KMitch Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Hey If you are reading the pico forums you have no doubt read the 23346 pages of Argent's work Pico. I have a 6month old 10 gal tank that I love to pieces, but I wanted to try a "bedside tank." I have been expierementing with buying one of those Red Sea Aqua Vases or building my own funny shaped tank, but the cost of the Acrylic is more than the cost of the other tanks with light and filter. I was at "PETCO" aka Deathco today looking for some cat treats for my beast and, because I lack self control, stopped in the fish section. I was glad I did. I ended up leaving with this: http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_Product_R_...lyID_13172.aspx Which was on sale for $19.99. Damn. I am a sucker for a deal that I am going to mod the heck out of anyway. Got the red one and was pleased when I unpacked it. The filter will do well with some basic stuff in there, and the light is a 7W PC light. I am going to see if I can find a bigger bulb for the fixture in terms of watts. Or a 50/50 or something. Thats another day. So-- I came home with my Red tank and said "No RED." I masked up the edges carefully and painted the base and the back wall white. I plan on using black moon sand (if anyone has a sandwhich bag full they would like to donate that would rock-- i dont need 22lbs). I thought the pearly white background with black moon sand would look kickin. I am considering making an acrylic lid for the tank to cut back on evap as well. I wont be putting water in here until the first of August when I get back to school and will be using frags from my existing tank at first. I am looking for ideas on other mods I can do to it. I am also thinking about a coral color scheme of green or red. I definately want some kind of shrimp in there-- crabs erk me. Hit me with ideas oh great nano thinkers! (This is all your fault Argent!!!) Link to comment
exigency Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 ditch the light like you've already suggested for a better one, possibly a 13" 36w coralife fixture? a white background is something i've yet to hear of, since everyone i know goes for black/blue, but it sounds alright. another point, just keep in mind that a lid = higher temps, most of the time at least. you could go with sexy shrimp too, if you want some species of shrimp. you could also mod the tank into something like my picotope with a intake/return on the tank itself, rather than doing a HOB fuge, but it's your choice whether you want to take the risk of drilling the tank or not. Link to comment
Argent Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Woo woo! can't wait to see more pics! I've flagged this topic and will be watching it! I'll take all the blame (unless you crash your own tank then it's not my fault!) Link to comment
CBlanks Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Looks good, I love those little tanks and the endless stocking options. Keep us posted with lots of pics. Link to comment
The Hound Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 That is the same tank that I am using, but I ditched the light and instead I am using a Coralife 9" hood. It has a 9 watt 10K light and a 9 watt actnic. My zoa's, kenya tree, mushrooms, and anthelia are growing like weeds!!!! I also picked up a little mini heater from Wal-Mart. It's set to keep the temp at 78 degrees, so it is not adjustable. But it works great. During the day my light keeps the temp at just around 78, after they go off the heater automatically kicks on and keeps the temp at 78. I am also using the stock filter that comes with the tank. I placed some rubble in the back and I am using carbon and some filter floss as well. My tank has been up for about two months now and I am getting good coraline algea growth as well. I currently have two narsissus snails (or whatever they are called)...some other snail that I con't know what it is called and a very small skunk cleaner shrimp. I'm considering throwing a small emerald in there because I do have a small issue with some bubble algae. I need to get a couple of little hermits too to help clean things up a bit. Eventually I want to get a small fish, though what I am not sure. Since I don't have a lid on the top I need to make sure I get something that will not be a jumper. I also can't comment as to how much sand I used, I went to my local Fish Store and the guy gave me a few scoops out of his own established tanks in the store. I then got a couple of pounds of rocks as well. I would say my sand bed is around two inches deep or so...which is pretty deep for such a small tank. I used water from my tank at home and let it sit for a few days, though I don't think the tank really cycled since I used already establilshed water and all live rock. Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 22, 2006 Author Share Posted June 22, 2006 Hound: are you using the coralife lamp that most people put on their Fuges? About $30? I was thinking about that but I thought it might be too big looking on such a small tank. Can you post a pic of your setup? My tank update: I am definately going to ditch the lamp. I looked at the bulb it came with--- you cant even replace it. Thats fine, because that was the part I was least interestd in! I painted the back and bottome white with good success. I also put little "footies" on the bottom of the tank so it will actually sit 3mm off the table. Did that so if any water gets under the tank I can clean it out easily without having to worry about it affecting the spray paint. Last thing I want is runny paint. Heres a pic: I am pleased with my white background. I think with the black sand I will get a very peaceful look to the tank. I am tempted to put a plant like shaving brush in one corner of the tank with a few pieces of LR rubble built up like a cave or swim thru in there. I have a piece in my current tank that is triangular in shap that would look sweet in there. Other ideas on lighting? Shrimp ideas? Link to comment
Argent Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 I'm using the same light (coralife 18w) on my 3G eclipse kmitch -- so I don't think it would look too big on that tank. BTW: I like the white tank look -- with some black sand that would be hot! Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 Yeah I am super pleased with the white look. I am thinking about doing a color scheme for the corals of either all red or all green to give it an extra "POP" but that might be a fantasy. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod...p;N=2004+113345 That light would fit because my tank is 9.25x6.25 -- Does anyone know if it comes with the little feet things that it needs to stand up? 18Watts over 1 gal is a crap ton. I plan on only keeping softies so I dont know that I want such a big light that will therefor be a hotter light. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod...p;N=2004+113345 About the same price but a heck of a lot smaller. I could still keep all the corals with one of these lights. Other ideas people? Link to comment
Fishfreak218 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 get the coralife^^^ also.. umm. no it doesnt come with legs... you cant put legs on this fixture.. i have 2 of them.. Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 Why are you voting coralife out of curiousity? Link to comment
Fishfreak218 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 the other lights arent very bright.. people were moding them to get them closer to there .75 g tanks.. JMO also its only 7w thats puney [sp] Link to comment
fishguy13 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I saw that same one at petco but a bought a jbj picotope 2 weeks ago it was 50 but it is nice it has a panoramic view its wounderful Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 Anyone else have lighting input. I dont plan on anything more than some softies in this tank so I dont need alot of light, just enough to make it look kickin. Link to comment
exigency Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 coralife ftw, unless you want a curentUSA light. it's just because coralife hasn't failed anyone i know as of yet, and i just like the prices compared to other lights. odyssea is okay, but imho, the lightbulb kind of sucks, i am going to replace mine. you should do an all zooanthid tank, it'd be pretty nice. Link to comment
The Hound Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Well as I stated I am using the Coralife 18 watt and it has been working great. And all I have are softies in my tank and they are doing very well. Plus with the way I have mine setup...it looks pretty good. Here are some pics, forgive me they were taken with a co-workers camera phone which I didn't take the time to really figure out how to make it work, but you get the idea: The first image is a photo of what I used for a ligt stand for the coralife hood: Hoodbracket This is actually a garden hose holder flipped on it's end so that the tank fits between the top and the bottom. Here is a link to the holder at Lowes: Garage Hook This thing works perfectly. I then just added some rubber pads to the top to keep the hood from sliding around. I have had it running for about two months now. Here are the remaining (bad) pics of my tank: Pico-1 Pico-2 Pico-3 I noticed that the hood looks rather large in one of the pics...but in all honesty it does not look nearly that big...it matches the size of the tank almost perfectly. I also tried to get a pic of my cleaner shrimp, but he wasn't cooperating. Jason Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 Is your tank stable like that or does it tend to rock back and forth? Link to comment
Argent Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I would think between the 8 pounds of water, and a few pounds of sand and rock it would be rather stable. Link to comment
Openn Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 that looks really nice, i cant paint like that.... Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 neither can I---that is the beauty of masking tape! Link to comment
The Hound Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Is your tank stable like that or does it tend to rock back and forth? It is very stable. One side of the hanger is pretty wide, while the other side is narrow. So I placed the wide siad edown and that is what the tank sits on. The narrow side is what comes up over the top of the tank. Now, the tank can slide on the base a little...like if I am forcefully cleaning it, but it also allows for me to easily pull it away from the bracket if need be. Of course to solve this would be to place the some of the stick rubber feet on the base and then it wouldn't slide at all. And as Argent said, the weight helps alot as well. I have no idea how much the tanks weighs but I am guessing between 10 and 12 lbs total with the water. Link to comment
nd12nc Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 I would go with one of those galaxy lights. I think the coralife would really kinda be overkill on such a small tank. There's a LFS in my area that has the same tank with one of those galaxy lights on it and they have a lot of stuff growing in it. A few zoas, some different macros, and a sexy shrimp. It looks really cool Just another opinion for ya to take into consideration. Either way it looks like it's gonna be a killer tank Link to comment
nanoDarth Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 wow thats a nice paint job. i bought the exact tank but in blue also for 20 bucks in the clearance section of petco and just didnt know what to do with it. i have the coralife 2x9w fixture for my 2.5 and i put it over my 1g tank and its a perfect fit. only problem is how to rig up some sort of support system or suspension thing to hold it up. im looking forward to see what u can come up with. Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 24, 2006 Author Share Posted June 24, 2006 Yeah it would be alot of light which is why I am skeptical. I saw a galaxy light over a 3 gal and it looked nice, so I know it would look sweet over a 1 gal as well. That and I want an Art Deco/ modern look to this tank and I fear that the coralife light would take away from that because its so big. Anyone want to send me a sandwhich bag of black moon sand? Hound: have you ever tested to see if it is exactly 1 gal or what it is? Link to comment
KMitch Posted June 24, 2006 Author Share Posted June 24, 2006 Well I got some new lighting ideas: From Custom Aquatic: LT-JL2PL1109 Price $17.99 10-3/4 inch Jalli power compact single bulb 13 watt fixture for German style bulb or I could make my own custom hood for the light so it would fit to the correct size and I could make it fit the look of the tank and just use one of those cheap mongel base PC lights in there. I think its one of those two choices or the clip light-- i just think 18 watts over 1 gal is going to result in problems with heat and evap and that it will be just overkill. Thoughts? Link to comment
The Hound Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 I think it's more like .75-.80 gallons...though I haven't really measured it to be sure. In regards to the lighting. I hear that people have had good success with the galaxy lights, and of course a home made hood would allow you to do exactly what you want. However, with the coralife hood the heat from the lights keeps the temp right at 78 degrees. At night, the heater takes over so it works pretty well. I have to top it off about once every other day or so...but that could just be normal evaporation in a dry office building...hard to say. Link to comment
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