The Not Always Bigger In Texas - MiniComplete

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

Well I took the dive on the minicomplete. Gotta be honest after I opened the box and started realistically looking at what I thought could be done, I regretted buying the dang thing and posted on eBay within the same week!

Anyhow it got a ton of views but no one was willing to pay anywhere near what was payed...so left with no choice I marched forward against nearly everything I’ve learned for reef keeping. This forum luckily has an abundance of collected knowledge. 

 

 

Challenge #1) Heat

 The size of heaters that could shut off at a specific temp were usually too big, and the size of heaters that could fit seemed to over or under heat. So the challenge was a teeny heater that shuts off at a specific temp. Boom:

 

 

This bad mama jama is only about 3” x 1” x 1” ( let me know if you want specific dims). It fit in the sump with enough space to use 2/3 of the filter media provided.

 

 

The heater has a light that turns orange when heating and green when on standby. Ideally it’d be mid 70s but it seems to stay at a steady 79-80f. During the day I unplug the heater and let the tank go to my office temp of 76-78.

 

Challenge #2) Aquascaping

Nearly every rock is Mount Everest in this thing. I looked up “The Golden Rule”, artistic ratios, and googled aquascapes for days.

Did many mock ups glued some stuff together:

 

After days and nights of drawings, scaping, rescaping, then rescaping, I came  up with this:

 

Challenge #3) Substrate

This was actually wildly easy, I put a quarter cup of sand in a Dixie cup rinsed it off and added it using a spoon. Easiest and cleanest substrate I’ve done in my life. 

I figure the challenge will be seeing how the bacteria acts with this little bitty amount of sand...

 

Challenge #4) Water

Another actually wildly easy task for the mini. Went to Walgreens and purchased a gallon of RO (“and/or distilled” lol) water for $1.27, mixed with about a half cup of reef crystals, checked parameters and went on my merry way.

 

FTS

Day 3, I’ll update once there is life tomorrow but here’s where it sits as of now:

 

 

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, NuisanceAlgaeCultivator said:

Well I took the dive on the minicomplete. Gotta be honest after I opened the box and started realistically looking at what I thought could be done, I regretted buying the dang thing and posted on eBay within the same week!

Anyhow it got a ton of views but no one was willing to pay anywhere near what was payed...so left with no choice I marched forward against nearly everything I’ve learned for reef keeping. This forum luckily has an abundance of collected knowledge, albeit limited for tanks this friggin tiny.

Here goes...

 

Challenge #1) Heat

 The size of heaters that could shut off at a specific temp were usually too big, and the size of heaters that could heat seemed to over or under heat. So the challenge was a teeny heater that shuts off at a specific temp. Boom:

 

Welcome to the mini club!

[jbb]

you made a terrible decision , should have given it away. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

43 minutes ago, jbb_00 said:

you made a terrible decision , should have given it away. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haha I literally thought of taking one of the lower offers and getting a fluval spec iii. That 2.7 gallons seems like sooo much more by by comparison.

[jbb]

7 minutes ago, NuisanceAlgaeCultivator said:

Haha I literally thought of taking one of the lower offers and getting a fluval spec iii. That 2.7 gallons seems like sooo much more by by comparison.

I have one of those , it's a nice tank with proper mods 

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

We have life! Well all the previous aquascaping went out the window. My LFS sells frags on rocks instead plugs, so I just glued one to a live rock and made them part of the scenery. They look more appropriately sized than the mountain I'd originally had in there imo. 

 

[Christopher Marks]

👏

 

Nice zoanthids! It really does look better without all that rock, this is a good demonstration of why it's important to leave room for frags, and the rocks they come on, when aquascaping a new tank. The Mini Complete Tank just hyper-amplifies that notion 😅.

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

👏

 

Nice zoanthids! It really does look better without all that rock, this is a good demonstration of why it's important to leave room for frags, and the rocks they come on, when aquascaping a new tank. The Mini Complete Tank just hyper-amplifies that notion 😅.

Thanks Christopher! That it definitely does, lesson learned 🙂. 

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

Had some pretty good opening today, although the orange zoa's are being a little more picky.

I had to put some styrofoam under the tank because vibrations from me typing seemed to scare all of them back into hiding every few minutes.

Hopefully the orange zoas get comfortable with a little moving and open up next week after the first water change. 

 

Up close with no Filter:

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

I've got a little space (ha the irony), do you guys think it'd be beneficial to add a little 3" x 2" bag of bio media, bioballs, or maybe charcoal if I'm already doing 50-100% water change every week? 

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, NuisanceAlgaeCultivator said:

I've got a little space (ha the irony), do you guys think it'd be beneficial to add a little 3" x 2" bag of bio media, bioballs, or maybe charcoal if I'm already doing 50-100% water change every week? 

I’m not using anything in the sump. I figure it will just cause me more headache. 

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

I’m not using anything in the sump. I figure it will just cause me more headache. 

Thanks WV, might just take your advice. The big long and dirty tank looks pretty epic. 

[Friendly]

I'm thinking about how awesome it would be to put one of these on a 5 gallon bucket sump. wouldn't have to change the water for a month or more, LoL!

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

8 minutes ago, Friendly said:

I'm thinking about how awesome it would be to put one of these on a 5 gallon bucket sump. wouldn't have to change the water for a month or more, LoL!

Ha for sure! I was looking into setting this on top of a gallon food storage container lol. 

[Friendly]

well, if you figure out some sort of bypass, you could turn the included sump into an ATO holding tank.

[jbb]

49 minutes ago, Friendly said:

well, if you figure out some sort of bypass, you could turn the included sump into an ATO holding tank.

It's a quick fitting on both ends