I like what you're doing here. Very interested to see what you have in mind for the filtration system. I understand it in my mind but curious to see how it plays out. Both tanks look great. Any fauna plans?
The pico lab!
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Last year, I picked up three acrylic betta boxes on clearance at a big box for $4 each. The dimensions are 8" x 4.75" x 5.5". Now, I'm no expert with pico tanks - I tried last year and failed miserably. Into the closet they went until I had the courage to look myself in the mirror again.
Here's the most recent attempt. I only had two lights, so I only set up two of them. Ideally, this would be a triptych of tanks in 3 different styles, but I'm pretty sure these lights are no longer available.
The lights had no attachments/mounting brackets, so I had to fabricate a stand from - yes, that's right - foamboard, haha! It looks much better than you would think - but with that slightly ghetto edge that I've come to know and love about my projects. I will likely spray it all black and seal it. So, without further ado...
Specs:
Tanks:
1L Acrylic betta box
Lights:
13W 5000K PC light
Filtration:
Currently no filter, but I have an unusual plan in mind that involves a 2 gallon tank, 2 Tom's nano filters and some airline tubing... hence the "lab" part.
Carbon:
Excel dosing 2x/week
Ferts:
Liquid ferts daily (about 3ml of modified PPS Standard solution) Micros weekly.
If I still get a bunch of algae issues, I'll w/c daily instead.
Tank 1 (currently in dry-start for HC):
Hardscape:
River stone and manzanita. I think I want to add more stones, but we'll see as the HC grows in.
Plants:
HC, Anubias nana petite, Eleocharis 'belem' (if what I have actually grows), and maybe some rotala mini type 2 or another smaller stem.
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Tank 2:
Hardscape:
Zebra stone (I know some folks hate the stuff, but I actually like it in some ways)
Plants:
Flame moss
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And both together with a shot glass and ruler for scale:
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Next up:
The third tank awaits a treatment. Perhaps a clip-on light and some low-tech plants? Not sure. Gonna stew on this for a bit...
![]()
Until then, I have to get my brain around some sort of pico-filter for these...
Here's the most recent attempt. I only had two lights, so I only set up two of them. Ideally, this would be a triptych of tanks in 3 different styles, but I'm pretty sure these lights are no longer available.
The lights had no attachments/mounting brackets, so I had to fabricate a stand from - yes, that's right - foamboard, haha! It looks much better than you would think - but with that slightly ghetto edge that I've come to know and love about my projects. I will likely spray it all black and seal it. So, without further ado...
Specs:
Tanks:
1L Acrylic betta box
Lights:
13W 5000K PC light
Filtration:
Currently no filter, but I have an unusual plan in mind that involves a 2 gallon tank, 2 Tom's nano filters and some airline tubing... hence the "lab" part.
Carbon:
Excel dosing 2x/week
Ferts:
Liquid ferts daily (about 3ml of modified PPS Standard solution) Micros weekly.
If I still get a bunch of algae issues, I'll w/c daily instead.
Tank 1 (currently in dry-start for HC):
Hardscape:
River stone and manzanita. I think I want to add more stones, but we'll see as the HC grows in.
Plants:
HC, Anubias nana petite, Eleocharis 'belem' (if what I have actually grows), and maybe some rotala mini type 2 or another smaller stem.
Tank 2:
Hardscape:
Zebra stone (I know some folks hate the stuff, but I actually like it in some ways)
Plants:
Flame moss
And both together with a shot glass and ruler for scale:
Next up:
The third tank awaits a treatment. Perhaps a clip-on light and some low-tech plants? Not sure. Gonna stew on this for a bit...
Until then, I have to get my brain around some sort of pico-filter for these...
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Thanks! These are as recent as they get for now. These pics are from last weekend
I'll post more in a week or so - still has some growing to do!
Just one small step forward...
I have done some tinkering, but nothing solid yet. As of now, I'm just using the motors as powerheads to keep circulation up, so we can avoid any cyano or other nuisances.
![]()
I have done some tinkering, but nothing solid yet. As of now, I'm just using the motors as powerheads to keep circulation up, so we can avoid any cyano or other nuisances.
So, I'll have to update more completely later, but to give a brief preview....
I chopped the filter attachment to the Tom's filter, cut down the sponge and reattached it as a pico powerhead/sponge filter. It has been working great. The pico-sump idea was good, but those pumps don't tolerate any kind of head pressure, so that was a dead-end short of upgrading the pump. At any rate, things were ok until a few days ago. BGA. Yuck. Not sure why it appeared but I hit it with peroxide, and upped the KNO3. Hopefully it will go away. I have DIY CO2 running on one, and plan on getting it going for the other as well. Pics later
I chopped the filter attachment to the Tom's filter, cut down the sponge and reattached it as a pico powerhead/sponge filter. It has been working great. The pico-sump idea was good, but those pumps don't tolerate any kind of head pressure, so that was a dead-end short of upgrading the pump. At any rate, things were ok until a few days ago. BGA. Yuck. Not sure why it appeared but I hit it with peroxide, and upped the KNO3. Hopefully it will go away. I have DIY CO2 running on one, and plan on getting it going for the other as well. Pics later
Restart. The cyano came back even after a peroxide treatment. I stripped it all down, rinsed the heck out of the substrate, and started over. Now, I have some Shou stone in the left tank. I attached the flame moss to two steel mesh grids and covered the edges with substrate. It looks great, now. As a soon as it fills in, I'll have a pretty fantastic carpet. It was growing well before, and this one didn't have an issue with the cyano, but I wanted to redo the substrate, and trim the dead flame moss off (from the peroxide treatment).
The second tank I rethought altogether. I created a "u" shaped slope with the substrate, and added a couple stones. I also dismantled the wood and rescaped it. The HC from before was dead from all the peroxide, so I replaced it with healthy HC from my Do!Aqua 10 gallon. I added some cuttings of Staurogyne 049, a couple stems of rotala "magenta" and a bunch of lindernia varigatus.
I may use the lindernia for the entire background - I'm not sure. It's a really pretty little plant. I'm likely going to get rid of the big bunch of nana petite, as it isn't siting well with me. I may just need to trim the roots. We'll see. When the Stauro grows in, It'll look completely different.
The big change is new lights for both tanks. I picked up a pair of 13W Archaea lights, and they are just right for these little things. I'm ok with the filters right now, but not for long. I'm going to use onefang's idea with the Toms Aqualifter and the prefilter as soon as I can afford to swap them out. The Tom's nano filter is great, but it creates this huge shadow beneath it, and I need to clear as much space in there as I can - there's not much to begin with. I'll also have to work out a more elegant CO2 solution...
My computer is ancient, and it's giving me hell with my pics. I'll post them via Tapatalk, but be warned: they will be crappy shots.
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