1.5l vodka bottle Pico Reef

[shank1990]

8 hours ago, aclman88 said:

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!

Thermal adhesive to attach to the heatsink, as it's only 3 LEDs I don't see them coming off, there's a 6500k daylight, royal blue and purple , 

[shank1990]

ok, so finally got the bottle sealed up and leak tested. Ive got my rock and sand in, will be filling up and starting the cycle this evening when I finish work 🙂 along with a lovely lid to help with the Evap 

[sr2z]

Now this my friend is pure perfection...

 

What do you plan on keeping inside... a small blue-legged hermit?

[kekke1082]

LOVING HOW THIS HAS TURNED OUT! ITS MAKING ME RECONSIDER A REEF JAR/PICO. 

[shank1990]

2 hours ago, sr2z said:

Now this my friend is pure perfection...

 

What do you plan on keeping inside... a small blue-legged hermit?

Thanks 🙏 no really sure yet, Zoas, maybe a boxing crab , my LFS has some tiny frags in I was eyeing up, will get it cycled and see how I feel 

[Frag Factory]

I think an airline might be a better move than a powerhead but this looks amazing!

[shank1990]

Ok,  Its filled up and the Cycle has begun! powerhead on lowest setting is a bit sluggish for my liking so running on second, full power makes it a bit of a blender 😆 think i'll investigate making a little directional cap for the pump so i can adjust flow direction 

 

[aclman88]

Looks great!  I would definitely monitor the temperate, since a small pump like that can still generate heat in such a small quantity of water.

[shank1990]

11 minutes ago, aclman88 said:

Looks great!  I would definitely monitor the temperate, since a small pump like that can still generate heat in such a small quantity of water.

I'm going to be keeping an eye on it for sure, so far running with the lights and lid on its holding a steady 27c in a room with ambient of 22, my office is in a converted loft so summer might be an issue, If needs be I might have to abandon the pump in favour of air line when the wifes not looking, or come up with an alternative cooling solution, 

[shank1990]

So Far the Temp is now holding around 29-30C, the ambient temp is 22, in the summer this room easily hits 25+ and no aircon! I think I'm going to have to abandon the Pump in favour of an airstone or  look at a remote sump to increase the water volume to reduce the impact of the pumps heat output. Back to the drawing board on the design front, 

This has the added benefit of allowing me to incorporate cheato in the sump and increased stability with added volume. with a limited understand of heat transfer it takes approx 3.96 BTU to raise 1 litre of water 1 degree C, with all the sand and rock I reckon the bottle currently holds a litre, so if the pump is raising the temp by 7c its providing approx 27 BTU of heat energy to the water. Therefore if I include a 5 litre sump, the heat energy required to raise the temp of the now 6l volume is 24 BTU, Which should me the heat energy of the Pump is minimised to now only raising 1 - 2 degrees above ambient,

which will mean a small heater is required and gives me a safe margin of up to 27 ambient, which is pretty rare for my home even in height of summer.

 

Thoughts would be appreciated on whether I'm better to proceed with keeping it simple with an Air stone OR getting carried away with a sump 🙂 I tend to feel if I'm going to get carried away with a sump I would be better sourcing a large bottle , like a 1 gallon demi John/ jar  etc and doing a more convectional jar Pico?

[A.m.P]

Air stone will mean salt spray and evaporation, other bits to consider, might be better off with a hard plastic tube at the end.

[aclman88]

3 hours ago, shank1990 said:

So Far the Temp is now holding around 29-30C, the ambient temp is 22, in the summer this room easily hits 25+ and no aircon! I think I'm going to have to abandon the Pump in favour of an airstone or  look at a remote sump to increase the water volume to reduce the impact of the pumps heat output. Back to the drawing board on the design front, 

This has the added benefit of allowing me to incorporate cheato in the sump and increased stability with added volume. with a limited understand of heat transfer it takes approx 3.96 BTU to raise 1 litre of water 1 degree C, with all the sand and rock I reckon the bottle currently holds a litre, so if the pump is raising the temp by 7c its providing approx 27 BTU of heat energy to the water. Therefore if I include a 5 litre sump, the heat energy required to raise the temp of the now 6l volume is 24 BTU, Which should me the heat energy of the Pump is minimised to now only raising 1 - 2 degrees above ambient,

which will mean a small heater is required and gives me a safe margin of up to 27 ambient, which is pretty rare for my home even in height of summer.

 

Thoughts would be appreciated on whether I'm better to proceed with keeping it simple with an Air stone OR getting carried away with a sump 🙂 I tend to feel if I'm going to get carried away with a sump I would be better sourcing a large bottle , like a 1 gallon demi John/ jar  etc and doing a more convectional jar Pico?

Will you be putting a lid on it?  How will you manage topping off?  I would say that increasing the volume won't really do much, since the tank temp will adjust and warm to the ambient temperature, and the heat from any pump will be additional to that as well.  If you go with a sump setup, you could use a fan to rely on evaporative cooling, which would work, but you would most likely want an ATO in that case.

[aclman88]

To add on... even if it doesn't get that hot, all it takes is one day of a heat wave, and if you aren't there to manage it, taht could be bad depending how hot it gets.

[shank1990]

1 hour ago, aclman88 said:

Will you be putting a lid on it?  How will you manage topping off?  I would say that increasing the volume won't really do much, since the tank temp will adjust and warm to the ambient temperature, and the heat from any pump will be additional to that as well.  If you go with a sump setup, you could use a fan to rely on evaporative cooling, which would work, but you would most likely want an ATO in that case.

I think increasing the volume would help, the heat out put from the pump is finite, and it wont be able to heat 6l as warm as it can 1l, Ideally I want to run with a lid to control Evap, I Think the simplest solution is to go with Air line for now,  get it cycled and monitor temp, I have more bottles so I can always knock up a V2  if needed

[mipster]

I've never seen a jar pico with a sump, it'd be pretty cool to see that! Sump's my vote.

[shank1990]

10 minutes ago, mipster said:

I've never seen a jar pico with a sump, it'd be pretty cool to see that! Sump's my vote.

I'll be honest , I'm probably going to build it just because I enjoy this sort of project 🙂

[shank1990]

Minor update,

 

Bottle is cycling well, ammonia is 0, nitrite 1ppm and nitrate at 5pmm , salinity holding firm at 1.025 with no noticably evap since setup, I need to notch the lid to allow it to sit flat with the airline at some point.

 

Ditched the power head and swapped for airline and tiny amazon usb pump , temp now consistantly holding ambient room temp, currently 23c so think I'll just adjust the rooms heating rather than worry about a heater as I'm unable to find one small enough! 

 

Bonus of ditching the pump is a much cleaner look and more rockwork!

 

Not going to rush into a remote sump at this stage as I have other tanks to setup in the new year so will continue with bottle as is , will update once cycled and I have some inhabitants!

 

 

 

 

[mipster]

NOOOOOO I want to see the bottle sump! lol

 

Looks good as is too so far though.

[shank1990]

3 hours ago, mipster said:

NOOOOOO I want to see the bottle sump! lol

 

Looks good as is too so far though.

Me too , but I've got a 4gallon on the go and I'm adopting an old RSM130  from my sister , plus I've got a temperate tank I wanna do at some point 😂

[shank1990]

Hi All

 

Minor Update on the Vodka bottle reef. Now I've switched to airline the temp is holding well, and it was all cycled and ready to receive some inhabitants.... before i could get anything in it my boy knocked it whilst waving his new toy sword on xmas day and its cracked, where the bottom rim had been removed the body of the bottle must have been weakend 😞

I threw some sealant over the crack and its holding water, but basically a glorified lamp for now! gives me time to test my maintenance etc

on the plus side I have sourced a 1.5l JD bottle, which offers improvements over the vodka bottle in a couple of ways, Square sides make for easier access/viewing/cleaning, and flat sides mean I can go down the "sump" route and drill over flows if needed.

I wont have time to tackle this for a bit so I can ponder on my approach, in the mean time I have rehomed an old RSM130D which will keep me busy 🙂

[growsomething]

"on the plus side I have sourced a 1.5l JD bottle," 

😏

[JustReading]

I love this project. A sump would be crazy to see 

[sr2z]

A whiskey bottle pico reef sounds better than vodka bottle pico reef, doesn´t it? 😉 Good luck with the new bottle!