19Mateo83
Valuable Member
I finally decided tonight was the night to redo my 5 gallon pico. I had been wanting to do this for a while now, the last few months I had been only topping it off and not really paying any attention to it.
This is the before shot.
It started off its life as a glo fish AIO pico. I love the size and the curved glass on it. In order to build it out like I want to, I needed a blank slate. I dumped everything… Rocks, sand, media….everything. The snails went into my 50 and the gsp, Xenia and palys went to a bucket. I will see if the LFS wants them in the morning, if not, I know the garbage can will take them. I razor bladed the glass, broke down the pump and meticulously scrubbed EVERYTHING. Clean tank, check!
Now on to the fun stuff. I had a new in the box Kessil a80 tuna blue but had no mount. So I pulled out some acrylic scraps and rigged up a half way nice mount. Light, check!
I had picked up a bag of fine aragonite sand a couple days ago so in that went… for some reason Iv always been a fan of aragonite substrate…. Now for the rock. When I broke down my 14 gallon cube i had bleached all the tonga fusion rock I had so I sweet rock was ready and waiting. About 15 minutes and 6 little super glue tubes later…. We have aquascape. Aquascape, check!
A total of about 4 hours and it’s done and bubbling. Water, check!
I took the scrubbie I’ve had floating around in my 50’s sump and transferred it to the pico and added a couple drops of ammonia to get it cycling. Tomorrow I will add a bio ball or two to speed things up.
The acrylic light mount really turned out great. It almost looks like it was factory made to go on here.
Now that this one’s been reset and all fresh and new, I’m thinking about doing cyphastria on the rocks and maybe a BTA/single clown combo.
This is the before shot.
It started off its life as a glo fish AIO pico. I love the size and the curved glass on it. In order to build it out like I want to, I needed a blank slate. I dumped everything… Rocks, sand, media….everything. The snails went into my 50 and the gsp, Xenia and palys went to a bucket. I will see if the LFS wants them in the morning, if not, I know the garbage can will take them. I razor bladed the glass, broke down the pump and meticulously scrubbed EVERYTHING. Clean tank, check!
Now on to the fun stuff. I had a new in the box Kessil a80 tuna blue but had no mount. So I pulled out some acrylic scraps and rigged up a half way nice mount. Light, check!
I had picked up a bag of fine aragonite sand a couple days ago so in that went… for some reason Iv always been a fan of aragonite substrate…. Now for the rock. When I broke down my 14 gallon cube i had bleached all the tonga fusion rock I had so I sweet rock was ready and waiting. About 15 minutes and 6 little super glue tubes later…. We have aquascape. Aquascape, check!
A total of about 4 hours and it’s done and bubbling. Water, check!
I took the scrubbie I’ve had floating around in my 50’s sump and transferred it to the pico and added a couple drops of ammonia to get it cycling. Tomorrow I will add a bio ball or two to speed things up.
The acrylic light mount really turned out great. It almost looks like it was factory made to go on here.
Now that this one’s been reset and all fresh and new, I’m thinking about doing cyphastria on the rocks and maybe a BTA/single clown combo.
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