2.5g Office Pico

[SigEpLucas]

So I've been planning to start a pico reef at work and I've been waiting patiently for our new office to be built and I finally have this little guy up and running! I'm on day 3 of having this running and watching things like temp swings and evaporation pretty closely. Here are a couple pics

FTS

Side Shot

Overhead

Fuge/Filter

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Powerstrip

I've got the light currently runnig on a timer, drip loops in place, and it doesn't overfloww when powers cut. I'm seeing temp swing from about 80.0 to 80.4 from 8:30am to 6:00pm (this is with the light on) and it's evaporating about 6 oz of water a day. Doesn't seem like too much but I guess we'll see how the weekend treats it on monday. My next move is a boostLED Par38 bulb and move the JBJ lamp to only cover the fuge and set them up on opposite timers. Aqua Clear 70 is providing a ton of flow and I'm using a Hydor Theo to maintain temp. I'm going to start with a snail or two and a shrimp and then decide if I'm going to have any fish at all or just coral. If I do add a fish it'll probably just be a clown goby. The rock in the fuge isn't permanent I just bought three rocks thinking that would be ok and underestimated my space limitations so it's living in the fuge for now. I'll probably throw some chaeto in there once I get the new light.

 

[Amba]

Your setup looks good, keep an eye on the evaporation, it's a killer on our little tanks. Your temp swings are well in respectable range, especially for a pico. A PAR38 would look great I think, let us know how it works for you!

 

[chichimom79]

Very cool nano! I can't wait to see what you put in there!

 

[Kelz88]

Very cute! Picos can be tough, best of luck.

 

[little_fish]

Very cool!

 

[KevinMs]

That is a sweet setup!! Very envious at being able to have a touch of nature at work!:Cheers:

 

[SigEpLucas]

That is a sweet setup!! Very envious at being able to have a touch of nature at work!:Cheers:

Yeah I haven't had an aquarium at home in a while due to not being completely permanent yet (still renting); however, I spend most of my time at work and they were ok with me having this little setup as long as I didn't work on it during the day...I definitely don't mind staying after a couple days to make sure it's all running smooth!

 

[RockStacker]

They don't allow you to make a 2 ounce water change during office hours? :)

 

[SigEpLucas]

Oh come on i'll atleast do 40oz water changes! Lol

 

[Samhain]

Would love to have a little pico setup like that. Perhaps on my nightstand....Picos are soooo nifty! Will keep watching!

 

[SigEpLucas]

So far everything cycling and staying stable looks pretty good except I was going to have a major evaporation problem suprise suprise. Day to day wasn't terrible but over a weekend would have been catastrophic. Thanks to some ideas here on LR I went ahead and put together a gravity fed drip system utilizing an air valve controller to control the drip speed. We're dripping about 1 every 26.7 seconds so I think that should equal out to my evaporation but I guess we'll see tomorrow when I get in.

Gravity Fed - Auto Top Off

Drip

Bottle

 

[BryanS]

That is a pretty good idea hope it works for you

 

[cvcdrk]

I feel like there must be a way to control a gravity-fed ATO with a float switch somehow...

If not, that's an idea to market.

 

[beeguiles]

What a cute little tank! I love it. Can't wait to see it with corals :)

 

[SigEpLucas]

You can definitely control a gravity feed with a float switch, and I'm sure it's the easiest way to keep the water constant, I was trying to avoid adding anything else into the aquarium since it is so small anyways. So far this is working it's just tough trying to get the drip speed right. I've tweaked it just a bit each day but by next week I should have it just right.

 

[SigEpLucas]

I added a few things today.

Just a small peppermint shrimp, astrea snail and nassarius snail to get started and hope the snails will take care of the diatoms that started. Still can't decide what else I want to do but leaning towards no fish and just coral.

The little broken up starfish is the only hitch hiker I've seen come out of my live rock yet. Not sure if anything else will surface.

 

[SigEpLucas]

Well last week I added a few new things and haven't had time to post. I added a yellow-tail Damsel, Kenya Tree soft coral, and a new DIY canopy I built so I could order my DIY light kit from RapidLED.

Canopy

Damsel and Coral doing well after the first week.

Fish seems to be doing great and I haven't had any issues yet! I've been keep up with weekly water changes and haven't seen a spike in Nitrate. I think I've also mastered the evaporation on this thing and added a glass top to help keep it down. Lights in the next few weeks and then coral. Lot's of it.

 

[RockStacker]

Looks awesome.
The canopy will help with reducing evaporation, and since your office is climate controlled (right?) you would not have to worry about the tank overheating.

 

[G_Beck_87]

Yes very nice setup man! i like the DIY canopy and cant wait to see ur new LEDs from rapid and new corals. Im so jelly u get to have a lil slice of the ocean at work, how soothing! Keep us updated

 

[SigEpLucas]

Thanks guys. I'm very lucky to get to have this at work. I'm going to order the lights on wednesday so it will be a few weeks but I think they'll turn out nice. I'm going with the RapidLED set up because they are all 3w Cree LEDs which seems to be the best and it's a dimmable driver so it they're too intense I can turn them down which I though was a huge plus. Office is climate controlled but I actually have to keep an eye on the temp still. I'm using the Picotope 3gal PC light currently and it gets a little warm I have a fan that I face towards the aquarium that just keeps it at 80.