3 gallon office nano

[jamiehill]

Here are some pictures of my 3 gallon nano I keep at my office. It is a JBJ Picotope that came with a 9W light and a HOB filter. I also added a small heater and a powerhead for extra circulation.
Here is a picture from when it was set up on 7/21. I used rock from my tank at home.

Here are some pics from today.

Full Tank Shot 9/19

Yellow & Green Zoos from Barrier Reef

Lunar Eclipse Paly from Barrier Reef

Frogspawn from Barrier Reef

Torch from my parent colony at home

Hydnophora with green button polyps and a sexy shrimp (there are 3 in the tank)

Xenia

Candy Cane

I am looking for more zoos to put in the tank. I have also modified an AquaClear 70 HOB filter to replace the small one that came with the tank. It will hold the heater, some chaeto and a small airstone skimmer. I am waiting on the smaller impeller so that I can slow the flow down enough that it won't send sand all over. I am also planning on removing the powerhead at that time, since there should be enough circulation in the tank.

I also have an ATO system that I am working on for this tank, but it has been giving me problems. I am pretty sure it is in my float switch so I am going to swap it out soon and give it another try.

 

[james734]

Looking good...

 

[Krish]

Amazing little tank! Keep up the good work and remember, turn your head if you are going to sneeze

 

[varpanus]

that's awesome! soo much color in such a small space! what do the people at work say?

 

[Sparks]

are you worried about the frogspawn sweeper tentacles in such a small tank?

 

[shallowreef]

Neat! I love the sand in that tank!

 

[pitlife79]

Your tank is awsome!!! I just stocked my little 2.5g nano with some stuff from Barrier Reef! Everything is looking great! Keep us posted on your tank. I was also interested in how you set up the ATO. If you could send me a little info, that would be great. I want to do the same thing on my little nano.

Brent

 

[pitlife79]

Also,

Did you upgrade the lighting? It looks like you did. What did you use? I modified the hood on mine, changed out the socket and I'm currently running a 20W mini compact 50/50. I have frogspawn, Xenia, some zoa's and mushrooms, but I don't know if the lighting will be enough.

 

[jamiehill]

are you worried about the frogspawn sweeper tentacles in such a small tank?

I am actually more worried about the tentacles from the Torch. They are super long and I have had to move things away from it. I am thinking about removing it from the tank if I can't find a good place.

So far the frogspawn is behaving itself. If it starts causing any problems, I will move it around to keep it away from other corals.

 

[shallowreef]

Who makes that tank?

 

[jamiehill]

Your tank is awsome!!! I just stocked my little 2.5g nano with some stuff from Barrier Reef! Everything is looking great! Keep us posted on your tank. I was also interested in how you set up the ATO. If you could send me a little info, that would be great. I want to do the same thing on my little nano.

Brent

Barrier Reef is awesome. I was very impressed with the stock they had. Prices are great too. Their SPS tank is amazing. My wife is going to let me upgrade to halides because she really liked the coloration of the corals there.

For the ATO, I used a battery powered air pump, a float switch and a 1.5 liter water bottle. Here are some pictures of the system. Keep in mind that it is still in flux. I had a couple problems with the float switch not shutting the pump off when the level rose. This caused a couple overflows, but they were fairly contained since I left the water bottle fairly empty while I was still testing.

Here is the first version of the assembled unit. It is very easy to put together. All it takes to hook up the float switch is to cut the positive wire inside the air pump and connect one of the float switch leads to each of the sides of the wire. This allows the float switch to control the circuit. I got the float switch from http://www.aquahub.com

Here is a link to the thread I used to make this:
Battery powered air pump top off system

And the diagram for the design:

 

[jamiehill]

Who makes that tank?

The tank is a JBJ Picotope.

 

[shallowreef]

Glass or acrylic?

 

[jamiehill]

It is glass.

 

[jamiehill]

Also,

Did you upgrade the lighting? It looks like you did. What did you use? I modified the hood on mine, changed out the socket and I'm currently running a 20W mini compact 50/50. I have frogspawn, Xenia, some zoa's and mushrooms, but I don't know if the lighting will be enough.

I bought an Odyssea 24W PC fixture off eBay. It is a decent light, but the bulb that came with it is not very good. I have a new one coming in that should be arriving today along with the small impeller for the AquaClear 70.

 

[jamiehill]

I put an AqaClear 70 on the tank last night. It has been modified to add a baffle inside the filter and will hold the heater, a piccolo skimmer and some chaeto. I am using the clip on light that came with the tank for the chaeto. I also added a surface skimmer to the AquaClear which meant I had to re-aquascape.

 

[Krish]

Very cool man...It came out nicely

 

[shallowreef]

Thats really an awesome little setup! I love that its glass too!

 

[jamiehill]

Everything is still going smoothly. My lunar eclipse zoo has sprouted a new polyp out of its side that is almost fully developed.

I am not really happy with the flow in the tank. I removed the powerhead I had in the tank when I added the AquaClear 70, but I don't think it is giving me quite as much flow as I would like. I replaced the impeller with one from an AC Mini and I don't think it is quite enough. I am going to try to put the original impeller back in and turn the flow all the way down to see how much difference it makes. Hopefully there will not be any sandstorms.

 

[Krish]

LOL...That's why you go bare bottom I just ordered a nano today (slightly bigger than yours LOL ) but I loved what you did with just a 3 gal tank so it gave me some inspiration. Hopefully mine comes up just as nice

Yeah man...Bump up that flow and your corals will love you for it