Official Lifegard Aquatics Crystal (AIO) Aquarium Club!!

[Break]

2 hours ago, FREAKINRICAN69 said:

Is that the 24g lifeguard or smaller?

  Based on what he said above, looks like a 9.8g.

On 6/22/2020 at 11:20 AM, jtperk320 said:

 Hello

I just setup a 9.8 myself.  Came across this thread last night.  I was going to post some pictures of the basket I made myself, but I don't know how to do that from my phone.  If anyone wants to share how to do that I'll gladly post some pics!

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

19 minutes ago, Break said:

  Based on what he said above, looks like a 9.8g.

 

Got it thanks. Was checking because i just built a nice stand for my 24.09 and the dimensions wouldn't square with the ones on the nice stand your using. That thing is indeed beautiful.

[jtperk320]

On 6/29/2020 at 10:49 AM, FREAKINRICAN69 said:

Got it thanks. Was checking because i just built a nice stand for my 24.09 and the dimensions wouldn't square with the ones on the nice stand your using. That thing is indeed beautiful.

Thank you! Yes, it is the 9.8. I do like the stand, but it's not much on storage.  Looks good though lol

[FREAKINRICAN69]

13 hours ago, jtperk320 said:

Thank you! Yes, it is the 9.8. I do like the stand, but it's not much on storage.  Looks good though lol

Definitely looks good for sure.

That's why i had to do my own. LOL

[spnnlogic]

Ive just purchased the Lifeguard AIO 7.5 Nano system. 
I plan on using Marine pure gems at intake under the sponge. 
 A diy three layer filter caddy, 
1. chemipure blue
2. aqualife phosphate remover 
3.Brightwell neo zeolite and a
Minimax pro desktop media reactor.
The options seem endless 

[spnnlogic]

2 minutes ago, spnnlogic said:

Ive just purchased the Lifeguard AIO 7.5 Nano system. 
I plan on using Marine pure gems at intake under the sponge. 
 A diy three layer filter caddy, 
1. chemipure blue
2. aqualife phosphate remover 
3.Brightwell neo zeolite and a
Minimax pro desktop media reactor.
The options seem endless 

 

[jtperk320]

On 7/4/2020 at 5:23 PM, spnnlogic said:

 

Looking good! Look forward to watching your progress with that tank!

[FREAKINRICAN69]

On 7/4/2020 at 6:23 PM, spnnlogic said:

 

nICE...CONGRATS AND LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HOW IT DEVELOPS. I'M STILL WORKING ON GETTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER FOR THE 24G I PURCHASED...

[somekindabonita]

Hey all!  New to this website, and looking for some advice.  Have a 40B running at home, but interested in setting up a tank at work.  Saw some pretty awesome 4.1 gal setups that I think that's the path I want to go!  Now that I've figured out some of the basics, I'm a little more confident to jump in with a smaller tank.

 

I'm wondering how loud people find that tank to be, or if there's any suggestions for different return pumps that might be quieter?

 

Stocking I'm thinking a cleaner shrimp and some soft corals.  I have a tunze nano ATO I think I'll use if it fits.  Planning to get the BRS temp controller to upgrade my 40 and move the Inkbird to this new tank - not sure on heater yet, but want to have a clip on or desk fan to help with evaporative cooling as needed.  My 40 got moved to the basement of our new house, so I don't think I'll ever need cooling on it again.  My office temps swing kinda crazy (crappy old building) that I think it's more important on the new tank.

 

Anything you wish you'd done differently when first setting up?

[Break]

38 minutes ago, somekindabonita said:

Hey all!  New to this website, and looking for some advice.  Have a 40B running at home, but interested in setting up a tank at work.  Saw some pretty awesome 4.1 gal setups that I think that's the path I want to go!  Now that I've figured out some of the basics, I'm a little more confident to jump in with a smaller tank.

 

I'm wondering how loud people find that tank to be, or if there's any suggestions for different return pumps that might be quieter?

 

Stocking I'm thinking a cleaner shrimp and some soft corals.  I have a tunze nano ATO I think I'll use if it fits.  Planning to get the BRS temp controller to upgrade my 40 and move the Inkbird to this new tank - not sure on heater yet, but want to have a clip on or desk fan to help with evaporative cooling as needed.  My 40 got moved to the basement of our new house, so I don't think I'll ever need cooling on it again.  My office temps swing kinda crazy (crappy old building) that I think it's more important on the new tank.

 

Anything you wish you'd done differently when first setting up?

First off, welcome to NR!

 

The stock return pump is pretty loud. I replaced it with a Sicce Syncra Nano (110gph) and it isn't much quieter. I even tried this silicone mat technique seen in this BRS video. It helped a bit, but finding a quieter pump would help more. Unfortunately, the options are limited as the pump 1) must fit in the back chamber and 2) can't be too strong or will overflow the display.

 

The returns on these tanks are drilled/filed quite small, which is great at keeping fish in the display, but because it's a tinted glass false wall (one of my biggest criticisms on these tanks) it's not easy to just widen them (unless you are comfortable working with glass). They tried to rectify this with an optional drainage hole further down the first chamber, but that's just a band-aid on a bad design.

 

The return chambers are pretty large and have more front-to-back depth than I expected; I imagine your ATO will fit. The heater will depend on what chamber you plan to put it in and how much you fill up the tank (the second baffle in the back chambers is baffling low for some reason). The flip-side of this is that the display is much smaller than you think as you probably lose 25% or so to back chambers depending on what tank you get. I was surprised I actually have less display space than my 3.4g with a HOB filter which I upgraded from.

 

All that being said, it's fairly priced and not a bad AIO if you are very limited on size and dimensions like I currently am (would go bigger if I could). If I had more flexibility in size and dimensions, I honestly would spend more time looking at other pico options. There are some decent desktop tank options out there.

[somekindabonita]

1 hour ago, Break said:

First off, welcome to NR!

 

The stock return pump is pretty loud. I replaced it with a Sicce Syncra Nano (110gph) and it isn't much quieter. I even tried this silicone mat technique seen in this BRS video. It helped a bit, but finding a quieter pump would help more. Unfortunately, the options are limited as the pump 1) must fit in the back chamber and 2) can't be too strong or will overflow the display.

 

The returns on these tanks are drilled/filed quite small, which is great at keeping fish in the display, but because it's a tinted glass false wall (one of my biggest criticisms on these tanks) it's not easy to just widen them (unless you are comfortable working with glass). They tried to rectify this with an optional drainage hole further down the first chamber, but that's just a band-aid on a bad design.

 

The return chambers are pretty large and have more front-to-back depth than I expected; I imagine your ATO will fit. The heater will depend on what chamber you plan to put it in and how much you fill up the tank (the second baffle in the back chambers is baffling low for some reason). The flip-side of this is that the display is much smaller than you think as you probably lose 25% or so to back chambers depending on what tank you get. I was surprised I actually have less display space than my 3.4g with a HOB filter which I upgraded from.

 

All that being said, it's fairly priced and not a bad AIO if you are very limited on size and dimensions like I currently am (would go bigger if I could). If I had more flexibility in size and dimensions, I honestly would spend more time looking at other pico options. There are some decent desktop tank options out there.

What was your motivation coming over from your HOB setup?  I was kicking around setting up something with one of the aquaclear filters if we didn't go with an AIO

[Break]

13 minutes ago, somekindabonita said:

What was your motivation coming over from your HOB setup?  I was kicking around setting up something with one of the aquaclear filters if we didn't go with an AIO

The HOB set-up just didn't look as clean, though it is certainly possible to create a HOB set-up that does, just check out some of the tank journals on here.  Wanted a black background since the tank is in front of a large window.

 

HOB style leads to more salt-creep everywhere, but is conversely easy to pop-off and clean in the sink if needed. You do get a bit more trickling noise and evaporation, but those aren't necessarily negatives (I use an ATO and find the water noise relaxing). 

 

As far as function goes, the Aquaclears work great with a media basket from inTank - had mine for 5 years with no issues. Overall the motor was quieter than the return pump I have now.

[Mwil79]

Just joined the club 😀 and the cycle has begun.

 

 

[Mitch777]

7.4 gallon home office Corona reef! just a little over a month old. So far so good! Not the best quality tank though. Beautiful design but seems delicate in comparison to the IM 10g.  

 

 

 

[Mwil79]

Yah not particularly the biggest fan of the way the overflow works. Seems like it is up way too high. What are you running in the back? 

[Break]

4 hours ago, Mwil79 said:

Yah not particularly the biggest fan of the way the overflow works. Seems like it is up way too high. What are you running in the back? 

Agreed. The overflows are pretty terrible, kind of wish I had filed mine to be a littler wider before filling the tank. I was a little late on changing my filter floss a few weeks back and the display almost overflowed (and I change my filter floss pretty frequently as it is). 😒

[Mwil79]

8 hours ago, Break said:

Agreed. The overflows are pretty terrible, kind of wish I had filed mine to be a littler wider before filling the tank. I was a little late on changing my filter floss a few weeks back and the display almost overflowed (and I change my filter floss pretty frequently as it is). 😒

lol yeah god forbid you need to make an adjustment to aquascape and put your hand in the tank.  Right now I'm still cycling so I am just running some old some sponge from a matured tank as well as used some bio spira. Tank is probably cycled at this point I just honestly have been maintaining my other two tanks at the moment. I plan to remove the some sponges as I dont want a nitrate factory in there but is running something like a small bag of chemi pure elite too much for such a small tank? thinking getting the 25 gallon vs and just using about 1/3 of it. If not what else do you guys run in the back other than filter floss.

[Break]

2 hours ago, Mwil79 said:

lol yeah god forbid you need to make an adjustment to aquascape and put your hand in the tank.  Right now I'm still cycling so I am just running some old some sponge from a matured tank as well as used some bio spira. Tank is probably cycled at this point I just honestly have been maintaining my other two tanks at the moment. I plan to remove the some sponges as I dont want a nitrate factory in there but is running something like a small bag of chemi pure elite too much for such a small tank? thinking getting the 25 gallon vs and just using about 1/3 of it. If not what else do you guys run in the back other than filter floss.

Chemi-pure elite is a lot for the size of the tank, but should work fine assuming you aren't struggling to keep phosphates detectable. I use the Chemi-pure Blue Nano pack which are small (rated at 5g each mini bag) and that let's you add another if you feel the need. It's essentially Purigen-type resin balls mixed with Chemi-pure. In addition to filter floss and the CPB, I also run a small piece of Poly-Filter and MarinePure Gems.

 

And yes, if you put your hand in the tank too fast it can overflow  the display due to displacement. I've invested in some 12" forceps which are pretty handy. You need to wash them with freshwater after every use or they rust pretty quickly, though. You can get titanium ones to avoid that, but they are quite pricey.

[Mitch777]

23 hours ago, Mwil79 said:

Yah not particularly the biggest fan of the way the overflow works. Seems like it is up way too high. What are you running in the back? 

Other than a sponge and some filter floss, nothing. In such a small tank I think cleaning the sponge in saltwater during water changes and switching out the floss every week is as good as its going to get. I also have a small ball of chaeto in the display which should help as it grows to keep nitrates in check. 

[Mwil79]

15 hours ago, Mitch777 said:

Other than a sponge and some filter floss, nothing. In such a small tank I think cleaning the sponge in saltwater during water changes and switching out the floss every week is as good as its going to get. I also have a small ball of chaeto in the display which should help as it grows to keep nitrates in check. 

Where are you even putting the floss? I have the 7.5 peninsula and the overflow on top has the water flow down to the next chamber which is completely backwards. I may have to keep the water very low and use an ato which I really didn't want to do. 

[Break]

5 hours ago, Mwil79 said:

Where are you even putting the floss? I have the 7.5 peninsula and the overflow on top has the water flow down to the next chamber which is completely backwards. I may have to keep the water very low and use an ato which I really didn't want to do. 

Some of the inTank media baskets and filter floss holders will fit these tanks or at least get close enough. My solution was to purchase the inTank Media Baskets for the Waterbox 7 and dremel them down to fit the 4.1g Lifegard. StevieT said these tanks are on his radar for making media baskets, but I figure it will be a while.

[Mitch777]

On 8/29/2020 at 11:55 AM, Mwil79 said:

Where are you even putting the floss? I have the 7.5 peninsula and the overflow on top has the water flow down to the next chamber which is completely backwards. I may have to keep the water very low and use an ato which I really didn't want to do. 

I put it right on top of the sponge. Seems to be working well so far plus keeps the water nice and crystal. On another topic, how often do you guys do water changes? 

[famousdan314]

I just picked up a 7.4 gallon peninsula. It’s been cycling for a few weeks. What kind of equipment upgrades work on this tank. Looking at upgrading the return pump. Also looking at lighting options. Thanks!

[Marmaladewuz]

I just bought a 9.9 gal all in one. Any suggestions for a top?

[Daniel92481]

Hey reefers! I’m a little late to the pico party, but now I’m here! 
 

Since I found this forum, I’ve been hooked on viewing different setups and reading posts about others experiences with the Lifeguard Aquatics crystal AIO 4.1! 
 

I love this tank so far. I plan on getting wet tomorrow after I break down my Nuvo 40 that has been up and running for about a year now. I plan to put some of my remaining corals in the pico. 
 

Here is a basic pic of my new setup. More pics to come soon. Great community here!