1 gallon pico rebuild

ok so this is my first build thread so bear with me please. so i decided to put up my 1 gal cube it is 6x6x6. it was made for small animals like poison dart frogs but when i saw it i knew it would be my next pico tank. i got it home and put sand and water in it and left it to cycle and even built (glued together) a piece of rock and put that in. then i started figureing out the lighting situation and somewhere in there i lost motivation to finish so it sat there full of water for several months id say probably more than six. so i put the rock in the sump of my main tank and the sand in the display. then last monday i was at sunpet picking up a few things for my tank (sunpet is a wholeseller, and the only reason i was allowed in is because my friend owns a lfs and he went with me) and i saw these things called mini dart fish, they look like teeny tiny firefish i think theyre about 1/2" or so. and me being me, a lover of all things tiny, i had to have them but dont worry i didnt buy them but they inspired me to set up my pico cube once again so today i did.

this is the everything i will be using:


this is the lid. i cut the slits into it to accomidate wires for the pump and heater.


another pic of the lid. it originally had a screen mesh in it because it was a reptile tank but i cut that out and took some scrap 1/4" plexi i had laying around and cut it on a table saw to fit inside the lip of the lid


another pic of the lid. it almost looks like it was made with plexi to begin with lol


this is last pic of the lid you can see that the plexi fits pretty flush with the lid


this is a pic of the pump specs its just a hair under 40 gph which is still too much at full power cause it blows the sand around luckily it has a little knob to dial it down


this is the rock i made i used superglue a few barnacles a shell and about 40-50 small pieces of rock rubble


the (semi)finished product


a close up and yes i know the rock is tilted to the left but i like it that way it kinda reminds me of old ruins that have shifted


now i still have to make a light rig for it which i should have done by tuesday night. oh and i forgot to mention that in the first picture is a tiny little magfloat i found at petsmart or petco last year and couldnt resist lol. well thats all for now hope you enjoy and ill post more when i do more to the tank

thanks for reading

-Brijesh

 

also the sand, rock and water were pulled from my main tank so there should be a very minimal cycle if there is one at all but ill test in a day or two to be sure. and as for maintanance i plan on doing 25% water changes every other day to remove waste from the fish using water from my main tank to replace it

 

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Very nice work, great job on the rock

Plan sounds great

 

its been about 24 hours since i set up the pico so i tested it and all the results were 0 so i went snooping through my main tank to find two baby cerith snails which i had bought just for this tank last summer but since i stopped working on it i put them in the main tank.

the tiny black spot on the shell is one and if you look just left of the opening opening on the bottom right barnacle you'll see the other


and does anyone know anything about bumble bee shrimp? i have 3 in my main tank but idk what they eat and i want to put one in the pico in a week or two but i need to know what to feed them here are a couple pics

 

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Subscribed...This is a nice little tank.

I am not sure about the feeding requirements of the bumblebee shrimp. They sure look cool though.

 

OMG I seriously was thinking of putting together a pico 2.5 gallon LOL with bumblebee shrimp! U read my mind!

 

They eat starfish/echinoderms tube feet

 

Wait would a bumble bee shrimp eat a brittle/serpent star?