Jimmehlee’s pico puddle

[Jimmeh lee]

I’d bet that most of us have a shelf, drawer, closet, or garage filled with spare parts. I made the mistake of getting bored and going through mine.... and found I had everything I needed on hand to start up a pico reef on my computer desk. Let this be a cautionary tale to learn some self control for yourselves.

Anyways, the tank is, I believe, up aqua. 2.5g rimless, low iron. The other equipment I had sitting around include an aquaclear 30, aqueon 50w preset heater, and a Kessil A80. The heater fits well in the aquaclear, but I do still need to decide what else to fill it with. I have an extra smart micro ato sitting around as well, not sure if I’ll use it or not.

At first I had wanted to start this up with a piece of uncured live rock, but there were just no local options, and it seemed silly to air in 5 pounds. Instead, this is going to use dry rock/sand, and get filled with softies. Firework cloves, maybe gsp and Xenia. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I put some blue tinted window frost on the tank today and started playing with rocks. I’m leaning towards the second scape.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[DDenny]

Looking good. Spare parts mean another tank build. My daughters Betta recently passed after 2.5 years and not sure if she wants another one. Might use that little 1.4g tank in my office with clove polyps or mushroom tank. Would have to buy a light as the light on it is very weak.

 

[Shaina Carey]

That is how I got into my PICO tank. I had it empty and had extra parts, lol.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Looking good. Spare parts mean another tank build. My daughters Betta recently passed after 2.5 years and not sure if she wants another one. Might use that little 1.4g tank in my office with clove polyps or mushroom tank. Would have to buy a light as the light on it is very weak.

It sounds like it’s time to pick up a light lol

 

[Jimmeh lee]

That is how I got into my PICO tank. I had it empty and had extra parts, lol.

Nice! I’m gonna have fun with it! It will be nice to have something to keep corals I wouldn’t normally add to my main display.

 

[Tokash23]

Sweet i have a pico on my desk as well. I had to buy most of my stuff but i was all in for under 100 i was happy with that. Good Luck

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Sweet i have a pico on my desk as well. I had to buy most of my stuff but i was all in for under 100 i was happy with that. Good Luck

Hey if you’re under 100 you’re doing pretty good! Thank you!

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Small update, I used a Dremel on the aquaclear lid to allow it to fully close with the heater inside, and also to shorten the u-tube so my intake isn’t sitting in the sand. Also remembered I had a little floating/magnetic “rock” that I think ended up looking good thrown into the tank. I’m making some ro to mix and fill the tank now to see how it runs. Still undecided on if I’m going to use an ato or not. We’ll see how annoying topping it up from my big tank’s reservoir gets I suppose.

 

[Azedenkae]

First off, love the title/name of the tank.

Secondly, looking good. :3 Nice idea with the filter and having the heater fit in it. One good thing is with a HOB, the water level should not go low enough to expose the heater below its minimum water line eh.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

First off, love the title/name of the tank.

Secondly, looking good. :3 Nice idea with the filter and having the heater fit in it. One good thing is with a HOB, the water level should not go low enough to expose the heater below its minimum water line eh.

Thank you! Alliteration wins the day.
And yes, the level in the hob should stay constant, or rise if it’s clogged. No dry heaters! I shouldn’t have any clogging issues with it... right now I think I’m just going to drop a small amount of matrix in there with filter floss that I’ll change a couple times a week.

 

[Tokash23]

Rock work is cool i always like the floating rock look.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Rock work is cool i always like the floating rock look.

I feel like it helps create a little bit of depth in the teeny tank. Of course once coral or snails go in the scale will be fully exposed lol

 

[Tokash23]

oh for sure. would look cool coated in some xenia or something along those lines. You are going for just softies n stuff in it?

 

[Jimmeh lee]

oh for sure. would look cool coated in some xenia or something along those lines. You are going for just softies n stuff in it?

Yes! Pulsing Xenia will cover one of the three rocks completely. I wanna watch it when I should be working lol

 

[Jimmeh lee]

I dropped a couple tiny, coralline covered rocks from my 40b as well as a few pieces of matrix into the aquaclear. I wish I had kept the magnetic rock in my sump, it’s a shame all the coralline on it is dead. Evaporation doesn’t seem to be too bad so far. A little too up in the morning and evening is plenty.

 

[danieyella]

Love this! Great scape in tiny space, excited to see you add corals. Softies are a personal favorite of mine to watch, I just love the natural flow of them

 

[count krunk]

Very cool! I'm in the gathering phase of a 5g right now. Missing light and heater. And you know livestock haha

 

[Tokash23]

Looks great. You planning to add anything for extra flow? Looks like the aqua clear is enough from the movement on top imo. You get a decent lid youll have next to no evaporation i dont have to worry about topping mine off i do near 100% water change once a week and salinity stays put.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Thanks y’all! I think the aquaclear is providing plenty of flow, I can see it moving the sand a little bit here and there, and it’s only a little more than half its full flow rate. I may eventually add a lid, time will tell. I spend a lot of time at this desk, so it’s not too big a deal.

Very cool! I'm in the gathering phase of a 5g right now. Missing light and heater. And you know livestock haha

Get that heater and get it cycling!

 

[Jimmeh lee]

We’ve got diatoms already! Plucked an astrea snail from the sump of my 40 and put it to work. Might add one cerith as well for the sand, we’ll see how the line astrea does for now.