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3 gal. pico tank build thread by reefgeek


reefgeek84

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So, now that my big tank can not have much added to it in the way of fish and coral, I have idle hands and want to start on a new project... I saw the JBJ picotope aquarium somewhere on line and fell in love with the look of it. I have always wanted to start a pico tank, but never really wanted to spend the cash...but this was less then 40 bucks, so I figured what the hell, lets do it...I knew that I would want to keep coral in it, so the filter it comes with would not be sufficient and the light would not either...So I did some buying and upgrading to bring this pico up to the next level...I wanted something super small, not a bio cube or anything of the like, but 5 gal. or less and this is a super cool design, so here are the plans...

 

Equipment:

- 3 gal. JBJ picotope aquarium

- Peguin Power filter w/ bio-wheel. This also has carbon bags, I wanted a bio wheel, because they work very well for LPS tanks and softie tanks (and since I do not plan on keeping SPS, this will really help with the water quailty.)

-Filter it comes with, I will use this to house phosphate remover.

-Lighting: are trade show 50w halogen display lights, which I got a number of ushio bulbs in different colors, including a 3.5k "daylight" bulb, so I should be able to achieve the looks of normal sized tanks with different types of bulbs, with out have a huge chunk of fixture over the top (like a coralife fixture), so these I think are a great option. Since I will be keeping LPS, if these lights do not offer the best means of photosynthesis, they will not be harmed to much. These are bright and to boot they offer shimmer lines and were cheaper then the clip halides that are available in the hobby for these small tanks, not to mention that the bulbs are 7 bucks each.

-PCI CL-85 chiller

-Maxi-jet 606 for the water to push through the chiller

 

Livestock:

-Some sort of small goby

-2 dwarf seahorses ( I am hoping that since they are so small, the food demand will not be as high, so I can keep up with it.)

-Aussie acans, micromussa and maybe some super cool favia, I already have some baby’s breathe ready to go in the tank…

 

Here are a couple of pics to get this started…once this starts rolling, I will get more pics up as soon as I have some…

 

It all in the boxes

pic2.jpg

Out of the boxes

pic1.jpg

Plans for the stand

nanocubestand.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
Sounds really cool. How is the stand coming along? Is the tank set-up?

 

Sol, is working on the stand, once that is done, I need to get the light fixture made and then I will get the tank set up, since I have the rock already and the water from the main tank, there will be no cycle :-)

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