🚧RDA's DIY Build Thread🚧 (DECOMMISSIONED)

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

There comes a time where we all get a little bored of this hobby. Everything is running smoothly. You have all the gadgets and automation you could ever want. Your corals and fish are happy AND you finally got rid of that pesky emerald crab that was chowing down on your $150 zoas. You can't fit any more corals in your display and your frag racks have become part of the glass of your aquarium...

 

 

 

I have not reached this point in my reefing career.

 

 

Ironically, during this season of joy and happiness I have been a little down. It's been a bit of a hard time for me. So, against the advice of my therapist, I am drowning my angst in miscellaneous projects and doodads. You know the saying "if your life is busy make it busier." Wait no...hmm...how about "if you need to finish something, start something else." No that's not it...What I'm trying to say is...

 

WELCOME TO MY SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT PICO REEF: UNDER 2.5 GALLON 6 GALLON EDITION A SMALL AMOUNT EDITION

 

 

This is going to be my adventurous journal into the depths of diy, tiny reef tanks, and bad jokes. I won't be focusing on any tank in particular, but rather sharing my spiritual journey of cutting glass and gluing acrylic and maybe. MAYBE. if we're lucky, some sprinkles of 3D printing.

 

I have to say this may be the first and last post of this here journal, but with any luck we'll be cooking with gas here in no time at all. So grab a gift bag on your way in, help yourself to the snacks there to your left and pull up a chair!

 

-RDA

 

[I'm Batman]

1 hour ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

"if you need to finish something, start something else."

I know all about that 🤣. Are you thinking 2.5g Pico AIO or plumbed to a mini sump??

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

@I'm Batman haha yeah it seems to be kind of chronic for myself. 

 

I was thinking a 1.2 gallon system including a tiny sump, but there will most definitely be AIO and other types of little tanks being produced eventually.

[SaltyGallon]

2 hours ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

@I'm Batman haha yeah it seems to be kind of chronic for myself. 

 

I was thinking a 1.2 gallon system including a tiny sump, but there will most definitely be AIO and other types of little tanks being produced eventually.

I'm in RDA, always enjoy your DIY picos. A sumped pico with everything in miniature would be really cool to see, if not a bit overkill! 🙂

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

A wise man once said, "eating mexican food after midnight does the soul good." 

I am also sure that that same man said "the only constant in life, is change."

Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that last one is more correct, but who knows? 

 

My life right now is pretty cram packed with odds and ends, this and that, bitter and some sweet. My schedule changes as frequent as the weather (literally) and this, at times, leads to the consumption of said ethnic food past the 24:00 hour (mmm maybe he was wise afterall?) Along with erratic sleep schedules and still getting use to the new year, it's like I can still smell the ashes of last year's "cookout gone wrong" -it kind of smells like bats...

 

What I'm trying to say is I'm changing my plans for this journal. Think of it as ripping out (the whiteout was all gone) the first page of your diary after you came back and read what you had written a few days earlier -wow, talk about angsty am I right? Now before you go and get your trousers in a knot you must note I'll still be focusing on DIY and all the acrylic and flame polishing goodness that you expected based on my previous post. BUT. I have to admit the voices told me I needed to scrap my pico plans and go for that "bigger/better" thing. And by voices I literally mean the voice in my hea- I mean the email that I got from MarineandReef.com and by "thing" I mean them telling me that the aquarium I wanted was back in stock. (insert cheering crowd here). 

 

So what does this all mean? The after midnight tacos. Doubling back on my reef tank promises. The ambiguous emails that I get. What, you may ask, does it all mean?

Well. Hang around for a while and maybe we'll all find out together.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and happy Reefing.

 

-RDA

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

For Christmas I had recieved a whopping $50 with the exception that, and I quote, "HAVE TO SPEND IT ON WHATEVER I WANT" 

.......................................... 😄

 

Between my compulsive behaviour and affinity towards reef tanks (and planted aquariums, but this is nor the time neither the place for that nonsense) I was the pround owner of those 50 big ones for a very finite amount of time. In all reality I had dreamed about this particular aquarium product for quite some time (no really, I had a dream the other night about it! Their were clownfish and corals and this crazy lady who was riding an elephant yelling mathamatical proofs at me. Oof, last time I get the "filet-o-fish" from Mcdonalds).

 

What I'm trying to say is I gave some company some money and they turned that money, through a thermochemical process called economics; I'm not really sure how it works, into low iron glass, which was then shipped back to me in the form of a Lifegard Aquatics 6 gallon long aquarium (did you really think that those $50 would go to anything else??) 

 

I like to still consider this tank a "Pico" (or how that RNN guy calls them "Pîcos" *shivers*) but at 6 gallons with the main display, and another 3ish gallons for the sump I can't help but feel like this is turning into a nano, which, mind you, goes against my philosophy in reef keeping. But for the jury we'll say this still falls under the domain of "Pico" aquariums. 🤫

 

So yes it will have a sump, which I fully expect to FINALLY make that small skimmer and media reactor that I've been talking about with my other tanks in the past. I was temped to pick up an AquaTop 3 gallon to act as the sump, but ultimately decided to make a small acrylic sump instead as that would allow me to add some fancy doodads without having to work around preset dimensions; it will be a little cheaper as well me thinks. Also based on the stain of the stand and everything else I think I'm going to stick to my classic "neon orange and smoked gray" theme for this build. But maybe a fluorescent yellow would look cool too? Idk, let me know what you think!

 

As you might imagine this project is going to take some time (lol I have two other tanks to attend to already) so updates will probably be sporadic; kind of like the transmission on my civic. 

 

I'll be trying as much as possible to make everything from scratch i.e. overflow, skimmer, media reactor etc. so let me know if you would like to see anything in minature in this build, equipment wise, and we'll try to DIY it in there (besides LEDs, I'm not messing with that lol!)

 

Thanks for stopping by and happy reefing!

 

-RDA

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Okay, so in an effort to clean up this journal and keep us on track with just DIY projects (Ha! I haven't even made anything and I'm having to overhaul this thread😵) I moved the happenings of the 6 gallon bookshelf reef to its own journal (Sorry one more thing to follow 😬), but all of those DIY projects will be here for your enjoyment if you care to follow along 😊

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Got myself a teeny tiny table saw to go along with my teeny tiny cnc machine 👶

I foresee some teeny tiny tanks in the future 🧐

 

 

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Product of last night's "I can't sleep so let's make a .5 gallon pico lagoon"😅

 

Dimensions: 6x6x3"

Complete with an RFG 😉

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Did I mention it comes with a media basket 😂

 

 

[SaltyGallon]

So so cool haha. What return pump would you use on this?

[Ratvan]

12 hours ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

Product of last night's "I can't sleep so let's make a .5 gallon pico lagoon"😅

 

Dimensions: 6x6x3"

Complete with an RFG 😉

 

3 hours ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

Did I mention it comes with a media basket 😂

 

 

This is great love the media rack almost as much as the tank

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

4 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

So so cool haha. What return pump would you use on this?

Haha thanks!

I like to use these small 200 l/h usb fountain pumps for these smaller tanks. They even have adjustable flow although I usually just keep them wide open.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CG2YE6K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_FTG2T8XMFW6KHR9H23YB

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

 

This is great love the media rack almost as much as the tank

That media rack is probably the cutest little thing I think I've made 😂👶

[Ratvan]

1 minute ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

That media rack is probably the cutest little thing I think I've made 😂👶

😂

 

I still love the pocket rocket reef you had that thing was awesome

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

😂

 

I still love the pocket rocket reef you had that thing was awesome

Haha I actually lost that tank when I moved last year; fell through the cracks I guess 😂 I need to make another one here one of these days.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

It's been a little while since I talked about what I've been up to with my DIY stuff. After being out of commission for a few weeks I finally got out today and cleared some space in the garage for the cnc mill, table saw, etc. I mean , it seems like all of my equipment is in miniature so it wasn't too hard to fit everything all on a workbench 😉

 

There was still a bit of room left and the wife gave me the green light; I went ahead and filled the vacancy with a new laser cutter 🎉 In keeping with tradition, I got the smallest one I could find (co2 lasers only come so small 😂). An OMT 40w laser is nothing too impressive, but it should be plenty for my needs. I still need to set up a few things, but I'm excited to whip up some new designs I've had in the works for some time now that I can finally get to making 😁 

 

 

(Pocket rocket 3.0 here we come! 😂)

[ａｗａｋｅｄॢ]

Sometimes,,,I feel like men are doing this hobby for DIY,,,nah,,, most times,,,😝

BUT~ still Amazing!!! 😱😱😱 especially initial part!!!👍🏻

[JR!]

 

LASERS!!!!!!

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

14 hours ago, JR! said:

 

LASERS!!!!!!

^^^actual footage of me blasting acrylic.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On 4/11/2021 at 5:50 AM, ａｗａｋｅｄॢ said:

Sometimes,,,I feel like men are doing this hobby for DIY

Actually, my main hobby is DIY (and I secretly do it for the reef tanks 😉😂) 

 

[p4pico]

ok, found your thread after you responded to my post. super inspired by this. pico lagoon for the win!

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

29 minutes ago, p4pico said:

ok, found your thread after you responded to my post. super inspired by this. pico lagoon for the win!

Wow, I had honestly forgotten about this here thread I've been so busy lately.

 

Haha thanks, these small tanks are usually the product of me not being able to sleep and just goofing around at night. 

[p4pico]

any tips on finding a similar rfg? would be handy for my pico build.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

1 hour ago, p4pico said:

any tips on finding a similar rfg? would be handy for my pico build.

https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/shop/1-4in-random-flow-generator-rfg025/