8 oz Pico

[halfpint]

I was rumaging through my closet and found some acrylic left over from my last skimmer I made. I thought, hmm... I'm sick with the day off, so why not make a small aquarim? So I did. In about 30 minutes.

 

 

I had an old powerhead that was too large for my aquariums so I decided to make a "pico pump" out of it. Here's what I did:

 

Click the image to enlarge it.

 

Glue a small square of acrylic over the inlet and outlet of pump:

 

 

Round edges with dremmel:

 

 

Dremel or drill a hole in each piece that will accomodate a piece of rigid tubing and glue tubing in place:

My tubing was used stuff, so it's already turned yellow-brown.

 

 

Then assemble pump, apply a liberal amount of hot glue around the outside of the pump (to prevent leaks). I used hot glue because silicome would have been almost impossible to disassemble the pump later for cleaning. I used two mini low-temp hot glue sticks. I will post pictures of the sealed pump later on. (haven't taken them yet.)

 

 

Now for the aquarium:

I started out with a box of who knows what dimensions. I'll measure it later. I melted a right angle shaped piece of acrylic the height of the tank. I then glued it in place. The alumminum is only to keep the acrylic square while it dries.

 

 

I then proceeded to glue the bottom on:

 

 

I didn't take pictures of it, but I dremmeled a hole in the center of the corner and glued a piece of rigid tubing in the hole. That will be the drain. I proceeded to cut teeth in the overflow, dremmel another hole in the back of the tank for a piece of vynal tubing that I had bent for directional flow capabilities. I made the hole small enough for it to be difficult to insert the tube, but tight enough to make it water tight. I then hooked the pump up and filled the tank up with water, plugged the pump in and after a little sputtering, the pump started up.

 

 

Surface disturbance:

 

Tank and stand I made. (I'm painting it black tomorrow.)

 

 

 

I will measure the size of the tank, the volume and take more pictures later on today. I will be adding sand, LR, and some GSP to the tank as well, so updates are soon to come!

 

 

I'm going to paint the back black. I now just need to make a light for it. I'm thinking LEDs. I want to make it an open top tank. I'm going to attempt to make a mini Orbit or Satellite light fixture. Complete with legs.

[Argent]

nice looking pico!

[schaadrak]

Home "sick", huh?

 

YOU'RE FIRED!

 

Nice tank, though.

[Sebea]

Yeah, looks really cool!

[halfpint]

Thanks guys. Shaadrack, I work for my Dad, so I don't think I'll get fired.

 

I'm painting the back of the tank black and the stand right now. I'm waiting for the final coat to dry, then I'll be putting everything in.

 

Here's what I have planned to go in:

~1/4" LS

Some small LR pieces

2 Zoas

Xenia

some GSP

A couple small striped green mushrooms

A hermit crab

Chaeto in the overflow

 

 

 

I'm trying to come up with my plan on an LED light. Still haven't worked everything out yet.

 

 

Most likely I'll make a little taller tank if this one works out. It's so shallow that I'm afraid that there'll be sandstorms. I have a 125GPH pump on it. That a serious turnover rate. The good thing about this tank is that the pump is closed loop, so I don't have to worry about primimg the pump if the power goes out.

 

I took more pictures and will be posting them as soon as I re-assemble the tank.

[halfpint]

Alright. So here's what I've done since my last update:

 

I painted the stand. I also Painted the back of the tank black.

I filled the tank with water, some sand from my NanoCube, a small rock of GSP, a couple small frags of Xenia, two small striped green mushrooms, a nasarius (sp) snail, and a small (just a little larger than a grain of sand) hermit crab. I added a small buch of Chaeto to the overflow and a small piece of filter media (just to clear up the water.

 

I will be going to petco to get a flow regulator and some black silicone tubing so I can re-locate the pump somewhere more hidden. The tank's almost cleared up now. I plan on doing a 5cc water change once and maybe twice a day. I also will be monitoring the evaporation. I imagine that since the pump is external that there isn't a lot of heat being transferred to the water. I'm going to make a "cap" for the tank just to keep the evap low. I want to make a 6-LED light (3 white 3 blue) for it. Do you think that's too much light for that little tank? I don't want to heat the water too much, either.

 

 

 

Here's a shot of the pump with the hot glue on it.

 

A shot of the back of the tank.

 

The tank and stand ready to be painted:

 

The tank and stand after paint:

 

Water added:

 

Surface agitation:

 

The tank with it's inhabitants:

 

I will be getting my external flash back from a friend soon, so I'll have better shots of it soon.

 

 

 

 

I'm thinking that maybe I should have just the LR, LS, snail, and crab in there for a while incase there's a "mini cycle." what do you guys think?

[halfpint]

So, I was looking through my spare computer parts and I found a plethora of LEDs. After testing them, I finally found one blue one that worked. I took three of my NiMH AAs and made a battery pack with a switch on it. I soldered the LED to a wire and hung it over my NanoCube (ghetto fabulous for now) and it puts off some good light. It looks like I'll only need one white LED and one blue. If the batteries last a while (I'm guessing 3 days or so) I will probably make it battery powered.

 

 

I took some pictures and videos of the tank running. The videos are the attachments and the pictures are below. As always, click the images to enlarge them.

 

 

Without Flash:

It's not as blue as in the pictures. I just didn't take the time to shoot RAW and adjust the WB.

 

With Flash:

 

One of the GSPs are opening up! Good sign!

 

 

 

I'll keep a close eye on the tank. I stuck my finger in the water and it felt a little warmer than my NC which runs at 76 degrees. I'm guessing that it's most likely running around 82-84 degrees. I'm going to Petco to get the vynal tubing, valve, and a few digital thermomaters. I'll probably get the airline elbows they sell just to make the tubing bend tighter. The flow's a little too high. It's tumbling the mushrooms around the tank and beating the Xenia around pretty good.

 

 

 

 

[EDIT] I removed the videos because they were too crappy. I didn't realize I filmed them on the lowest quality. I'll shoot a new one on high quality and attach it.

[/EDIT]

[scarf_ace1981]

sweet. why isn't this on MR yet?

btw you sure that hot glue is gonna hold with the pressure from the pump?

 

oops i thought you were coralcrazy. same avatar. sorry for the confusion.

[halfpint]

The pump must not be creating a lot of pressure since the intake is the same size as the outlet. It's been holding up fine so far. I did have a leak on the return where it met the tank, but I fixed that.

 

 

 

 

 

I added another piece of LR that has a mushroom on it. I'm going to chip some more LR off tonight or tomorrow. I just got done doing a top-off and a water change. It's evaporating .75CC an hour. I did a top off and 5cc water change. Everything looks good so far.

[travisurfer]

interesting little tank. i was thinking about a tiny pico for a mantis and a mushroom.

[NanoClown]

did u put the whole thing together with hot glue?

[halfpint]

No, I used Superglue for all joints. I only used hot glue on places that would later be romoved for cleaning. ie, filter parts, intake, return line...

 

 

 

Holy crap. I just played back one of those videos. I didn't realize that I filmed it on the lowest quality. I'll have to re-attach some better videos. Sorry.

[irishtexan]

Awesome pico! It's amazing what you can do with 30 min. Can't wait to see it progress!

 

texan

[schaadrak]

LED's don't really get that hot, I'd go ahead with the 3 & 3 configuration. It seems like a heat issue might be with the pump. Since it's external, you might be able to mount a heatsink and fan to it. You've obviously got old computers lying around, so you could probably piece something together.

[halfpint]

Good idea, Schaadrak. I ho have a few heatsinks and fans. I might do that because the pump is quite toasty. BTW, I stuck a glass thermomoter in the tank and it read 86 degrees.

 

 

I just got home from work for the day (short day today) and looked at the tank. The mushrooms are opening up just fine, the Xenia is regaining it's pink hue and the GSP still hasn't opened up all the way. I upped my water changes to 24cc every 10-12 hours. I'll probably change to once a day changes after a week or so. Also, I'm topping off the tank with 1cc every hour or so. I match-marked the overflow so I can accurately monitor the water level and evap. I just need to make the lid and that whould keep the evap down quite a bit.

[Caesar777]

I JUST noticed your sig, hehe. You followed through! Read this thread... I lol'd.

[halfpint]

Good gosh that's a lot of flamin' from one post. I'm only on reply #73. It'll be a while before I finish reading it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tank update: GSP still hasn't opened up. One of the two Xenias in ther have begun to turn white on the tips ::

The mushrooms are still opening, but I worried that there's something going on here.

[Obsessed Reefer]

HOLY CRAP!!! lol. Great tank.

 

Are you makeing a lid for it? Cus that might help with the evap.

[halfpint]

I kinda ran out of acrylic, so I'm going to have to make one that's two pieces glued together, until I get more.

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

The Xenia started turning white on it's tips, so I removed it. I have been told that it releases toxins when it dies, so I didn't want to take a chance. It's now back in it's original tank recovering. The Mushrooms are doing fine and the GSP still hasn't opened. I'm going to re-locate it back to it's original tank tomorrow, just to see if it's alive.

[halfpint]

The tank's doing well. I never did make a light for it. I will most likely get around to that after I get the new lights for my other tanks. $$$

 

I took everything but a single mushroom out before going on vacation and I also turned off the pump. There was no circulation for 5 days. I came home, plugged the pump back in, topped the tank off, and the mushroom still looks happy. It doesn't get much light from the tank beside it, so it's beginning to bleach a little. I might have to do that light sooner than I had thought.

[halfpint]

I added some LR rubble from the 75g FOWLR and a small xenia frag. I also added a brittle sea star. The Xenia's doing good and pumping away just as happily as ever.

[Obsessed Reefer]

Dude, Update

[halfpint]

Update:

 

I'm going to have to take the tank down. I'm going to be selling my house soon, so I want to reduce the clutter in my room. I'll most likely set it back up after I move.

[Obsessed Reefer]

Man. That sucks.

Any Pics

[Open]

did you ever get the light?