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Rudy's New Pico Reef - Old School Pico Reef


RudyEnt

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Ok.  Here we go.  I have not had a Pico reef in 10+ years but I saw this contest and I had to build one again.  I dug up my 2.5g tank from my garage.  It has been dry forever.  I also went into my box of equipment and as you can see from the picture, my filter is over 15 years old and was put away dirty.  Really bad of me.  I have not turned it on and I hope it still works.  As for the light, I found my old light but I don't think it will be good enough so I am going to take apart the LED light in the picture and build a small LED fixture for the tank.  I found my old air pump but I don't think I will use it.  I will be going bare bottom and as for corals I will frag from my main system.  It being a 150 gallon mixed reef.  

My wife looked at me saw what I had bought out and shrugged and shook her head.  I guess I am off to a good start.  

 

Good luck everyone.

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Welcome to the contest! Must be nice to have an established system to take frags from! Looking forward to seein the progress on your DIY LED project too!

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Also, pretty sure Tetra still sells the same "15 year old" model of that HOB in stores today,,,lol

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On 4/24/2019 at 1:42 PM, MetaTank said:

Also, pretty sure Tetra still sells the same "15 year old" model of that HOB in stores today,,,lol

Thanks for the info I will look into finding the filters for it.  It would be good to keep the water clean with carbon.

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Ok, my tank is now wet.  After cleaning the filter for about an hour.  Word to the wise, never put anything away without cleaning it first.  The 10+ year old filter kicked on like it was new.  At least one thing worked.  My other project to use an old LED bulb to make the new one for this tank went south.  The entire board panel of the LED's was corroded.  No I am looking for my other ones that I know I have somewhere in my garage.  If not I will have to by a new one for this tank.  The other light that I found was for my 10 gallon quarantine tank.  Way too much light for this tank.  Not to mention way too big as well.  I will start on that next week when I return.

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7 minutes ago, RudyEnt said:

Ok, my tank is now wet.  After cleaning the filter for about an hour.  Word to the wise, never put anything away without cleaning it first.  The 10+ year old filter kicked on like it was new.  At least one thing worked.  My other project to use an old LED bulb to make the new one for this tank went south.  The entire board panel of the LED's was corroded.  No I am looking for my other ones that I know I have somewhere in my garage.  If not I will have to by a new one for this tank.  The other light that I found was for my 10 gallon quarantine tank.  Way too much light for this tank.  Not to mention way too big as well.  I will start on that next week when I return.

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Glad the filter kicked on. I’m using an old AC50 filter from 2012 I believe, so you’re not the only one. I also put it away dirty, and had the same struggle when pulling it back out. I even had to replace a couple o-rings that had dried up and cracked over the years.

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That was one thing good about old school HOB pumps.  They were very reliable and kept on ticking, even when some of us did not clean them very often.  I too have put them in storage dirty and then drug them out for use years, if not decades later. 😆

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well all, Let the biological begin.  I added rocks and some cheto.  I was also trying to build an LED light but found that controlling its entensity  was harder than I thought.  So I bit the bullet and bought an LED light.  Can't wait to add the black sand and then unto corals.

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4 hours ago, RudyEnt said:

Well all, Let the biological begin.  I added rocks and some cheto.  I was also trying to build an LED light but found that controlling its entensity  was harder than I thought.  So I bit the bullet and bought an LED light.  Can't wait to add the black sand and then unto corals.

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Which light did you end up using? Looks like the mount for an Asta20

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16 hours ago, MetaTank said:

Which light did you end up using? Looks like the mount for an Asta20

 

16 hours ago, MetaTank said:

Which light did you end up using? Looks like the mount for an Asta20

Correct.  I found it on Amazon and it looked pretty good.  I set it up to what I think would be best for the tank and appealing to the eye (My Wife) and lets see how things go from here.

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On 4/26/2019 at 7:30 AM, vlangel said:

That was one thing good about old school HOB pumps.  They were very reliable and kept on ticking, even when some of us did not clean them very often.  I too have put them in storage dirty and then drug them out for use years, if not decades later. 😆

 

 

So true.  It was put away for 10+ years.  The funny thing is that I was thinking that I would have to rig a filter pad for it then I forgot who said it but they are still selling them.  So I went online and found the filters for it.  Win, win.

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6 hours ago, RudyEnt said:

 

Correct.  I found it on Amazon and it looked pretty good.  I set it up to what I think would be best for the tank and appealing to the eye (My Wife) and lets see how things go from here.

Yeah, I'm using the same one, I like it so far

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All right.  I finally got the black sand.  Going into the tank and in a day it will be ready for corals and fish.  I really like the way that it is looking.

 

 

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2 hours ago, RudyEnt said:

It's there for all those robo calls

But if you don’t answer the phone, how will you know when the prince of Kenya has a large inheritance for you from your distant uncle? You must transfer $1000 to the overseas account to verify with them that you are able to receive the $20,000 payments which you are entitled to!

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On 4/24/2019 at 10:46 AM, RudyEnt said:

My wife looked at me saw what I had brought out and shrugged and shook her head.

:lol:  Haha, I'm feeling you buddy.

 

 

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Well, hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day weekend.  I enjoyed having some time to play with my fish tanks while my wife sleepted in this weekend.  So here is the results of that.  I got to frag a few of my corals from my large tank to the Pico tank.  I also pulled some of the red Algae from the reactor and used it as decoration.  A good dual purpose.  As you can see from the picture I removed the chato(no longer needed).  I added a few blue mushrooms.  I took one head from my frog spawn and a piece of my red monti cap.  Almost forgot one pulsating xenia (did not like the move).  That will be all for a few days while it stabilizes then I will add fish.

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I really like those mushrooms! Looking good so far, the black sand really highlights everything else in the tank!

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Ok, I said I was going to wait but while at my LFS this guy (girl) was still in the bag and I had to get her.  So here she is my new addition.  A Ruby Red Scooter Dragonet.  So I asked them to find me a male to keep her company.

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