# The pico lab!



## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

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?


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks! As far as fauna, I'm not sure. I will have a ridiculous quantity of RCS in a few weeks, though. I'll think about it. It all depends on how the filter issue pans out.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those are sweet little setups. I have three old vintage 2.5G metaframes and I have pondered lining them up like that for a triptych.


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## PinoyBoy (Mar 14, 2008)

Nice set ups indeed. Just wondering, is it just me or are the tanks unstable/unbalanced? Look at the shadows at the underneath. It almost looks like the front is floating.


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## Urbnbtta (Sep 26, 2010)

Love what you've done with the
hardscape in those. Interested to see what you come up with for filtration. Are you going to be putting bettas in there? What is your substrate? What was the failure the first time 'round?


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## yikesjason (Jul 2, 2008)

What about trying to do over flows from one to the next, then a filter that cycles the water back to the first tank. You could use siphon tubes instead of overflows too.


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

hydrophyte said:


> Those are sweet little setups. I have three old vintage 2.5G metaframes and I have pondered lining them up like that for a triptych.


I love the idea of either 3 of the same style or 3 contrasting styles of tanks together. Plus, it satisfies my collectoritis need to have many tanks and plants, haha...



PinoyBoy said:


> Nice set ups indeed. Just wondering, is it just me or are the tanks unstable/unbalanced? Look at the shadows at the underneath. It almost looks like the front is floating.


It really looks that way, but it's just the shadows and light. Don't worry - It's level!



Urbnbtta said:


> Love what you've done with the
> hardscape in those. Interested to see what you come up with for filtration. Are you going to be putting bettas in there? What is your substrate? What was the failure the first time 'round?


Thanks! The fauna depends on what I come up with for filtration. My 
substrate is Fluorite Black Sand (sorry, I forgot to mention that). Failure was neglecting to realize that these little tanks are inherently unstable due to the small volume of water. any little shift in water quality is pretty dramatic at this scale. I wasn't really prepared for it at the time. Come to think of it, this was more like 2 years ago...



yikesjason said:


> What about trying to do over flows from one to the next, then a filter that cycles the water back to the first tank. You could use siphon tubes instead of overflows too.


I was thinking of something like this, actually. The hangup would be creating the siphon from one to the next and keeping it going. also, that would mean one tank would be perpetually lower level than the other. This is why I was thinking two Tom's nano filters as pumps and using the 2.5 gal as a sort of sump or building two nano canister filters from PVC or some similar container. Any thoughts? Maybe I'll draw up some plans and post them for review...


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## yikesjason (Jul 2, 2008)

The siphon is pretty easy to do. reefers do it all the time for external overflows. You can also look at the fish bridge journal here. 
I don't know what the water level differential would be but I don't think it would be much.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

PinoyBoy said:


> Nice set ups indeed. Just wondering, is it just me or are the tanks unstable/unbalanced? Look at the shadows at the underneath. It almost looks like the front is floating.


YOu are seeing the effect of the clear acrylic.


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

The flame moss burned a bit from too much Excel - not much, but enough for me to back off on it a bit. Did a 50% WC and am going with 1-3 drops Excel 3x/week. Also, my macros will NOT be dosed at 3 ML/day, haha... more like 3 drops/day. 

Still mulling the filter issue. I could build a HOB trickle filter and use the pump from a Tom's filter to run it. It would require me to figure out a good overflow, but Jason's concept is sound. I'd just have to make the overflow myself. I bought a box of 100 clear airline elbows (couldn't find them in smaller qty), so I have tons of those to play with. Maybe I could make a clear overflow and spraybar using acrylic sheet, those airline elbows, and some rhinox tubing? Hmm... just thinking out loud here... The good thing is that I have the extra tank to test these ideas out on before I connect them to the planted ones. Looks like I'll be experimenting a bit... any recommendations on how to cut 1/8"-1/4" acrylic/lexan/plexiglass? I have razor saws and X-acto knives...


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## PinoyBoy (Mar 14, 2008)

Haha cutting acrylic is fun. I hate how I spent about 10 dollars getting an acyrlic cutter when I found out that I could easily use my knife (even my house key).

Just score and snap. And incase it comes off edgy, just sand/file it down.

Here's another option for your filter since you already have the pump and acrylic sheets, is to make an AIO tank, or make a sump out of the empty tank (I'm assuming you have an aquarium safe silicone at home). Pretty much is make the extra tank a filter and use the pump to circulate the water. I'm not sure if you catch my drift or not...


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## melisssaparker46 (Sep 17, 2010)

it looks nice! Do you have the updated pics of the setup?


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

PinoyBoy said:


> Haha cutting acrylic is fun. I hate how I spent about 10 dollars getting an acyrlic cutter when I found out that I could easily use my knife (even my house key).
> 
> Just score and snap. And incase it comes off edgy, just sand/file it down.
> 
> Here's another option for your filter since you already have the pump and acrylic sheets, is to make an AIO tank, or make a sump out of the empty tank (I'm assuming you have an aquarium safe silicone at home). Pretty much is make the extra tank a filter and use the pump to circulate the water. I'm not sure if you catch my drift or not...


Thanks for the tips! I assumed it was a score-and-snap situation, but I've never cut acrylic before, haha...

Also, the "sump" is almost exactly what I have been chewing on. I originally considered using the 2.5G AGA for the sump (larger water column, more stable) I suppose I could swing that, but it's so big - I'm not sure I want it to take up that much space. Now, I'm considering building the sump as a two-fer: long enough to handle both tanks, with two pumps for returns - sort of like what Jason mentioned. There is also his idea for the overflow. So many options!


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

melisssaparker46 said:


> it looks nice! Do you have the updated pics of the setup?


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!


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

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.


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

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


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

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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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)




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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

PS - my co2 is now hooked up to
my pressurized system via the manifold. I love that thing!


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## PinoyBoy (Mar 14, 2008)

The tank with the shou stones looks alot larger than it actually is; the powerhead just makes it looks small.


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks  It might also be the "nano" diffuser that dwarfs the scape a bit, haha... I'll remove them for photos in the future so we can see how it looks alone. 



PinoyBoy said:


> The tank with the shou stones looks alot larger than it actually is; the powerhead just makes it looks small.


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## theblondskeleton (Aug 28, 2009)

As with the Mini-S, the difference that a good light makes is immeasurable. By now, the other lights would have me struggling with unhealthy plants and a general mess in the picos. I'm beginning to think that all my trouble last year with these was due to the lights. Well, consider me sold. I not only prefer the look of the Archaea fixtures to the ADA solar units, but I also prefer the adjustability and convenience. Now that I have rotated the clamps, they do not interfere so much with keeping a lid on my tanks. This is good, because they tend to evaporate very quickly otherwise.

Now that I have a good idea of how to handle these, I can set up all three as a triptych. I plant to assemble a background/light stand for these as well as hooking up three Tom's Aqualifters with prefilters and homemade pico lily pipes. This will keep the tiny tanks very clean and clear of equipment.


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