3g JBJ Picotope

[Clavius]

I decided to break down and sell my 34g Solana as I'm afraid that I just won't have time to care for it properly when I go back to college next semester to finish my degree. I thought I was out of the hobby for good... but then I thought about doing a pico. I used to have a JBJ picotope but I traded it for frags before ever setting it up. So this time the pico will go on my desk where I can look at it.

Here's the plan: On my Solana I had some high-tech stuff that I decided to keep for future use rather than sell. Like a Vortech MP10, Tunze Osmolator, and a ReefKeeper Lite. All of that equipment, except for maybe the Vortech, will be going onto this pico. I also ordered a 25w Stealth Pro heater and I already have an Aquaclear 20 that will be going on this pico. Sometime in the future I plan on building an LED fixture or purchasing a PAR38 to go over this thing. I figure that having the Tunze and the RKL will make caring for this pico much easier and less time consuming. Hopefully less time consuming than my Solana as water changes will be very small, etc. I plan on stocking it with a Yellow Clown Goby and maybe my cleaner shrimp that is still in my Solana at the moment. Here are some pics:

Unfortunately the light is broken. I'm looking into getting a replacement...

With all of the gizmos attached. Still need to paint the back though.

 

[despot101]

Looks cool. You really think you'll need the mp10 on it?

 

[Clavius]

Looks cool. You really think you'll need the mp10 on it?

I doubt it. But I have nothing else to use it on. So at the very least I'll give it a go and see how it works on the pico.

 

[Clavius]

 

[firstsalt]

looks like its gonna be nice I have one also but nothing in it.

 

[Clavius]

looks like its gonna be nice I have one also but nothing in it.

Once I finish breaking down my Solana things will really get moving on this pico.

 

[firstsalt]

Nice can't wait to see how it comes out

 

[Haplochromine]

That thing is going to be a whirlpool! Hope the settings go low enough on the mp10 and it should be really nice.

 

[Clavius]

ecoxotic 12K PAR38 LED bulb has been ordered from Premium Aquatics. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow.

 

[Clavius]

Got the back painted today:

 

[gkaquatic]

wow mp10 in that little tank... cant wait to see it running! i just added one to my 20L and im loving it

 

[Clavius]

wow mp10 in that little tank... cant wait to see it running! i just added one to my 20L and im loving it

Yeah I love the thing. That's why I'm reluctant to sell it. But if it's too much flow on this pico then I may have to.

 

[Haplochromine]

Nice, that black paint makes quite the difference.

 

[Clavius]

Nice, that black paint makes quite the difference.

I thought about trying a dark blue. But I couldn't find a blue I liked in spray paint at my Home Depot. The black will work though. Hopefully it will give the corals more "pop" to them.

 

[gkaquatic]

black nice because most equipment is black and with blue they seem to stand out more, blacks the way to go!

and as for the mp10, try it on the back wall too. like behind the rock work if it doesnt work on the side, might help give u the wave affect but lower some of the High flow. just a suggestion.

 

[Clavius]

and as for the mp10, try it on the back wall too. like behind the rock work if it doesnt work on the side, might help give u the wave affect but lower some of the High flow. just a suggestion.

Good idea. I'll give it a try.

 

[Clavius]

I just hooked everything up (except for the Tunze) and did a test run. Here's a short video:

http://youtu.be/dT9HR_SxAD4

 

[gkaquatic]

running video looks good! r you going to turn the aquaclear into a fuge or just run it as is. ive seen people hide the heater in it making a lot more room in the tank.

mp10 doesnt look to be to much but sand, if your not doing bare bottom, will be the real test.

 

[Clavius]

running video looks good! r you going to turn the aquaclear into a fuge or just run it as is. ive seen people hide the heater in it making a lot more room in the tank.

mp10 doesnt look to be to much but sand, if your not doing bare bottom, will be the real test.

I think I'll leave the Aquaclear as is for now.

The Vortech is on the lowest setting in the video. At about 50% it starts to throw water out of the tank!

 

[Clavius]

Can't sleep... so I decided to go ahead and hook up the Tunze (ATO). At the moment the tank is just running with tap water. But as soon as I get my Solana ready to break down for good I'll empty the pico and put tank water from the Solana in it. I've already hit one problem with the Tunze. There are two different ways that you can configure the two sensors. One way is to have both the optical sensor and the back-up float switch on one magnet. This way saves space. And space is critical with such a small tank. The other way to set it up is to have the optical sensor on one magnet and then the float switch on another magnet. That way you can fine tune where you want the water level to be and where the back-up float switch will set off the alarm. At the moment I have it hooked up via the first way. But I don't think that it's going to work. I have the magnet so that the back-up float switch will sound the alarm if water reaches the very top of the tank. Only problem is that the optical sensor is a little too far down leaving the water level in the tank lower than I would like. So I may have to go with option two to setup this ATO because I really would like the water level to be right at the bottom of the return area of the Aquaclear. So that's the current dilemma. I don't know if any of that makes sense. But hey, if pico's were easy everybody would be doing them!

Here are a few pics. I have this pico on my desktop. In one picture you can see where I mounted the Vortech controller, Tunze water level controller and eventually where I will mount the ReefKeeper Lite head unit. You can also see the hose that comes from the fresh water reservoir. It's right next to the back-up float switch. Also, I removed the stock light since I won't be using it anymore.

Is there such a thing as too much equipment? :lol: