Background:
So I've wanted a reef tank for many years but although I always cruise the "blue section" at aquarium shops, I never bought one because I didn't think I had the space. I keep many nano freshwater tanks, but I didn't think you could do a nano reef and I don't really have the room for one of the monsters that I always felt was the minimum size for a reef. Even after I bought a book on nano reefs a few years ago and read through it multiple times, I never quite got that poke in the tailpipe saying, "Hey, go for it!"
Then someone at my local (freshwater) aquarist club asked me if I was going to Aquashella (Chicago). I said I'd think about it, and I checked into it, hemmed and hawed about it for awhile, and finally bought a ticket.
I decided to go through the darkened "blue section" first because it was mostly empty, so I started looking at these nifty coral "frag" things and I saw some really gorgeous little flower-looking thingamabobs with weird names (Gorilla Nipple? REALLY???) that came in all sorts of funky color combos and I really liked them. But alas, I had no reef tank. So I passed on into the lighted "normal" section after taking a quick pic or ten...
I spent most of my day checking out the aquascaping competition and all the vendors, then I doubled back to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Sure enough, I had bypassed a small side aisle. At the end of that aisle was PNW Custom. On the table for PNW Custom was a TINY 40oz reef tank that got my attention. I stared at it and I'm thinking No WAY could I make that work. But then I saw it. The one gallon Small-In-One reef-ready AIO tank, and my heart stopped.
This was my reef tank! I knew it the moment I saw it that I had to take one home. Did they have a heater that would fit? Yes, they did! They even had a micro ATO if I wanted it. No, I'd take care of that myself, thanks. Would they hold it for me until I left for the day? Yes, indeedy!
So I went back to the "blue section" and talked to virtually all of the vendors and said, "I'm starting up my first reef tank, what do you recommend for beginners?" And they all suggested, among other things, Zoanthids. What are those? Those adorable little flower thingamabobs with the goofy names I had been looking at earlier. SCORE!
Well I went home, re-read all my books, ordered MORE books, read all of those, and basically thought of almost nothing else for about two weeks straight. I was obsessed. I came up with every conceivable question I could possibly think up and googled the answers, read dozens of articles, watched dozens of videos, read through all the relevant forum posts, ordered/bought all the supplies and finally, about 3.5 weeks later, I was ready to start my new tank.
The Build (TL;DR):
The PNW Custom Small-In-One is an acrylic 1 gallon tank divided about 80/20, so the usable tank space is only about 0.8 of 1 gallon. The usable tank dimensions (OD) are 6.375 x 5.375 x 5.875" and the acrylic is about 0.1875" thick.
It comes with a lid for each section, a USB pump with hose and nozzle, a removable insert with 3 sections for filter material, and a 4-setting USB light fixture with a height-adjustable acrylic neck. You also get stickers, some Chemi-Pure Blue Nano packets, and long-handled cotton swabs (I have no idea why).
I set it up with CaribSea Special Grade Live Sand, Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, live rock rubble from my local aquarium store, and a couple of pieces of dry rock given to me at Aquashella (which probably also contained a certain amount of pocket lint by the end of the day).
After the tank was fully cycled, I ordered my first Zoas from New York Reef because they had a WWC AOI on sale at a good price and my LFS had nothing I wanted. I also picked up a Safecracker frag, and NYR kindly sent a nice 5-polyp Gatorade for free. The frags arrived yesterday in good condition, but very cold, so I warmed them up for a good 30 minutes in my tank just to be safe.
After acclimating, dipping, and trimming back as much of the plugs as possible, I used Tunze Coral Gum instant two-part epoxy and a little aquarium glue to clumsily stick everything together in my typical ham-fisted way. I'm hoping the polyps will grow to cover up my sloppy attachments.
I left the lights off (except for brief photography interludes) for the remainder of the day and my new little friends rewarded me by mostly opening up for me this morning. I'm using my Aquashella glasses as a lens filter, so the pics are not 100% true-to-color, but they're reasonably close.
Safecracker
WWC AOI
Gatorade
I intend to check out my LFS again next week to see if they have anything for me (they're checking into Rasta and Fruit Loops) and possibly adding some Pederson or Sexy shrimp as my only non-zoa fauna.
Hope you enjoyed my story! I am 98.66% Fresh, 1.44% Salt, and 100% weird.
So I've wanted a reef tank for many years but although I always cruise the "blue section" at aquarium shops, I never bought one because I didn't think I had the space. I keep many nano freshwater tanks, but I didn't think you could do a nano reef and I don't really have the room for one of the monsters that I always felt was the minimum size for a reef. Even after I bought a book on nano reefs a few years ago and read through it multiple times, I never quite got that poke in the tailpipe saying, "Hey, go for it!"
Then someone at my local (freshwater) aquarist club asked me if I was going to Aquashella (Chicago). I said I'd think about it, and I checked into it, hemmed and hawed about it for awhile, and finally bought a ticket.
I decided to go through the darkened "blue section" first because it was mostly empty, so I started looking at these nifty coral "frag" things and I saw some really gorgeous little flower-looking thingamabobs with weird names (Gorilla Nipple? REALLY???) that came in all sorts of funky color combos and I really liked them. But alas, I had no reef tank. So I passed on into the lighted "normal" section after taking a quick pic or ten...
I spent most of my day checking out the aquascaping competition and all the vendors, then I doubled back to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Sure enough, I had bypassed a small side aisle. At the end of that aisle was PNW Custom. On the table for PNW Custom was a TINY 40oz reef tank that got my attention. I stared at it and I'm thinking No WAY could I make that work. But then I saw it. The one gallon Small-In-One reef-ready AIO tank, and my heart stopped.
This was my reef tank! I knew it the moment I saw it that I had to take one home. Did they have a heater that would fit? Yes, they did! They even had a micro ATO if I wanted it. No, I'd take care of that myself, thanks. Would they hold it for me until I left for the day? Yes, indeedy!
So I went back to the "blue section" and talked to virtually all of the vendors and said, "I'm starting up my first reef tank, what do you recommend for beginners?" And they all suggested, among other things, Zoanthids. What are those? Those adorable little flower thingamabobs with the goofy names I had been looking at earlier. SCORE!
Well I went home, re-read all my books, ordered MORE books, read all of those, and basically thought of almost nothing else for about two weeks straight. I was obsessed. I came up with every conceivable question I could possibly think up and googled the answers, read dozens of articles, watched dozens of videos, read through all the relevant forum posts, ordered/bought all the supplies and finally, about 3.5 weeks later, I was ready to start my new tank.
The Build (TL;DR):
The PNW Custom Small-In-One is an acrylic 1 gallon tank divided about 80/20, so the usable tank space is only about 0.8 of 1 gallon. The usable tank dimensions (OD) are 6.375 x 5.375 x 5.875" and the acrylic is about 0.1875" thick.
It comes with a lid for each section, a USB pump with hose and nozzle, a removable insert with 3 sections for filter material, and a 4-setting USB light fixture with a height-adjustable acrylic neck. You also get stickers, some Chemi-Pure Blue Nano packets, and long-handled cotton swabs (I have no idea why).
I set it up with CaribSea Special Grade Live Sand, Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, live rock rubble from my local aquarium store, and a couple of pieces of dry rock given to me at Aquashella (which probably also contained a certain amount of pocket lint by the end of the day).
After the tank was fully cycled, I ordered my first Zoas from New York Reef because they had a WWC AOI on sale at a good price and my LFS had nothing I wanted. I also picked up a Safecracker frag, and NYR kindly sent a nice 5-polyp Gatorade for free. The frags arrived yesterday in good condition, but very cold, so I warmed them up for a good 30 minutes in my tank just to be safe.
After acclimating, dipping, and trimming back as much of the plugs as possible, I used Tunze Coral Gum instant two-part epoxy and a little aquarium glue to clumsily stick everything together in my typical ham-fisted way. I'm hoping the polyps will grow to cover up my sloppy attachments.
I left the lights off (except for brief photography interludes) for the remainder of the day and my new little friends rewarded me by mostly opening up for me this morning. I'm using my Aquashella glasses as a lens filter, so the pics are not 100% true-to-color, but they're reasonably close.
Safecracker
WWC AOI
Gatorade
I intend to check out my LFS again next week to see if they have anything for me (they're checking into Rasta and Fruit Loops) and possibly adding some Pederson or Sexy shrimp as my only non-zoa fauna.
Hope you enjoyed my story! I am 98.66% Fresh, 1.44% Salt, and 100% weird.
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