Picking out a Pico system

[Gfort04]

Hi everyone,
I currently have 2 large tanks but I want something nice and small to put on my wifes bedstand . Ive seen plenty of JBJ picos but I havent seen many Evolve4 or the Fluval Spec 5 setups. Is it because the JBJ is that much better or is it because it has been around for so much longer?

 

[revsgirl]

:bump2:

 

[thadscottmoore]

Hi everyone,
I currently have 2 large tanks but I want something nice and small to put on my wifes bedstand . Ive seen plenty of JBJ picos but I havent seen many Evolve4 or the Fluval Spec 5 setups. Is it because the JBJ is that much better or is it because it has been around for so much longer?

built mine picotope because:
1. it was a freebie from local reef society.
2. it seamless rounded front makes it appealing to the eye when viewing the inhabitants.
3. strong reliable build.

currently, I screwed up and really scratched the hades out of the glass and now in the market for a replacement to swap everything over too. I am really eyeing the skimz ibox or the dymax iq3 for the replacement.

 

[akma]

I think it's because the evolves are fairly new. I just picked one up last week for 90$ from petsmart. I like it actually. Looks like a mini solana or some sort. Well built. It is acrylic so have to be a bit more careful.

 

[KGotschall]

I took an old eclipse 2 gallon tank, took off the black rim, stuck an aquaclear 55 on the back, stuck a 120v fluval clamp on to the top. I did a couple mods to the filter to make room for a refugium, but I ended up just wedging the Macroalgae behind a chunk of rock over time, cause I couldn't find a small clip on lamp bright enough to keep it healthy in the filter--So I think it may be fine without a refugium at all, although I think the presence of the Algae is important. It is important to clip the impeller blades short to lessen flow. I think I have like 8 lbs of live rock in the 2.5 gallon.

With a 100% water change every two weeks, I have zoas, mushrooms, candy cane, star polyps, and other low growing budding polyps. All pretty hardy inverts, but I am limited to the inverts I can get by size, light and the way the water will evaporate off quickly. All the ones I have bought have lived, and the tank has been doing fine and the colonies multiplying for more than a year now...

 

[Pkunk35]

There are some companies that specialize in pico tanks and they make some really cool stuff.

here's one such place, i haven't ordered anything from them yet so please keep that in mind:

AquaVibrant

 

[Isoprene]

I have an ecoxotic Ecopico reef ready 5g (sort of won it), ill throw a picture up. Its literally reef ready, the in water filter provides enough heat to keep you around 74 degree F and the 3 strips of 3 LED's is enough to support any type of coral you want to do (minus acro but idk why you would keep one in a 5 anyway imo). I change out a solo cup of water once a week and top off a couple turkey basters worth of water every other day of RODI and its going really good. Im 1 month in. It will eventually be a ricordea garden there is a couple cheapo tester ricordeas in there now.

 

[Fishinizer]

I recommend the finnex four gallon delux it is amazing and has a canister filter not a litle cheap one and a light that can actually support coral. You won't need to replace it.