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- Aug 8, 2019
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I recently setup a small 2.5 gal Pico tank in a re-purposed EcoQube C+ aquarium. Did some fun modifications to it and ended up with a reasonably effective proof of concept, but the fundamental design of the tank itself was a pain.
After a month or so of dealing with its shortcomings, I decided to upgrade to something more traditional.
I found an online store locally that still had a single 4-gallon Waterbox Cube in stock. This is a pretty small AIO tank briefly built by WB and then discontinued several years ago. It has all the same features as their current 10 and 20 gal cubes... just smaller.
It arrived quickly and was in good shape, though it lacked a return pump or a return outlet. Neither WB or the shop I bought it from were able to assist so I dropped my Sicce Syncra Nano from the previous build in and it was a perfect fit. I've ordered a small duckbill return fitting off ebay (it's currently wandering the mail system and could arrive any day) and in the meantime used some 8mm PVC tubing to fashion a crude return.
Additional flow comes from an AI Nero 3, dialled WAY down (random flow from 1%-2%) fixed to the rear wall. The Nero sits behind the rockwork now so that helps to divert and dilute the flow a little.
Lighting is an AI Prime (one of the old 13HD units but it's plenty of light for a tank this small).
Rear chambers are currently -
1) filter pad, Chemi-pure blue Nano, Seachem matrix in chamber 1 (its all kind of jumbled loosely in there while I wait for the 3D printed caddy I designed to be printed).
2) Second chamber holds some Chaeto and will be lit by a DIY fuge light (I'm totally stealing this idea ) along with a teeny tiny heater
3) 3rd chamber return pump and Auto Aqua AWC unit (modified with micro diaphragm pumps for more precise water movement in small volumes)
I've got about 20-25 mm of sand substrate, some old coral fragments as live rock.
Inhabitants are a Green Coral Goby (Greeny) and a collection of inverts as CUC.
Just adjusted the invert population from my old tank and had to split what I had between this and my 20 gal so it has:
1xTrochus,
2x large Turbos,
2 x small Turbo's in the fuge chamber,
4 x Nassarius Snails buried in the substrate,
1 x small Strombus snail to clean the top of the substrate,
and a very small Hermit to do general demolition and waste extraction (tossed a bunch of empty snail and hermit shells in as well for when he grows up).
For coral I have a small and rather boring brown Torch coral, a very small green Goniopora (which is VERY reluctant to open), a medium green Goniopora (who is finally starting to open and spread its polyps a bit) and I just added a green Fungia plate coral today.
Between a large colony of sand cleaning snails, the hermit, the Chaeto fuge, and the AWC performing regular small water changes, and handling ATO, I'm hoping for this to be a nice low maintenance little tank. I feed pretty light because a single Coral Goby doesn't eat much and has a tiny mouth so frozen brine or myso, tiny floating pellets and will be looking to start culturing live brine and copepods in the near future.
The AWC connects directly to a drain and I have a 30 litre SW and a 15L FW reservoir so that should run for close to a month with little or no intervention.
I built a mesh lid for the tank using flyscreen framing and bird netting from the local hardware store and it works surprisingly well.
I'm 3D printing a feeding airlock I designed, loosely based on one I found online, shrunk small for a pico, and I have a cheap Zacro auto feeder I'll calibrate for tiny feeding, so I can leave the tank for a while if we go away on holidays.
Feeding the corals Red Sea Reef Energy AB+ (got a small bottle free with my last tub of salt) and alternate with a little Goniopower.
It's a nice, clean and easy to maintain tank and while it's not quite as creative as my previous Pico, it's much less of a headache.
My only hope now is that the dang Goniopora will settle down and open up fully for me. It;s been about 2 weeks and the smaller one rarely extends more than a mm or two!! It does seem a little happier since moving to this larger tank, so if it's still not cooperating after another week, I'll move it over to the 20 gal and see if that's more its style.
After a month or so of dealing with its shortcomings, I decided to upgrade to something more traditional.
I found an online store locally that still had a single 4-gallon Waterbox Cube in stock. This is a pretty small AIO tank briefly built by WB and then discontinued several years ago. It has all the same features as their current 10 and 20 gal cubes... just smaller.
It arrived quickly and was in good shape, though it lacked a return pump or a return outlet. Neither WB or the shop I bought it from were able to assist so I dropped my Sicce Syncra Nano from the previous build in and it was a perfect fit. I've ordered a small duckbill return fitting off ebay (it's currently wandering the mail system and could arrive any day) and in the meantime used some 8mm PVC tubing to fashion a crude return.
Additional flow comes from an AI Nero 3, dialled WAY down (random flow from 1%-2%) fixed to the rear wall. The Nero sits behind the rockwork now so that helps to divert and dilute the flow a little.
Lighting is an AI Prime (one of the old 13HD units but it's plenty of light for a tank this small).
Rear chambers are currently -
1) filter pad, Chemi-pure blue Nano, Seachem matrix in chamber 1 (its all kind of jumbled loosely in there while I wait for the 3D printed caddy I designed to be printed).
2) Second chamber holds some Chaeto and will be lit by a DIY fuge light (I'm totally stealing this idea ) along with a teeny tiny heater
3) 3rd chamber return pump and Auto Aqua AWC unit (modified with micro diaphragm pumps for more precise water movement in small volumes)
I've got about 20-25 mm of sand substrate, some old coral fragments as live rock.
Inhabitants are a Green Coral Goby (Greeny) and a collection of inverts as CUC.
Just adjusted the invert population from my old tank and had to split what I had between this and my 20 gal so it has:
1xTrochus,
2x large Turbos,
2 x small Turbo's in the fuge chamber,
4 x Nassarius Snails buried in the substrate,
1 x small Strombus snail to clean the top of the substrate,
and a very small Hermit to do general demolition and waste extraction (tossed a bunch of empty snail and hermit shells in as well for when he grows up).
For coral I have a small and rather boring brown Torch coral, a very small green Goniopora (which is VERY reluctant to open), a medium green Goniopora (who is finally starting to open and spread its polyps a bit) and I just added a green Fungia plate coral today.
Between a large colony of sand cleaning snails, the hermit, the Chaeto fuge, and the AWC performing regular small water changes, and handling ATO, I'm hoping for this to be a nice low maintenance little tank. I feed pretty light because a single Coral Goby doesn't eat much and has a tiny mouth so frozen brine or myso, tiny floating pellets and will be looking to start culturing live brine and copepods in the near future.
The AWC connects directly to a drain and I have a 30 litre SW and a 15L FW reservoir so that should run for close to a month with little or no intervention.
I built a mesh lid for the tank using flyscreen framing and bird netting from the local hardware store and it works surprisingly well.
I'm 3D printing a feeding airlock I designed, loosely based on one I found online, shrunk small for a pico, and I have a cheap Zacro auto feeder I'll calibrate for tiny feeding, so I can leave the tank for a while if we go away on holidays.
Feeding the corals Red Sea Reef Energy AB+ (got a small bottle free with my last tub of salt) and alternate with a little Goniopower.
It's a nice, clean and easy to maintain tank and while it's not quite as creative as my previous Pico, it's much less of a headache.
My only hope now is that the dang Goniopora will settle down and open up fully for me. It;s been about 2 weeks and the smaller one rarely extends more than a mm or two!! It does seem a little happier since moving to this larger tank, so if it's still not cooperating after another week, I'll move it over to the 20 gal and see if that's more its style.