Aqueon 3 gallon rimless build questions

[ThatNewGuyReefing]

Hey guys I’ve been gone for ages but I’m back, so my first build crashed after upgrading to a 20 gallon nuvo and I’ve been trying to get the love of reefing back. So I thought what better way to do that then go back to my roots of pico reefing. My first build was a nuvo 10 and honestly that system was incredible I’ll post a pic of it at its peak. But this build I need some help on. Once my tax return comes in I’ll be added equipment. So due to working at petco I get some pretty nice discounts, so I went and bought the aqueon 3 gallon cube and plan on an invasive coral tank or a single coral system like a goni or something (just brought in a turquoise red mouth that would look dope in this little system) (also thought of doing a CSB only tank but idk if that would be a good idea, I wholesale corals so the price isn’t to to bad on them). But here’s the equipment I was planning on doing (tank is an exact 9.25in cube) an aqua clear 50-70 modded with the heater and fuge in the back, AI prime, (got given to me from a fellow reefer) no sand, (possible do some encrusters like gsp or even a plater for the bottom)3lbs of rock and a jãger heater, I’ll be doing top offs by hand (unless it becomes too much then I’ll get an ato I know in Albuquerque reef tanks evaporate extremely quickly, to combat this I have a glass top on the tank.). I want this setup to be fairly simple but any suggestions are welcome! I had the itch kinda come back after my successful 2.5 gallon shrimp tank which I’ll also post. The last pic is the goni I just brought in.

[debbeach13]

Looks good. How long ago did you set it up? 

[ThatNewGuyReefing]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Looks good. How long ago did you set it up? 

That setup was done about 2 years ago. Was my first reef haha.

[ThatNewGuyReefing]

Update! So I managed to fit my ns-80 reef octopus skimmer into a tidal 55 power filter so that’s all nice and “hidden”. I’m still stuck on lighting tho. I’ll post pics of what I got so far. But I’m thinking maybe par 38 or a kessil a80? Any thoughts?

[ThatNewGuyReefing]

On 3/3/2021 at 8:29 PM, ThatNewGuyReefing said:

Update! So I managed to fit my ns-80 reef octopus skimmer into a tidal 55 power filter so that’s all nice and “hidden”. I’m still stuck on lighting tho. I’ll post pics of what I got so far. But I’m thinking maybe par 38 or a kessil a80? Any thoughts?

Just got my ato (still being rigged up) and my light, went with an AI prime 16 HD. Now I just need to figureout intensity and color for acros and such. Also went and threw in a cycled rock from my 20 gallon system. Gonna give it a week and throw in some montis and see how it goes.

Reason for the light being so high is I’ll be adding mangroves from my larger system to this one.

[ThatNewGuyReefing]

Here’s the view of both systems (lowtech planted and the new pico reef).I did throw a small clove polyp frag in there just to test the system to see if anything was crazy off and so far so good. The frag did in fact open up within minutes of being introduced. I did also go with 53% max on the AI prime and have it about 8-9inches from the waterline (I turned off both reds and greens on the light, that was the setting I got using the color wheel lol.)next I’ll be adding a small wave maker in the bottom right to add a bit more random flow. Was thinking about using this one here. Does anyone have any experience using it? I know it’s pretty small and powerful but I don’t have experience using one.

I’m honestly having loads of fun with this build so far, feels like a game of “how much equipment can you fit in the 3 gallon”. I think the wave maker will be the last piece I’ll be adding then I’ll start looking into other corals to test in the system. I have my Hanna checkers at the ready for daily testing until the system stabilizes.

[ThatNewGuyReefing]

Tank is now cycled (been testing the tank out daily to monitor the levels) I used a lot of live rock from my existing system and crushed more into the hob filter (I did add prestine and will continue till the bottle is empty just to be safe.) I went and threw in some easy montis to test out (jedi mind trick, red cap and green cap) let’s see how those go in the coming week. I’m keeping a close eye on the calcium, alk, and mag and have my dosers at the ready to raise levels.