Dalton’s 2.5g Filterless Zoa Pico

[robertsdalton]

I’ve had a small tank sitting around for a while collecting dust, so it seemed like a good excuse to start something new. My idea is really simple, here it is: 

 

 

 

I want to run this 2.5 gallon using only biological filtration, and with as little equipment as possible. The only equipment in now is a small return pump which will hopefully provide the necessary circulation & a 50w preset heater. I may even remove the heater during the summer to reduce the clutter even further. The tank is next to a window & summer here in Texas would likely be enough to keep the temp right, but I’ll just have to monitor it if I decide to do that.

 

Obviously I’ll need to change the light as well because the tank was previously used for freshwater. I’m thinking maybe a strip or two of the Ecoxotic EcoPico LEDS? Any comments or other recommendations?

 

I also plan to keep this bare bottom. It’ll make cleaning easier for me, because I’d eventually like to put in a couple of snails and crabs, maybe a small goby too. But the biggest reason for going bare bottom is that I’d like for the zoas to cover the entirety of the bottom glass along with the live rock. Does this seem doable?

 

This pico seems to be more of an experiment than anything, but I’m excited to see what happens. I’m headed out now to pick up some rock & the tank should be wet sometime today! If you have any questions, concerns, or advice, I’d love to hear it!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Dalton

[robertsdalton]

And so it begins!

 

 

 

I feel like I was able to hide the equipment fairly well. The wires are a bit unsightly, but that’s a problem to be solved at a later time.

[bryanphillips]

Nice! Looking forward to seeing where this goes 

[WV Reefer]

22 minutes ago, robertsdalton said:

And so it begins!

 

 

 

I feel like I was able to hide the equipment fairly well. The wires are a bit unsightly, but that’s a problem to be solved at a later time.

 

I like this a lot!  That tank is sooo cute! 🙂

[Christopher Marks]

Great to see another pico reef in the works! Biological only can be very freeing 😄

 

It looks great with the equipment hiding down low. Once you have some coral in there it will really disappear. Keep a close eye on your water temp, little heaters in these small tanks can be unpredictable without an external temperature monitor, especially near a window.

 

Ecoxotic EcoPico LEDs could work out great, I wonder if they'd retrofit right into the existing light?

[robertsdalton]

15 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Keep a close eye on your water temp, little heaters in these small tanks can be unpredictable without an external temperature monitor, especially near a window.

Thanks for reading Chris! Think it’s smarter to see if the water can hold a steady temp without the heater?

 

17 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Ecoxotic EcoPico LEDs could work out great, I wonder if they'd retrofit right into the existing light?

I was thinking the same thing! I may do that if it works well, or I may put together a mount of my own. Something a bit more attractive than the flimsy plastic that’s on now.

[robertsdalton]

I’m starting to wonder if it’s possible to hook up an in-line heater to an air pump? This way the only thing in the tank would be the clear airline tubing, but I’d still have both heated water & good circulation like I do now. Any opinions? Has anyone done anything similar before?

[Type-H20]

I like this project and cool tank.  Is that a Cobalt 2.6?  

 

If you want a minimal look, maybe go with small lily pipes and one of those zoomed nano canister filters.  You may be able to install an inline heater with the zoomed (I'm not 100% though).  I'd run the zoomed with just chemipure blue.   Not sure if the zoas will adhere to glass, but they probably would if your removed the frag from the plug and glue it directly to the glass (otherwise they'll probably just get blown around) this way when the colony expands they'll have no choice, but to attach to the surrounding glass. 

[robertsdalton]

53 minutes ago, Type-H20 said:

I like this project and cool tank.  Is that a Cobalt 2.6?  

 

If you want a minimal look, maybe go with small lily pipes and one of those zoomed nano canister filters.  You may be able to install an inline heater with the zoomed (I'm not 100% though).  I'd run the zoomed with just chemipure blue.   Not sure if the zoas will adhere to glass, but they probably would if your removed the frag from the plug and glue it directly to the glass (otherwise they'll probably just get blown around) this way when the colony expands they'll have no choice, but to attach to the surrounding glass. 

Love the ideas. The tank is just a cheapo Top Fin that had an internal filter I cut out. I used to use it for a betta until it got ich & I was too inexperienced to know what to do about it. It sat unused for a few months until I had this idea.

 

I’ll look into the nano canister filter. I want to try my luck with no chemical or mechanical filtration, but if that doesn’t seem to work I’ll probably try the canister.

 

Thanks for the tips! I’ll keep things updated.

[Type-H20]

4 minutes ago, robertsdalton said:

Love the ideas. The tank is just a cheapo Top Fin that had an internal filter I cut out. I used to use it for a betta until it got ich & I was too inexperienced to know what to do about it. It sat unused for a few months until I had this idea.

 

I’ll look into the nano canister filter. I want to try my luck with no chemical or mechanical filtration, but if that doesn’t seem to work I’ll probably try the canister.

 

Thanks for the tips! I’ll keep things updated.

Cool.  Btw, I only suggested the nano canister because you wanted an in-line heater.  My best suggestion is, just get a small heater small power head and just do water changes.  Looking forward to updates.

[Lula_Mae]

7 hours ago, robertsdalton said:

I’m starting to wonder if it’s possible to hook up an in-line heater to an air pump? This way the only thing in the tank would be the clear airline tubing, but I’d still have both heated water & good circulation like I do now. Any opinions? Has anyone done anything similar before?

I believe in-line heaters require water flowing through them in order to heat it. You can use either the airline or the powerhead. Look into the Archea heater carried by Aqua Forest Aquariums. I have used the 25w version for well over a year. It's tiny and has an external thermostat, and has maintained rock steady temps all this time. I posted size comparison pics last October or so in the Creative Container Contest thread.

[Lula_Mae]

Also, I highly recommend having a HOB available in case you ever need to run carbon in an emergency. That might have saved my pico when it crashed last year.

[robertsdalton]

Well after a lot of thinking, researching, and moving things around in the tank, I’ve changed things up.

 

 

My initial desire to run a pico on only biological filtration was because I wanted to keep as much equipment out of the tank as possible. I want to make the live rock & future zoa garden appear as if they were a piece of art or a sculpture on exhibit. Minimalizing the number of wires & equipment seen feels like the most effective way of doing that.

 

So why did I stick a big ol’ Aquaclear on the back? I had just a couple of reasons: 

 

1. At first I thought about setting the tank up this way: I’d set up a canister filter with lily pipes, like @Type-H20 recommended, and hopefully the return would provide enough circulation. This was a good idea, but then I complicated it. I started to wonder if a single return lily pipe would provide both enough circulation & aeration for the tank. Even if it were, I then still wouldn’t want an ugly heater in the tank. So then what? The only inline heater I could find was the 200w hydor, and after reading numerous reviews, it sounded like it wouldn’t be a good idea to use that much wattage on just 2.5g of water. The next choice was to diy an in-line heater for my size tank. But to do that, along with picking out a canister filter with the right power & trying to choose a lily pipe that would provide both circulation & aeration, and then trusting myself to put it all together with a diy heater, I gave up on that. The AquaClear 70 solved all of those problems because it took all wires out of the tank (ooh I hate those wires), fit my heater, and gives a strong flow throughout the tank while aerating it very well.

 

2. The AquaClear 70 solved all of my above problems, and also it’s big media space offered a lot of room to fit other media for even more biological filtration.

 

Everything I’m saying isn’t revolutionary I know, but I’m still very new to saltwater tanks (about 4 months), so explaining everything like this just feels better. Plus you can correct me if I’m making big mistakes.

 

 

Here’s another reason I was ok with sticking on an AC: 

 

 

Know how the back glass reflects when you look at it from the side of the tank? I loved the way the filter intake was the only visible piece of equipment in the tank & I loved seeing the rest of the tank reflect back in the glass. So this gave me the idea of having a mirror cut to the right size & placing it against the back glass. This would cover the ugly ol’ Aquaclear & also make the tank appear larger. Has anybody had experience with doing this?

 

Also I was wondering if there was any type of glass intake tube that would fit on the aquaclear? I know how glass seems to be almost invisible in water, so that along with a mirrored background would essentially take all visible equipment out of the display, putting all focus on the rock & zoas.

 

I know that I may be putting too much effort into what I’m doing with equipment, but this is the tank that I want to become a piece of art. My other 5 gallon is the mixed reef that will soon be just bursting with all sorts of life, regardless of how much ugly equipment is seen. But my goal for this tank is different, ya feel? 

 

Also, I have a light coming in the mail soon. I didn’t go big since the plan is to only set up a zoa garden. Also I know how zoas just glow under leds, so I picked up this $50 light on Amazon. We’ll see how it does!

 

Leite LED Aquarium Lights Nano Asta 20 Full Spectrum Remote Control Fish Tank Lamp 4 Channels Dimmable for Saltwater Coral Reef Aquarium https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075H8QN4R/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_SuHeBbVC0BS74

 

And here’s the most recent fts:

 

 

Isn’t a cycling tank so fun to watch? 😉 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Dalton

[TheRope]

Very nice Dalton, cant wait to see where this goes. As for light i highly recommend the par 38 tuna blue led bulb by abi (can purchase on ebay) the 12w model is fantastic and its exactly what i use on mine (and has been used for many years on other incredible picos)

[jSully]

Rather than a glass intake tube you could snag some clear tubing from Home Depot for pretty cheap, cut it a little longer and put a small sponge in the intake (which could be easily hid by the rock) to prevent critters from getting curious. You could also get a chemistry bar and drill holes on the bottom for intake, just make sure you get the right diameter to fit the AC intake. 

[robertsdalton]

 

I was out of town for a week & came back to a fully cycled tank. I put in a nerite snail & tiny blue legged hermit & also put on the new light.

[TheRope]

38 minutes ago, robertsdalton said:

 

I was out of town for a week & came back to a fully cycled tank. I put in a nerite snail & tiny blue legged hermit & also put on the new light.

Well if it was live rock you put in it should trchnically have cycled within the first week at most 🙂 i put corals in 3 days after outting in my live rock with great success 🙂

[robertsdalton]

11 minutes ago, TheRope said:

Well if it was live rock you put in it should trchnically have cycled within the first week at most 🙂 i put corals in 3 days after outting in my live rock with great success 🙂

Sounds like I’ll be putting in my first zoas later today!

[Lula_Mae]

16 hours ago, TheRope said:

Well if it was live rock you put in it should trchnically have cycled within the first week at most 🙂 i put corals in 3 days after outting in my live rock with great success 🙂

Depends on how long the live rock was out of water, if it was shipped in damp newspaper from overseas or wherever, live rock can still take several weeks (and that's how cycling used to always be done--I avoided much of a cycle for my first 5.5 when I brought buckets to the LFS to carry my rock home in water).

 

16 hours ago, robertsdalton said:

Sounds like I’ll be putting in my first zoas later today!

Just remember to start slowly and let the tank's biofilter build itself up.  Looking forward to seeing the first corals!

[robertsdalton]

11 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Depends on how long the live rock was out of water, if it was shipped in damp newspaper from overseas or wherever, live rock can still take several weeks (and that's how cycling used to always be done--I avoided much of a cycle for my first 5.5 when I brought buckets to the LFS to carry my rock home in water).

The live rock was only out of water for about 20-30 minutes. It came from an established tank at my lfs & I brought it home in damp newspaper. Seems like we had similar experiences!