Tom aquatic mini deco 1 gallon all in one build day 2

Posted in All in one Pico Reef build, Aquarium DIY, My Aquariums

Alright so all the silicone dried and I was pretty happy with the results, so I decided to leak test, test the heater I bought, and test the fitment of my light. (You can click on any picture for a larger version)

Then, I realized I used the wrong silicone I used GE silicone II, which says clear, 100% silicone, but if you read the label on the back it says that it does include mold inhibitors. These mold inhibitors will slowly release toxins into your reef water over time that will be poisonous to your live stock, so its imperative to find a reef safe brand.

as stated in another post here:

Common brands of reef safe silicone are:

Silicone that you find at your local fish store
DAP 100% silicone
GE silicone 1 – window and door ONLY. There are many debates of whether or not this aquarium silicone is indeed reef safe, but this is the kind that I have used, and it doesnt seem to be causing any problems.

GE Silicone I said to be reef safe

Alright, since I messed up on the silicone, I had to take the whole tank apart and redo it using the above pictured silicone. I decided that since I have to take it apart, Ill cut totally new baffles and try to come up with a way to make my silicone work as clean as possible, as it is very hard to work in such a small place. Here is how round 2 came out:

Tom aquatic 1 gallon AIO round 2

As you can see, the silicone lines are a lot cleaner this time around. Because these spaces are so small, the silicone gun can not fit in to make the clean lines like you see on larger tanks. So, on the first build, I did most of the silicone work with my finger which was obviously very messy as you can see above. This time around, I wanted it to be cleaner, so I got to think how can I reach into these small spaces and get clean lines? The answer was a Mc Donalds straw. I went to the restaurant and took about 5-6 straws. Mc Donalds straws are the best for this because they have the widest diameter and are the easiest to work with since they are larger than normal straws. What I did was fill the straw with silicone from end to end, then aim the straw where I wanted the silicone, pinch the top of the straw, and pull the straw through my fingers so that a line of silicone is left where the straw was pulled through. I know it sounds confusing and unfortunately I dont ave any pictures of this step, but I’ll try to make a quick youtube video to show you what I’m talking about. This method really made a world of difference and made the project A LOT easier.

This picture shows really how little room there is to work with inside the display of this tank. here you can see a small container of dry pellets that has about a 2 inch diameter and it just barely fits. Aquascaping is going to be fun

And now were back to where we were before. I can’t stress enough the importance of being meticulous with your equipment and building materials selections because if you attempt a build like this, and over look that one step just like I did, it can end up costing you a lot of money in the long run. Lucky for me, I was also posting this on a local forum for suggestions, and someone else caught the fact that I used the wrong silicone.

Next step: Painting

Since I once again forgot to spray paint the false wall, I can’t show you that step. However, here is what the tank looked like when it was ready for paint.

As you can see, only the outside back of the tank will be spray painted black. I’m doing this to hide the silicone work in the back as well as the sides. The false wall that should hide the filtration, is still clear, so all of that will still be visible.

Also, I ran into a problem with my light fitment and the heater. As you can see in the pics above, the heater has a large top on it that houses the dial to set the temperature. Unfortunately, because its so large, it ruined my idea of just setting the coralife light right on top. The stands I tried to build to make the coralife fixture work just didnt cut it, so I found another option – the light fixture from the 3 gallon Picotope. I believe its only a 9 watt light, but it will work for the softies I have planned for this tank.

Here is the last pic for this update.

Next time I’ll hopefully be ready to show you guys the DIY battery power Automatic Top Off system you can build for about $10 and I should have some livestock pics soon