.9 gallon pico zoa reef

[thesmallerthebetter]

gotta love when they get wet for the first time

 

stoked to see it all full and running!

[Reefkid88]

gotta love when they get wet for the first time

 

stoked to see it all full and running!

Hahaha no better feeling right ?! Me neither man,it'll be full quick,one of my LFS's is about 2 minutes up the road

 

Water is at 1.24 and has been for about 25-30 minutes,but I guess the rumors are true about Reef Crystals look at all salt that didn't dissolve.. Bullsh*t..

 

[Reefkid88]

Annnnnd she's wet. The light screws with the picture,but that's to e expected. I'll take better ones with my girlfriends phone when she gets home from work...

 

[thesmallerthebetter]

hooray!

 

ive had that same issue with reef crystals but only with older bags that were kinda clumpy. new bags that are nice and soft always blend fully for me.

[Reefkid88]

Was able to get a better picture:

 

 

This batch is still good for almost another year. It was kind of clumpy because it was in a box ( the 10g box ) but it was still soft and what not once I took the bag out of the box. I just had a smidge of stuff that didn't dissolve,which I've heard tons of people have the same issue.. I'm eventually going to switch to Red Sea after this batch is done. I'm going to do 100% water changes so it shouldn't last long lol.

[Reefkid88]

hooray!

 

ive had that same issue with reef crystals but only with older bags that were kinda clumpy. new bags that are nice and soft always blend fully for me.

Btw,did you check out the response to your pm ?

[Beer]

Nice! Glad to see it is up. The awesome thing is that with six 5-10 dollar frags, that thing will look pretty filled in. Just have to cut everything off the frag plugs.

 

Keeping it bare bottom? I've got smaller rocks in mine staggered out to try and give some depth. I can't decide if I like one large rock (probably multiple smaller pieces glued together) or a few smaller ones. That piece looks good. I like the little archway/cave thing you have going. Would be good for a smaller sun coral if you don't mind having to feed every day or two.

 

Got mine set up lastnight. Mine is only .6 gallons, not .9 like yours. Waiting to swap everything over because I may enter it in a nano competition. I wrote someting up (long), the link is in my signature.

[Reefkid88]

Nice! Glad to see it is up. The awesome thing is that with six 5-10 dollar frags, that thing will look pretty filled in. Just have to cut everything off the frag plugs.

 

Keeping it bare bottom? I've got smaller rocks in mine staggered out to try and give some depth. I can't decide if I like one large rock (probably multiple smaller pieces glued together) or a few smaller ones. That piece looks good. I like the little archway/cave thing you have going. Would be good for a smaller sun coral if you don't mind having to feed every day or two.

 

Got mine set up lastnight. Mine is only .6 gallons, not .9 like yours. Waiting to swap everything over because I may enter it in a nano competition. I wrote someting up (long), the link is in my signature.

Love the tank man,beyond awesome.

 

I'm keeping the tank bare bottom,but to the small size,and trying to keep it clean. I'm going to use a toothbrush to scrub the glass,and maybe use another one and melt the neck to bend it and scrub the bottom of the tank. I think doing 100% water changes will do this tank good and keep it going for a long while.

 

The rock work is actually 13 smaller pieces siliconed together to make the scape. A sun coral would be awesome,but trying to get the girlfriend to feed it as much as it would need,would never happen. I've already got a list kinda going on what I want to stock it with. I'd LOVE to get a frag of birdsnest to put on the middle flatter spot of the main rock,but we'll see. With the light going over it producing 250+ par,and with 100% water changes and the AC20 pumping out over 100+ gph it should grow like a weed. Due to the tank being small and the flow from the filter,it should get indirect random flow. The lfs near my girl has $5,$10,$15 frags so I'll probably scoop up 1-3 $5 when the cycle is done and see how they do first.

[thesmallerthebetter]

Btw,did you check out the response to your pm ?

i did. what are the dimensions of it? gotta be sure it fits up in my hood

 

i second the sun coral motion. hell, pay shipping and ill send you a little frag of my captive spawned yellow dendros the next time i do some cutting!

[Reefkid88]

i did. what are the dimensions of it? gotta be sure it fits up in my hood

 

i second the sun coral motion. hell, pay shipping and ill send you a little frag of my captive spawned yellow dendros the next time i do some cutting!

It's a Rapidled 6"x10" heatsink cut in half,from what Tom said. I'll get a exact measurement Monday when I get home after work and let you know.

 

If anything,I'd put it in my tank at home so it could be fed every day. My girl would pitch a fit if she had to feed that thing everyday lol.

[Reefkid88]

I just walked up to a yard sale by my girlfriends house and they had some nice but slightly scratched neon green and orange 1/4" acrylic sheets roughly around 5.5-6" x 4-5". I'm thinking about making the acrylic tank still,making it a AIO and using this acrylic for a knock style synergy reef sump,should be pretty cool looking. That'll be yet another side project though lol.

 

Here's a sloppy mock up:

 

[Beer]

Yeah, sun corals are some work. Especially in something that small. It is probably best to feed them in a separate container to minimize waste buildup unless you are doing multiple 100% water changes a week since they usually do best with daily feeding. I'm sure that would go over well. Here honey, here's a gift for you, enjoy all the extra work taking care of it.

 

I picked up a cheap frag of sun coral that I am trying to nurse back to health, it isn't looking to promising. They weren't feeding it in the store and it looks like it had some major dieoff before it was fragged. I mostly wanted it as a learning experience to see if I could bring it back and how they respond. Trying some new food, might switch to two or three feedings a day since it seems they are only taking a small amount of micro plankton and cyclops. When they actually open up a little bit, they look really cool. The tentacles are super bright yellow.

 

Those cheap frags are awesome. I ended up picking up a few things I never would have bought if the weren't 5 or 10 dollar frags.

[Reefkid88]

Hahaha she would end up hating me and the hobby,and I'm trying to do everything I can to make her enjoy the hobby so I don't hear any crap about it lol. Although they are pretty cool coral,they are pretty time consuming and need a lot of feeding. Which I honestly I couldn't comply with because I'm not around the tank from 7:30am-6:30 every night.

 

With wanting to keep some sps in the size my tank is,I don't think a small frag or micro commonly of sun coral would fair well and neither would the sps. Which is unfortunate. < this goes for the .9 my 7 gallon >

[Beer]

Once a day is good. If you aren't interested in seeing a lot of growth, every other day is fine. As long as the coral is fat and happy anyway. Which mine unfortunately is not. I thought it would be a little easier to bring it back from what it was when I purchased it.

[Reefkid88]

Decided to take the arm off of the light,it was being a royal pain trying to find a way to hang it or getting the arm to stay put and not slide around,so I laid it on the cover for the tank. The light doesn't generate really any heat at all so I'm not worried about it getting warm enough to do damage to the lid at all. And it's also no where near the water. The lid is as close as it can be to the filter without water getting on the lid.

 

 

The new light did come in today though,along with the extra light. And let me tell you,this thing is smaller than I anticipated it to be but feels solid and feels like a brick in your hand lol.

 

 

[Nanofreak79]

Sweet light home slice. I'm linking the synergy rip off sump idea.

[Reefkid88]

Sweet light home slice. I'm linking the synergy rip off sump idea.

Thanks mange !!! I'm assuming that was a autocorrect mishap lol ?

[Reefkid88]

I just need to find a good way to bond acrylic and glass... I'm assuming silicone will work fine,seeming my false wall is in place ( and not to mention sturdy as a tank too ) using silicone ?!

[Reefkid88]

Just went ahead and Weld-On 16'd all the seams,and let me tell you,this stuff gives you very little time to work with lol it's 6"x6"x4.5" I think I know how I'm already going to plumb it.

 

I'll center it right in the middle behind the tank,and have the bulkhead drain ( centered in the middle of the tank ) with a 90* elbow drain right into the "sump" and with another 90* elbow by the drain have a bulkhead with the return and I should have enough room for a AC50 to hang on the back or I'll do just a huge bag of carbon. Sounds confusing enough right lol ?!

 

This tjing glows though,I likes !!!

 

[Nanofreak79]

Thanks mange !!! I'm assuming that was a autocorrect mishap lol ?

####ing auto correct....and I haves piss poor grammar.

 

Just went ahead and Weld-On 16'd all the seams,and let me tell you,this stuff gives you very little time to work with lol it's 6"x6"x4.5" I think I know how I'm already going to plumb it. I'll center it right in the middle behind the tank,and have the bulkhead drain ( centered in the middle of the tank ) with a 90* elbow drain right into the "sump" and with another 90* elbow by the drain have a bulkhead with the return and I should have enough room for a AC50 to hang on the back or I'll do just a huge bag of carbon. Sounds confusing enough right lol ?! This tjing glows though,I likes !!! http://s959.photobucket.com/user/Reefkid88/media/image-6.jpg.html'>

Yep, confusing! But I'll trust you it'll be sick.

[Reefkid88]

I'm just out to get Beer hahaha his plumbed pico is what made me go for this . It's not stealing the idea if I'm trying to one up you right

 

To make it easier,the drain and return will be in the middle of the back wall about 1.5"-3" apart. The drain side ( left side ) will hold a media bag with carbon and the left side will hold the return pump. There will be a divider down the middle with teeth cut into it to drain into the return side.

[Nanofreak79]

I see now. It's always fun to one up another guy.

[Reefkid88]

I see now. It's always fun to one up another guy.

Hahaha that I was kidding about,I'm not trying to one up the man,nor create animosity lol. I've had the idea to do it for awhile,but his build gave me the umph and motivation to go thru with it.

[Beer]

Ha!

 

I see it as a challange to push me further. I am rebuilding my modified 3.2 gallon DB 5 way Betta barracks. Should be up by the end of the week. Need some black acrylic to rebuild the sump as well. I'll one up you right back with that one.

 

I think I can visualize what you are doing with that. Are you building an overflow chamber in the tank, or just a bulkhead drain?

I have some equations to figure out flowrates and water level over the top of the overflow so you don't have to really experiment with the height. Minimize the riak of overflowing or setting it too low and having a huge gap between the water and rim.

 

Getting the drain size right to minimize noise can be tricky too. I wish I stuck with that grey fitting for the primary drain. Now that the biofilm has built up, I am getting slightly more flow (siphoning) through the drain, so I get trickling from the water falling over the overflow.

[Reefkid88]

Hahahaha,isn't my intentions but if it makes you push your ideas further and gives you the motivation to pump out incredible pico tanks,I'm willing to do that lol. I actually have there 12"x6"x6" betta tank,the 2 or 3 divider one ? With a "sump" making it a all in one. But I'd didn't turn out how I wanted it too,but it's finished and tucked away in a drawer lol.

 

I was thinking of use this for the drain idk if 1/2" will be a good size or not:

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?idProduct=RB31517&child=RB31460

 

And this for the return with no nozzles to get a more widened flow:

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/1_2_Inch-Loc_Line-LL1121-FIFTLLHI-vi.html

There will only be one divider in the sump,left side 3"x12" media bag with activated carbon and right side will be the return pump.