Lighting Options : An Itty-Bitty-Pico

[lungcookies]

Okay .... I figure, why not ....

 

My 23 gal nano is going well .... my 6.6 gal bookshelf nano is in the cycle stage of the game .... why not get some rubble & do something with a crystal vase I have, that has housed a beta for quite some time.

 

The vase is a half-sphere ... a bowl, with a flat back, that is aprox 1/2 gal in volume. The glass is a thick clear crystal. I'll be using 1~2 lb of live rock rubble and up to 2 lb of live sand form the LFS existing tanks, to get a good seed from the start. Flow will be provided with the use of a AC30 HOB filter, retrofitted into a small fuge that will house LS, LR, and chaeto, with an initial compartment for carbon media when I deem it beneficial to use it. I am thinking 2X/week water changes will be needed to keep the water prestine.

 

What is planned in the line of corals, are only softies ... things that don't need extreme lighting to thrive. A small clean-up crew will be housed ... nothing that will get very large and no fish are planned for this pico.

 

I'll be posting some pics of this project as I go along and see if I can keep the progress updated.

 

Sooooooo ..... I'm in search for a lighting option that will allow this little pico to thrive, but without a large footprint (and without breaking the bank.) Suggestions ??

[willlgr1]

research some of the leds people are starting to use on picos, they seem to be effective and small enough for your application

[AMichael]

How wide is the tank? You might be able to retro 1 or 2 13w pc's depending on size or go with some of the screw in compacts. Either one shouldn't be that expensive if you can find a good retro kit.

[brent-konieczny]

What is the opening like? If it's circular you can get a round desklamp with a screw in 10watt 50/50. Thats what I did on my .5 pico jar.

[lungcookies]

I'll look into the LED options ... that may be the ticket. I am really surprised to hear LEDs giving enough lighting to pull this off ... and with heat being negligable from an LED array, that may be the solution.

 

Will LEDs really give enough lighting to grow low-light corals ?? .. Amazing.

 

A light like the one that comes with Seaclear's beta tank ... "moonglow" I think ... that clips on may do the trick as well, if I can find the right bulbs.

 

The opening would be a 7" (aprox) diameter, but this is a flat-back vase, so it's really only half a circle .... which gives me the flat back edge to hang the AC30 on.

[brent-konieczny]

IMO The led setup is often a great option for picos without square openings. They don't look very hard to construct and have much better light output per watt than pc.

[Garf]

1-2 lbs LR, up to 2lbs of LS in a 1/2gallon tank...

 

Just a question, where is the water going to go?

[lungcookies]

1-2 lbs LR, up to 2lbs of LS in a 1/2gallon tank...

 

Just a question, where is the water going to go?

 

 

In the bowl

 

Actually, that's not that much LR & LS at all. My plan is to get over that amount of LR ... mostly rubble .... and build it up untill it seems right. Then use whatever is left as fill-in for the other tanks. It should still have some water volume, as well as a mini fuge (AC20 moded) to hold a bit of chaetomorpha, some more LS & a little LR rubble.

[brandon429]

I'm posting this as a thread link to a similar project you may find helpful. This system addresses many things such as evaporation restriction and topoff intervals, feeding and carbonate/ca+++ support, circulation angles, and lighting options. I experimented with lots of different corals and no I didn't keep them clam very long just experimenting. it was traded off for extra coral frags.

 

one of the amazing things about the vase design is it's longevity. THis system ran for about 3 years I think it was before my rental-house AC pooped out one day and heated the place into the 90's

 

Primarily I wanted to use this system to test allelopathic interactions among species, some of the frags like caulastra and euphyllids were mainstays for the lifespan of the bowl and others like the lobo and clam were housed for a month or so and then traded off if I ever became skeptical of their survival likelihood

 

 

 

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?...der=asc&start=0

[lungcookies]

Well ... this project has changed slightly. I had used some lower cost live base rock, with little to no life appearant on it. After a few days, I heared a telltale sound comming from my kitchen, where the tank is located, and I went to investigate.

 

Sure enough ... a googly pair of eyes spied me approaching the vase, and back into the rock he darted......heh.

 

The mantis is about an inch or so in length, and a light tan from what I was able to see. I broke off a little piece of frozen talapia fish & tossed it into the bowl to see if it would take a food chunk. The little buggar darted out of the hole, grabbed the fish before it hit the ground and darted back into the rock.

 

I don't think "cute" is the term I could use to describe him, but there is deffinately a dark place in my heart for the guy, so I'm thining he's a keeper. I'll end up with a few low-light, low-maintenance polyps & mushrooms in the tank for a bit of color.

 

Of course, any type of clean-up crew would be meat salad in short order, so algae may pose the problem of unsightliness.....and I'll probably need to move him into a larger home as he grows....Hrmmmmm....that brings to thought some questions of appropriate tank sizes and construction materials. I'll throw a post out to the general forum to see if I can get any pointers in this direction.