Tom aquatic mini deco 1 gallon all in one build day 3

Last time we re-did the silicone, preped for painting, and had a little sneak peak of what the tank looked like on its new stand. Today, I just have a few pictures of how the paint came out, did a little leak test, fitted and tested all the equipment, and let it run for a few hours.

Overall the paint job came out pretty well, but I’m still hitting myself for forgetting to paint the false wall though. I’m pretty sure that when its all said and done, the rock work should hide most of the filtration and the pump. On the positive side of not painting the back wall, I will not have to purchase a separate light for the refugium portion of the All in one as the light should just spill through and provide plenty of light for the chaeto.

Next I have come to the issue of heating. The heater I bought for this tank was a cheap sub $10 heater from my local pet store. It has a little dial on it to set the temperature, but because the volume of water in the tank is so small, the heater is over powering and heating the water to levels way above safe for a reef tank (upper 90 degrees F). So, I did a little research and it seems that heating is one of the biggest issues for these small tanks as there really arnt any that are geared specifically for sub 3 gallon systems, and if they are, they are unreliable or not adjustable. But, there is a solution:

Its called the Hydroset by Hydor. It is an analog temperature controller that is made to work with hydor’s Hydrokable, which is a specialized heating cable that goes into your tank and is easily hidden under sand or in rockwork. However, I am told that this temperature controller can work with any heater up to 300 watts. This package comes with a temperature dial so you can set an accurate temperature, a temperature probe, a plug, a place to plug your heater in, and an optional digital screen that shows the temperature of the tank (i opted for the one without the screen as I have an extra coralife digital thermometer). I ordered one of these bad boys from ebay and it should be here within a couple of days. I want to get a good test on this item before I recommend it, so stick around for a review if your interested.

Also, to go with this nice temperature controller, I have decided to get a better name brand heater for the tank as well. The one I have is pretty big for the small tank, and heater malfunction is a large problem in this hobby and I am not trying to take any chances. Here is what I ordered:

Its the marineland stealth 10watt mini heater rated for aquariums up to 3 gallons. This heater is not adjustable, but combined with the controller, should keep the pico reef at a steady 78 degrees. When this heater arrives and the controller is set up, I plan on switching back to the 18 watt coralife fixture as I really want to see some nice growth in this tank, and I just don’t think this picotope light is going to cut it.

Finally, a few teasers of whats waiting to go inside.

This rock is pre-cured from my local live fish store (LFS) bought at a premium of $8 per pund =x. It’s not so bad though when you only have to buy 1.5 lbs . I will be using sand and water from my main established reef, so I am anticipating that there will be no cycle for this tank. I also have a small clean-up crew in transit from reefcleaners.org.

While getting my rock, I couldn’t pass up a few nice frags – 2 different color zoa’s and a star polyp

I’m pretty excited to get all the equipment and to start putting some livestock into this little tank. Thanks for checking in!

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100 Responses to “Tom aquatic mini deco 1 gallon all in one build day 3”

1. jeffry r. johnston says:

   March 17, 2010 at 1:47 pm

   Looking good. Almost there. How exciting! Good thorough update, as usual.
2. New Tank: 1 Gallon all in one reef aquarium | Reef Chronicle says:

   March 30, 2010 at 3:04 pm

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