1.8g AIO Pico build (1 Viewer)

[turtlesoup2]

howdy everyone, I finally received my AIO pico that I hope to take to college this coming fall!
Thanks to reefahholic and Ben for their help and services
so the little cube is a 9" x 9" x 9" glass cube made out of 1/4" glass. The tank has an 1/4" acrylic false wall which extends 3.25" into the tank.


For the actual DT it contains 1.8 gallons and in total(including the filtration section) it holds 2.7 gallons.
The filtration section is broken up into 3 different compartments.


The first: is an overflow onto a (soon to be build) media rack. It will will hold a poly pad/filterfloss, a passive chemical bag(I'm still undecided) and some marine pure balls.
The second: contains a neotherm heater and the room for a gnome glass skimmer(if needed)
The third: a Ehiem 600 return.
My plan is for a minimalist reef with mainly LPS and no fish. I'm hopping for a simplistic maintenance plan to follow a weekly 2ish cup of water change and monthly/whenever is needed change out the chemical media.

Here are some dry photos of the tank as it sits:



Goals for the upcomming week include bulding the media rack, water testing it, picking out a light, and eventually cycling it.

 

[thadscottmoore]

looking sharp! makes me want to set my pico back up. Took it down year and half ago to move into my new home. boxed up ever since...

 

[G-reef]

Very nice... makes me want one .
Please keep us posted . I can't wait to see it when your done.
Thank you

 

[turtlesoup2]

today's water test went smoothly and I also spent some time building a DIY media tray. In order to make a media bag fit I had to cut it and then re-stitch the bottom edge. Sewing is surprisingly annoying haha. here are the results.

 

[turtlesoup2]

Now to decided if I want to add an thin layer of sand

 

[turtlesoup2]

After some plumbing issues I finally got everything running! We had an issue installing the bulkhead and the pipe thread piece since it is such a tiny space... Since the bulkhead I bought was threaded on the output side, but not on the connecting side, I decided cut the bulkhead to where only the portion containing the inner threads remained(see the stock image to see what I'm referring to). Thankfully the threads were long enough to share it between the tubing fitting and the Loc-Line return fitting and now the fittings fit perfectly and room to spare.






I had to tune the eheim 600 down a bit, so right now its running at about 3/4 speed. Also, since the water volume is so tiny and slight displacement really affects the overall water level. My hand alone can dramatically change it.

 

[Traclly Le Tran]

Love this!

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[turtlesoup2]

Thanks!!

 

[thadscottmoore]

I would suggest to build a skimmer box. you will find that the limited flow will collect dust on the surface of the water. I built mine out of an old cassette tape case. I built a mini sump on the back of mine which included a chiller, fuge, and return pump. link to my build below.

Thads Skimz Ibox Nano Project - Pico Reefs - Nano-Reef.com Forums

 

[turtlesoup2]

Its only day one and it hasn't even started/finished cycling lol. Surprisingly the surface is very active and I'm not sure if it will collect dust. I'll have to take a video or something

 

[turtlesoup2]

The tank has been cycling for about 4 days so far. I think I need to get some new test kits as I have tested for ammonia/ nitrites for years

 

[thadscottmoore]

looking forward to this thread!

 

[turtlesoup2]

Today I managed to get quite a bit done. I got my new frags cut courtesy of the parent colonies from my main tank. I was able to frag my bi colored branching hammer, bi color branching frogspawn, and dark green torch colonies into thumb sized frags. I was also able to frag some of my zoa colonies, but I've forgotten what their names are...

On top of that I was able to finish my DIY light that will serve as a space filler till the AI Prime comes out. It's composed of 3 solder-less Cree XTE royal blue and 1 solder-less cree XTE white all connected to an Meanwell LPC 35-700 driver. I already had some of the supplies so this fixture ended up costing my about $20 in parts/LEDs. Please excuse the carboard cover as this is only a temporary cover lol. Luckily I was able to hide the driver and all the cables! The lighting cables plus whatever cables I'll need will all run through the false wall of my desk

 

[turtlesoup2]

Today's nitrate test

 

[turtlesoup2]

Here is the tank with the lights on

 

[turtlesoup2]

the new arrivals:


and here is everything all organized and hidden away out of sight.

 

[turtlesoup2]

So it only takes .072ml to raise 2ppm of calcium, 0.1 dkh, and 1ppm of magnesium. This is such a tiny dosage!

 

[turtlesoup2]

here are tonight's additions to the tank

 

[turtlesoup2]

here's the rest of the LPS frags.

 

[soco365]

Looking good. Can't wait to see how this turns out. Definitly following.