'm putting a tang in this tank! Was being silly. Although I do think my ammonia is almost on the out, but the colors are so hard to test that I'll wait a week / have LFS test it. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 There is no way I'm putting a tang in this tank! Was being silly. Although I do think my ammonia is almost on the out, but the colors are so hard to test that I'll wait a week / have LFS test it. Went to the hardware store to see if they could cut some acrylic for me into a very tiny custom macro box with vents in it. Plan to put a tiny powerhead in lower left corner and have it blow through the macro tank to slow the flow to an appropriate level. Sadly, the smallest size they can cut with their equipment would be a 4'' by 4'' cube, which is too big. Do not want to do any hang-on modded fuge and would like to do something minimal and modern to match the rest of the tank and keep macro contained. Any thoughts appreciated. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 NEW IDEA! Turn this into an in-tank fuge? Or a few of these affixed together for a rectangular fuge with two chambers? I've read up on the soap dishes but think they're ugly. Link to comment
Z Rex Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 If you are having problems with telling the colors on the test, do a test with tank water and a test with ro/di water at the same time and compare colors. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 If you are having problems with telling the colors on the test, do a test with tank water and a test with ro/di water at the same time and compare colors. Did that yesterday with rodi, freshly mixed smartwater (edit: saltwater, not the bottled water brand called smartwater, heh), and tank water. Tank is close to zero but I have no plans to do anything but wait for the time being. Great tip Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 My brothers robotics lab is using their laser cutter to cut me the pieces for an acrylic in-tank fuge I'll place in front of an low-flow second powerhead. Pics when it's done! Can't wait. Link to comment
alfiefive Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 Updates! New lighting, new things growing on rocks, new tiny pump for some additional surface agitation, filter floss mod to old pump. Tricked out LEDs on the stock light structure: Diatoms come and go, GHA is moving in: New FTS 3/19/201 (day 23): Link to comment
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