trevorspencer94
Active Member
I was at the gym 2 days ago, and I looked down the road and saw a Goodwill down the road, so I said screw it, I'll go in and look around, see if something neat just stands out to me in the store and just makes me have to buy it... I walked through the whole store, man I didnt know they were so big inside! In the last isle, all the way in the corner of the store I saw it, a little glass cube with rounded glass corners on the front, and acrylic dividers in it. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it! I looked at the price tag, $3.99. I picked that sucker right up, looked all over it to check for cracks, etc. I walked right out of that store with a new-to-me $4 2.5 gallon display reef tank with a built in 1.5 gallon sump, and with the original glass lid to boot!
Fast forward about 20 minutes, I'm home and filling a bucket with a couple gallons of RO/DI water, preparing to add salt to it and to fill the tank haha. I already had liverock from my sump to my other tank, extra sand and a couple 50w heaters lying around as well. Went ahead and made the water mixture 50% new saltwater and 50% from my other tank, since I was going to do a water change on it anyways. The tank didnt come with a pump or anything but I already had some small pumps to try out to see if they fit and/or gave a good amount of flow, so I experimented a little bit, and voila! One was a perfect fit for the return compartment in the back and gave me a good amount of flow.
Moving on to filtration concerns, I knew I was going to be doing frequent top-offs and water changes on this pico tank, probably a change of about 10% every other day, yet to be determined exactly by the size of cup i will likely remove water with/replace water with. So with live sand, live rock, and frequent water changes, I decided to just make my own felt filter in the compartment that already had slots for some previously, I assume, included filters of some sort. I cut some egg crate to size to fit snugly into the return compartment, and zip tied felt all the way around it. I'm also going to be adding at least 1 mangrove to the middle section of the 3 compartments in the built in sump in the back. These two things should hopefully do for polishing the water, and I can change it as needed.
For lighting I was really stumped at first, so of course I hopped online and started searching peoples' forum posts, outside of spending hundreds of dollars on a kessil or something (which seems sacrilegious for a $3.99 tank), I decided on something more diy and budget friendly. I immediately ordered a 36w par38 bulb, and decided I was going to build my own light stand/fixture for it. That light should be here sometime this week (week of 8-28-16), and I went to the LHS (local hardware store) today and started gathering my pieces. I bought a standard 12 ft extension cord, some conduit tubing, a pvc endcap, a par38 capable socket, and some pvc T fittings to make it all stand behind the tank. More will be shown on this later with pics to come!
So now, my tank is all running, up to temp, rockscape complete, most likely already cycled but still going to give it some time, I have researched all day long and decided what the tank will be like, as you can probably tell from the thread description! I'm going to fill this thing with all sorts of zoas! There will be 1 fish, which, besides potentially being slightly too large of a fish, but I have seen it in many nano tanks... should be a good fit personality wise.. that fish is, as of now, most likely to be a neon dottyback. I dont think I have ever heard of one being a good tank mate, so what better fish to have in a tank with no tank mates than it!? I feel like its my chance to have one without a possibility of it causing problems with my other fish. =)
Thanks a lot if you made it this far, this should be an awesome, and most likely frustrating at times, adventure! I have 4 zoa frags in my other tank at the moment that may make their way over as testers before too long, and I will be buying lots more from a local friend/grower that always gives me a steal-of-a-deal as well! I'd be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability and pay attention to any advice anyone has! Its always great to hear and consider the experience of others!
Fast forward about 20 minutes, I'm home and filling a bucket with a couple gallons of RO/DI water, preparing to add salt to it and to fill the tank haha. I already had liverock from my sump to my other tank, extra sand and a couple 50w heaters lying around as well. Went ahead and made the water mixture 50% new saltwater and 50% from my other tank, since I was going to do a water change on it anyways. The tank didnt come with a pump or anything but I already had some small pumps to try out to see if they fit and/or gave a good amount of flow, so I experimented a little bit, and voila! One was a perfect fit for the return compartment in the back and gave me a good amount of flow.
Moving on to filtration concerns, I knew I was going to be doing frequent top-offs and water changes on this pico tank, probably a change of about 10% every other day, yet to be determined exactly by the size of cup i will likely remove water with/replace water with. So with live sand, live rock, and frequent water changes, I decided to just make my own felt filter in the compartment that already had slots for some previously, I assume, included filters of some sort. I cut some egg crate to size to fit snugly into the return compartment, and zip tied felt all the way around it. I'm also going to be adding at least 1 mangrove to the middle section of the 3 compartments in the built in sump in the back. These two things should hopefully do for polishing the water, and I can change it as needed.
For lighting I was really stumped at first, so of course I hopped online and started searching peoples' forum posts, outside of spending hundreds of dollars on a kessil or something (which seems sacrilegious for a $3.99 tank), I decided on something more diy and budget friendly. I immediately ordered a 36w par38 bulb, and decided I was going to build my own light stand/fixture for it. That light should be here sometime this week (week of 8-28-16), and I went to the LHS (local hardware store) today and started gathering my pieces. I bought a standard 12 ft extension cord, some conduit tubing, a pvc endcap, a par38 capable socket, and some pvc T fittings to make it all stand behind the tank. More will be shown on this later with pics to come!
So now, my tank is all running, up to temp, rockscape complete, most likely already cycled but still going to give it some time, I have researched all day long and decided what the tank will be like, as you can probably tell from the thread description! I'm going to fill this thing with all sorts of zoas! There will be 1 fish, which, besides potentially being slightly too large of a fish, but I have seen it in many nano tanks... should be a good fit personality wise.. that fish is, as of now, most likely to be a neon dottyback. I dont think I have ever heard of one being a good tank mate, so what better fish to have in a tank with no tank mates than it!? I feel like its my chance to have one without a possibility of it causing problems with my other fish. =)
Thanks a lot if you made it this far, this should be an awesome, and most likely frustrating at times, adventure! I have 4 zoa frags in my other tank at the moment that may make their way over as testers before too long, and I will be buying lots more from a local friend/grower that always gives me a steal-of-a-deal as well! I'd be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability and pay attention to any advice anyone has! Its always great to hear and consider the experience of others!
