Right now, I have a 32 g cube that is working great, but I moved from Ohio to South Carolina and even moving a 32 g tank was a lot. I'm doing an internship for the rest of the year, and I don't plan on being in South Carolina long term. Thinking about trying to start a pico tank that will be much easier to transport in the future. How hard are they to keep parameter wise? And how should I go about making one? I can pull rock and sand from my current tank. I'm just not sure if I look for an AIO kit or try to make one with a hang on back filtration
Pico Tanks: What's your opinion? And how to go about making one?
- Thread starter Runnin'Reefer
- Start date
The smaller you get the more challenging they can be to run (for a variety of reasons). If you decide to get into pico tanks, I'd just buy an off-the-shelf AIO setup.
How small would you go?
I think having any tank is worthwhile. I've seen some beautiful picos. Obviously you are usually limited, but a tank with some mushrooms, Zoas and maybe a leather or toadstool frag would be nice and still very interesting. I would aim for one with a proper top, not a mesh lid. For this reason, I'd go with lower end corals so you can go with a lower end light as well.
Here's one of my favourite (minus the clown)- an 8g pico by a user named Illumin-8
I think having any tank is worthwhile. I've seen some beautiful picos. Obviously you are usually limited, but a tank with some mushrooms, Zoas and maybe a leather or toadstool frag would be nice and still very interesting. I would aim for one with a proper top, not a mesh lid. For this reason, I'd go with lower end corals so you can go with a lower end light as well.
Here's one of my favourite (minus the clown)- an 8g pico by a user named Illumin-8
smaller isn't less stable
square-topped is less stable, due to topoff required and the mechanisms for topoff that can fail/stick/short out etc
round systems, not square, have special lid options
imagine having a reef tank that only needs three ounces of distilled water added to it every 8 days= stable? using no topoff mechanism of any kind, it simply doesn't evaporate and require topoff until day 8> = stable
I dont know of any reef tank, any size, using no form of topoff that can go eight days and only lose two-three ounces of freshwater for an acceptable slow climb of .023-.024 but a certain pico reef sure can. with parts from wal mart.
square-topped is less stable, due to topoff required and the mechanisms for topoff that can fail/stick/short out etc
round systems, not square, have special lid options
imagine having a reef tank that only needs three ounces of distilled water added to it every 8 days= stable? using no topoff mechanism of any kind, it simply doesn't evaporate and require topoff until day 8> = stable
I dont know of any reef tank, any size, using no form of topoff that can go eight days and only lose two-three ounces of freshwater for an acceptable slow climb of .023-.024 but a certain pico reef sure can. with parts from wal mart.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2019
- Messages
- 3,611
- Reaction score
- 4,204
- Review score
- +2 /0 /-0
- Location
- North Central Ohio
Following.
My bathroom is the only room that has never had a tank. A Pico would be perfect I think
My bathroom is the only room that has never had a tank. A Pico would be perfect I think
I messaged @brandon429 about this a few days ago and ironically you responded to my thread a few days later. I got a 2-3 gallon rectangular rimless tank a few days ago for free on a facebook group. I would love to make a little softy tank out of it with either a goby or a small clown but not sure how to go about keeping evaporation down or using a lid with a filter hanging on the back
what is the science behind a spherical tank having less evaporation?
it is the combination of being air stone driven, vs pump, which allows you to select the amount of outflow evaporation relative to internal circulation needs + the *inner diameter* fit of the round lid, sitting inside the neck of the fluted vase vs a square tanks lid that can’t sit on the inner diameter and must sit on top, producing mass salt creep around the lid if you bubble water this fast up under it
the system will be 18 years old in December
I run the circulation pretty high, needs top-off every 3-4 days when home but for long vacation runs just turn the air down by half and it’s fine, eight days. Adjustable evaporation vs steady rates is key to gallon reef success long term. That, and no nerf balls allowed in the house
Is it at all possible to make this kind of system with a square tank? could I make a specialized lid out of acrylic that lays in the tank slightly? and could a bubbler be used for a square tank if I was able to situate it in the middle of the tank?
Im not sure because any acrylic or plastic lid I tried in small square picos warped and never stayed flat
lots of people do 1-3 gallon square tanks they just find creative ways to handle the topoff requirement
in the empty square tank you could glue with silicone little plastic rests where the lid wouldn’t fall all the way down into the tank but would rest on those ledges equal to the top walls of the tank making a perfect little square. If the lid was cut on all four sides just a hair smaller than the inner diameter of the square tank, you could press fit slit silicone airline tubing (cut at 90 degree angles on the corners) all the way around the lid and this might seal in the system, resting on the little guides and pressing on the inside diameter of the tank. You’d have to glue in a lifting grasp on top, plus have a corked small hole for feed input
dont cut a notch in the lid to pass the airline for the pump and the heater, mine are both cut and ran through grommets that tightly seal around the airline and the heater line, control any leaking
positive pressure will escape in little imperfections in the seal but don’t let too much out
here’s my line pass through:
cut the heater line, pass through the grommet, re solder and heat shrink like car stereo wiring on the outside of the lid so no water gets in
for the airline cut and splice any pet store sells little joiners and coffee straw sections also work as cheap airline joiners
don’t use rigid airline use flexible silicone airline
lots of people do 1-3 gallon square tanks they just find creative ways to handle the topoff requirement
in the empty square tank you could glue with silicone little plastic rests where the lid wouldn’t fall all the way down into the tank but would rest on those ledges equal to the top walls of the tank making a perfect little square. If the lid was cut on all four sides just a hair smaller than the inner diameter of the square tank, you could press fit slit silicone airline tubing (cut at 90 degree angles on the corners) all the way around the lid and this might seal in the system, resting on the little guides and pressing on the inside diameter of the tank. You’d have to glue in a lifting grasp on top, plus have a corked small hole for feed input
dont cut a notch in the lid to pass the airline for the pump and the heater, mine are both cut and ran through grommets that tightly seal around the airline and the heater line, control any leaking
positive pressure will escape in little imperfections in the seal but don’t let too much out
here’s my line pass through:
cut the heater line, pass through the grommet, re solder and heat shrink like car stereo wiring on the outside of the lid so no water gets in
for the airline cut and splice any pet store sells little joiners and coffee straw sections also work as cheap airline joiners
don’t use rigid airline use flexible silicone airline
Ive got 2 of these jars/vases, and see some benefits to them for sure. Both completely inspired by Brandon lol, Thanks man. Some things ive noticed:
Evap/topoff
as far as a lid goes, you want the best seal possible. I have a bowl and i use a glass dinner plate and a rubber weatherstrip from the hardware store to create a close to perfect seal. I find the heaviness of the plate is what makes the difference to keep it sealed. And being glass, it doesnt warp. Something like this should be possible on a square tank with some creativity.
With this, I pretty much don't top off at all. I do some smaller water changes through the week(take 2 cups out pour 2 in) and do a ~100 percent change every weekend. Therefore salinity never has the time/ability to fluctuate.
Flow
Ive kept larger tanks with numerous powerheads and always had dead spots. One major benefit that i see to a round system compared to a square system is how easy it is to create flow. I also use a small airpump for flow and nothing else. I find that it is more that enough for everything.
I think it has to do with how water is able to travel around the bowl rather than having to make 90 degree turns and run into things. Everything in my bowl gets even random flow and the water gets turned over really effectively. Im not sure how effective this would be in a square tank. Depends where you place it, your aquascape, how powerful, etc… but you may end up needing a small powerhead or something of that matter
temp
Temp CAN be tricky in these smaller tanks. All im really going to say is that the people i typically see with temp issues on these little tanks are running some aggressive lights, OR have powerheads/pumps/skimmers/ whatever else that adds excess heat to the water. Nothing i have adds extra heat so just the heater/inkbird can do its job.
stability
Again these little systems CAN be tricky, but on the other hand they can be beyond easy. i had a 2g jar laying around and threw it together with spare parts and just left it. No water changes, no maintenance, no heater for the first 2 weeks, no live rock, no bacteria, all dry rock and sand with nothing cured, a crappy amazon plant light and some other junk. I added a frag plug from the other tank when there was no heater. The low temp killed everything but the coralline algae, and I had significant coralline growth on all of my rocks after 3 weeks. The ~2 month old neglected 2g jar is outperforming my actual reef in terms of health and stability 10x over in my opinion.
Do that with another system lol.
moving/transportation
Im in a similar area/situation. Im located in NC right now temporarily as well. And thought about moving this stuff long before i set it up. I have both a large jar and a large fishbowl. The bowl will have to get broken down and transported traditionally BUT not my jar. I can literally pick it up completely full and carry it around and put it anywhere. When its moving time, ill just pick it up and go. Thats not going to be possible in any square tank and is something that was incredibly important to me. That benefit alone outweighed having a square tank for me personally.
all in all, dont be discouraged. I find everyone does something slightly different and there really is no right answer to alot of this stuff lol. Anyways hope my 2 cents helps. Good luck with everything.
Evap/topoff
as far as a lid goes, you want the best seal possible. I have a bowl and i use a glass dinner plate and a rubber weatherstrip from the hardware store to create a close to perfect seal. I find the heaviness of the plate is what makes the difference to keep it sealed. And being glass, it doesnt warp. Something like this should be possible on a square tank with some creativity.
With this, I pretty much don't top off at all. I do some smaller water changes through the week(take 2 cups out pour 2 in) and do a ~100 percent change every weekend. Therefore salinity never has the time/ability to fluctuate.
Flow
Ive kept larger tanks with numerous powerheads and always had dead spots. One major benefit that i see to a round system compared to a square system is how easy it is to create flow. I also use a small airpump for flow and nothing else. I find that it is more that enough for everything.
I think it has to do with how water is able to travel around the bowl rather than having to make 90 degree turns and run into things. Everything in my bowl gets even random flow and the water gets turned over really effectively. Im not sure how effective this would be in a square tank. Depends where you place it, your aquascape, how powerful, etc… but you may end up needing a small powerhead or something of that matter
temp
Temp CAN be tricky in these smaller tanks. All im really going to say is that the people i typically see with temp issues on these little tanks are running some aggressive lights, OR have powerheads/pumps/skimmers/ whatever else that adds excess heat to the water. Nothing i have adds extra heat so just the heater/inkbird can do its job.
stability
Again these little systems CAN be tricky, but on the other hand they can be beyond easy. i had a 2g jar laying around and threw it together with spare parts and just left it. No water changes, no maintenance, no heater for the first 2 weeks, no live rock, no bacteria, all dry rock and sand with nothing cured, a crappy amazon plant light and some other junk. I added a frag plug from the other tank when there was no heater. The low temp killed everything but the coralline algae, and I had significant coralline growth on all of my rocks after 3 weeks. The ~2 month old neglected 2g jar is outperforming my actual reef in terms of health and stability 10x over in my opinion.
Do that with another system lol.
moving/transportation
Im in a similar area/situation. Im located in NC right now temporarily as well. And thought about moving this stuff long before i set it up. I have both a large jar and a large fishbowl. The bowl will have to get broken down and transported traditionally BUT not my jar. I can literally pick it up completely full and carry it around and put it anywhere. When its moving time, ill just pick it up and go. Thats not going to be possible in any square tank and is something that was incredibly important to me. That benefit alone outweighed having a square tank for me personally.
all in all, dont be discouraged. I find everyone does something slightly different and there really is no right answer to alot of this stuff lol. Anyways hope my 2 cents helps. Good luck with everything.
hey I wanted to relay battery backup stuff that pico owners might want to know. there may already be a plan, or the area a given tank is located may not be in routine outages. my area near Austin has many outages a year, micro ones, probably 15-30 depending on location.
my best order of ops:
best provision for the reefbowl as backup is a jackery battery bank off amazon, $500
it gets about 30 straight hours of heavy heater use, 50W submersible common nano heater, and a continuous dual output air pump at ten watts in the winter. goes a bit longer in summer, due to no heater required. a heater can even be unplugged, leaving only bubbling options as battery backup in summertime outages. this might go 2-3 days at ten watts max use..heaters pull a lot. *on that mark, a common bait bubbler from wal mart, for fishing boxes, runs on 2 D batteries. if you use lithium D batteries for $19 they'll run a bubbler a ridiculous number of days, a week I'd guess or closely. then with one backup set of D batteries in lithium = another week. I like the dual use of the jackery, fam can charge phones too off the side + flashlight built in the side plus I can transport it to the field to charge up my ebike in between runs. I wouldn't trust it to run my fridge very long at all, but for a pico it's handiness is the top sell.
I'm not aware of any deep cycle marine battery setups that can run as long as the jackery for $500 expenditure, but if there is one that can power about 70 total running watts for longer than 30 hours straight I'd like to know what it is
the common gas generator, mine's an igen 2200 off amazon, is ideal for big outages because one leg easily runs the fridge and the other leg easily runs the reefbowl and several charging items. = $500 off amazon.
my best order of ops:
best provision for the reefbowl as backup is a jackery battery bank off amazon, $500
it gets about 30 straight hours of heavy heater use, 50W submersible common nano heater, and a continuous dual output air pump at ten watts in the winter. goes a bit longer in summer, due to no heater required. a heater can even be unplugged, leaving only bubbling options as battery backup in summertime outages. this might go 2-3 days at ten watts max use..heaters pull a lot. *on that mark, a common bait bubbler from wal mart, for fishing boxes, runs on 2 D batteries. if you use lithium D batteries for $19 they'll run a bubbler a ridiculous number of days, a week I'd guess or closely. then with one backup set of D batteries in lithium = another week. I like the dual use of the jackery, fam can charge phones too off the side + flashlight built in the side plus I can transport it to the field to charge up my ebike in between runs. I wouldn't trust it to run my fridge very long at all, but for a pico it's handiness is the top sell.
I'm not aware of any deep cycle marine battery setups that can run as long as the jackery for $500 expenditure, but if there is one that can power about 70 total running watts for longer than 30 hours straight I'd like to know what it is
the common gas generator, mine's an igen 2200 off amazon, is ideal for big outages because one leg easily runs the fridge and the other leg easily runs the reefbowl and several charging items. = $500 off amazon.
@brandon429 @SandNRocks the reef bowl/vase definitely seems like the best idea in comparison to a box. Only reason I am really wanting to do the box is because I got a nice rimless glass tank for free and want to try to do something with it. I got a corner sponge filter today that I am going to try to use in it for water flow with a pump. I think I am going to take a chance with an acrylic lid and hope it doesn't warp, and I am going to inlay it with some type of rubber sealant that will fit into the shape of the top of the tank while the lid rests on top to make a seal. Hoping that'll work. The biggest issue will be figuring out how to put the wire of the sponge filter through the lid or back of the tank and seal it. Still trying to figure that one out so if you have ideas let me know
The s
dont worry too much about a “perfect” seal. A few small gaps are fine and wont contribute too much to evaporation to matter. Mine both have a decent sized opening For the wires. Heres my lid.
I got some acrylic, rubber window sealing tube, and gel glue and was able to make a lid for the tank that should be pretty air tight for the most part save a few small openings maybe in the corners or where the glue didn't bind perfectly. My plan is to use the corner sponge filter for aeration and live rock for my filtration. I'm thinking about drilling a hole in the back corner of the lid for the air tube. I also left a large lip on the back of the lid to attach a light to for the tank. Let me know what you think of this!
Attachments
I started back into the hobby with a glofish brand 5g AIO. It has a lid with close tolerances and only needs top off every few days. I’ve since moved most of the livestock over to my 14 but the damsel, gsp and two zoanthids are still in there along with 3 snails and a hermit.
https://youtube.com/shorts/6p-KAJIsVBo?feature=share
Where are you moving to in SC? I’m just north in Charlotte
https://youtube.com/shorts/6p-KAJIsVBo?feature=share
Where are you moving to in SC? I’m just north in Charlotte
I'm living in Charleston right now! I'm hoping this tank will only need topped off every few days now with the addition of the sealed lid. What kind of light are you using on your tank? That might be the hardest part for me now
I have a Kessil a80 on a timer. I only run it on about 40%. Even when I had the sps in there it never had to go above 50%. I use 1” acrylic spacers and have it sitting directly on top of the lid.
Charleston is an awesome area. Any good saltwater stores down there?
If you have lots of spare time/patience, it can work out. I have neither of those things, so it's a 65 gallon for me. I'm also not a fan of how a pico constrains you to keeping just frags and inverts. I like to have a few fish, shrimp, and good-sized coral colonies. Tiny neon frags with a couple hermits/snails really isn't my thing. To each their own, of course.
Its not my “thing” per se but i love this hobby and am broke without stable living conditions and an actual tank makes no sense for me. Its way easier to fill 3g with livestock and have it look full and grown out than 65. Idk about you but to fully load a 65g with already grown colonies (even frags) and fish, youll likely spend what it costs to buy a used car. Im out like $500 for everything, including all of my coral.
The way i look at it, it is frag grow out, live rock “grow out”, and coral quarantine for when i upgrade. And tbh im guessing my stuffs growing pretty fast in comparison to most peoples. I plan to upgrade within a year and at this rate, will have ~20 decent colonies ready to go when i can get an actual tank. So all im really trying to say is sometimes people gotta do stuff a certain way not cuz they want to but because they have to. I have jars and vases because its pretty much all i can have. Its that or I don’t get to enjoy this hobby, be on this forum, visit lfs’s, frag swaps, etc… so ill settle and look at the positives in my situation.
Similar threads
-
- Poll
