Hi guys...
Been holding back a bit with this, as it was an experimental setup at first. I can however confirm now, that I have had huge success with it, and I am very happy with my Pico Tank.
The tank
The dimensions of the DT is 300x300x300. I have however, had the glass cut 400mm long, in order to allow for a 100 sump area at the back, which would consist of return pump, DSB and refuge!!!
Here is the unbuilt tank:
I drilled the return hole on the rear inner panel:
Stuck alltogether, it would look like this (here the engineer is double checking dad's work)
As with everything in this hobby, one always has to have some setback. Mine was in the form of a leak on the rear panel, but I traced the problem quickly and fixed it without any problems. The bigger problems came in after all was upo and running, but I will elaborate about that at the end of my post...
Lighting:
Because this is such a small tank, lighting was issue for me. I did not want to go the PCL or CFL type lighting, as wanted to keep Ric's and if possible an SPS or two. T5's are also not an option, as 24W T5's are double the length of my tank. So I shopped, and shopped and shopped...
Then I got a hold of a LED unit, that consists of 6x 1W Cree LED's. These are the same LED's used in the Solaris units BTW. I had the comapny replace two of the Pure White LED's with two blue's, to get color spectrums balanced inside the tank. I will write a full review on this LED unit on another thread, but I am ABSOLUTELY blown away with the performance of this LED unit.
Pricing would compare to a DIY 150W MH unit and bulb, but at 6W power consumption, and 50000hr lifespan, it was perfect. It has VERY VERY low heat generation, and we placed this unit head to head against my dad's 12000K 150W MH, and I can confirm that this LED unit is brighter than the MH. The type of light also looks more natural than any type of lighting I have seen to date. But, further information on another thread...
Here is how it looks:
Filtration:
What I absolutely love about these Nano sized tanks are the filtration challenge. It is too small to fit most skimmers, DSB's, refugiums etc. unless you have space to place larger sumps etc. below the tank. I wanted mine to be desktoped. So, I built it have a small DSB at the back, where I would be able to have cheato growing, to help cope with nutrients... The DSB material I chose, is Mineral Mud. I just fell in love with this media, as I could really see coral and macro's do so much better after using it in previous setups. I would never ever run any tank again without having mineral mud inside it, as it also gives a natural source of many trace elements etc.
Placement of the heater would also be a challenge, and I just stuck a 50mm PVC pipe to the bottom of the DSB, and put the small 100W heater inside it. It works like a charm!!!
I also do a 5 litre (WOW!!!!) water change per week, but taking into consideration the entire system is a mere 25litres, this water changes helps alot!!!
I also place filter floss in the overflow area, as this helps catch up all bits of food etc that might cause nutrient build-up. This piece of filterfloss is replaced twice a week.
Here is what the tank looks like from the back:
Flow:
Another challenge on a 300x300 cube, is flow. You can put a powerhead in there yes, and as far as my knowledge streches the smallest p/heads are the Tunze Nano stream. But that would a) look very bad as it would still take up too much space and b) it would cause havock as the flow would be tsunami compared to chaotic. Normally one would just have a simple return pipe, but I wanted chaotic flow, so I invested in the Dymax Wave Deflector. This was an amazing investment, and I will now always have one on a return. I did have some issues with it at first, where it would just stop turning, but now all of that is sorted out, and it does an amazing job with flow over my corals.
Here is what it looks like, and it costs R70!!!
Livestock:
I know that in this sized tank, fish would be a problem. So after researching a bit, I decided to stick with trusty old NEMO. He is a great addition to the tank, and is at this stage the only fish. I would however want to look at one or two more smaller fish, but I would use much caution before adding too much fish here, as it is quite cramped...
Inverts consist of a hermit crab in the back, one in the tank, an Arrowhead Crab and a Feather Starfish. I also have one or two hitchiker cushion starfish, but have no idea where they are at any time. I have also discovered a hitchiker Crinoid Shrimp in my Feather Starfish, and he is REALLY cool... I also have tow tube worms, that help with filtration, and are quite happy!! Here is some photos of the inverts:
Corals:
This type of tank is ideal for zoanthids, mushrooms, ricordias, star polyps etc. IMO, unless you have HUGE colonies of zoanthids, they do get lost in large tanks, so this sized tank forces you to have a "closer" look and admire these beautiful corals. I have many different species of zoa and palythoa in my tank.
I also have Ricordia's, red mushrooms and green mushrooms. Other softcorals include star polyps, metallic green leather coral, finger leather coral and a small pincushion frag. For a bit of "movement" I place my all time favorite clownfish host - Green Torch Coral.
Then I put the LED's to test once more, and this is still under close supervision... I place and SPS in the tank, and will experiment with only this specimen. Forgive me, but this is the first ever SPS I have kept, and I am not even sure what it's name is, so ID is welcome please... At this stage, the SPS is doing VERY VERY well, and I can even confirm it growing. The coral is at the highest point in the tank, and the light is about 40+ cm from the coral tips, yet it is doing extremely well. The moment I see any change in this coral, I will have someone take it off my hands, that has a good home for it.
Feeding corals are something I believe in as much as I believe in eating food myself... Photosynthesis alone can not keep corals healthy and growing long term IMO. So, I feed small amounts of Phyto, zoo and cyclopeeze once or twice a week. Then, just before I do the water change, I feed a huge amount of Phyto, Zoo, Cyclop-Eeze, Rotifier and Brine Shrimp. I can definetly see that this feeding helps my corals stay healthy and colorfull. A few hours after feeding so heavily, I do the water change to eliviate any nutrient issues.
Here are some photos of my corals:
Will post some more below...
Anyway, all have been going very well. Running cost and setup cost is very low on this tank, I and enjoy keeping it.
Drawbacks however only came in as a result of bad planning. The pump I used was too big for the overflow I planned, so I almost flooded the tank. I then had to improvise, but this was a problem as all was glass panes already stuck, and a tank already stocked. I ended up drilling glass inside a full tank, and I am lucky to have done so without breaking anything I did not intend to break. I had to break my way through to make a larger overflow to handle the flow rate. I also made the return hole too high up, so ended up with the Wave Deflector pushing water over the edge of the tank.
This has now made me have to redesign, and rebuilt the entire tank. I will break it all down, and transfer to the newly build tank within a week or two, but the design will stay the same...
I enjoy my little tank none the less!!!
Been holding back a bit with this, as it was an experimental setup at first. I can however confirm now, that I have had huge success with it, and I am very happy with my Pico Tank.
The tank
The dimensions of the DT is 300x300x300. I have however, had the glass cut 400mm long, in order to allow for a 100 sump area at the back, which would consist of return pump, DSB and refuge!!!
Here is the unbuilt tank:
I drilled the return hole on the rear inner panel:
Stuck alltogether, it would look like this (here the engineer is double checking dad's work)
As with everything in this hobby, one always has to have some setback. Mine was in the form of a leak on the rear panel, but I traced the problem quickly and fixed it without any problems. The bigger problems came in after all was upo and running, but I will elaborate about that at the end of my post...
Lighting:
Because this is such a small tank, lighting was issue for me. I did not want to go the PCL or CFL type lighting, as wanted to keep Ric's and if possible an SPS or two. T5's are also not an option, as 24W T5's are double the length of my tank. So I shopped, and shopped and shopped...
Then I got a hold of a LED unit, that consists of 6x 1W Cree LED's. These are the same LED's used in the Solaris units BTW. I had the comapny replace two of the Pure White LED's with two blue's, to get color spectrums balanced inside the tank. I will write a full review on this LED unit on another thread, but I am ABSOLUTELY blown away with the performance of this LED unit.
Pricing would compare to a DIY 150W MH unit and bulb, but at 6W power consumption, and 50000hr lifespan, it was perfect. It has VERY VERY low heat generation, and we placed this unit head to head against my dad's 12000K 150W MH, and I can confirm that this LED unit is brighter than the MH. The type of light also looks more natural than any type of lighting I have seen to date. But, further information on another thread...
Here is how it looks:
Filtration:
What I absolutely love about these Nano sized tanks are the filtration challenge. It is too small to fit most skimmers, DSB's, refugiums etc. unless you have space to place larger sumps etc. below the tank. I wanted mine to be desktoped. So, I built it have a small DSB at the back, where I would be able to have cheato growing, to help cope with nutrients... The DSB material I chose, is Mineral Mud. I just fell in love with this media, as I could really see coral and macro's do so much better after using it in previous setups. I would never ever run any tank again without having mineral mud inside it, as it also gives a natural source of many trace elements etc.
Placement of the heater would also be a challenge, and I just stuck a 50mm PVC pipe to the bottom of the DSB, and put the small 100W heater inside it. It works like a charm!!!
I also do a 5 litre (WOW!!!!) water change per week, but taking into consideration the entire system is a mere 25litres, this water changes helps alot!!!
I also place filter floss in the overflow area, as this helps catch up all bits of food etc that might cause nutrient build-up. This piece of filterfloss is replaced twice a week.
Here is what the tank looks like from the back:
Flow:
Another challenge on a 300x300 cube, is flow. You can put a powerhead in there yes, and as far as my knowledge streches the smallest p/heads are the Tunze Nano stream. But that would a) look very bad as it would still take up too much space and b) it would cause havock as the flow would be tsunami compared to chaotic. Normally one would just have a simple return pipe, but I wanted chaotic flow, so I invested in the Dymax Wave Deflector. This was an amazing investment, and I will now always have one on a return. I did have some issues with it at first, where it would just stop turning, but now all of that is sorted out, and it does an amazing job with flow over my corals.
Here is what it looks like, and it costs R70!!!
Livestock:
I know that in this sized tank, fish would be a problem. So after researching a bit, I decided to stick with trusty old NEMO. He is a great addition to the tank, and is at this stage the only fish. I would however want to look at one or two more smaller fish, but I would use much caution before adding too much fish here, as it is quite cramped...
Inverts consist of a hermit crab in the back, one in the tank, an Arrowhead Crab and a Feather Starfish. I also have one or two hitchiker cushion starfish, but have no idea where they are at any time. I have also discovered a hitchiker Crinoid Shrimp in my Feather Starfish, and he is REALLY cool... I also have tow tube worms, that help with filtration, and are quite happy!! Here is some photos of the inverts:
Corals:
This type of tank is ideal for zoanthids, mushrooms, ricordias, star polyps etc. IMO, unless you have HUGE colonies of zoanthids, they do get lost in large tanks, so this sized tank forces you to have a "closer" look and admire these beautiful corals. I have many different species of zoa and palythoa in my tank.
I also have Ricordia's, red mushrooms and green mushrooms. Other softcorals include star polyps, metallic green leather coral, finger leather coral and a small pincushion frag. For a bit of "movement" I place my all time favorite clownfish host - Green Torch Coral.
Then I put the LED's to test once more, and this is still under close supervision... I place and SPS in the tank, and will experiment with only this specimen. Forgive me, but this is the first ever SPS I have kept, and I am not even sure what it's name is, so ID is welcome please... At this stage, the SPS is doing VERY VERY well, and I can even confirm it growing. The coral is at the highest point in the tank, and the light is about 40+ cm from the coral tips, yet it is doing extremely well. The moment I see any change in this coral, I will have someone take it off my hands, that has a good home for it.
Feeding corals are something I believe in as much as I believe in eating food myself... Photosynthesis alone can not keep corals healthy and growing long term IMO. So, I feed small amounts of Phyto, zoo and cyclopeeze once or twice a week. Then, just before I do the water change, I feed a huge amount of Phyto, Zoo, Cyclop-Eeze, Rotifier and Brine Shrimp. I can definetly see that this feeding helps my corals stay healthy and colorfull. A few hours after feeding so heavily, I do the water change to eliviate any nutrient issues.
Here are some photos of my corals:
Will post some more below...
Anyway, all have been going very well. Running cost and setup cost is very low on this tank, I and enjoy keeping it.
Drawbacks however only came in as a result of bad planning. The pump I used was too big for the overflow I planned, so I almost flooded the tank. I then had to improvise, but this was a problem as all was glass panes already stuck, and a tank already stocked. I ended up drilling glass inside a full tank, and I am lucky to have done so without breaking anything I did not intend to break. I had to break my way through to make a larger overflow to handle the flow rate. I also made the return hole too high up, so ended up with the Wave Deflector pushing water over the edge of the tank.
This has now made me have to redesign, and rebuilt the entire tank. I will break it all down, and transfer to the newly build tank within a week or two, but the design will stay the same...
I enjoy my little tank none the less!!!
