Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
I want to set up a pico tank and I need some help with a few decisions. The main thing for this tank is to be able to be set up and broken down within an hour as I travel back and forth from Nashville to Tuscaloosa. So i have decided a 2.5 gallon tank would be best or 3g at max. This size allows me to keep everything contained easily in a 5g bucket for transport. The tank will ONLY house zoas and some soft corals. I already have a light and liverock I will pull from one of my aquariums. Will have NO sand to keep breaking it down easy. I want to keep this as cheap as possible so I was thinking doing the 2.5gallon rimmed I can get from pet-smart for $10. I want to convert it into a AIO with some spare acrylic I have on hand and will most likely make the cavity 4in total taken into account thickness of acrylic. Ill run a cheap heater for about $10 and a $10 return pump rated at about 200gph. Should I do the AIO design or since my equipment is so minimal just throw it in the back of the tank. I am turning it peninsula style. I also want to have the ability to run carbon if need be which is why I think the AIO design may work best as I can make a custom caddy out of acrylic as well. Or do I go with a 30ish dollar tank that may have the AIO design but I would basically throw out all the other components? Will the standard pump that comes in these "kits" be enough flow for the coral I want? Im used to having my tanks ripping with flow round 12,000gph tank turnover. Any guidance on something like this is nice.
