1 gallon pico reef

[cincyJames]

Well this weekend I decide to try something new. I have a 90 gallon mixed reef that has been up for a year now and a 5.5 gallon nano reef that has been going for two years. While shopping at IKEA I noticed a large glass cylinder and decided it would make an awesome pico reef tank. Large would turn out to be relative because it actually only ended up holding 1 gallon of water. Anyways, I knew I had some parts laying around and figure that it would be a small investment...always laughable because we all know that a tank is never a small investment, be it financial or just your time. So let's talk equipment:

Lighting-a friend friend of mine had bought some LEDs a while back and figure that this would be a great chance to try them out. They were 3 white LED fixtures and 3 white LED fixtures. I figured that two bulbs would be overkill, so decided I would just swap an LED from each fixture. I haven't really decided what I like better over the tank actually, so we will see.
Attachment 9995Attachment 9996

I divided the tank with a piece of plastic to make a "sump" area to hold chaeto, a heater, the return pump and a sump light. Total sunp volume is 1/4gallon.
uploadfromtaptalk1380065608447.jpg

I added sand from my 90 gallon and a nice rock. Total water volume with sand and rock is 3/4 gallon. These are photos with the different lights.

uploadfromtaptalk1380065689194.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1380065708244.jpg

Last night I added a couple soft corals: mushroom, xenia, button polyps and zoanthids. They have all been open and closed at different times as of now. Still waiting to see all of them opened at once.
uploadfromtaptalk1380065878801.jpguploadfromtaptalk1380065927192.jpg

I am excited to see how this tank turns out. Right now the investment has been fairly minimal, but I feel like it may be an amazing tank if all goes well.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

[dustinbrearton]

Looks cool. Do you have a top off on it? Is it hard to keep up with the evaporation?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[cincyJames]

No lid currently. Evaporation hasn't been a huge problem yet. Well it evaporates less than a pint in two days, so maybe that is a lot when you consider it only holds 6 pints of water. Lol.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

[cincyJames]

Well I finally had a chance to finish my light for the tank. I bought a $5 desk lamp at IKEA and rewired it to fit a GU10 bulb. uploadfromtaptalk1380487469748.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1380487485243.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1380487499916.jpg

I also have some new additions to the tank. I added some snails, a porcelain crab and a geometric pygmy hawkfish. All seem to be doing well and the corals I added have opened up and look great.
uploadfromtaptalk1380487751532.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1380487770417.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1380487807265.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1380487828411.jpg



Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

[dustinbrearton]

That its a very cool project. Looks great

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[beginner]

How do you like the gu10? I have read mixed reviews on them.

[cincyJames]

Probably too soon to tell. I like the color and shimmer effect and the corals seem to be pretty happy, but growth will be what I am looking for.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

[Boostd2valve]

Cool little tank!

[cincyJames]

Thanks!

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

[drimo]

That's pretty neat. Nice work!