SO.
Some of you may know from previous posts and comments that I have a desktop freshwater betta tank that housed a betta, shrimp and plants. It was a gift to myself when I started working from home, and it's been a lovely little tank. I've had it for threeish years now, and have done a few upgrades and changes throughout that time.
For those of you unfamiliar with this tank, here are the general specs. It's the Marineland contour 3.
It was originally a 3 gallon AIO glass tank with a pretty pitiful filter pump and poorly handled filtering. The three gallons of course includes the portion in the back, and as 3 gallons is already pushing it for an adequate size for a betta, it took me about six months before I tore down the tank, ripped out the back and then set it back up with a sponge filter to utilize the full space. That's how it's been running ever since, more than two years. I replaced the light on it almost immediately, and as you can see, the tank served double duty for a while as a place to house my jumping spider as well. (Ignore the dust! Shhh, what dust?)
Well, I told myself that when my betta passed, I would repurpose it into a tiny pico tank and try my hand there. It is thus that a week ago, he went to fishy heaven, and now the sad times come with interesting times - planning stages are in progress.
I'm looking for input before I settle down into this build. Stocking plans are minimal at the moment, but ideally I'm thinking soft corals, a single spectacular rock flower anemone and some sexy shrimp, so the lighting requirements will be minimal.
I want to go with the black sand look and see how it does - part of the experiment. I will very likely use the sand that is already in this tank after much cleansing, and pull in rocks from my existing tanks to help seed and cycle. I've dumped extra rocks in a back portion of one tank with the intention of letting it mature while I go through the planning stages so I can pull more live rock when we come to that part.
My indecision comes with the filtration. LIKE A FOOL I got rid of the acrylic that I pulled out of this tank because I didn't think I'd use it. Meanwhile I look at my half dozen pumps and lights and just sigh at my lack of foresight. I want to avoid using an airstone alone, so I'm wanting to put some kind of small filtration in. I am considering building a 3"x4" filtration chamber in the back corner and DIYing a small basket for media and the heater to give me some options. I already have the loc-line connections to create a Y split to provide some varied flow patterns if I go with this option though I have yet to look at what pumps would be small enough. (Suggestions would be welcome!)
I do however already have this -
Surface Skimmer Filter
This is a Sunsun surface skimmer for small tanks and is very small indeed at about 2 x 1.5 inches. The link is to the Amazon listing. I have no idea what the GPH it pushes is, there's zero information from where I got it, and it's just one of those random spare filters I happen to have. It's certainly the smallest and it works just fine for what it is, and the venturi portion (The part that draws air to make bubbles for aeration) is removable.
While I know the AIO build is by far the -better- option, since people manage these pico tanks and jars with only an airstone, I'd appreciate opinions on using the skimmer instead. I want to keep all filtration inside the tank one way or the other.
I am quite excited!
Some of you may know from previous posts and comments that I have a desktop freshwater betta tank that housed a betta, shrimp and plants. It was a gift to myself when I started working from home, and it's been a lovely little tank. I've had it for threeish years now, and have done a few upgrades and changes throughout that time.
For those of you unfamiliar with this tank, here are the general specs. It's the Marineland contour 3.
It was originally a 3 gallon AIO glass tank with a pretty pitiful filter pump and poorly handled filtering. The three gallons of course includes the portion in the back, and as 3 gallons is already pushing it for an adequate size for a betta, it took me about six months before I tore down the tank, ripped out the back and then set it back up with a sponge filter to utilize the full space. That's how it's been running ever since, more than two years. I replaced the light on it almost immediately, and as you can see, the tank served double duty for a while as a place to house my jumping spider as well. (Ignore the dust! Shhh, what dust?)
Well, I told myself that when my betta passed, I would repurpose it into a tiny pico tank and try my hand there. It is thus that a week ago, he went to fishy heaven, and now the sad times come with interesting times - planning stages are in progress.
I'm looking for input before I settle down into this build. Stocking plans are minimal at the moment, but ideally I'm thinking soft corals, a single spectacular rock flower anemone and some sexy shrimp, so the lighting requirements will be minimal.
I want to go with the black sand look and see how it does - part of the experiment. I will very likely use the sand that is already in this tank after much cleansing, and pull in rocks from my existing tanks to help seed and cycle. I've dumped extra rocks in a back portion of one tank with the intention of letting it mature while I go through the planning stages so I can pull more live rock when we come to that part.
My indecision comes with the filtration. LIKE A FOOL I got rid of the acrylic that I pulled out of this tank because I didn't think I'd use it. Meanwhile I look at my half dozen pumps and lights and just sigh at my lack of foresight. I want to avoid using an airstone alone, so I'm wanting to put some kind of small filtration in. I am considering building a 3"x4" filtration chamber in the back corner and DIYing a small basket for media and the heater to give me some options. I already have the loc-line connections to create a Y split to provide some varied flow patterns if I go with this option though I have yet to look at what pumps would be small enough. (Suggestions would be welcome!)
I do however already have this -
Surface Skimmer Filter
This is a Sunsun surface skimmer for small tanks and is very small indeed at about 2 x 1.5 inches. The link is to the Amazon listing. I have no idea what the GPH it pushes is, there's zero information from where I got it, and it's just one of those random spare filters I happen to have. It's certainly the smallest and it works just fine for what it is, and the venturi portion (The part that draws air to make bubbles for aeration) is removable.
While I know the AIO build is by far the -better- option, since people manage these pico tanks and jars with only an airstone, I'd appreciate opinions on using the skimmer instead. I want to keep all filtration inside the tank one way or the other.
I am quite excited!