5.5 Pico

grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
Alright, this will have lots of pics, and lots of words...
I was surfing around the nano section and wanted to set up a 5.5g pico. I also had an itch to make a foam background on something. so again while surfing i came across maxalmon's foam build and that set everything in motion....
while i was on another site, i read how someone built a 5.5g with a foam background. i will admit. i copied his design perfect so far...some mite say its coping to much, others mite say why not it was helpful..you decide...
so today while im on vaca, i decided to start the build. i got everything for xmas so it was on from there... it will be a 5.5g pico nano reef with a built in fuge.....
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
these are some pics of the custom built in fuge area. i used acrylic sheet to go diagonal across. the water will overflow into the fuge part. it will go through chaeto then either carbon or filter floss then down through some live rubble. the water will drain under the baffles up through more live rubble where the heater and return pump (maxi jet 600) will be. the return flow will bounce off the front of the glass and swirl around the tank...

 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
next i cut the pieces of egg crates so i could use them for the background. these will help the foam bond to something.

 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
then i cut up some pieces of 1" pvc piping. i cut them to size, then cut notches out of them. these notches act like tunnels for either a very small fish or pods...


 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
then comes the rock which i zipped tied to the egg crate. i can just cut the zip ties out after foam has cured. the foam should be able to hold them in place. i cover a decent amount of area with the dead rock...1st pic is just the rock that is going to be used, but i was not going to use it all. the rest went in to my frag tanks sump....

this is when i applied it to the egg crate with zip ties

this is a top down shot. you can see the ledges with out the foam applied yet.
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
tomorrow i will have new pics of the foam after curing. then i will take pics of it after aqua scaping the foam. meaning cut away the unwanted foam....here's with the foam applied..
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
tomorrow i will cut away some foam. then apply some more with some more dead rock, then add epoxy and crushed coral to cover the foam. this will make it look completey rock like...
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
1st pic is of the crushed coral that is going to be used to cover the foam background.

2nd is of the live rubble for the fuge area. it is actually crushed coral but really big pieces, so its more like crushed coral rubble..

3rd is what i got for xmas to complete this build..this pic includes a 50w stealth heater, digi thermostat, maxi jet 600 powerhead, glass canopy,2 part epoxy puddy, small mag float,2 part epoxy resin for the crushed coral, a bag of filter floss, and a nove extreme 18" 40w T5 fixture..
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
this build is actually going much better than i thought. i did research for about 2 months and kept looking at pics and rereading how they put their tanks together and just replicated it. and i got everything done with in 2 hours. minimal expense, nice little project, should take off soon to.....looking to have this filled by either 2marrow nite earliest or mid day wednesday....so what do you think so far???????????
 
oceansidefish

oceansidefish

Active Member
Don't trust those digital thermostats. Mine is off 5 degrees. I would check it with an old fashioned one. Or get an infrared thermometer.
 
worrballer

worrballer

Member
I saw this build on -- is that the one you are talking about? Yousmellfishy inspired me to foam up my 29g (still to be foamed). Looks good!
I wonder if you could put some chaeto instead of filter floss in the back? Or do you think it'll clog the pump?
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
weight wise not sure on the rock. as far as chaeto, it should be in the 1st chamber when the water first flows into the sump part of it...and you yousmellyfish is what pushed me over the edge to start this project. i also have a stick on thermometer to help with temp reading...
 
grubsnaek

grubsnaek

Active Member
yea they seem pritty bright. and ive seen growth from them on others, so im looking forward to this tank in say about 3-4 months....
 
subielover

subielover

Active Member
Very cool project. I would be interested in doing a foam back wall on my next tank. Looks like you know what you are doing.
 
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