8.5g cube pico upgrade

[Kaisentlaia]

Update January 2023: the tank is up and running and doing really well! Here's a FTS of its current state and a short video:

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Original post:

Hello hivemind! I come again to you for some wisdom.

I currently have a (more or less) 3.5g pico recovered from the brink of death a couple of years ago thanks to this forum. It has been doing well but recently I have been feeling the need for a tidier look and a bit more space. This will be my build thread for the upgrade.

Current tank:

It's a 9.8"x9.8"x11.8"h (25x25x30 cm), about 3.1g (12L) of actual water volume. As you can see I've been having some algae problems lately so I decided it's time for another rip cleaning, and since I'm going to replace the sand and take out all the rockwork for a good scrubbing, why not change tank at the same time?

Objectives:

• rounded corners (not a pita to clean anymore since I got a Dennerle magnet cleaner)
• back compartment to hide all the tech for a cleaner look
• some sort of skimming to get rid of the surface film
• more surface water movement
• a wave maker
• a little more water volume (but not too much for two reasons: 1. not enough space on the counter where I'm keeping it and 2. I'm too lazy for big weekly water changes, which I need because I don't dose)

Equipment:

From my current tank:

• Light: Fluval Nano Marine
• Heating: Tetra HT 25 heater (adjustable, 25W)
• Temp control: thermostat outlet plug (similar to this one)
• Cooling: generic USB fan
• ATO: hamster bottle ATO

To buy:

• Filter pump: Eheim CompactON 300 (to replace the current Eheim aquacorner 60)
• Wavemaker: Aqamai KPS (to replace the current small pump I'm using for additional water movement)
• Tubing, nozzles, plexiglass and whatnot

I saw the Imagitarium tank which would have been perfect but alas, I can't find it anywhere here. But I found this one by Blau Aquaristic which is close enough:

Measurements are 11.8"x11.8"x13.8"h (30x30x35cm), not a whole lot bigger than my current one which would be perfect. I will have to put the back compartment together myself, shouldn't be too difficult with a couple of pieces of custom cut plexiglass and some silicone.

The project:

I don't feel the need for a more complex filter compartment since my current filter only has a small sponge and a few ceramic rings. I think that I could easily replace it using a small pump and a custom made filter media basket:

I've heard that having an overflow would act as a sort of skimmer so that would be nice, and an upwards nozzle should help with surface water movement.

What do you guys think? Would this design work?

 

[Tenecor Aquariums]

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[Kaisentlaia]

That's neat but I'm aiming for glass.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

So I decided this tank is the one I want and I ordered it (should arrive next week). I ordered the pump and the wavemaker as well, and a couple of other bits and pieces (outlet nozzle and such). When I'll have all the equipment I'll figure out how to put it together and I'll be able to take accurate measurements to build the filter compartment.

I realized the overflow comb could be harder to design than what I thought, if I want it to act as a skimmer at least. If the comb is too deep the water level might end up being too low and I won't have any skimming, but figuring that out involves a lot of complicated math and that's not for me. So, I'm considering a simple screen made with a thin piece of plastic to adjust the height of the comb:

I believe something like this could help set the water level at the desired height once I get this thing wet.

Speaking of water level, I wonder if it will be the same in the front part and in the filter compartment. I really hope so, or this design for the ATO bottle won't work unless I adjust the tubing length, and I'm not sure I want to do that.

We'll see. I'll figure it out as I go.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

The new tank is here!

A little bigger than what I initially thought, which is great. I'm almost tempted to buy a couple more rocks to give more support to the current ones.

Next steps: measure, order custom cut acrylic panel for the back chamber, leak test. Can't wait to get it ready!

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Well that took a while, but I'm finally ready for the move! I ordered the custom cut pieces I needed to build the back chamber:

The gluing process was a little cumbersome but I managed with the help of my husband:

Then I built a custom filter canister with some spare plastic:

And I cut some sponges/filter floss to the right size:

Siliconed the filter chamber to the tank:

And here's the final product, even better than expected!

from the back​	from the front​

The cat helped the whole time:

Leak test! I let it sit there filled with water for a couple of days and no leaks!

I added a thin piece of plastic between the comb and the sponges and played with it for a while until I was happy with the water level (this looks like it should act as a skimmer too):

The flow looks pretty good, way better than what I have in my current pico with the Eheim corner filter:



I'm so excited! I'm mixing water right now and I'll start soon with the rip cleaning. I can't wait to have everything settled in this new amazing tank!

 

[schg]

dang, looking really good! Just out of curiosity, why didn’t you use black silicone instead?

 

[Kaisentlaia]

dang, looking really good! Just out of curiosity, why didn’t you use black silicone instead?

That would have looked nice! It didn't even cross my mind... But even if it did, the only aquarium safe silicone I could find was the trasparent one.

 

[gabulldogg22]

Nice

 

[schg]

That would have looked nice! It didn't even cross my mind... But even if it did, the only aquarium safe silicone I could find was the trasparent one.

Fair enough! It still looks great, I was just curious since it was going against a black background. Either way, the contents inside matter more

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Well the move + rip cleaning was not exactly successful.

I managed to clean the rocks and get rid of most of the algae, which took me forever (my arm still hurts) but at least now everything is clean.

The process took longer this time, probably because the algae were tougher than the ones I had when I did the previous rip cleaning. After cleaning I put them in the new tank with freshly mixed saltwater:

I was able to take off most of the corals from the rocks before cleaning but some were impossible to detach. They got pretty angry at me but hopefully they will perk up.

Bad news is, I tried to add a new rock to support the main one but seems like I'm utterly unable to glue them together so now the rockscape is a mess and I still have to glue all the frags back in place. I put some putty on the new rock and shaped it so it would fit the old one, but the glue isn't enough to keep them together and I can't take the old rock out and dry it because there's too much alive stuff on it. Any suggestions?

gluing attempt​	failure!​

I decided to just let sit the mess there and let the corals recover for some time, and I was okay with how things went. But of course a fan failure coupled with a heatwave raised the temps too much last night and now all the softies are sulking, some LPS are almost dead, the trochus snails have been still since this morning and I'm pretty ticked. Thankfully the sexies and the hermit crab are still happy, so I have that going for me which is nice.

Sad sad corals, a sad snail, a happy shrimp:

Nitrites are 0 and nitrates 0.2 so I'm pretty sure the haziness is due to the new sand. I rinsed it forever but it was still cloudy, it will take a while for the filter to remove it.

On the bright side, this new tank is stunning and the filter is working like a charm, I'm super happy with the result:

It looks super good, everything fits pefectly:

And since I was moving all the cables, I took the chance to mod the cable box a little and it looks super neat now:

So this rip cleaning/tank change didn't go as well as I expected. I still have a bunch of problems to fix and I hope the corals will perk back up, but at least some things went great! Now I just have to figure out what to do with that darn rockscape... and buy more glue. Lots of glue.

 

[Colt13]

where'd you order the custom cut acrylic from? looks great

 

[Tavero]

Using gel superglue + reef zement would have been more sucessful in my opinion. I hate this reef epoxy. Never worked for me.

Watch out with your Acrylic. It doesn't adhere well to silicone. It may hold now but i doubt it will still work in one year.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Woah it's been a while! Didn't have much time to post in the past months. I have good news though, the tank is back to its former glory!

After a while (and a superglue shortage in the stores) I was finally able to glue the main rock on the support I made and it held wonderfully ever since. It was a rough move but I'm extremely happy with the results! The filter compartment is super handy and has been working really well, the tank is slightly bigger than the old one but much easier to clean, the rockscape is more stable and maintenance much simpler.

Some corals didn't make it, others have been sulking a bit and I'm trying to figure out if they don't like the light or what. On the other hand, other corals are thriving:

yellow leather coral, eternal and unkillable​	purple monster zoa, I have to trim it to keep it in check​
green gonipora extremely happy​	striped mushrooms living their best life​

Some of the zoas that are struggling in this tank are doing great in my old pico which now is an ugly, algae ridden, unheated and messy frag tank. I'm still wondering why some of them (Sunny D, Magician) are showing a great polyp extension in there, in horrible conditions and under a nondescript generic white led strip, while they're half open and shrunk in the main tank under the fancy light, with good water movement, frequent water changes and the right temperature. Go figure. At least I have a backup if the ones in the main tank don't make it.

I'm still fighting with algae, the rip cleaning wasn't enough and I still have to remove a bunch of bubble algae and other stuff weekly. Thankfully the algae that was choking everything is mostly gone, there's still some of it on the bottom rocks but it's not spreading like wildfire anymore. At least bubble algae and the other kinds of algae that are growing in there are easier to remove. I'm considering getting an emerald crab to help me keep algae under control.

I just got some new zoas, a white alveopora and a clove polyp. The former two are doing great, some zoas are doing great as well (like this bad santa here):

others are half open like this devil's armor:

and the red people eater has been sulking for a week, I saw a small polyp opening a little for a couple of hours today but it closed up again:

I've been experimenting with light and flow in the hope of finding a sweet spot that will make all of them happy, but so far no luck. At least the critters are all doing well. The sexies are sexying, the two trochus snails are keeping the glass clean(ish) and the pistol shrimp is still alive and kickin', he moved upstairs under the purple monster:

Here's some top down goodness for your viewing pleasure. Until next time!

 

[Kaisentlaia]

where'd you order the custom cut acrylic from? looks great

I got it from a friend, they work for a company that does signs, prints and things like that, and they cut acrylic as well. When I was looking for a way to cut it I found several companies online offering such a service as well.

Using gel superglue + reef zement would have been more sucessful in my opinion. I hate this reef epoxy. Never worked for me.

Watch out with your Acrylic. It doesn't adhere well to silicone. It may hold now but i doubt it will still work in one year.

Yep, superglue worked. And yes I know silicone doesn't stick well to acrylic but I did use some superglue as well and I don't need it to be leakproof since it's an internal compartment, for now the silicone + superglue combo is enough to keep it in place.

 

[Spicy Reef]

Well done, looks great!

 

[Kaisentlaia]

After adjusting the light a bit most of the struggling corals are finally happier! The white Alveopora and the few of the zoas are still a bit sad but I'll keep monitoring them and maybe try moving them if they don't improve.

And, the purple sponge has been pearling lately? Is this a thing???

I'm still considering an emerald crab and probably a tiiiiiny goby (I have my eyes on Trimma tevegae), finally some Cerith snails and probably a couple of money cowries. I'm pretty much convinced and lately I've been seeing a good amount of copepods on the glass which is amazing, but I'll probably wait until the weather is warmer and I'll have some live food cultures set up though.

Right now I'm trying to find some blue mushrooms to fill this spot down here:

And I'm seriously considering something to fill this space on the back. But what?

I'd like to have something back there to hide the pump and maybe poke a little from the back when I look at the tank from the front. I've considered:

• a torch coral? Maybe not a good idea because I'd like to stick to softies as much as possible, and it's aggressive so it would probably end up stinging everything, right?
• a toadstool mushroom with long polyps? I've read that Sarcophyton isn't aggressive
• a bush of Gracilaria hayi? I already have some, but it will take a while to grow it big enough

Any suggestions or ideas?

 

[829282610]

beautiful tank I’d do some macro algae. some kind of Kenya tree is big and soft coral. Green sinularia as well.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

beautiful tank

thank you! I'm still working on it but it's slowly getting close to my goal

Thanks for the suggestions! Some types of Sinularia do look good, I love this one for example:

Since it would go in the green-red themed corner maybe a green Sinularia and a clump of red macro algae under it would be nice! Why not both?

The good LFS nearby closed down, and the other one is shady and I don't want to buy there anymore, but I just found an online store that sells both a nice kind of pinkish Sinularia with green polyps and those blue Discosoma mushrooms I was looking for. I sent them an email asking if they can get me some Cerith snails and maybe an emerald crab, if they can I might consider ordering there.

 

[829282610]

That sounds like a perfect plan…variety is the spice I’ve seen that tank before, It’s a lifegard 3.74 gallon. I really like those, not to mention the beautiful coral collection. I’m waiting till nicer weather for a coral order. Probably get my tank finally filled with water later today