1 gallon

[shalegac]

I didn't want to hijack fish mans post so I started another (hope it doesn't get to confusing. Anyway if anyone wants to set up this tank it is quite inexpensive. You can pick them up just about anywhere. One problem I ran into at first was major salt creep from the removable lip on the tank (not the lid). I fixed this problem by using an aquarium silicone.
Now the main problem as stated in fish mans post is lighting. It only comes with a normal 5 watt light bulb (night light). So if any one has any suggestions on lights that would fit in the hood... (mike, brandon, etc..).

 

[brandon4291]

double post

 

[brandon4291]

Ive never seen a kit like that before, is it made by Azoo> can you find it at the popular retail outlets such as Petsmart, Petco etc? I really like it because all the parts are molded to fit together. One might could silicone the lip on the lid and on the tank part to seal better when installed, and try to fit a 13w pc lengthwise in the little red canopy. It will need to be fanned in some way to keep from warping the plastic I suspect. If the 13w is too long, maybe a 9 watt pc would fit in there and if you are lucky two, side by side taken out of a 9wx2 fixture, so you can have both actinic and daylight. With good fanning of course...

A 13pc bulb is 7 inches long. If you can fit this, you can order a half-and half bulb that will not be very hot and will work wonders.

Really nice find there on that pico tank waiting to happen!

Brandon M.

 

[brandon4291]

Also Shaun don't forget the idea of just buying an Azoo galaxy light and clipping it onto the desk near your tank, and just shine it on the tank from the upper side angled in. This may be the best way to light such a tank, so you won't have to cut and alter it so much to get it in the little canopy. It doesnt matter if the light comes perfectly from the top, I have grown full frags of montipora with light strictly from a 90 degree angle. It just makes the backside of the frag a little bare but they will take the light from any angle they can. Think thats what I would do. An Azoo galaxy light from www.aquaticeco.com is $20 and a 50/50 bulb from www.hellolights.com is about $13 w shipping. Good deal

Brandon M

 

[shalegac]

Not a bad idea, thanks brandon, I'll check them out. I've also wanted to experiment with LED's because it would realy help in reducing evap. I have almost no evap right now and it is awesome! I have had this thing running now for about two months and am definately ready to take it to the next level.
I got my tank at Meijer's for 10 bucks. You can also get them at petco... here is a link (it also has some other cool ones ),
http://www.petco.com/Productlisting.asp ... pt_ID=1008

I think it would be awesome if we got an army of these tanks out there, then we could all compare notes on lighting etc.
Watch out when placing the rock though, they scratch easy.
Shaun

 

[shalegac]

Well I painted the back of my 1 gallon yeaterday and man what a difference! I realy makes things stand out that you want to stand out and hides the heater and cords behind it. Next up new lighting. I will try somehow to post a pic soon of the progress. Shaun

 

[kimichan]

they have 9 watters that are a little shorter too. i saw them at osh

 

[Anonymous]

i have one of those 2.5 gallon "shoebox" sized glass aquariums. i was going to make it a nano reef ...


... after i set up my first reef (30G long) and get some experience. lol.

 

[brandon4291]

Heck, why not use the 30 gallon as a refugium for the 2.5 thats what I would do. Just kidding, but in a sick and twisted way Im not.

At least you could install some LR, live sand and water/micropowerheads in the 2.5 and watch it make changes in salinity, temp, nitrogen products etc. This compared with the changes you will note in your 30g will illuminate the actions of pico reefs just fine, and it will let you know that really only the temp and salt levels will be your only hassle in the 2.5.

Shaun I bet your tank is looking nice. We hope to get your pics after water/rock/polyps are installed!

Keep em coming guys

Brandon M.

 

[Anonymous]

brandon! i just found your thread about the little shoebox pico tanks! i am so going to model my nano after that. i'm so impressed, very nice man! i have plenty of spare aquariums, laying around so here is the plan:


1. set up my 30 G reef. i have assloads of spare 10g's that i will utilize one to install a sump/fuge. first i must stay a little more basic than that.

2. i have (more than) 4 empty tanks in the closet. 2.5 g shoebox, 5.5g all glass, and yet another let over standard 10... i could configure a nano with a sump/fuge out of two of them...

10 nano w/ 5.5g fuge/sump
5.5g nano w/ 10 g fuge/sump
2.5g nano w/ 5.5g fuge/sump
2.5g nano w/ 10 g fuge/sump

i guess if i am going to the trouble of constructing a fuge i should at least use my 10 for the display and the 5.5 for the fugesump

 

[brandon4291]

Thanks Hwarang appreciate it bro. The 10 with a 5 refugium would be an ideal setup, you could really extend the bioload support of an average ten gallon reef by packing the refugium full of LR and macroalgae--not for the purposes of aquascaping but for the purposes of packing in surface area that will support copepods and extra fish load.

This is the ideal light for hitting the rear wall of a tank when using the baffle refugium technique.

from the link:

www.aquaticeco.com

Search for Azoo lights

 

[shalegac]

Brandon how many watts is that bad boy? I'm thinking I could get 2 for my 10 gallon and create some cool lighting affects.

 

[Bleeding Blue]

shalegac,

I think those are the 8Wers, but they could be the 13ers. They are a little small for a 10g (unless you are only looking to keep fish). If I were you, I would look at some of the 28W retrofits, or the 96W powerquad. These would probably offer you the versitility to keep just about anything in a ten.

Mike

 

[shalegac]

Yeah it a FOWLR.

 

[brandon4291]

yes they are 13w pc 7700K bulbs which can be replaced with bright 50/50's from hellolights.com . It sure would take a lot of them to light up a ten gallon, but shined on the back glass they do run a wicked baffle refugium. Neat thing is, you can get all actinic bulbs for them and that happens to be very bright over a ten as a tiny actinic retrofit, probably the best way to retrofit a 10g with affordable actinic. For the 2.5 gallon range they are perfect as the primary grow source, and at exactly $20 a pop for the mini 13 ballast, clip reflector and good quality grow bulb I elect these as the pico reef driver of choice. MiniBerthas.

Here's two of them taken apart and shoved into my pico reef canopy, 26 watts of light over 3/4 gallon SPS tank. Been a while since I posted this > no doubt many will roll their eyes :roll: but hey its been awhile and it sure shows the utility of these little buggers

Brandon

 

[Bleeding Blue]

Well, with fish only you can do just about any lighting you want. However, I still like the idea of retrofitting a 28W. It will make it easy to upgrade later on, when you want to use it as a prop tank or something else. The other thing you might want to look into is the LOA lights. Look at the link in Matt Wandell's signature. He uses a 6500K LOA light on his 6 gallon, and can grow clams and Acropora. The best part is, you can get on complete with bulb from Home Depote for ~$40. You can leave it in it's housing, or pull out the guts and retrofit it like he did. It is fairly yellow light, but it would probably work great.

Mike