.9 gallon pico zoa reef

[Reefkid88]

I hate companies or people that ignore me when it's there job or problem to fix. I'm still ####ing around with reefs2go. Those bastards are dragging there feet, and still have yet to pay me my money. Did you ask Ben about it? I literally have to have a complicated deal in front of me to figure it out. I'm not a expert, just enough to get the job done.

Exactly,when it comes to my money,I turn into a different person. I'd be going ape sh*t on someone if I was you. No sir lol. I have,I'm sure Ben is fed up with me asking questions. I personally can't blame him. I'm half tempted to send him my sh*t and have him fix it lol.

[Nanofreak79]

It's like tapping someone on the shoulder over and over......hahaha

[Beer]

I've actually looked into the palm filter that you've mentioned and even though its fairly compact and efficent for its size,I don't really like it for some reason. I like the AC filters due to it being adjustable,so thats a plus. I can always find a sweet spot if the lowest isn't enough and the highest is too much,ya know ?

 

Do you have a thread,or pictures of you current build/tank ? Sounds interesting. I'd love to check it out mane.

 

The DeepBlue version is adjustable, but you won't get anything in the range of the AquaClear. And the volume for media is tiny in comparison. I just suggested it because it wouldn't stand out as much, but I like to keep everything as clean looking as possible and hide all equipment when I can, which is part of the reason why I am going to the rediculous extent of building a sump and drilling a half gallon cube. I also think it will be fun to see the visual scale I can build with that. Make it look like a tank that is 100 times bigger in photos.

 

No build thread on it yet. I'll do something when I have it fully assembled and everything is transfered over. Hopefully I'll get around to buying some macro lenses for my phone's camera and dig out the lighting filter swatch book (to color correct for the iPhone's over saturated blue) so I can get some decent pictures.

 

I am building a LED light for it that should blow away any of the comercial stuff in this size range. I think the final cost will be under $40 for supplies for a two or three channel independantly dimable nano tank lighting system (scrounged CPU heatsink). I am almost done designing the driver circuit. I think it is going to require reflow soldering to asemble everything, the components are tiny. Thankfully I have access to a machine that will mill a circuit board from a vector file, no way I could chemically ectch this board myself and drill it accurately enough for thermal vias for the LED dies.

[Reefkid88]

The DeepBlue version is adjustable, but you won't get anything in the range of the AquaClear. And the volume for media is tiny in comparison. I just suggested it because it wouldn't stand out as much, but I like to keep everything as clean looking as possible and hide all equipment when I can, which is part of the reason why I am going to the rediculous extent of building a sump and drilling a half gallon cube. I also think it will be fun to see the visual scale I can build with that. Make it look like a tank that is 100 times bigger in photos.

 

No build thread on it yet. I'll do something when I have it fully assembled and everything is transfered over. Hopefully I'll get around to buying some macro lenses for my phone's camera and dig out the lighting filter swatch book (to color correct for the iPhone's over saturated blue) so I can get some decent pictures.

 

I am building a LED light for it that should blow away any of the comercial stuff in this size range. I think the final cost will be under $40 for supplies for a two or three channel independantly dimable nano tank lighting system (scrounged CPU heatsink). I am almost done designing the driver circuit. I think it is going to require reflow soldering to asemble everything, the components are tiny. Thankfully I have access to a machine that will mill a circuit board from a vector file, no way I could chemically ectch this board myself and drill it accurately enough for thermal vias for the LED dies.

 

Yeah,that's one of the reasons why I love the AC20 it's able to hold a large amount of media while semi staying small and hidden. I think I'll be able to hide a DBS Betta heater inside the filter as well to keep the DT clutter free. Although I don't know if I'll need one because my girlfriends room stays kind of warm due to the sun beaming in her room all day and she has a bearded dragon and his lights create some ridiculous heat as well.

 

Your plans to drill and sump a 1 gallon is something I've always wanted to do,so seeing it done will be awesome. I thought about doing it with the acrylic tank I was going to use,but I got this tank instead. Although I loved the dimensions of the tank I had made ( 7.5" long,5.5 tall and 6.5" wide ). Your light sounds crazy as hell,I can't wait to see what you come up with. Which colors and how many of each are you going to be using ? I'm having a fellow reefer make my girlfriends light up which will consist of 2 blue,2 rb,2 uv,3 cw & 1 nw on a Coralux 2 up with 700ma drivers using my typhon to control it because I'm going to be picking up a Storm controller locally for $30 which isn't bad. He's made me a custom box to hide the drivers and whatnot which he sent me pictures of today and it sleek as hell.

[Beer]

Nice! I love what people come up with in fully customized solutions for their tanks.

 

I do not remember what the exact wavelengths are off the top of my head. I have some blues around the 460nm and 480nm range and some warm whites that have a very high CRI. The colder white dies have a much lower CRI with more narrow spectral range. The warm whites will give better coloration and almost match the cold whites in the higher end of the spectrum. I got some reds, orange, and UV/near UV to experiment with as well as a few different optics. I may have grabbed green too. With the low cost of individual dies and finding a way to drive them up to 750mA (1200 if I use a different IC and use PWM) for only a few bucks per channel, I can play around a little bit. I want to experiment with the set up to figure out what will give optimal coloration and maximize photosynthisis and growth whlie not overdriving nusance algae. I have a few research papers to finish reading on light wavelengths and how it effects coral growth and coloration.

I like the idea of being able to blend colors to get the desired color without actually using whites. This first one will simply be potentiometers on each channel. If I go with blending and no whites I may set it up using PWM or hardware to bias each color string and a single rehostat to sweep from around 3500K up to 20000K, but that will require doing some more research and a ton of experimentation. That may require more time than I have right now. I do have plans for a full sized lighting system that simulates sunrise and sunset, the moon cycle, and has built in capability to control other equipment.

 

Be careful with the UVs. It can be prety easy to do a lot of damage in a hurry. UV is damaging to cells. Constant exposure to high levels of UV without much filtering (atmospheric and from water depth in wild coral) may cause tissue damage. I think it has the potential to bring out coloration due to the production of pigments to help the coral protect itself from the damaging UV light. I also have heard people hypothesize about getting better colors from stressing the animals from intense lighting, but I haven't done significant research in this area and I am not sure of the long term effects of this stress or how the strength of the LEDs compares to the typical levels corals recieve in a normal reef environment (which varies for each coral). The commercial units don't used them and I have heard stories from others that have done serious damage with them. Could have just been switching to high output LEDs

without acclimating properly tough. I'd still be cautios and have them on their own channel and limit the current. Oh, and don't look directly at the light with them on.

 

 

Watch it with those Deep Blue heaters; they can over heat a small volume quite easily. The betta stik or the smallest wattage rated one was severly overheating a little over a gallon to over 90*, it was holding a two gallon to about 84*. This was with a room temperature around 68*.

I have a few of them, I really like them for their size, you can easily hide them in filters. If they are sized appropriately, they are great. There are a few drawbacks though. One is that they are not labled for wattage. I have three different wattages and I hadn't noticed this until I swapped a couple of them around. Now I only know what one of them is because I removed the lable, which will work fine until the lable falls off of a different one. It may not matter though, I read a review from someone else that had a few different wattages. They didn't notice a temperature difference between them (all too high) and hooked them up to a kill-a-watt meter, they were all pulling the same wattage. I want to borrow my club's meter to to compare my heaters.

Another issue is that they are constant on. If you are at the high range of the acceptable temperture range, you may want to consider another option. If temps rise quickly in a day and drop the next and you aren't paying attention to the weather, you may end up overheating the tank or leting it drop too much if you pull it out for the warm weather. I picked up a cheap controller off of Amazon that runs two channels, one for cooling and another for heating (building a chiller too, no A/C in the summer). It is working well so far just testing it out for water changes.

It sounds like you might not even need a heater though.

[Reefkid88]

It sounds like you've got the light pretty much figured out lol. Sounds a little too complicated for me to be over a 1 gallon,but in a sense to for to each their own hahaha. I was going to have the guy use the MakersDriver to controll the light,but sense I'm going to use my typhon I'm not going to worry about it,plus it'll cut the cost down about 25%. Which is nice. As for the UV the light is only going to be using 2 and hung at a height of about from 6"-8" off the water I don't think there will be any chance of ruining any cells or tissue so that won't bother anything or make me worry. The light is going to probably be run at around 30-35% power so therefore I won't have to worry about baking anything. The light will also have a acrylic sheet on the fixture to hold out moisture and there will be a lid so whatever light goes into the tank will have a good amount of filtration and with some acclimation Zoa's are able to withstand a good amount of light without melting away. So once again I won't worry about anything.

 

The blues will be on their own channels and the whites and uv are on the same channel. I like a smidge of a bluer looking tank so the whites will be lower. If the tank was going to house sps,I'd worry about color rendition and using certain whites. Like for the light on my tank,there is a few cool whites but that was because I wanted to get the light going,but I could always just take them out and run the 2 nuetral whites I have and probably still have a more 14k look. Which for some reason I truly despise lol.

 

As for the heater,I'm going to run it heater-less thru the cycle and see where/how the temp does and determine then if I'll need a heater. Although I doubt I'll need one,if I do I'll maybe think about which heater I'll use. Thank you though for all the valuable information you've brought apon this thread. That's awesome.

 

If you'd like,snap a couple of pics of what you've got going on with the tank and the light,I'd love to see it and see now things go. That'd be cool.

[Beer]

The first one will be fairly simple. The second one with the programming or hardware dimming cycles will be a prototype/test platform for a large tank fixture. It will definitely be overkill for its size, but it will be cheaper to mess with that than a 60-70 LED array. I went back to school and I am in the electrical engineering program, so I've got some resourcesat my disposal. I can also build the full scale version for free if I do it as a design project for class credits.

 

The tank and lights aren't much to look at right now since both are mostly a pile of parts right now, not to mention I only have a cell phone for a camera. I'm not big on the build documentation thing, but you aren't the only one who is interested, so I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the progress. I tend to get in go mode and just build, so no promises.

[Reefkid88]

Gotcha,sounds interesting nonetheless my friend. Keep me updated on how things go. I'd be in way over my head with some sh*t like that,not even going to lie. If you can't get pictures or forget,tis cool mane. I understand,I too get carried away and busy with this thing called life lol. Happens to us all. Oh btw what're your stocking plans for the 1g ?

[Nanofreak79]

That was a hell of a lot of reading.....LOL.

 

I've got a heater for you

[Reefkid88]

No sh*t,try reading it at 8 in the morning with your eye boogers still fogging up your eyes and on an iphone... It took me 20 minutes lol.

That was a hell of a lot of reading.....LOL.

I've got a heater for you

Whatcha got mane ?

[Nanofreak79]

It's already in the box. It's a small aqueon 10 watt. Things tiny and works pretty well.

[Reefkid88]

Is it the same at the tetra heaters ?

 

I wish the Hydor Theo heater was smidge smaller,meh.

 

I'm assuming your including that into the price we spoke about ?

[Nanofreak79]

No, I have the tetra. It's super tiny compared to that thing. You can put it through the heater hole in the InTank basket, or n the tank. I'll see if I can find a pic.

 

http://flic.kr/p/ntNsqr'>http://flic.kr/p/ntNsqr'>20140430-210400-2 by -Nanofreak79-Has a set temp and safety off. It'll fit perfect.

[Reefkid88]

Swift bro,I like that. Better than the pos tetra heater I have. Those thing are so unreliable.

[Nanofreak79]

I've been using this in a few different picos. It seems to be pretty reliable, or as reliable as most heaters. It's only like 4" long and an 1" wide and skinny as well.

[Reefkid88]

Sounds good man !!!

[thesmallerthebetter]

NICE! welcome to the sub gallon game! haha

 

may i ask why an electronic ATO vs a gravity fed unit?

 

as for heating look at reptile heat pads/flex watt heat tape or that one under the tank betta heater thats out there, and a thermostat (like the hydor hydroset or the cobalt neostat). those always on in tank heaters are a waste, you wind up with the same temp swing just at a higher actual temp...better off heaterless than with those. not to mention how precious in tank real estate is

[Reefkid88]

NICE! welcome to the sub gallon game! haha

 

may i ask why an electronic ATO vs a gravity fed unit?

 

as for heating look at reptile heat pads/flex watt heat tape or that one under the tank betta heater thats out there, and a thermostat (like the hydor hydroset or the cobalt neostat). those always on in tank heaters are a waste, you wind up with the same temp swing just at a higher actual temp...better off heaterless than with those. not to mention how precious in tank real estate is

 

Oh I never thought I'd see the day you popped in man lol. Thanks.

 

Honestly,the ato was in the package deal I had gotten from Jon,so I wasn't going to say no lol. The float switch isn't really bulky or intrusive so it doesn't bother me. I've tried a few different gravity fed ato's and NEVER had luck with them.. Idk how. I tried one on my brother n laws 40 breeder planted,my 10 gallon and 5 gallon back in the day and it either wouldn't release water or it wouldn't stop releasing water.. Don't ask lol. Honestly,today when I was getting in the car to head home,I for some reason thought of the ZooMed oval shaped betta heater,and was thinking about it. But I'm getting a InTank media rack from Jon friday,which it will fit into,so it won't be taking up any room in the tank.

[Nanofreak79]

Gravity fed ATO suck IMO. No offense, but there an eye sore as well.

[Reefkid88]

I agree,unless you have a sump. Which I don't,although that'd be EPICCCCCC

 

 

Idk why,but I have the urge to set up another pico'ish tank..... ALL ESSPESSS doe... I've been following too many of your threads Jon... You're a horrible influence

[Reefkid88]

We shall have wetness tonight peoples !! I cannot wait

[Beer]

That was a hell of a lot of reading.....LOL.

 

Yeah, I tend to get long winded in my replies. I guess I'm making up for being fairly quiet in person.

 

I was trying to do gravity fed as well, couldn't seem to get it to work consistently. Two $4 float switches, a $5 air pump, some scrap lexan, and a spaghetti sauce jar gets you a quick reliable ATO for super cheap.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing how this goes.

[Reefkid88]

 

Yeah, I tend to get long winded in my replies. I guess I'm making up for being fairly quiet in person.

 

I was trying to do gravity fed as well, couldn't seem to get it to work consistently. Two $4 float switches, a $5 air pump, some scrap lexan, and a spaghetti sauce jar gets you a quick reliable ATO for super cheap.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Hahaha it's not a problem man. Speakith your mind my friend. Exactly,I had the same problem. Mines air pump,some airline tubing and a float switch. The cord on the jbj float is long so I can hide the air pump. Like before it was clip on because as far as I can remember Jon was running filter less and the pump hung on the back.

 

Yeah,me too. I'm going to grab my refractometer from my house along with everything else and head over to my girls and set 'er up.

[Reefkid88]

Okay,I lied. I was rushing out of the house to make it to dinner with the girl and grabbed everything EXCEPT the tank.. So hopefully I can make the journey home tomorrow and grab it and come back and get sh*t set up. If it's not one thing,it's always another...

[thesmallerthebetter]

hurry up and get'er wet already! lol

 

but seriously, i wanna see where this goes