seems pretty cool what you got there i built a 2.5 myself and i just put an aquaclear 20 and a piece of rock inside and it has been running for 2 months. iT HAS yumas mushrooms , zoas , rainbow clove polyps, and a st thomas mushroom. but im really curious as i might built another one. what equipment did you use in it and if there ius a way you can put pictures of how you did the wall inside in a better view. thanks in advance hoping to learn from this build
Sweet.
Well the skimmer I used I see no real use other than saying its a skimmer. I and not impressed with it as it does nothing.
Things used.
Biocube ps they only make one model that fits in the back compartment of the biocube and this is it. Retail is about $50-60.
Hydor theo 100watt heater. Great heaters. I love how they work and never failed me like the stealth pro did many times. I recommend for recreating this build using the 25watt heater as it is still the same size just lower wattage.
The return pump. I don't think it has a name. We can call it Steve. Steve is a pump made for fountains. 75 gph. It is adjustable from 75 to 15-20gph but I took it apart and removed the adjustment stuff inside because even at full open it didn't seem to move water much.
The return line is a section of tube cut off of a fresh water gravel vac. It slipped over the pump and fit just right.
As for live rock I decided something and per the owner of my lfs I don't need. A little history of me. I used to work at aquarium fantasies in homewood Alabama and while there the owner would order in a product from deep blue( not deep blue brand but came from that supplier) called tank clear. The package hold 50 small pellets. The act like bio balls holding bacteria for the cycle of a tank. So I purchased one pack for $10. Tossed them in the refuge of my show tank.
Per the owner of the store I shouldn't need them or any rock in this pico because I don't have anything producing noticeable waste. If I do not have anything producing waste then why do I need a home for bacteria to live that help break down the waste. (This was a valid point to me but I still put 10pellets and a small .5lbs rock in the extra room in the back of the tank.)
The wall is a piece of plexiglass leftovers from a lighting project. I cut it to the dimensions just 1/8 smaller than the inside dimensions of the inside space. And 1/4 shorter then the black trim rim inside.
Once the glass was cut and ready to go in, I "dry fit" everything in place to make sure that the wall placement would allow for all the things to fit in it.
Once I marked and measured 20 million times to get it square I used a small amount of superglue gel to hold the corners in place. Once those had set up I went back with aquarium grade sealant ( pet smart is the only local place I knew to buy it. Do NOT use anything you find at lowes or Home Depot because they will leach chemicals out into the tank.)
I sealed the wall into place and then checked for leaks. Found them and fixed them. All water is to go over the wall not around.
Once that was complete I superglued the black mounts of the heater into place to put the heater as low as possible. Because evaporation and all will be dealt in this area it is critical to make a minimum water level to keep from letting the heater overheat and break or worse break the tank. I glued them into place because if they were to come off and the heater come out of the water at all it could be bad.
Once I got all the plumbing skimmer heater and pump setup I put water in and then I got it running. This was mainly to see what adjustments needed to be made to skimmer height and the heater to make the desired temp and also return location thoughts. ( at this point I realized I wanted my return higher because 75gallons is alot for that little area. So the higher it was the better because it blows some sand from one corner currently)
Then I drained all the water back into my show tank. (Using show tank water means I create the same system [to a degree] in this tiny tank and also means that no acclimation of corals or crabs shrimp or fish is needed) and with the tank clear pellets in the sump for a few weeks they will handle the difference if any.
Once the water was drained I added about 2-3 cups of sand (this was not measured out I poured it from a container so I really have no idea how much is there. Just guessing). Then siphoned water back into the tank but this time I used air line tube to keep it slow and to not destroy the sand bed. Nice and slow to fill it up and then turn it on.
Once it was on and going I worked on the lights. I used a DIY kit that I made(I got the pieces together for the kit) and got it built over the new year holiday. I wanted to build a clean open top look to this tank because you always see Canopies or lights sitting on tanks. In my opinion it's just to cluttered and pointless (at least for my situation).
After constructing the light and the light mount i turned it on and then moved a couple corals to the tank to give a lil something to look at and also one hermit crab that will be removed tomorrow to eliminate having to put any food in the tank other than target feed corals if I want to.
So thanks for reading this extremely long post but I hope this answered some questions you may have had and I hope you enjoy.
Thanks
