My next project a 2.5g pico reef! contest

how did u cut those slots that close together? thats just looking like a sweet little tank too

John
I actually cut those out of an old magnum intake strainer, when I cut out the back wall I just cut out a rectangle and glued the grill in place with weldon #16. I did have to remove every other tooth to get the correct water flow, thats what I was testing in a plastic cup this weekend was to figure how high the water level would be through this grate.

I decided to get the other 42 led light for the tank, it has 6 blue but not controlled seperate so I can't use the blue for moon light so I am building my own moon light. I went to Radioshack and got two 5mm blue leds for about $4.00 and they will be powered by an old 3volt cell phone charger I had lying around. I tried the 10mm but they were to bright and shined a spotlight, the 5mm has a 154* lens, perfect.

Man i need to come hang with you for a day and learn a few things that is awsome how are you going to mount those leds and will they add heat.

just got home and am doing a test run on my 5.5 no heater on, but temp has gone up to 75 with the 24watt power compact i have a 5 led blue moon im going to install tomorrow,what size heater do i need in this 5.5 a cheap one from walmart or one i can control

jmg32595 wrote:Man i need to come hang with you for a day and learn a few things that is awsome how are you going to mount those leds and will they add heat.

just got home and am doing a test run on my 5.5 no heater on, but temp has gone up to 75 with the 24watt power compact i have a 5 led blue moon im going to install tomorrow,what size heater do i need in this 5.5 a cheap one from walmart or one i can control

Those two 5mm leds will not add any heat, I'm going to epoxy them into the hood corners. I am bungfuzzled on heaters to, I bought a Marineland 10 watt fixed temp of 78 but everytime I plug it in my temp goes to 86, so much for the fixed temp heaters. In the little 2.5 things change prety quick.

http://www.marinedepot.com/Hydor_Mini_Aquarium_Heater_7.5_Watt_for_tanks_up_to_5_gallons_Inline_Specialty_Heaters-Hydor_USA-HD10401-FIHTIH-vi.html

Bryan wrote:http://www.marinedepot.com/Hydor_Mini_Aquarium_Heater_7.5_Watt_for_tanks_up_to_5_gallons_Inline_Specialty_Heaters-Hydor_USA-HD10401-FIHTIH-vi.html

I don't know, I read this on there.

If the ambient room temperature rises above 76 F or other preferred temperature, simply remove or unplug the heater until needed again.

Why would you need to unplug it, don't make sense.

it keeps the tank 5* above room temp

Hmmmm, I don't like that idea, I may try to find a little adjustable one around 10 watt. You know on those leds, I think I will use a dab of silicone instead of epoxy, if they should burn out it will make them easier to replace! I need to get finished up on that stuff but I been under the weather this week, havn't felt much like messing with it.

at least feeling bad distracts you from wanting to start early. thats why i delayed ordering mine. hope you get feeling better soon, i would feel bad for beating up on a sickling

Ok, got the soldering done and mounted the blue leds in the hood, I think this is going to be just right for moon glo. My new 42 led light will be here tomorrow. I'm still testing and that dang fixed temp heater is still getting way to hot, I'm taking it back to petsmart tomorrow and pick up another and see if it works any better.

Very nice! Looking great Donnie, as usual. :-)

Ok, I got the new light in Saturday. I had to dismantle it and remove some unwanted parts like the clip and goose neck. I attached it to the canopy with some good ole velcro. I added two 3/4" pvc couplers over the blues to broadcast the light more down than out. I will try this and see how it works for the moonlights, I can always remove them. I am concerned about a lot of light glow on the wall behind the tank so I ordered a 5mm computer fan today and I will enclose the back of the hood with some black ABS plastic sheet I have to stop the glow from behind the hood, hence the need for the fan to remove any type heat build up from the higher power leds.

I decided to build a filter basket for this tank modeled after the one I built for my 28g, this way I can run filter floss and a reduced size chemipure elite in the system. The top is removable so it wont be a big deal to implement the basket on the tank. It is quite small being 2-1/4" w x 1-1/8"D x 6" Tall. but should do a good job filtering the 2.5 gallons. I did finally find a small set temp heater that keeps the tank 76-78 degrees. The Marineland heaters just don't work, they raised the temp to 86 but I bought a Tetra 25w set temp at Wally World and so far it is working perfectly, imagine that!

where are you getting the egg crate stuff from.

egg crate is at home depot in the lighting section. its actually called a light diffuser

I bought the same little heater for my mixing bucket. Works great for me too with 3 to 5 gallons.

I don't know if its true or not but I have read that the 1/2" egg crate is prone to grow undesirable algae whereas the 3/8" like I use is made from a different type plastic and does not grow the algae. I do know that algae does not grow on the 3/8" like I use. I think Lowes has it too. I'm still cutting off a piece I have had for years, couldn't even tell you where I got from. It comes in 2' x 2' and 2' x 4' pieces.

I got the same heater donnie and mine is holding 79 with or with out light on so far so good also went with th maxi jet 401 106gph and seems to do the trick

I been testing mine today and it is dropping to 76.8 lowest and running all my lights it just stays the same place 76.8 so looks like my tank is gonna run at that temp. I couldn't get the temp down last week and now I know it was because of the marineland heater, tried two of them pieces of crap. As long as it stays 76.0 or slightly above I am good to go. I guess I need to pick up a newspaper tomorrow and get a pick with the paper in the tank to make it legit because I am going to get it going for real before this weekend.

donnie, check the main contest thread to see what needs to be in your tank. no need to buy a paper

Ok, guys and gals here is my pico with nothing in it but today's newspaper. It will have water in it tomorrow, hopefully,maybe :>)

Nice headline, . Good luck with the contest.

Water and sand are in, I will see what kind of aquascaping I can do tomorrow, I used water from my 28g and will be using dry rock, not much room for rockwork tho, this should be interesting. Oh, I figured out a way to use chemipure elite, I cut down an old bag and just took some new chemipure and scooped some out and put it in the bag and put a cable tie on it and put it in my basket I built yesterday.

ahh, its alright...... if you like that whole Awsome Custom thing.