Wahayden1 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 First of all I want to let everyone know that I am very new to this. I have never posted on anything like this so please forgive my ignorance and point me in the right direction. To be honest I feel like I owe all of you this. You guys are the reason my tank is alive. I follow many threads on here, all of which helped me to reach my final design. So before we get too deep into my tank I want to thank you for sharing your ideas, designs and knowledge. One tank in particular that motivated me was Elfabs Picotope. His tank is what inspired me to get back into the hobby with a Deco kit 4 Gal. May 2013 January 2014 Obviously the tank above does not compare to his, however a tank that small and dynamic was very entertaining. It was also my first venture into the Pico world. Before the Deco Kit the smallest thing I had worked with was a Bio Cube 14 gal with minimal success (likely due to my lack of consistency as a teenager). As I neared college I, my understanding of this hobby had reached a high enough level to have a successful reef. Bone Stock Bio Cube 29gal September 2006 - May 2008 As we all know, this hobby has a way of roping you in and the four 4 gallon did just that. Before a year was up I found myself planning the next tank. What was supposed to be a cheap way to curb my addiction turned into a complete relapse. I decided on the Cad Lights 8 Gallon tank, a choice I feel I made in haste. It is a quality aquarium, but a sad excuse for an AIO tank (based on my previous Bio Cubes). Luckily I had the word upgrade on my mind when I purchased the tank (I am not knocking Cad Lights craftsmanship, the aquarium itself is flawless IMO). My next purchase, which gave me the biggest headache of the project, was the lighting. I am not going to name the company that made the first light I tried to purchase because of the outstanding customer service I received. Long story short, I bought the light in Sept. of 2013 and the company gave up on getting me a light that actually worked after the 3rd try in late Dec. of 2013. At that point I just went the typical route and got a solid AI Nano with the controller. After buying a light that cost nearly three times as much money as the tank itself I figured I might as well go all out on this little thing. Next I snagged a Tunze Nano 3152 ATO, Tunze Nano 9002 protein skimmer, and Tunze 280 GPH return pump which is the same pump in the 9002 (I thought about an mp10 but I worried it would be a cyclone of sand). Before I set the tank up I went ahead and did the airline and pill bottle mod to the skimmer. I wish I could tell you what heater I own but I cant it is a left over from some previously established tank and the only markings I can decipher are 50W. I also had to purchase some Loc- Line fittings and adapters as the tank came with nothing to direct the flow, only a hole in the back wall to stick the pump through. I went with Caribsea Arag-Alive Sand (10lbs); I used roughly 7 lbs for a 1.5 sand bed. I used most of the live rock from the 4 gallon and added some more for a total weight of ~12lbs. One thing I wanted to correct with this tank was the viewing angle. A pico tank on a normal height desk is too low IMHO and you are constantly looking down on it. My solution to this problem was to build a cabinet for the new tank. The center of the new tank was designed to be level with my eye height. This also allowed me to hide all of those distracting wires. From this... To this... Thoughts? Fitting everything in the back chamber of the tank was the second most challenging task of the build. It was a lot of measuring, researching and measuring again. However, I did end up getting a configuration that worked. I went with the JBJ Nano Glo for my refugium light. There is also a bag of Chemi-Pure Elite (6.5oz) and a small bag of Seachem Phosguard back there. This might be a tad bit of over kill so let me know what you think. I added these mainly to combat some of the swings of a new tank. I have yet to decide if I want to keep using the two. Maybe just some good carbon on occasion and the Phosguard, not sure yet so share your thoughts please. Chambers from left to right Filter media (over flow) --> fuge (chaeto), ATO, thermometer, chemipure and Phosguard --> return pump, heater, skimmer I do one gallon water changes twice a week, my total water volume is a little over 5 gallons. The frequent water changes allow me to skip the dosing world (for now). I feed DTs and cyclop-eeze and I use spectrum pellets for Oscar the the clown (what he was raised on). Other maintenance is pretty typical. Testing, cleaning, scrubbing, picking, plucking, staring, rethinking and rearranging. Everything seems to be pretty happy with my routine but this tank has only been running for three months. One variable in question is the light intensity. I started at 18% white and 25% on the blues as I did not want to fry everything that had been living under the 18 watt PC lighting on the Deco. I have slowly went up to 23% white, 33% blue, and 36% royal. I am not sure how much higher I should go if any. SPS and LEDs are both new things for me so please advise if you have tips. I do not have any method of measuring PAR (still not sure if PAR is that relevant with LEDs). January 2014 (right after tank transfer) February 2014 Today Forgive the iPhone Pictures please. I am still learning how to post on this forum. Getting pictures on here at all has been a task in itself. PLEASE critique and call me out on my errors. I am doing this to learn, so please dont hold back if you feel I am doing something incorrect. Thanks for reading, I hope some of this is interesting. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted March 6, 2014 Author Share Posted March 6, 2014 I snagged a few new pieces today, I will post some pictures after they color up. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 Just a quick shot of the tank. I added a bubble, and couple zoas. I also ramped my light up to 30% white 38% blue and 40 % royal. My birds nest is growing quickly like everything else, but it is losing some color... I'm no pro when it comes to sps but from what I have been reading on here the loss of color is likely a sign that it is not getting enough light. Parameters are good so if it's not the light then I will be puzzled. I also moved the piece into more direct light. Fingers crossed, let me know if you have any ideas. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted March 9, 2014 Author Share Posted March 9, 2014 crazy what they look like under the blues just a FTS with equipment Link to comment
mipster Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hey welcome back to the hobby! Really nice cabinet but I find it personally too tall but then again I'm super short so I would likely have to stand on my tippy toes to see it and if you love where it is that's the important thing! Impressive what you've managed to fit all in there. I don't have the cad lights aquarium but I want to upgrade my 29 bowfront to the 34 cadlights to hide all my equipment and I would love the 8 gallon as an office desk thing. Who needs an aquarium screen saver when you have an aquarium right? How are you liking the tunze skimmer? You should check out intank. steve makes a modified acrylic collection cup which is designed to fit better in the rectangular back sections of small AIO tanks. just a suggestion! SteveT hasn't developed media racks and such for the Cad lights line but he's planning on it this year. did you put some sort of basket for the refugium or just straight in the middle chamber? Some times loss of colour can also be too much light, bleaching it out. It can be tricky to find the balance. Is the colour loss recent or on going? since you got it? What type of lighting was it under originally? Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 Hey welcome back to the hobby! Really nice cabinet but I find it personally too tall but then again I'm super short so I would likely have to stand on my tippy toes to see it and if you love where it is that's the important thing! Impressive what you've managed to fit all in there. I don't have the cad lights aquarium but I want to upgrade my 29 bowfront to the 34 cadlights to hide all my equipment and I would love the 8 gallon as an office desk thing. Who needs an aquarium screen saver when you have an aquarium right? How are you liking the tunze skimmer? You should check out intank. steve makes a modified acrylic collection cup which is designed to fit better in the rectangular back sections of small AIO tanks. just a suggestion! SteveT hasn't developed media racks and such for the Cad lights line but he's planning on it this year. did you put some sort of basket for the refugium or just straight in the middle chamber? Some times loss of colour can also be too much light, bleaching it out. It can be tricky to find the balance. Is the colour loss recent or on going? since you got it? What type of lighting was it under originally? Thanks! fitting all in there was certainly a task! My refugium "basket" was constructed using extremely expensive and very high quality materials. The material is made by a company called Ziploc and the tools needed to make the basket consist of scissors and... well thats all ha. you can sort of see it in the second back chamber picture above, If you need a better picture I can get one but it is really just a divider to keep the chaeto away from the skimmer and return pump. Still not sure if that will be a permanent solution to the problem or not. I am keeping a watchful eye on the ridiculously fast growing forest in the back of my tank for now. The Tunze skimmer does well as long as my ATO wants to cooperate. If the ATO slacks off and decides to wait a little longer than usual to kick on then the water level gets a little to low for the skimmer to be effective. I have been looking into Steves collection cup, as it would likely solve this issue. His cup would let the skimmer sit a little bit lower and the water level would never get too low. However, on a normal day, yes I am happy with the tunze skimmer. Oh I did have a terribly annoying microbubble issue in the beginning, I waited forever (3-4 weeks) for them to stop but they wouldn't. I wrapped the bottom of the skimmer in filter media and did the airline mod at the same time. After that it never spit out another bubble. Unfortunately I have concluded that I fried the birdsnest. The loss in color rapidly progressed after I increased the amount of light it was getting. I have moved it to a lower light area, but I fear it is probably to late. The birdsnest and the monti were bought at the same time, off of the same rack and both were under a Big ole Radion Gen 2. Both were placed at the same height and center of my tank, the monti is exploding, the nest is not... Link to comment
mipster Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 I've noticed that corals are pretty amazing with what they can bounce back from if given the shot. Lower the light were it sits and give it some time. If you're lucky it could still pull through! do you have any fishies in there? are you planning on adding any if not? Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 Yes I have a black ORA ocellaris in there for now. I am keeping a close eye on my parameters. If I cant keep them in check I will have to go with somthing else. I have had no issues after 2 months though and he has certainly made himself at home. Moving stuff is always exciting as defensive as he is. You can see him in the last two photos in my original post. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 Decided to do a little rearranging. The scape was a little to crowded for me and I wanted a little bit more open space. I am finally getting this light dialed in... I've lowered it down to 18 white 23 blue and 24 royal. The birds nest is finally turning around, I traded most of it in but I kept a small frag, still looks terrible but much better than before. image by Wahayden1, on Flickr Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 1, 2014 Author Share Posted June 1, 2014 Grabbed some new life for the tank today, I will update once everything colors up. I also decided to venture into the dosing world with seachem's part one and two. Still doing my research but I am afraid my biweekly water changes are not keeping up with demands. My Ca and Alk levels are dipping a lower and lower as I add corals... Still scared of the idea in such a small system but I'm going to try and ease into it. If you have an opinion on the matter I would love to hear it, especially when it comes to delivery. Not sure how I want to go about it (no pump). Link to comment
Exquitas Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 Welcome back to the hobby! I'm following this thread, looks very promising! Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 Looks really nice! Glad you like it! Welcome back to the hobby! I'm following this thread, looks very promising! Thanks, I will try not to mess it up too bad. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 image by Wahayden1, on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/124801089@N08/14168004937/'>https://www.flickr.com/photos/124801089@N08/14168004937/'>image by https://www.flickr.com/people/124801089@N08/'>Wahayden1, on Flickr Traded my black clown for a neon dottyback and some green palys Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Grabbed a few new pieces... Not all the way opened up but not bad for a quick update. image by Wahayden1, on Flickr Link to comment
Mike Savage Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 The tank is looking great! Are you still at 18,23,24 on the lighting? Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 The tank is looking great! Are you still at 18,23,24 on the lighting? Thanks man. I'm running it at 16,23,23 Link to comment
Mike Savage Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Are you using the AI Nano mounting arm? If not then how high is your light above the water? Thanks! Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 Are you using the AI Nano mounting arm? If not then how high is your light above the water? Thanks! Yep I am just using the AI arm for now. Link to comment
Nanofreak79 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Killer little tank. I've got the same d bag of a fish. He hates my only other fish addition, another sunset dotty. Thing hides in the corner because the neon has such a personality disorder. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 Killer little tank. I've got the same d bag of a fish. He hates my only other fish addition, another sunset dotty. Thing hides in the corner because the neon has such a personality disorder. Thanks! Yeah my plans of a second small fish or shrimp has gone out the window after some of the horror stories I've read on here, and there is no chance I'm getting that guy out of there. Oh well he looks pretty cool at least, and certainly full of personality. Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Tank looks like it is doing great! From experience, one Dottyback in a smaller tank is basically it. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 Tank looks like it is doing great! From experience, one Dottyback in a smaller tank is basically it. Thanks! Yeah your right... A second fish in such a small system is probably not the greatest of ideas, but I can't say I wasn't up for pushing the limits ?. No need to worry on that now though. Link to comment
Wahayden1 Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 https://www.flickr.com/photos/124801089@N08/14352803107/'> https://www.flickr.com/photos/124801089@N08/14352803107/'>image by https://www.flickr.com/people/124801089@N08/'>Wahayden1, on Flickr Ooooo pretty Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.