Pico Tanks: What's your opinion? And how to go about making one?

[Snoopdog]

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.

Nice take @brandon429 . What do you mean by square-topped though?

 

[Runnin'Reefer]

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.

As a recent college graduate and someone who does not have a super stable income or living situation I totally sympathize with this which is why I want to try to get a solid little pico going. And that way if I have to move I can sell the contents, keep the tank, and start it again easily somewhere else with the experience under my belt