0-150 liter 12L Pico Reef

[Sultanen]

Hoppas detta kan vara av intresse!

Tänkte jag kunde ta och posta min projekttråd även här, kommer dock inte uppdatera denna ytterligare utan hänvisar till min tråd på Nano-Reef.com för de som är intresserade av att följa utvecklingen av karet:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=258652&hl=

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Welcome to my 2,5g Pico-Reef project!

This is my first ever saltwater tank, I have always been fascinated small tanks, plants, invertebrates and challenges in FW so I find those coral grown picotanks rather attractive.. Therefore I decided to start my own!

If I would try to make some goals for myself with this tank it is to get a mixed reef dominated with colorful SPS, I also want to make the tank work with as low maintenance as possible. Last but not least i need this tank to teach me to be patient since I will need to add corals slow since I simply won’t afford to fill it in a hurry.

Well, that’s enough of boring introduction. Here is the setup I start with initaly:

Latest FTS:

• Tank: 2,5g (the real volume is 2,8g or 10,7L)
  
• Filter: Wave Niagara skimmer 280
  
• Light: 18W Wave PC, 10k+arctic
  
• Heater: 50W Hydor
  
• Moonlight: Rio Minisun
  
• Background: Back To Nature, Vit Kalksten (White limestone)
  
• ATO: DIY 10L container
  
• Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
  
• 2,3kg Fiju Liverock
  
• 2,5kg Seamoa pink Livesand 0,5-1,7mm
  

Day1 - 3/1-10

Bought the livesand, liverock, Salt and testkits.

I know its not optimal but i started the tank with “old” water from a friend, this will get changed into the parameters Im aiming for with my salt in a couple of waterchanges.

Parameters:

• Salthalt 1.025
  
• PH 8,0
  
• NH3 0
  
• NO2 0,1
  
• Temperature: 25C
  

A bunch of pics of the startup:

Borrowed this book from a friend, its great and I can recommend anyone to read it

I decided to hide my HOB and was pleased with the result

Moonlight

Day2 - 4/1-10

Building of my DIY Automatict Topoff

I came up with this idea for a ATO mainly becous I had all of the parts, except the Floatswitch laying around or used in other DIY projects.

The principle is simple, when the floater gets triggered it closes a 12V circuit triggering a relay that starts an 230V airpump pumping air into a 10L bucket, the air then forces whater out of the bucket up a hose and into the tank.

I like the use of an airpump here becous it gives me a nice slow and controllable flow wich is perfect for such a small tank, now, 3 days later I can say that it works like a charm using up about a liter of whater each day. The reason that I use a relay is that I don’t like the idea of having a 230V DIY circuit running through the tank, it would have been a lot more simple if I had a 12V pump laying around.

Pics of the build:

My first proof of concept test with a 1,5L PET

Day3 - 5/1-10

Bought a little CUC since I don’t expect to see much of a cycling in this tank.

The CUC atm:

• 3X Banded Trochus Snail
  
• 2x Nassarius vibex
  

Day5 - 7/1-10

Will do watertestings tomorrow of all the parameters I can.

• Temperature: 24,8-26,0 is what I have seen all over the day
  

Started to do some testing with 70W MH setups last night, to get some clue to how much heat it will generate and what I can do to prevent it, I love testing out my ideas of DIY!

Here are some pics of my experimenting:

First I tried with an old DIY MH (above), this one got to hot (28C) so I decided a fan was needed to bring the temperature down, this is my simple testsetup:

Ugly but it works, it has been running like this for 4h now and the temperature is 24,5C and this with a lid that wasn’t there with the last test, im simply amazed of what a 120mm fan can do on its lowest speed!!

Here is a quick test comparation of the blue 18W PC compared to a MH(not the one I will use), the difference in brightness is still quite obvious (got the same exposure settings in both shots), and the light will be even closer when in done with the fixture.

[Ted-m]

Nice.Jäkla fint du fått till allt.

mvh.Ted

[macke_fisk]

det blev jättebra! är också mer för små akvarium .

[DSB]

Bra beskrivet, utmärkt med bilderna.

Kommer att bli riktigt snyggt med djuren i.

[ljungberg]

Riktigt ballt har själv beställt ett till kar fast ett pico. Dock kommer jag INTE köra några djur i det utan bara koraller.

Skall följa din tråd, alltid kul med annorlunda kar.

mvh

J