making a pico tank

[scott89wing]

want to make a small tank found one on pinterest that was great they took a large mason jar and did it . it holds 1 gallon of water hard part im having is finding led or light that will support zoas wanna do a zoa pico .... what do ya guys think wanna keep lid on and is an air pump enough water movement ?

 

[Vanessa O.]

Now this is interesting! I don't have any advice but am anxious to see what others think. Only thing I would say is, maybe leave the lid off and have an air pump or could you use an air stone. What about filtering the water?

 

[KorD]

Working with pico tanks is a lot of fun... for water movement I would use an external pump with a clear line in and one back out of it.. if you feel ballsy you could drill two holes in the back or just use the pump through the top of it.
I would uses either a Kessil light (a150w 15k) or one like the par30 bulbs.. you will not really need the output the kessil gives for just a few zoa's.
I could see this working out nicely in the end!

Personally I would would make a nice zoa garden and also add an acoropora in there since you will have some space to fill.. I have a few of those jars on my counter here at home and I can see it happening nicely!

 

[Skydvr]

Kessil would be on the order of several magnitudes beyond overkill.PAR30 would probably be overkill. I've got a cheap 5 3W LED EBay special ($15 shipped) in a desk lamp, and it's a bit overkill on my 6" cube.Plenty of people have done fine with an air stone for circulation. I did a couple months with no circulation other than blasting the corals with a dropper every day or two. "Big" water changes (100%) once a week are quite helpful.Lid will keep salt spray down, but may cause issues depending on how much heat the light adds to your tank and how hot the room gets in the summer. Lid will keep evaporation manageable too. It is something to keep an eye on.Have fun with it. Just avoid fast growing and aggressive stuff, no matter how much you like their movement or how pretty they are. They will over grow and overpower that in no time.

 

[Smithjm5]

Wouldn't you need the lid off for oxygen exchange? It's a cool idea though haha!

 

[brandon429]

not with positive continual air input pressure under the lid

airstones work great for restricted evap setups, they remove co2 better than powerheads will

 

[brandon429]

stilled tanks that use no circulation abound now, with briareum (GSP) and zoanthids being the most common fare along with macro sprigs