Upgraded my 2.5 Gal Pico to a 4 Gal

[Starganderfish]

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.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Looks good. My first coral tank was a 5 gallon. I really loved that tank.

 

[Starganderfish]

Fuge light is completed. It's a 12v LED grow light strip, in a glass test-tube, sealed with silicone. 3D printed a small internal piece to slot in the test tube and hold the led strip, everything is heat-shrink wrapped and silicone sealed. It was a super easy build and it works amazingly well. Plenty of light for a small AIO refugium and easily controlled with an Alexa smart plug. Undergoing final submerged testing at the moment to ensure no leaks and it will be dropped into the tank tonight.

 

[Starganderfish]

I expanded both my tanks populations a bit today. Pulled the larger Gonio out of the Pico (it was only sporadically opening and didn’t seem happy) and moved it to my 20 gallon. Already looking a little happier. The smaller Gonio has been settling in to the 4 and finally opening and spreading more. I was worried that one would be a goner but I think he just needed a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will extend fully in the next week or so.
Replaced the bigger Gonio in the 4 with something the LFS called a cats eye. Can’t quite figure out if it’s a zoa or a cynarina? It seems to be puffing out a lot more in my tank than it did at the storeso it’s looking a lot less like a zoa. The orange makes a nice contrast.

I also picked up a pair of coral banded shrimp. Plan was to place one in each tank. The LFS guy had a bonded pair and two singles and I was just gonna get the singles but the pair was easier for him to net so I got those.
Good thing really. Drip acclimated them both separately for about an hour and then plopped one in each tank. As soon as it got into the Pico I realised I’d made a mistake. Just way too big for such a tiny tank. It’s antennae filled most of the observable area and I had to quickly turn off the wave maker because they kept getting sucked into it. I let it crawl around for ten minutes or so but it just couldn’t get comfortable and as soon as the Nero was switched back on it was getting sucked in. So I frantically scooped it out, disrupting the whole tank and plopped it into the 20. Luckily the water params for the two tanks are pretty close at the moment because I cycled one using water from the other. I now have a pair of coral banded shrimps in the 20 and they look pretty big even in there!! LOL.
I’m thinking I’ll add a firefish/fire goby to the Pico in place of the shrimp and that should populate it nicely. Parameters have been holding well and with the Fuge starting to turn over now, the additional bio-load should be easy to manage. I’ll add a few more coral frags as and when I see something cool and small but for now I just need to leave it alone to settle.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Very kool with the mated pair. Id leave em together.
Shrimp aren't much of any bioload.
Looks like you got yourself a nice colored blasto coral frag. Wellsi are the bigger polyps. Merletti the smaller ones.
D

 

[Starganderfish]

Ah definitely looks like a blasto. Thanks. It’s a decent LFS but they’re pretty random with id’ing corals.
Pretty much have to leave the shrimp together because there’s no room for them separately!! LOL Hopefully they’ll be a bit better behaved together. Heard they can be a bit monstrous. Already caught a new hermit chowing down on snails - literally caught him in the act of prying one out of the shell so he got banished. Keeping a close eye on the shrimps for now.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yaaa dang hermits get jealous and want their shells. Lol.
U can get some crab and lobster pellets if they don't get enough later if u think.
4g upgrade. Lol. Too funny.
D

 

[KK's Reef]

When you dose your AB+, what's the flow pattern look like? Is the Nero 3 too much, or just right at 1-2% power?

 

[Starganderfish]

When you dose your AB+, what's the flow pattern look like? Is the Nero 3 too much, or just right at 1-2% power?

It’s okay with my setup. I have it positioned in the middle of the back wall and have my rockwork piled up in front of it. That means the flow gets disrupted and kind of spreads around the outside of the tank. Right in the front it’s pretty gentle, to the sides is a bit more turbulent. The torch seems to enjoy the flow without being whipped around a lot. I could possibly even bump it up a bit once the Gonio settles in

 

[KK's Reef]

It’s okay with my setup. I have it positioned in the middle of the back wall and have my rockwork piled up in front of it. That means the flow gets disrupted and kind of spreads around the outside of the tank. Right in the front it’s pretty gentle, to the sides is a bit more turbulent. The torch seems to enjoy the flow without being whipped around a lot. I could possibly even bump it up a bit once the Gonio settles in

Looks like you can even bump it up a bit to 5% or 10%.

I'm undecided between the Nero 3, Hygger Mini Wavemaker, or the Aqamai KPS. I'm even thinking about upgrading the return pump from a Sicce Nano to a Sicce Sincra 0.5, but I think you convinced me that a controllable DC pump is do~able.

 

[Starganderfish]

The Nero is good because it’s super low profile in the tank. Doesn’t take up a lot of room and blends in with the back wall. Not sure I’d push it to 10% - I’ve got one on my 20 gallon at 12-15% and that’s plenty.

 

[Starganderfish]

Major drama's over the last few days.
An aquatic delivery sent to the wrong address, other parts of the delivery not arriving, and a failure to turn off the ATO when drip-acclimating, made for a rough day. The biggest thing that came out of it was the realisation that my dang refractometer was way out of calibration and the water in both my tanks was well below desired salinity (1.021 or so).
My Green Clown Goby had perished a few days ago, and I guess I now know why. I'll be working on slowly bringing salinity back up over the coming days and have bought a Hanna Salinity checker - much better.
I've replaced the ex-clown Gobby with an orange Firefish/Fire Goby
I will say, it's definitely true what they say about the Firefish being jumpers!! Drip acclimated using my usual process. Everything went fine and I then brought the bucket right up next to the tank to do my usual gloved-hand transfer. As soon as I put my hand in the bucket, plop, the Firefish was out of the bucket and on the counter. I panicked and quickly shoved him back in the bucket (D'oh!!! Why the bucket? Put him in the tank moron!!).
Gave it a minute or two and tried again, this time, holding the bucket OVER the tank. Slowly, slowly, hand in the bucket... PLOP! Out on the counter again!! Kept my focus this time, scooped him up and plopped him in the tank and slammed the lid on.
He looks none the worse for wear, settled in quick. He's definitely more active than the Clown Goby and seems to spend a lot more time in the water column, where the Clown Goby usually hid amongst the coral and rock.
I had to replace the lid clips I had because they were big ugly things that left the lid crooked or with big gaps. 3D printed some more precise ones and the lid's a lot more secure now.
I've been adding to and tweaking the coral a bit in both my tanks. The small Gonio has come out and looks happy, The plate, torch and blastos are also nice and happy and stable, and I threw in a random Zoa frag I got as an extra in an order. Also placed a tiny Birds nest frag at the top of the rock - curious to see how it does in a small tank. Should be good light for it and its directly in the return pumps flow and the wavemaker so plenty of movement. Seems green and happy so far.
The Fuge light is going well and the Chaeto is slowly starting to grow - going to add some aeration to the fuge chamber with an airstone to help get water and oxygen moving around the Chaeto a little more.
The other big "upgrade" I did was to pick up a long PSU rail designed for server cabinets. Has 20 power outlets on it and is over a metre long. It's annoying how many power cables modern tanks have. Each of my tanks has at least six (lights, heater, return pump, wavemaker, fuge light and ATO/AWC). Throw in another plug for the dual airpump (for fuge), a pump to mix saltwater, a charger for the battery that powers my USB emergency pumps.
Then, if I have to quarantine something, there's another heater, pump, airpump (for the sponge filter) and ATO, and I've just about filled up all 20 plugs!! It's insane. Worse, at least 50% of the devices have those big fat Power Supply plugs that overlap over multiple plugs. Had to order a stack of ultra-short 30cm space saver extension cords to get them to all plug in.
Once I get it set up though, I can bolt the rail to the wall behind my tanks, out of the way of any splash or overflow, and then put a panel over it to conceal all the cabels and plugs. Should make things look a LOT nicer.

 

[BWV]

Makin' me want to start another tank!! Thank you for sharing your story and for all the pics!!

 

[Starganderfish]

Urrggh, this tank is killing me. Fire Goby jumped out of the tank during the night, even with a lid, and perished. Squeezed through a tiny gap. Added a strip of rubber window sealant to the edges of the DIY lid so its completely sealed off now to prevent more jumpers.
With no fish, I took the opportunity to re-arrange the tank and replace the rock - I liked the look of the old coral skeleton but it was a pain to attach coral too and snails kept getting stuck in it. Also, just a few too many hiding places for little fish, so I just never saw them. Removed the old rock, gave the sand a quick siphon and added some new, more chunky rock pieces. I simply popped the coral frags off the old and glued it onto the new. The scape isn't quite as convoluted now, but I think I prefer it. The coral's pop a lot more against the plain rock background and the tank looks less busy. Still a couple of nice big caves for fishy's.
Did an 80% water change and gave it half an hour to settle and it looks as good as new. Drip acclimated the latest resident and slipped him in. Another Clown Goby, this time a Brown or 5 lined Coral Goby. He's a little shy and doesn't seem keen on coming out and eating. Pellets or frozen Brine shrimp hold no interest ( a little big I think to start with)
I got some frozen Rotifer's, turned off all the pumps. and gently syringed some right in front of him. He gulped down a few specs and I'll feed him again tonight the same way. Hopefully if I can get him settled in, comfortable and eating, he'll do alright.

With the tank in it's new arrangement, the rock blocks the flow a lot more so I've upped the Nero 3 to 10% - 500 ms on/500ms off.
Everything's recovered pretty quick from the disruption. The Fugehas been going great, Nitrates have been undetectable with the Hanna checker, Phosphates a little high at 0.2 but everything else nice and stable. Even after the rock change, Ammonia was nonexistent and Nitrates only spiked to 0.8. I'll continue with daily water changes and add some Prime each day just to tide things over till the new rock is cured. The Auto Aqua water changes are amazing - seamless on both tanks and virtually hands-free.
Added a reasonable sized bubble coral which is slowly starting to emerge and received a couple of tiny Zoa frags as a freebie with a recent order. Found some aptasia on the Blasto and have treated with Aptasia X, but not sure I got it all. I'll hit it again in a few days.
I'm still not totally sure about the scape. I think I just suck at arranging the rocks nicely. I do like the long horizontal at the top, keen to add a few more small SPS frags and see if they will take up there.