ADA 30w Pico Build

[HiImSean]

I picked up a pico ADA 30W, 3.5gallons, this week. I've been wanting to do another small tank, I thought my first 5.5g was super easy. I'm planning rock flower anemones and a few inverts, no fish or corals. So far I've got a 30par LED bulb but I may go a different route. I'm ordering a Aquaclear20 soon for filtration. I'm just gonna have an ATO to make tops offs easy. Here is the inspiration for my tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXP9crqeX64

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

That's really cool. I like the idea of doing the rock flowers. The damsel in that video has tons of personality, great choice for a tank like that.

Why bother with the ATO? If you're doing regular water changes, you might not need topoff at all. I'd be tempted to just make up a bunch of 1g jugs of water at a time, then do a 1g water change every week. Maybe keep another 1g jug of RO/DI handy to top off midweek.

 

[HiImSean]

Right now I travel for work a bit so ATO is just an easy (lazy) way for me to do tank maintenance. I usually have water made up on hand for my 90g so I will prolly just do a few scoops of water each weekend for a WC. Just like in the video, I'm hoping to keep it a low maintenance tank.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Makes sense.

What about a few easy gorgonians? could make a really cool Caribbean themed tank.

 

[HiImSean]

It's been a while since I've updated this. It's still sitting collecting equipment. I decided to upgrade the lights before I even got it going, it'll now have a Nanobox Mini Tide M. I've got the Aquaclear 20 with an inTank media basket. I picked up an Eheim Jager 25w heater but it's huge, about 9.5" and sticks out the top of the tank. I ordered an Archaea 25w heater, it's only 5.25" with an external controller, I don't think it'll fit in the HOB but it will at least not be stick out of the tank.

I'm going to touch up the paint on the back of the tank and clean it so I can fill it up this weekend.

Here's the tank with a basic like program. You can see how large the Eheim heater is.

 

[HiImSean]

Well I finally got things going with the tank and filled it up this past weekend. I'm hoping to grab a few RFA next month at our club's expo then do a VIP Reef order.

Here's the final equipment list:
Tank: ADA 30W 3.5 gallons 30x18x24cm
Light: NanoBox Mini Tide
Filtration: AquaClear 20 HOB filter with inTank media basket
Heater: Archare mini 25w
ATO: Tunze 3155