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The Rainy Day Aquarium

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The Rainy Day Aquarium
7 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

It's hard to scape in such a small space! I would leave space open for things to grow rather than crowding too much rock in. Maybe keep a few small rubble bits on hand in case something needs to be isolated a bit or something. Right now I think it's got a decent balance of negative space and looks nice!

Lol the main piece of rock IS a small rubble bit 😂 Haha I agree I was just more concerned about the shape/placement of the rock itself. 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium
4 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I’m digging the little tank and your tiny CNC router! Soooooo cute! 😂 

Oh goodness thank you! 😂 haha my CNC router wants to grow up and be like yours one day 👶😂

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This guy is extra salty
On 12/4/2019 at 11:07 PM, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

Oh goodness thank you! 😂 haha my CNC router wants to grow up and be like yours one day 👶😂

 Give it time it will get there soon enough and 100k 🤣

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Wow way to just embarrass every other DIY Pico in this site.. 😒

In all seriousness though, that is extremely impressive. Your acrylic work is superb. 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium

@RedCrow My idea for this tank came from an accumulation of other pico reefs and projects on this site including your build. It's fun to see how everyone does things differently and are still able to create amazing setups. Haha I appreciate the kind words, it means a lot. 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium

We have a new little friend! One of my "local" shops was kind enough to order in a pom pom crab for me. It's been doing great and loves to hang out in its little corner while sticking its little anemones out and wave them around trying to get food 😄

 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium

It's been what? about two weeks since this little tank has been moved to the office? So far so good! I picked up two more small frags on Monday, one being some yuma mushrooms and the other some christmas clove polyps (what can I say, I was feeling festive 😉). My little pom pom crab is doing really well and it's anemones are happy and super plump and squishy 😄🦀 I have to laugh as everyday when I come into work my little crab has gone about rearranging the small bit of GSP I have. I'll nudge it back into place, but the next day it will be right back into this awkward position.😂 I'm getting tired of it so I think I'll just let it decorate as it pleases :slap:

 

I started feeding reefroids and everything seemed to like it, although it's pretty potent stuff so I target feed every other day or so with a pipette. I have been trying to see how low maintenance I can get this tiny pico. I do 50% water changes every week (usually on Fridays before I go home for the weekend). But since I started feeding I might have to change that. I really do think the dragon's breath macro algae is keeping the excess nutrients in check as it's growing pretty well and has been getting those nice red/orange tips on it which looks really cool to me! Right now I'm just trying to get into a groove and keep this reef going for as long as I can! Anyways, enough blabbing. Here are some pictures!

 

As always, thanks for stopping by! Happy reefing and I hope each of you have a wonderful holiday season!PSX_20191219_181856.thumb.jpg.df3fbf40e2000c5da5ddc7cc0e241acd.jpg

 

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  • 2 months later...
The Rainy Day Aquarium

It's been a while!

Things are going well! I'm still trying to dial in the lighting as my zoas are never pleased it seems, but my mushrooms and other coral are all doing great. I had to adjust some things with the macro algae as it has taken off and almost filled my tank haha! I moved some media in the filtration and shoved it in there for now. Once I get my contest tank set up the excess will go to that (I'm dosing vibrant in my 4.1 right now so I can't put it in that tank). 

 

My pom pom crab is doing great! He loves Reefroids and really likes his Omega One flakes haha. One of my coworkers brings her daughter to work in the mornings so she is always hanging around my desk looking at "Mr. Crabby Patty" 😄 

 

Water parameters all look good. Salinity swings are kept to a minimal with a lid and regular topping off with fresh RODI. There is algae growth but I am impressed with how little there is given some lights are on 24/7 in the office. I placed the tank on my desk in such a way as to minimize exposure of said lights at night though. 

 

Just a quick update today!

Here's a photo of "Mr. Crabby Patty" saying hello😊

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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  • 1 month later...
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  • 1 year later...
The Rainy Day Aquarium

2019 called and it wants to know what the heck happened to this build!? 
 

So to get you all up to speed with this tank…

I quit my job, got another job, moved, moved again, and lost the tank in the move ending the brief adventure with this sub 1 gallon reef. Yeah, oops.
 

Fast forward 2ish years and a new tank was made. Although this one wasn’t made with a tiny CNC machine, but with the aid of LASERS. FEAKIN LASERS. I know, pretty neat. BUT not as neat as tiny media baskets and USB powered aquarium heaters! 
 

WELCOME TO THE POCKET ROCKET PICO REEF 3.0!

*insert firework display here*

 

54F7BD5D-4A32-46E5-91BD-6FBD517D494E.thumb.jpeg.2f930caebcd6a760f18c6ec03a2fa3ef.jpeg

 

This new tank is the same size as the old one (4x4x6inches) although the build quality is a lot cleaner (happens when you practice with acrylic). For those who are interested here are the details this time around:

 

Equipment:

Tank: 0.4 gallon diy AIO

Lighting: Zetlight ZN1050

Return Pump: unbranded USB pump

Heater: YukiHalu 10w USB heater

 

Stocking:

TBD

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium

Moved all of my “kind of alive stuff” from the 4.1 over to this little tank. Sunny afternoons really makes the corals happy it seems. It also means it’s almost time to get off work 😅

 

Happy weekend everyone!

 

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  • 6 months later...
The Rainy Day Aquarium

Sadly the tank pictured above is no more. But the show must go on, even if it's a "little smaller".

 

 

Fun fact: Every time I update this thread the tank gets smaller and smaller.

 

 

I was cleaning up some things in my garage and came across one of my tiny AIO aquariums that I made a while ago, buried in a corner. It was crusty as heck and included a shriveled up spider in the display (is it just me or do all old things in the garage HAVE to include spiders?). Anyways, I don't have a tank running right now and that 5 gallon was just a little too much for me at the moment. If you know me you know that two things remain true: I love myself a good pico reef and I don't have my tanks running for very long -- the latter habit I am trying to break I swear! 😅

So put on some rubber gloves and help me get that spider out because-

 

WELCOME TO THE POCKET ROCKET PICO REEF 4.0! NOW WITH LESS WATER VOLUME!

*insert smaller firework display here*

 

Equipment will be the same as the previous iteration but for those who don't want to scroll up the two posts to look at it, here ya go:

 

Equipment:

Tank: 0.3 gallon diy AIO (100x100x120mm)

Lighting: Zetlight ZN1050

Return Pump: unbranded USB pump

Heater: YukiHalu 10w USB heater

 

Stocking:

Chicken Soup

 

 

 

BEFORE PHOTOS:

 

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AFTER PHOTOS:

*dial-up modem sounds*

 

 

 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium
4 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

:happydance: yes yes and yessss !!! I need thissss !!! How much for one shipped to meeee 🙂 ?!?!?! 

*Monkeys crunching numbers* 

 

I'll have a price soon :naughtydance:

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The Rainy Day Aquarium

Filled the tank up with water tonight (added another photo in the post above). I don’t have an RODI unit anymore so I had to run down to my LFS and get a few gallons of saltwater. It needs a lot of TLC, but at least it’s up and running now. I have some new parts coming in the mail for my laser cutter so maybe I’ll get around to making a media basket for it😁 

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The Rainy Day Aquarium

Sometimes I like to procrastinate things by working on OTHER things 😉 

 

In other news I 3D printed a cute little stand for the tank. I actually like it quite a bit. I also went into my LFS the other night to see if they had anything worth getting in the future when it comes time to start filling the display with tiny corals. They had some TINY Pom Pom crabs that were so fun to watch, but at $50?! The last one I had was only $15? Did things really get that expensive? I ended up just getting a small nerite snail to clean up some algae and passed on everything else. I do have some zoas I stashed away with a friend a while ago, so one of these days I’ll just run over and get some frags from him. 
 

I’m also tempted to run this tank without water changes and dose something like polyp labs’ One to make maintenance even “easier”. I guess we’ll see what corals make their way into this tank and what their care is like though, first. In the meantime I have to figure out cable management and a more permanent place for this little reef to live.

Now enjoy this particularly plain, overly blue, wire and cable burdened photo 

CB878DC9-0477-45F8-9DB2-033FE81C6E82.thumb.jpeg.30aa31d67eb3093d239d14406d92377b.jpeg 

 

 

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On 10/29/2019 at 12:14 PM, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

Thank you! There are a few kinks that I'm working out, 

Aren't we all.... 

This thread was a Rollercoaster because I didn't check dates and thought it was all recently posted. Nice little tank you got there... all of them. You could definitly make a few and post them up as a pre-christmas sale. I'm sure you would sell out easily. 

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Awesome man! Such a cool stand! Things have really gotten expensive over the past year or two I’ve noticed too. I just seen a fire shrimp for $69 lol. Craaaazzzy!

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The Rainy Day Aquarium
16 hours ago, patback said:

I didn't check dates and thought it was all recently posted.

Lol yeah I don’t switch out tanks THAT often. But thank you, they are fun little projects when I do build them. I was thinking about making a few and seeing how much interest there was out there for them. You have some of these “big hitter” guys already selling tiny tanks, but of course I’m bias to mine :happydance:

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