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Flatland's Pico Contest Tank


flatlandreefer

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flatlandreefer

Here is my entry for the Pico Contest! I am 95% sure this is the container I will be using, I ordered this as well as a 2.5 gallon anchor hawking jar but I think I like this the best.  The vase holds 2 gallons if filled to the brim.  I'm not exactly sure how I will be aquascaping this quite yet but I am envisioning a slim tower of dry rock that will be epoxied together.  One challenge I foresee is gluing frags in place on the rockwork due to the fairly narrow opening.  I can't wait to get this build started!!!

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flatlandreefer

2 gallon Vase reef equipment list

 

Flow - Tetra air pump

Heater - Cobalt mini therm with ink bird controller 

Light- PAR 38 bulb

Lid- none as of now

ATO- Tunze osmolator nano 

 

Stocking list brainstorm

 

fox coral at bottom

trumpets

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flatlandreefer
25 minutes ago, GunslingerGirl said:

Yumm chilis. Nice looking vase!

 

Calabrian chili paste is a favorite my wife and I!

 

22 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I like the shape, its nice.

 

Thanks!

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flatlandreefer

Rock scape is done, waiting for epoxy to cure a little bit and hopefully things will be wet tonight!! Still can't decide if I am going to add sand at all but I'm leaning towards no. 

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flatlandreefer

Put water in my jar last night, betta stik couldn't keep up with the heating demand and dropped 2 degrees C overnight, might have to go to plan by for a heater.

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flatlandreefer

After debating whether or not to stick with my current container, I made the decision that this vase should work fine. I spent the afternoon drilling a hole through the wall to a small room behind it and chasing cords through the hole to tidy things up from the mess I had on the desk it sits on. I got my tunze osmolator nano set up and used my back up anchor hawking jar as the ato reservoir. 

 

I haven't organized anything inside the tank quite yet because I am waiting on a bigger air pump and a bigger heater to arrive, right now my temp probe, ato tube, and air line are just laying in the jar so it looks pretty messy! My light fixture should arrive on Monday as well so Monday or Tuesday I should be able to get thing more set up and presentable. 

 

I still cant decide if I need to run an air stone for flow or just keep the airline bare, any input would be appreciated!

 

Also corals will add some much needed color in the future! The putty is pretty ugly but at some point the Rockwork should be completely hidden by corals. My vase is also in my basement so the scenery isnt much around the tank, I need some art or posters on the wall to liven things up a little bit! 

 

Anyway once I get the rest of the equipment things will have a few weeks to cycle while I am on vacation and then the fun will begin adding livestock! 

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flatlandreefer

I think I am going to try to incorporate a lift pipe in my final design to help get as much water flow as possible.  Hopefully I can find some clear rigid tubing today.

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flatlandreefer

Ok all my equipment is installed so now it is time for the tank to cycle for a few weeks until I get back from France and then it will be time for life! The water is full of rock debris and detritus so it looks pretty nasty, I just blew everything off with a turkey baster.... good news is it looks like there is a fare amount of flow from the air bubbles alone :haha:

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flatlandreefer
28 minutes ago, gena said:

Looks great!  Yeah, I was surprised how much flow the air pump bubbles give off.  It's actually perfect for my needs.

 

Thanks! I need to mess around with my iPhone to take better pics. I'm glad I was finally able to get the everything set up! 

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58 minutes ago, flatlandreefer said:

 

Thanks! I need to mess around with my iPhone to take better pics. I'm glad I was finally able to get the everything set up! 

I struggle with the iPhone too :) .

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On 10/16/2017 at 8:53 PM, flatlandreefer said:

 

Thanks! I need to mess around with my iPhone to take better pics. I'm glad I was finally able to get the everything set up! 

I usually take pics with my samsung tablet but its not doing a good job at all. ?

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  • 3 weeks later...
flatlandreefer
On 10/20/2017 at 10:11 PM, Mariaface said:

Awesome rockwork! :) I love that it follows the shape of the container

 

Thanks! I'm getting anxious to put some livestock in it!

 

 

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flatlandreefer

I just added some biospira to the jar to help the cycle along.  I picked up a few small frags to get things started, they are in my main tank right now waiting for my parameters to get in check. 

 

I have been having some issues with my tunze osmolator nano.  It seems that sometimes it will be working how it is supposed to, but every once in a while the float switch will fail to kick the pump on even when it is completely bottomed out.  I have to unplug the system and plug it back in and it proceeds to top it off.  I have made sure that it will work after that by tipping the jar and it will kick right on.  I'm not sure what would be causing this intermittent error?

 

Other than the addition of biospira, everything else looks exactly as it did in the last picture.

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Not sure if you purchased the ATO specifically for this project, or pulled it out of storage, but mine did the same thing at one point and a vinegar bath helped. :) 

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flatlandreefer
1 hour ago, Mariaface said:

Not sure if you purchased the ATO specifically for this project, or pulled it out of storage, but mine did the same thing at one point and a vinegar bath helped. :) 

 

Its a brand new ATO for this project.  I will give it a vinegar bath and see if that helps, it has been working fine the past several days...i'm not sure why it would stop working seemingly randomly.

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In that case, freaky! I can't think of a way for water to evaporate that would trick the logic programmed into the ATO, but I've also got some post-concussion nonsense going on so I'll leave this mystery for someone else :P 

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