Tiny funny reef on budget

neupane00 · Sep 10, 2015

very cool. following this.. btw whats the exact dimensions ?

Ahruk · Sep 10, 2015

Very cool

Can't wait to see more.

EzraZamir · Sep 10, 2015

Very nice!!! Is a skimmer even needed on such a small tank? I tried one on my 10 gallon and weekly water changes were fine without it. The skimmer didn't pull much out either. The smallest nano I had was 2.5 and it was an absolute NIGHTMARE to keep the params steady and I gave it up. Maybe the glass top will help with the evaporation? I never thought to do that...

sikorskys · Sep 10, 2015

neupane00 said:
very cool. following this.. btw whats the exact dimensions ?

Thank you.

Exact dimensions of a tank are 205x205x255mm with 4mm glass. Skimmer's tube is 235x35mm.

Fishy Bizness Aquatics · Sep 10, 2015

Clean little tank... following along for the progress

sikorskys · Sep 10, 2015

EzraZamir said:
Very nice!!! Is a skimmer even needed on such a small tank? I tried one on my 10 gallon and weekly water changes were fine without it. The skimmer didn't pull much out either. The smallest nano I had was 2.5 and it was an absolute NIGHTMARE to keep the params steady and I gave it up. Maybe the glass top will help with the evaporation? I never thought to do that...

Thank you very much.

It's definitely possible to do it without skimmer, but I don't want to. I'm building this pico for my office desktop, so I'd like to cut down water changes/top off's to a minimum. I hope, skimmer and cover glass will help with that.

neupane00 · Sep 10, 2015

sikorskys said:
Thank you.

Exact dimensions of a tank are 205x205x255mm with 4mm glass. Skimmer's tube is 235x35mm.

For those like me.. thats 8.07 x 8.07 x 10 inches.

wow this will be nice to see it grow

EzraZamir · Sep 11, 2015

sikorskys said:
Thank you very much.

It's definitely possible to do it without skimmer, but I don't want to. I'm building this pico for my office desktop, so I'd like to cut down water changes/top off's to a minimum. I hope, skimmer and cover glass will help with that.

This has inspired me to try again! What's next, lighting?

sikorskys · Sep 12, 2015

EzraZamir said:
This has inspired me to try again! What's next, lighting?

Lighting is not ready yet, next will be the rockscape

sikorskys · Sep 14, 2015

Now, there is my rockwork in place:

The purpose of this DIY rock is to make the most of the volume, but not to be sharp-looking itself. There is not much volume in 3g to make something more exciting. One day I'm going to make this tank SPS-dominated, so I need the proper scape to hold all those horned frags in right directions.

Sure, those flat surfaces and sharp edges look too artificial. But I'm ok with that, because all of the rock is going to be covered with frags. In the end, I'd like to get something like a mountain overgrown with trees.

The rock is made of some "superwhite" cement (not sure about the brand, sorry) and cheap aragonite sand. That's it, no coarse salt, oyster shell or any other additives were used. I was going to make the rock surface intentionally flat, so no coarse salt was needed.

Then, it has been soaked in tap water for 3-4 weeks. Now I'm going to soak it in saltwater for few weeks more. Don't know if this is really needed, but that's definitely won't hurt

That's it for the rockscape. Next post will be about the lighting, stay tuned