Lighting Cheapie 3 gallon pico setup.

My wifes advisor has a shelf of 3 gallon pico tanks they used to use in a class but now are just gathering dust, so we decided to use one as a pico reef in her lab. Originally we used 2 of the 9w lights for it, but they are crappy, they rust and fall apart, and they get REALLY hot. The tank has been setup for about a year probably, it has not been maintained for crap really. It has only ever had one water change, and that was because 3/4 gallon of kalk water got dumped in and overflowed out... We sometimes dont come in for a week or two at a time, and it is just treated badly all over. I recently realized the 2x9w lights have actually just been on 24/7 for god only know how long, at least 1.5 months though.

I decided to build and LED light and will eventually do an ATO as well when the float valves come in.

I am a student, so the budget is always tight. I got 8 violet LEDs for a $3.32 shipped bid on ebay and had a pair of 3w 2700k warm white luxeons from steeves LEDs that I recycled from an old algae growth bucket, I stuck them on an old CPU heatsink with a $8 ebay driver. So out of pocket this was ~$12, plus what I had laying around because I am a cheapo packrat. This light is almost all ~420/660nm with almost nothing in blue range, should be interesting to see how the critters do with just the Chlorophyll A band being covered.

 

It has been almost a week, I started off at 5.5 hours and am up to 6.5 now. Everything seems quite pleased with just the 420nm/660nm and no real coverage in the blue range.

Some day I really have to check the salinity in it.... I suppose I will dial it in when I make the diy budget ATO.

 

That, like most of my LED heatsinks is just an old CPU cooler and fan. I have a bunch of mismatched ones laying around from old PCs I worked on or upgraded for folks, or you can buy good AMD ones on ebay with fans for around $5.

Walmart had "baby bubbles" battery operated pump for $4.96, ebay had 2 float valves for $1.50 each, I think I have everything else.

 

$5 heatsink perfect for little projects like this, I used a pair of similar ones in the other thread that are now the sole lighting on a 65 gallon, and they run barely over room temp: http://www.ebay.com/itm/350613814632?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Power them with just about any old 5-7v phone charger you have laying around and you have a perfect cooling system for dirt cheap.

 

Its been about 3 weeks now:


Everything seems really pleased with the light, the xenias and GSP are growing like crazy, and everything else has much better extention.

I tossed in a small and a HUGE ricordia from my main tank about a week ago. They were getting blown around my main tank to much. The large one settled right in, the small one was almost dead but appears to be coming back steadily.

Also tossed in 2 sexy shrimp, which was all petco had at the time. They were driving the hammer coral nuts at first, but he seems to have mostly adjusted to them.

Still waiting on the right angle float switches to setup the ATO, but honestly the tank doesnt really need it now, evaporation has gone to almost nil since the light switch. I think its been over a week since it was topped off in these pics.

 

I have to get something for photosharing that is better than photobucket.... I have been using it for over 10 years, it used to be great, but now they reduce the resolution to nothing and make you visit their site to see the full sized version.....

any suggestions? I would prefer something free that has an android app and keeps higher res images.

 

Had to move the pico to my wifes new spot in the lab. My wife also wanted a bit more blue, so I replaced 2 of the violets with the 2 StevesLEDs royal blues out of my scrubber.

I also got rid of the HOB filters about a week ago. Just runs on the tiny powerhead now. Hard to get more simple than this setup:

I dropped on 4 little guppy fry as well. Sadly one went surfing in the hour I was gone to class before I put the full coverage lid on, the little bugger made it out through about a half inch gap.

 

Not really any way to put sleeves on the visible wires, there is only a short section that they both run together.

 

If you are used to seeing 3 gallon creampies you have been seeing the scary part of the internet my friend! =D

 

This tank does amazingly well still, had some issues and then I realized my wife had been feeding the shrimp and someone had flipped the light timer to "on" for god only knows how long (which I am pretty sure killed the hammer)

The other corals are doing good, nothing is growing amazingly fast, but everything looks great and the huge Ricordia just split. It does always amaze me how well this tank does with near 0 maintaince. Other than topping off the water and cleaning the front glass every few weeks it just gets looked at.