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Innovative Marine Aquariums

1.5l vodka bottle Pico Reef


shank1990

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Hi, 

 

New to the forum but not reefing in general, have been out for a few years but recently set up a small nano for my daughter in her room, and have been bitten by the bug again. I have been offered an old RSM130 for free but cant get it for a few weeks due to covid restrictions here in UK and now i'm working from home I'm going for a little desk pico while I wait!

 

I've had a large empty vodka bottle sat on teh shelf gathering dust for some time with a mind to upcycle it at some point, and reading through the Jar picos threads on here its seemed like an ideal container to build something a little different.

the plan is to drill out the bottom of the bottle, seal the top and stand it upside down. with a small power head for flow and LED lighting. The bottle will be mounted in a solid wood base, with a matching hood suspended on copper pipe,  I have roughly started the build today with progress pics below.

 

small amount of rock is currently in the nano seeding up and i'm still waiting on pump, LED driver and heat sync to be delivered.

 

 

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annoyingly the postman hasnt bought the LED driver yet, and i'm busy with my real job 🙂 managed to get the heatsink and light switch fitted on my lunch break, once the driver arrives i'll look at wiring up the LEDs. 

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Awesome idea!  Will there be any substrate in this?  I was thinking you could drill the bottom/side and install a little valve so you could drain old water from the bottom, kind of like a beverage dispenser.

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1 hour ago, aclman88 said:

Awesome idea!  Will there be any substrate in this?  I was thinking you could drill the bottom/side and install a little valve so you could drain old water from the bottom, kind of like a beverage dispenser.

You could also just run a hose in and hose out and run a small external pump hidden in/under the base so you don't need a powerhead inside.

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1 hour ago, jservedio said:

You could also just run a hose in and hose out and run a small external pump hidden in/under the base so you don't need a powerhead inside.

Yer, I did consider it, alogn with a variety of similar ideas, but kept getting carried away and plumped for the old keep it simple, will se how this one turns out and may well have to make another! 

 

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Minor update ...stupidly tiny pump has arrived , and started work on lights, 

 

Still waiting on led driver and a new glass hole saw so probably won't be any further progress for a couple days now 

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Got a bit more done on the Pico,  finished the wood work and stained , LEDS all wired in and working now,  Just waiting on a new Glass holesaw for the top ( bottom) of the bottle, once I have cut the top I'm going to run the pump wire up through the bottle neck to keep everything looking clean and wire free,  and a bonus pick of some softie frags I picked up at LFS today along with a gold neon goby for my daughters tank 🙂

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update: the holesaw arrived and over about an hour I very carefull cut a 75mm hole in the bottle of the bottle, whilst keeping the nice rounded edge of the bottle, 

 

then excited that id cut the hole perfectly with no issues i quickly flipped the bottle up to tip out the disc of glass which promptly smashed the rim of the new opening😣

 

I've salvaged the bottle using a kinkajou bottle cutter , but its not the look i wanted 😞 so i think i'll treat this as a prototype and get on the hunt for a new bottle long term, drilled the cap and installed the pump, found out my sealant has gone off since last used so waiting on fresh tube from post man and will be ready to fill up and test!

 

 

 

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Ah, that sucks. At least there is a pretty easy fix for this - you just need to drink another 1.5l bottle of Vodka. If you need help with this, I'd gladly help you prepare your new reef and I'm sure there are plenty of other reefers on here that would be willing to pitch to help with this difficult task.

 

Still looks awesome though.

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19 minutes ago, jservedio said:

Ah, that sucks. At least there is a pretty easy fix for this - you just need to drink another 1.5l bottle of Vodka. If you need help with this, I'd gladly help you prepare your new reef and I'm sure there are plenty of other reefers on here that would be willing to pitch to help with this difficult task.

 

Still looks awesome though.

Thank you for this selfless offer  🤣 I'm lucky enough to have a landlord as a friend 🙂  i'm gonna run  with this and probably plan and build another in the future

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Very cool project for sure! Its a shame the bottle broke on you and that pump is the perfect size! when designing this or planning this build out, did you consider using a smaller d/c pump that can be run dry and having the return come in from the top or side of the bottle? or even having a larger base that could hide a small sump like space for the pump return to be inserted through the neck of the bottle? 

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33 minutes ago, kekke1082 said:

Very cool project for sure! Its a shame the bottle broke on you and that pump is the perfect size! when designing this or planning this build out, did you consider using a smaller d/c pump that can be run dry and having the return come in from the top or side of the bottle? or even having a larger base that could hide a small sump like space for the pump return to be inserted through the neck of the bottle? 

Yes 🙂 i went through several increasingly complicated designs, at one point the sump was going to be under my desk and several times the volume of the bottle 😂 but since its such a small container I figured keep it simple, and as its on my work desk and only 1.5l I can comfortably do as many water changes as I like an decided to go down that route rather than complicate the filtration etc, 

 

silicone should be here tommorow so I can seal up the bottle cap and will be ready to rock and roll 🙂 

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Can you go through some details on how you set up the DIY LED lighting?  I am in the process of setting up a pico jar and am between a PAR38 bulb or using CREE Leds.... 

 

Did you need to solder these on or did you just use thermal paste?  I am also curious what LED colors you are going with for this setup?  Thanks!

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23 hours ago, shank1990 said:

Yes 🙂 i went through several increasingly complicated designs, at one point the sump was going to be under my desk and several times the volume of the bottle 😂 but since its such a small container I figured keep it simple, and as its on my work desk and only 1.5l I can comfortably do as many water changes as I like an decided to go down that route rather than complicate the filtration etc, 

 

silicone should be here tommorow so I can seal up the bottle cap and will be ready to rock and roll 🙂 

oh boy do i believe that! I go through that process anytime i set up a new tank 😄 

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