Tom Aquatics 1 gallon mini deco tank

This is the start. Its a 1 gallon mini deco aquarium from tom aquatics. This aquarium comes as a package with a small light, a small foam in-tank filter with pump attached, and of course the tank. Since I am planning on building this into an all in one, I will not be using the filter, but I will use the pump. Also, the light is insufficient for coral so I will be using a 2×9 watt coralife fixture.

To make the false wall, I will use sheets of acrylic from home depot. This size and thickness sheet of acrylic is really inexpensive ($3 for a 13×10 sheet) and is very easy to work with.

My design of this tank is pretty simple. I will have the false wall going across the entire length of the tank, and I will build 3 mini chambers into the back. The first chamber will be the refugium, which will house a small clump of chaeto and maybe a mangrove or 2. The second chamber will have a small media rack and will be the place for my phosphate sponge and chemi-pure. The last section will hold the heater and the small return pump.

The false wall will come all the way to the top of the tank. On one side, it will have a small cut for the inlet of water into the refugium.

If you are planning a project like this, and you cannot locate black acrylic for your false wall, the picture above is when you are going to want to apply black spray paint so that all your filtration will be hidden from view when the all in one is complete. Because this is my first tank build, I didnt think about this before it was too late. Krylon fusion paint im told is reef safe.

Here we have the first baffle siliconed on to the false wall. When working with pieces this small, I reccomend using the smaller tubes of silicone as they are much easier to work with, however, if its your first time working with the stuff, get 2 bottles as it can get quite messy.

Here both baffles are siliconed to the false wall. The small pieces of acrylic on top of them are just there to add weight and stability while it drys.

Here you can see the baffles have been siliconed on. The first baffle goes all the way to the bottom of the false wall and will be siliconed to the bottom of the tank. This will be where the refugium is housed. Next, once the refugium is full, water will overflow into the middle section, which will be the media rack. As you can see, I cut a small square of plastic canvas that was left over from one of my scrubber builds, and created the small media rack. Here, media bags with phosphate and chemipure will be filtering water. Next, the water will go under the media rack baffle and into the right most chamber, which is the return chamber. Here, I will put the small return pump as well as the heater and auto top off float switch.

Here is what it looks like when placed into the tank

Next, I drilled the hole for the return pump. Looking back, It would be more beneficial to drill the hole before doing all the silicone work because the acrylic can crack and scratch easily.

The final step for today is to silicone the whole false wall into the tank. This is a very tricky process and you will definitely need to take you time, especially because this is such a small area to work in. Here are a few pictures of how it came out. It looks messy, but when its fully dry, I can clean the silicone work and I am also planning to paint the back of the tank black, which should hide some of it as well.

This should do it for today. Next time we will work on spray painting, leak testing, equipment installation, and some other cool DIY’s I have planned for this tank.

The aquarium I have chosen to for my 1 gallon reef is the Tom Aquatics Mini Deco aquarium, which comes with a small filter, small pump, and an inefficient for coral light. most of this will be tossed out as I am planning to make this an all in one tank, which means no hang on the back filters or external sumps. I plan to do this with sheets of acrylic from home depot, some aquarium safe silicone, and a little DIY guess and check. I have always been the type of person to buy a fully done item, but the bug has bit and I want to try some custom stuff.

Here, I will record all of my trials and tribulations concerning this tiny tank.

Pics of what I’ll be working with.

It looks a little dirty, but nothing a little vinegar and some buffing wont fix. Stay tuned!

The Build

Day 1 – Cutting acrylic and silicone baffles

Day 2 – Re-doing silicone and preping for painting

Day 3 – Reviewing the paint job and ordering new equipment

How To: Do it yourself automatic top off system

Day 4 – Aquascaping and coral additions

After the Build – Update