The “it must be free” secret secondary 2.5g old school pico

[mariahranch]

As I mentioned in my main entry post, I had thoughts of trying to run a secondary entry. Not sure if it’s allowed, but I thought this would be a fun personal challenge. If it’s not allowed, this one just tags along for fun.

 

And why might that be?

 

I’ve decided to self inflict a rule with this particular tank: 

 

It must be free. The total build cost can not exceed zero dollars!

 

How?

 

One of the cool things about this contest is that the contest post said entrants “might” just have these pieces lying around. So I’m going to dig through my jun- err I mean stuff and limit this 100%  to items I already own, right down to the sand, rock, coral, fish, filter media, light, you name it. And the rule starts now tank got so I can’t even place any corals from my most recent order arriving soon.

 

I’m going to rate this on a difficulty scale of “nearly impossible” for me because I love any excuse to get new things. But hey, I feel like a challenge 🤣

 

And btw, it’s set up in my garage where the other half hopefully won’t notice it, so don’t go spoiling my little secret!

 

Included below are the first pictures which feature some of the assorted supplies I may use in the build. The ancient whisper power filter is missing it’s intake strainer, so I cut the end off of that sponge filter and put it over the filter to prevent any fish or coral from getting sucked away. Next we have a marina 10w heater and circulation pump and nozzle taken from one of my spec 1’s , which decided a few weeks ago that leaking was fun. I’m thinking to use it as a powerhead, since my only other Powerheads are 425gph and a bit overpowering. Note that this tank has the mixed indo pacific live sand.

[mariahranch]

Full tank shot now that the water has cleared

[Ratvan]

Love the side mount

[debbeach13]

First thing I thought was JANKY TANK CONTENDER!

[asting]

nice start! is it free if it is moved over from another tank? or will you only frag from other tanks to move over?

[mariahranch]

7 minutes ago, asting said:

nice start! is it free if it is moved over from another tank? or will you only frag from other tanks to move over?

Anything currently in my tanks. But I only have frags anyway! I think chopping them into even tinier frags might not work lol

[This guy is extra salty]

Two tanks!

[mariahranch]

Finally got around to chiseling a big piece of rock into something usuable. I wanted to hide the sponge covered power filter intake from view 🤣. I’ve also placed the “powerhead” behind the wall.

 

I've added some mushrooms that I already had in another tank hidden behind a rock. 

[leighla]

I love this idea! I have parts tucked away all over the house, if only there was a good place to hide another set-up......

[mariahranch]

So no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t really see the inhabitants, a snail and 3 stripe damsel. So I went back out to the shop and grabbed another one, so let’s try for version 2.0 (actually 3.0 if you count the one I broke as it tried to become rimless...)

 

And now, without further ado, here are before and after pics of the transfer. I even rinsed it first! The tank is inside finally and at foot level on my lone fish rack. The ancient filter died, good thing I had the powerhead in there. Fortunately I had a leftover AC 20 I could use. 

 

I’m going to have to raid the other picos for corals I owned at beginning of contest, to add to the tank or no progress shall be made. 

 

 

 

[Tamberav]

I set mine up using all existing equipment except the tank itself. Although I still haven't added all the hardware yet but it's set beside it when I am not feeling so lazy.

 

Nice start so far.

[mariahranch]

Here’s a video of the tank:

 

 

[vlangel]

Must be free!  I like that concept.  It'll be fun to see how this tank progresses.

[Christopher Marks]

On 4/14/2019 at 4:00 PM, mariahranch said:

As I mentioned in my main entry post, I had thoughts of trying to run a secondary entry. Not sure if it’s allowed, but I thought this would be a fun personal challenge. If it’s not allowed, this one just tags along for fun.

 

And why might that be?

 

I’ve decided to self inflict a rule with this particular tank: 

 

It must be free. The total build cost can not exceed zero dollars!

I love love love this free tank idea @mariahranch! How fun 🙂

 

I'll admit I hadn't considered the potential for two tank entries into the competition! For the sake of keeping the competition even between all entrants, I've decided to move this second old school pico entry into the 'Rule Breakers' category, while your first old school pico reef entry can compete fully for all prizes. 👍

[mariahranch]

Here are some pics of the tank. Not really much new here, except I added a yellow watchman goby. I bought him for the Nuvo 20 I recently set up but I had already added a neon dottyback to that tank and it instantly tried to kill this guy. I couldn’t catch the dottyback to put him on temporary timeout and this was my only other tank without a goby. I figure a fish that would have been dead is almost the same as free. Right? 🤣

[ef4life]

Looks good, I like the rocks on the one side, it looks like a drop off kind off.  

[Christopher Marks]

Hey @mariahranch, what became of the freebie pico reef?