3 gal picotope *pics*

[brian is cool]

i just bought a jbj 3g picotope from Marine Depot. It sould be coming here in a few days. the tank comes with a 9w light but i bought the coralife mini aqualight(18w). i was wondering if 18w would be enough lighting so i could have other corals besides zoos and mushrooms?

my plan is to hang the light above the tank and to customize a aqua clear 70 to have a fuge and a place for my heater and a filter carterage. i also want to block that section off to make an overflow and have the aqua clear in the overflow-than a maxi-jet can return the water evenly throughout the tank.

by having only a section of the tank rather than the whole back being the filteration, i can have more room for fish and corals.


and i will have lots of pics throughout the whole time.

 

[Chelsey]

Looks like you're off to a good start! One thing you might want to keep in mind is that your drawing isn't quite to scale. To eliminate problems maybe you could find the dimensions of the Aquaclear and the Maxijet and then redraw. I really like the idea that you've come up with, please do take pics and post them!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya i agree...its not really to scale, and i think you'll find that its gonna be crammed with that aquaclear.

 

[brian is cool]

i just measured my aqua clear 50 and it is big so ya i deff under scaled on that drawling. my over flow might take up most of the back but it will not be touching the ground-so there will be more room

do u think that my 18w light will be enough light for all corals?

 

[sir_dudeguy]

not ALL corals...like sps and stuff i wouldnt do (i think thats the right ones lol..i get those names confused)

but its great for stuff like xenia and green star polyps (pretty much any polyp for that matter) prolly some leathers...just not the really light needy stuff like anemone's (which can get too big anyways) and sps and clams

One thing that i can suggest tho...if space is an issue (which it sure seems like it ) then i would just ditch that powerhead.
get a HOB filter that does a little bit more flow..that will be plenty of flow for a 3 gallon tank...its what i'm doing on my 2.5...i've got just a whisper 20 for flow and the only part thats in the water is the intake tube, and like 1/4" of the lip on the return...so i've got all my rock stacked on the back, so theres "plenty' of room out in the open.

for a 3 gallon tank you're only gonna need something with about 30 gph or something...in smaller tanks anything much more will just be too violent, but wont really take away dead spots more than a little less flow would...because theres so little space an hob filter with a wide return is gonna take away most if not all dead spots...at least it does in mine.

 

[Chelsey]

Honestly, unless you're like super experienced, I wouldn't do anything other than softies in that small of a tank. I'd be a little leery of doing leathers too because of the toxins they can put out. Maybe some LPS but it depends on how you have things set up

 

[binaryterror]

He can have zoos and mushrooms along with LPS and softies. ^^^

Not just softies.

 

[brian is cool]

the only thing i dont like about a hob filter is that they do not suck wate from the top- i have a dog that sheds so i will have lots of stuff on the top of my water. do u think that i would have enough lighting for a brain coral?

i bought 6lbs. of base rock to put in the tank. right now they r in a bucket with a powerhead to get all the stuff that was on them

 

[binaryterror]

I would think 18 watts would be enough for a brain. They are a moderate light coral, and low light corals need barely any light. So 18 watts should be enough.

 

[brian is cool]

thanks for the comments

 

[srbball22]

This looks like a neat setup, can't wait to see finished pics.

 

[brian is cool]

i bought an aqua clear 30 today and started to mod it. i only got to make a screen in the front and make a new screen on the bottom so far because my heater and filter carterages have not come in yet so i dont have anything to have as a measuring tool
here is wat i have so far

i akso bought cable to hang my light, plastic paint and acrylic for my overflow

 

[binaryterror]

Sweet set-up! But you may want some more holes on the bottom depending on how much flow there is. Because water will be shooting out of the holes and maing everything go nuts in there rather than have it gently flow out.

 

[brian is cool]

tank comes tommorow.have more pics than

 

[brian is cool]

tank came today. i also spreayed the back of the tank for my backround
the 3g jbj picotope

All the stuff for the tank-coralife 18w mini aqua light,the stock light, thermometer, 50w theo heater, the stock filter, a rio 50gph powerhead(dont no if i will use it), and a AC30 that will have fug and a filter cart in it

getting ready to paint the backround

while that was drying i cut a hole in the top of my AC so that my fuge could get more light and still have the top stay on

backround on tank dryed only 2 coats and with plastic bonding paint it turned out a little darker than i wanted but it is still really nice

 

[Chelsey]

Awesome! Keep the pics coming!

 

[All Delight]

very nice!

 

[binaryterror]

Wow, so Brian, the paint stuck better than you thought! It's going to be sweet with water in it! I have to come over and see this in person!

Oh, and take a pic with all of the equipment on so we can see what it will look like.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

and get it goin too

how much did that thing cost? with the lights and all.

 

[brian is cool]

new pics got the light mounted above my tank

i am siliconing the overflow together tomorrow(school started and dont have as much time) i finished cutting the pieces today
the tank cost 50 the light cost 30 the Ac cost 20 the heater 15 sand 8
so so far i have spent about 145(including other small costs) but i still lave to buy a mini maxi jet pump,more silicone, and some plumming parts. i am ordering them tomorrow so i can get this tank up and running

than i will have more pics