Aquarium's 1.5 Gallon DIY Pico

[aquarium]

11/5/2019 – “dry” FTS

Hello Nano-Reef!

Although I made my first foray onto this forum several years ago with a rather uninspiring 10-gallon reef, I disappeared for a while and decided it was time for me to log back in and give it another go. That original 10 gallon is still running strong after 6 years and has come a long way since my last post, but more on that later.

I started college this fall, and soon after moving in I started thinking about setting up a dorm room tank. I was very aware of the fact that tanks and travel don’t mix, so I was a little wary of the idea. The deciding factor came when my roommate convinced me to join what is now my most interesting class: “E&EB 255: Invertebrates”. In addition to being really cool subject matter, the professor does an incredible job of presenting it, and I suppose it helps that a couple of my best friends are in the class with me. In any case, the course has given me a new perspective on the incredible organisms I’ve already encountered in the home aquarium, and it gave me a push back into the reefing world. Transportation is still an issue, but I’m hoping that this problem isn’t insurmountable if I put my mind to it.

I love a good project, so from the start I decided to build this setup entirely from scratch (well, not entirely but close enough). This has been an ongoing project since September, but I’ve been too busy to get a thread started until now. Hopefully I’ll be a little better about regular updates in the future.

I started my thought process by thinking of the main design challenge of the tank, which is one of transport. I’m lucky that I live only about a 2-hour car ride from school, but the tank would have to make this trip a minimum of 6 times a year. With sufficient insulation, I wasn’t worried about temperature swings on this short trip, and I don’t think oxygenation will be a big problem either. It seems to me that the most destructive element of transport is the force of the sloshing water as the tank is moved. In most tanks, the water level must be lowered when moving for weight reasons, but I’m thinking that if a tank could be filled to the brim and then sealed, it should be fairly easy to move around so long as it isn’t too heavy.

Eventually the path I chose to follow broke down into:

1.       A (very) small but rugged display tank that can be sealed and placed into a custom built padded and insulated carrying box.

2.       A larger sump for equipment and water volume with a lid (in other words, a bucket).

When it comes to actually building the thing, I am very lucky to have access to a laser cutter that works with both wood and acrylic in one of the student workspaces, which has been pretty fun to work with.

The core of this system is an Arduino micro that I just happened to have laying around. Someone gave this to me years ago, but I never learned to do anything with it, so I figured I might as well work it into the project somehow. This is not the best or most powerful Arduino out there, and it occasionally proved challenging to work with (especially for the screen), so if anyone is planning on doing something similar, I’d recommend a different model unless you have one already. I love the idea of using the Arduino because it is relatively easy to use, fairly powerful, and allows me to expand the functions in a modular way even while the tank is running. Eventually, I’d love for it to become a full-fledged reef controller. there are a number of features I’d love to work in. To start with, I’m aiming for:

·       LED control

·       Temperature control

·       A screen to report stuff

Things to consider for the future:

·       ATO control

·       Moon Cycles

·       Wireless monitoring

·       (Any other suggestions welcome!)

I am self-taught in programming as of this project, so I assumed that this would be my biggest challenge and started on the electronics first.

I started with the LEDs themselves, and ordered:

·       4x Royal Blue and 2x Neutral White (on two “three-up” chips)

·       1x Lime

·       2 buckpucks

·       A length of square aluminum tubing

I originally intended to have a pair of 25mm fans mounted on the ends of the tubing in some 3D printed brackets to move air through the heatsink, but these were annoyingly loud so I wound up just bolting an adapter and a 40mm fan to the back of the housing as an inelegant but quiet solution. I also printed a bracket for the buckpucks, and mounted the LEDs with thermal epoxy (not my finest work I must admit).

The Arduino itself is mounted on a mini breadboard along with a 128x32 pixel oled display, a clock module, a temperature sensor, and with plenty of room for more components in the future. This whole electronics bundle is packaged up in a laser cut ¼” plywood housing. If anyone is interested in the specifics of the electronics or Arduino stuff, I’d be happy to post more detail or answer any questions.

 

The tank will eventually sit on a custom stand, but for now I cut a “base” of sorts that holds up the light fixture.

As for the aquarium itself, I opted for a pretty basic 7.5” cube of ¼” acrylic, for a total internal water volume of 1.485 gallons. There are two bulkheads on the back wall of the tank, one where water is pumped in and one that acts as an overflow, with the pump being mounted in the sump. I will eventually install some valves to seal these lines, but for now I will simply be threading plugs into the bulkheads Access through the top is through a 5” diameter hole. I have a rubber expansion plug which fits this hole and should do a good enough job of sealing so long as the tank stays upright.

The tank was quite straightforward to assemble and cement and passed the leak test on the first go.

The sump is a 2.5-gallon bucket with a length of PVC pipe in the middle. Water enters the top of the pipe, flows through the “filter” which will probably have a filter sock and some carbon. Water then flow out through holes in the bottom of the pipe, and into a refugium of sorts with more live rock and sand where it is heated and pumped back into the tank.

 

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m waiting on one more order of stuff to come in before I can add water and start cycling, but in the meantime I’m happy to hear any thoughts or questions.

Sorry for the super long post, and thank you to anyone who bothered to read it all!

I’ll tack on a traditional FTS/equipment/livestock list on the top of this post once I actually have anything to put there.

 

 

 

[Reefrelatedusername]

Woah this is gunna be sick, deff keep us posted 

[aquarium]

2 minutes ago, Reefrelatedusername said:

Woah this is gunna be sick, deff keep us posted 

Thanks! I'll do my best.

 

Sorry about the weird formatting on the first post by the way... the copy paste did not come out as intended.

[Reefrelatedusername]

It’s cool it was a fun read. 

[Tired]

Ooh, color me interested.

[WV Reefer]

16 minutes ago, aquarium said:

11/5/2019 – “dry” FTS

 

 

 

Hello Nano-Reef!

 

 

Although I made my first foray onto this forum several years ago with a rather uninspiring 10-gallon reef, I disappeared for a while and decided it was time for me to log back in and give it another go. That original 10 gallon is still running strong after 6 years and has come a long way since my last post, but more on that later.

 

 

I started college this fall, and soon after moving in I started thinking about setting up a dorm room tank. I was very aware of the fact that tanks and travel don’t mix, so I was a little wary of the idea. The deciding factor came when my roommate convinced me to join what is now my most interesting class: “E&EB 255: Invertebrates”. In addition to being really cool subject matter, the professor does an incredible job of presenting it, and I suppose it helps that a couple of my best friends are in the class with me. In any case, the course has given me a new perspective on the incredible organisms I’ve already encountered in the home aquarium, and it gave me a push back into the reefing world. Transportation is still an issue, but I’m hoping that this problem isn’t insurmountable if I put my mind to it.

 

 

I love a good project, so from the start I decided to build this setup entirely from scratch (well, not entirely but close enough). This has been an ongoing project since September, but I’ve been too busy to get a thread started until now. Hopefully I’ll be a little better about regular updates in the future.

 

 

I started my thought process by thinking of the main design challenge of the tank, which is one of transport. I’m lucky that I live only about a 2-hour car ride from school, but the tank would have to make this trip a minimum of 6 times a year. With sufficient insulation, I wasn’t worried about temperature swings on this short trip, and I don’t think oxygenation will be a big problem either. It seems to me that the most destructive element of transport is the force of the sloshing water as the tank is moved. In most tanks, the water level must be lowered when moving for weight reasons, but I’m thinking that if a tank could be filled to the brim and then sealed, it should be fairly easy to move around so long as it isn’t too heavy.

 

 

Eventually the path I chose to follow broke down into:

 

1.       A (very) small but rugged display tank that can be sealed and placed into a custom built padded and insulated carrying box.

 

2.       A larger sump for equipment and water volume with a lid (in other words, a bucket).

 

 

When it comes to actually building the thing, I am very lucky to have access to a laser cutter that works with both wood and acrylic in one of the student workspaces, which has been pretty fun to work with.

 

 

The core of this system is an Arduino micro that I just happened to have laying around. Someone gave this to me years ago, but I never learned to do anything with it, so I figured I might as well work it into the project somehow. This is not the best or most powerful Arduino out there, and it occasionally proved challenging to work with (especially for the screen), so if anyone is planning on doing something similar, I’d recommend a different model unless you have one already. I love the idea of using the Arduino because it is relatively easy to use, fairly powerful, and allows me to expand the functions in a modular way even while the tank is running. Eventually, I’d love for it to become a full-fledged reef controller. there are a number of features I’d love to work in. To start with, I’m aiming for:

 

·       LED control

 

·       Temperature control

 

·       A screen to report stuff

 

Things to consider for the future:

 

·       ATO control

 

·       Moon Cycles

 

·       Wireless monitoring

 

·       (Any other suggestions welcome!)

 

 

I am self-taught in programming as of this project, so I assumed that this would be my biggest challenge and started on the electronics first.

 

I started with the LEDs themselves, and ordered:

 

·       4x Royal Blue and 2x Neutral White (on two “three-up” chips)

 

·       1x Lime

 

·       2 buckpucks

 

·       A length of square aluminum tubing

 

 

I originally intended to have a pair of 25mm fans mounted on the ends of the tubing in some 3D printed brackets to move air through the heatsink, but these were annoyingly loud so I wound up just bolting an adapter and a 40mm fan to the back of the housing as an inelegant but quiet solution. I also printed a bracket for the buckpucks, and mounted the LEDs with thermal epoxy (not my finest work I must admit).

 

 

 

 

 

The Arduino itself is mounted on a mini breadboard along with a 128x32 pixel oled display, a clock module, a temperature sensor, and with plenty of room for more components in the future. This whole electronics bundle is packaged up in a laser cut ¼” plywood housing. If anyone is interested in the specifics of the electronics or Arduino stuff, I’d be happy to post more detail or answer any questions.

 

 

 

 

The tank will eventually sit on a custom stand, but for now I cut a “base” of sorts that holds up the light fixture.

 

 

 

 

 

As for the aquarium itself, I opted for a pretty basic 7.5” cube of ¼” acrylic, for a total internal water volume of 1.485 gallons. There are two bulkheads on the back wall of the tank, one where water is pumped in and one that acts as an overflow, with the pump being mounted in the sump. I will eventually install some valves to seal these lines, but for now I will simply be threading plugs into the bulkheads Access through the top is through a 5” diameter hole. I have a rubber expansion plug which fits this hole and should do a good enough job of sealing so long as the tank stays upright.

 

 

 

 

The tank was quite straightforward to assemble and cement and passed the leak test on the first go.

 

 

The sump is a 2.5-gallon bucket with a length of PVC pipe in the middle. Water enters the top of the pipe, flows through the “filter” which will probably have a filter sock and some carbon. Water then flow out through holes in the bottom of the pipe, and into a refugium of sorts with more live rock and sand where it is heated and pumped back into the tank.

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m waiting on one more order of stuff to come in before I can add water and start cycling, but in the meantime I’m happy to hear any thoughts or questions.

Sorry for the super long post, and thank you to anyone who bothered to read it all!

I’ll tack on a traditional FTS/equipment/livestock list on the top of this post once I actually have anything to put there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can’t wait to see what you put in there!

[aquarium]

5 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Can’t wait to see what you put in there!

That's the question at the moment. I have no thoughts beyond "mixed reef", so any ideas are appreciated. Definitely not getting a fish but other than that not sure.

[Tired]

Sexy shrimp or a pom-pom crab would be good. Maybe a rock or minimax anemone. Definitely NOT xenia. Zoas are probably a good bet, since they're smaller.

[aquarium]

13 minutes ago, Tired said:

Sexy shrimp or a pom-pom crab would be good. Maybe a rock or minimax anemone. Definitely NOT xenia. Zoas are probably a good bet, since they're smaller.

Yeah that'd be pretty cool. I have both a rock flower and a mini-maxi in my 10 gallon, and they've been no trouble at all. Especially since I'll probably prioritize fairly durable livestock those are good bets

[Ratvan]

subbed this looks awesome

[debbeach13]

Welcome back to NR. This looks like the beginning of some thing epic.  Where are you going to school? 

[aquarium]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Welcome back to NR. This looks like the beginning of some thing epic.  Where are you going to school? 

Thank you! I'm at Yale right now, deeply split between some sort of engineering major or biology. Needless to say this project isn't making that decision any easier...

[aquarium]

My order of rock and sand is being delivered today! I ordered 2 pounds of rock and 2 pounds of rubble, so whatever isn't used in the display will wind up in the sump. Since I'm trying to make this "the travel mug of aquariums" I figure I should keep the scape as minimal as possible, maybe even just one chunk of rock. I'd love to anchor it to the tank somehow too so it can't roll around. What's the best way to secure the rock in people's opinions?

 

As for sand, bare bottom tanks have always looked a little weird to me, but I can see the argument for one in this case. Does anyone think it would be a problem to have a very shallow sand bed for cosmetic purposes? I'm not trying to start a sand bed holy war here but I'm just wondering what people think. Regardless of sand in the display, there would be a fairly deep bed in the sump.

 

I'll post photos of the rock for specific scape ideas once it gets here.

[Reefkid88]

Tagging along for this one !!! 

[Tired]

I'd use silicone to fasten your rock to the bottom of the tank, I think. It should bond relatively well, if you can get the rock dry first. If not, superglue gel may be worth a shot. Or superglue gel something like eggcrate to the bottom of the aquarium, then fasten the rock to that with putty, so you aren't trying to putty the rock onto sheer glass.

 

A couple handfuls of sand shouldn't cause any real problems in transit. 

[Ratvan]

2 hours ago, aquarium said:

My order of rock and sand is being delivered today! I ordered 2 pounds of rock and 2 pounds of rubble, so whatever isn't used in the display will wind up in the sump. Since I'm trying to make this "the travel mug of aquariums" I figure I should keep the scape as minimal as possible, maybe even just one chunk of rock. I'd love to anchor it to the tank somehow too so it can't roll around. What's the best way to secure the rock in people's opinions?

 

As for sand, bare bottom tanks have always looked a little weird to me, but I can see the argument for one in this case. Does anyone think it would be a problem to have a very shallow sand bed for cosmetic purposes? I'm not trying to start a sand bed holy war here but I'm just wondering what people think. Regardless of sand in the display, there would be a fairly deep bed in the sump.

 

I'll post photos of the rock for specific scape ideas once it gets here.

In my Pico I used Putty to fix the rock to the base of the tank with the aid of eggcrate, you could always go mostly Bare bottom with a small smattering around the rock. A single or even a couple of Branch rocks would look great in this

[aquarium]

12 hours ago, Tired said:

I'd use silicone to fasten your rock to the bottom of the tank, I think. It should bond relatively well, if you can get the rock dry first. If not, superglue gel may be worth a shot. Or superglue gel something like eggcrate to the bottom of the aquarium, then fasten the rock to that with putty, so you aren't trying to putty the rock onto sheer glass.

 

A couple handfuls of sand shouldn't cause any real problems in transit. 

I used the silicone technique. It seems to do well enough since these are pretty small rocks.

11 hours ago, Ratvan said:

In my Pico I used Putty to fix the rock to the base of the tank with the aid of eggcrate, you could always go mostly Bare bottom with a small smattering around the rock. A single or even a couple of Branch rocks would look great in this

Now that you mention it the branches are probably what I should have done scape wise, but ah well.

 

Today was a big day for the tank (which now has water in it for real)😁 but unfortunately I don't have the time to put together a proper update post tonight . I'll try to throw something together tomorrow morning don't worry.

[aquarium]

Alright! time for the belated update.

Yesterday I got a big box from Bulk Reef Supply with all sorts of goodies in it. Although my selection of rock was somewhat limited, I actually had much better luck with the 2 pounds of rubble I ordered. I decided to keep the scape kind of short to leave room for growth.

 

This is what I came up with:

(sorry for the truly awful picture)

I like the idea of the sexy shrimp, but I think an anemone would limit my other options, so I may try to get them to host in some Ricordea.

I plan to put some zoas on the little island on the back, and then do an lps/mixed reef on the main structure.

 

Here it is filled up once the dust settled:

 

 

I also installed 2 LEDs above the screen to let me know when the heater (and eventually the ATO) is on.

 

[Tired]

You could do a rock flower nem. They're small and don't tend to move any. Or, if even that is too big, a minimax.

[aquarium]

 

And so it begins...

 

I put a piece of rock from an established tank in there to seed coraline algae and other goodies, but it'll probably wind up in the sump after the cycle is complete.

 

I'm falling behind a little on tank work because of school stuff, but I'll be working on the heater control and ATO soon.

[Tired]

Looks good!

[DK guru]

I am doing a very similar build but slightly larger, I am using a 30l cube divided into 2 sections one for ato and Kalkwasser and the other side is a sump. The display tank will be 5.5 gallons and I will control temp and pH with a raspberry pi along with the ato. The light will be an AI prime so no need to automate it. I also want to incorporate water change modes to automatically pump out water into a hose which I can connect to a valve on the side of my mini cabinet along with turning the heater/sensors back on after the sump is full.