Cheve's 2.6 Gallon Pico

[Anthony Kochevar]

The next adventure starts today! 6-5-2018

Tank: Aquamaxx 2.6 gallon 12x7x7 inches
Light: Aquamaxx Prism 300
Filter: AIO overflow and chambers made with .30 inch Black Styrene made for an end to make a penisula tank with Two VicTsing Ultra Quiet 80 GPH powerheads.

The tank will have a reverse refugium powered by a couple of USB lights. I like the Walmart Hex 5 Filter pads and will have an area for one of these and space for Chem Pure Blue and Phosguard. There is a lot to do before the tank starts cycling. I need to make the overflow first. I'm going to test the heat produced by the light for a few weeks as it would be best if I could make a hood for this. We will see if this is doable with the right ventilation. Second pic is of the tank with water to check for leaks and to play with the light.

 

[gabeJLFT]

The next adventure starts today! 6-5-2018

Tank: Aquamaxx 2.6 gallon 12x7x7 inches
Light: Aquamaxx Prism 300
Filter: AIO overflow and chambers made with .30 inch Black Styrene made for an end to make a penisula tank with Two VicTsing Ultra Quiet 80 GPH powerheads.

The tank will have a reverse refugium powered by a couple of USB lights. I like the Walmart Hex 5 Filter pads and will have an area for one of these and space for Chem Pure Blue and Phosguard. There is a lot to do before the tank starts cycling. I need to make the overflow first. I'm going to test the heat produced by the light for a few weeks as it would be best if I could make a hood for this. We will see if this is doable with the right ventilation. Second pic is of the tank with water to check for leaks and to play with the light.

will that light be enough to grow corals

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

I'm hoping to keep SPS in the tank. The above photo is the light with all channels at 50%.

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

More work done on the tank this past week. After a couple of days of water in the tank to show it wouldn't leak, I decided to work on the bottom. While I am planning to have a 1/2 inch layer of sand on the bottom. I decided to paint the outside bottom with a textured rust oleum paint called Caribbean Sand. I also wanted the tank raised and a bottom edge like another tank I have. So some black painted wood attached with double sided tape to attach it was used so If I want to I can remove it. The bottom paint turned out really good and looks like almost like sand.

 

[Ranjib]

great going. Love these aquamaxx tank, perfect for all sorts of DIY setups

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

Well, it has been almost a month of the tank being wet. It has been a rocky couple of weeks. I've had to redesign the filter partitions and redo the shell on the hood. I've also had to create a ATO system. After two weeks parameters where good and transferred the contents of my 0.5 pico. I didn't check salinity because I thought it was stable. My mistake I grossly underestimated the amount of evaporation and my salinity was off the gauge! This was after a week of no corals opening up and a dead baby brittle star. I thought it was the light as it is quite bright. I corrected salinity over the course of a day but still must have done it to fast as my shrimp died.

Anyway here is the tank up and running as of 7-9-2018. You can see the frame of the hood before adding the shell. I added another shelf under the light. I made a rectangular PVC pipe ATO container you can see it in the inside of the hood.

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

I'm also happy to report that I 3D printed these and they work great. I had to remove the vortex nozzle stirred the sand to much. Would work great in a larger tank. I am using two of the connector nozzles to point the flow towards the surface.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1784377​

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

Tank pics as of May 20, 2019:

 

[Steven Garland]

How is this tank going so far ?!

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

How is this tank going so far ?!

Both good and bad. Good in that I have no nuisance algae growth or pests to deal with. Bad because I have poor color on my corals and no growth. Think I designed the tank to remove nutrients too well and I was very light on my feeding. Hoping that by upping my feeding, my corals will respond better.

 

[Steven Garland]

How exactly do your corals look ? Drab,dull,brown,dead ?! It could be nutrients or not enough light.

What are your params ?

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

How exactly do your corals look ? Drab,dull,brown,dead ?! It could be nutrients or not enough light.

What are your params ?

Corals are drab and don't grow. GSP have even receded in growth.

1.025
78 deg F
KH 40 ppm
PH 7
No2 0
No3 0

Using Distilled water and red sea coral pro salt in purple bucket(supposed to have high alk)
Running Chem Pure blue, Purigen, Phosgaurd with a reverse daylight Cheato refugium.

Until recently I had a non existent nutrient import as I only had one hermit crab to feed. There are lots of small brittle starfish, bristleworms and other fauna. Recently got a cleaner shrimp and porcelain crab and a few SPS. Started feeding them and putting in a filter feeder mixture twice a day. Thinking I might remove the Phosgaurd as I think it and the cheato are pulling out to much. Only plus to the tank, absolutely no algae on the rocks or sand, ever in the past year.

 

[Steven Garland]

Try slowly bumping your PH to 8ish,its always nice to have traces of nitrates and all that but so hard in a pico to keep everything even and stable.

What are your calc,mag and all that ? Calc should be about 440-460 depending and mag around 1400-1450ish.

Try feeding a hair more,you shouldn't need all of that media for clean water. Carbon and phosgaurd should be ALL you need I always just ran good carbon and 50% water changes weekly amd never had a problem with color or growth.

 

[G8rBait92]

Interesting tank. Crazy small! Parameter swings would be instantaneous.

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

FTS 6-30-2019

 

[Steven Garland]

Heck yeah,everything looks so good !! Makes the tank looks so big,that boggles my mind lol.

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

Yeah, got rid of the phosguard, adjusted the light and got a small fish which keeps some nutrients in the tank. I have made a few purchases the past month as well =). I'm happy with the SPS. Never kept them before and they already have growth in the past month.

 

[Steven Garland]

Have you looked into a diy led fixture to maybe get some more par into the tank ? Maybe dose some amino acids.

Everything does look a smidge dull,but that can easily be fixed. Those Monti's do look awesome.

 

[Sherman]

Great. How you maintain your temperature

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

I have a small Marina heater next to the powerhead in the back chamber.