JBJ Cubey 3 gallon pico project.

[Lazyfish]

I got this tank to be a little frag tank for now. Once the frags are gone I will try to make a scape plan to add a few intresting inverts or maby a trimea goby.
This is not the original version of this tank it's the "delux" more like " downgrade" the original was said to have 12 wt lights this has 5wt lights the overflow is also diffrent the overflow can not even handle the full output of the 40gph pump when wide open. The back devider is also shorter between tank and filtration area. It comes with media caddy and spray bar. Interestingly the display appears to be a full 3g not around 2.5 as I originaly thought it would be. Specs on this thing are sketchy. Couldnt find much. With the filter area should be about 3.5g total. The lid and tank feel decent glass is a bit thin to me as are the back deviders.
I decided to keep the tank and modify it so that I could use it.

Starting yesterday. First I striped out the innards and removed all the screws I could find.

Then I opened up the overflow. I will add a thin cross piece to keep things out of it when my silicone arives. Also plan to use this same material to raise the back wall to keep things from crawling into the back but have to wait on the silicone for that part.

I dug out my old skyye light it still works but it was nasty. Sticky grimy...I had to clean it with vinegar and lemon juice.

Had difficulty cutting off the mount so I got some help from my dad. He said it was something simmilar to aircraft grade aluminum and hacked it off with some difficulty for me. At 76 he kicked my 36 year old butt on this thing with the same tools I was trying to use. He sawed while I held it down then the heat kicked both our butts and we had to take a break. I rather liked how the tank looks with this light. I was going to finish up but ended up helping him by taking off then putting back on the lawnmower deck because something was caught in it. The blades were tore up he replaced those I did the rest. I was wiped out after that and had got over heated and didn't finish cutting on the tank yesterday.

 

[Lazyfish]

Starting today I cut the light hole in the lid. The material proved alot thicker and harder to cut than I thought. I boogered up the first starting hole. Took me over an hour to cut this out and ended up with blisters on my hands. I had planed to use a hole saw but the corect width saw would have left gaps at the front and back so I had to improvise. It didn't come out too bad and it disapears under the light so the mistakes are not seen..
I was able to put the light cord inside the lid and out one if the holes made it look alot nicer.

Still have some things to do the things I ordered should be in friday. I ordered high heat paint I will touch up the light with. Some of the paint poped off while working with it. I ordered an inline dimmer switch for the light. The black silicone, liquid tape and plastic material will be used to mount the light raise the back devider and put a gaurd on the overflow. Cant do anything else with this untill friday when it gets here.

 

[BluewaterLa]

The guard you plan on putting on the overflow area, is that to block out the light spill into the overflow area to keep algae out ?

 

[Lazyfish]

Yes and also to keep things from crawling over the top of the devider into the back chambers so easily. It's only about .5 inches above the waterline as it sits now. I plan to leave a couple of gaps incase of overflow so the water has somewhere to go over wall into the back area. It wont completely get rid of the light spill but it will cut it down alot.

The top of the overflow openings are even with the waterline. I plan to file those a bit when I find my small file. Not sure about surface skimming on this. Theres actualy alot if surface agitation with the spray bar so may not even need to worry about it.

 

[smileyjoe]

Sweet little project!! @Lazyfish

 

[Lazyfish]

Feels like when I striped down and moded out my old biocube 29g. Only smaller. Atleast I didnt have to buy a new light. Just paint, silicone and an inline dimmer switch.The rest I had laying around.

 

[Lazyfish]

My stuff just came in the dimmer switch is on. It works perfect. Exactly what I wanted. And aparently my dad alredy had high heat black paint and liquid tape could have saved a few bucks if I had thought to ask oh well. I will get on the silicone bits when I get back from this dumb meeting in a few hours hopfully it will all be together by tonight.

 

[Lazyfish]

Checked it dry With my phones par meter with the light set wide open I'm getting about 150 at the bottom and 250 at the "top" actualy a few inches down. If I do check close to the actual top its 280. I have dialed it down slightly to 100 at the sand level and 200 at the "top" I can put my shrooms and things at the bottom.and lps up a bit higher in the tank around the 150 to 200 mark. I can ajust it up and down based on the corals reactions.

 

[Lazyfish]

The light was painted it's a bit glossier and matches the lid well now. The back piece I put in raised the back wall about 1.5 inches. The wier openings have been filed smooth and a cross piece has been added to keep critters out. If it blocks the flow too much I can easily remove it again. I also made a cosmetic change. the original silicone was clear I put black over it simply for cosmetics. It turned out quite well theres a couple of spots I need to clean up tomorrow but otherwise looks ok. The silicone on the back section is a bit messy but its not as noticable with the black. I never worked with the black before I found it much harder to squeeze out the tube. Must be thicker.
I was planning on doing the touch ups and some fine sanding on some stuff this evening but the horse flies are dive bombing me and the mosquitos are about to carry me off so that's going to be for another day.
I know theres a gap at each corner of the light where its stuck on. I left spaces there to help vent heat from the light.

 

[Lazyfish]

The light spill is still more than I want I'm going to redo that back piece and make it taller. I have not encountered any heat issues while running the light so far. I will fill this in a few days and let it run for a while with just fresh water and see if any heat issues happen.

 

[Lazyfish]

Wont be up and running untill next week I ended up picking up a few shifts at work so its cut back how much I can work on this. The modifications have been completed today. I'm just waiting for it to dry enough outside to bring in and I will take a few pics.
After 48 hrs to set the fresh silicone. I'll fill it and run it with fresh water a few days before I put salt water in it this will make sure it's well rinsed out and help me make sure theres no heat or filtration issues with the mods I did

 

[Lazyfish]

Last shots before it gets wet. Two 16.9 oz bottles for size. The feeding door still works and I'm quite happy with how this light looks stuck on the lid like this it doesn't detract from the lines of the tank at all imo.

 

[LsuHunter]

This is actually really cool, great job on the mods.

 

[Lazyfish]

This may take longer to get wet than I thought. I have a major covid outbreak where I work. Im working on the covid unit also... so work + rampant covid + extra shifts. If I end up with this mess Im not gona feel like doing anything for a while wont be able to keep up a new and not yet stable pico tank if I'm sick so I may have to leave this alone for a few weeks untill the covid outbreak chills out over here.
Untill then I'll play with my new hannah ph checker probe read up on it see if I can get it calibrated and figure it out and all.

 

[Lazyfish]

A very minor change but I like it. I colored this just because and poked out the other 3 because they were bright. Now it looks like it's got an indicator light. It's just a clear plastic thing that picks up the light. It looks like a red led but isnt...sneaky.

 

[Lazyfish]

All the frag racks are in. I have rock pieces, ceramic bio media and frag plugs cooking in the other tanks. It will go in the empty space on the right. Wont look pretty but will get the job done untill the frags are mostly gone then I can remove the egg crate rack and make a real scape. I am so never making 20+ frags at once again lol.

 

[Lazyfish]

The rate of infection at work is down so I decided to get started on the tank again and got it wet I threw a few corals in to test it out not realy expecting a cycle as the rock sand and frag plugs are all fully cycled from the other tank but I'm keeping an eye on it anyway. Will add the frags slowly to it from the 20.

 

[Lazyfish]

Been slowly adding frags about 90% of them are in. Corals are doing well the rack on the top right are corals that I am keeping and will eventualy use in this tank once I get rid of the frags and complete the live rock structure. So far i have zoas speckled fire and ice, pink diamond. Fruitloop, brown button, camo grandis pally, mary jane and true blue. Also a small micromussa frag. Will add rastas to that and a frag of john deere leptastrea when it grows out. Now I got to get rid of these other frags.

 

[smileyjoe]

Been slowly adding frags about 90% of them are in. Corals are doing well the rack on the top right are corals that I am keeping and will eventualy use in this tank once I get rid of the frags and complete the live rock structure. So far i have zoas speckled fire and ice, pink diamond. Fruitloop, brown button, camo grandis pally, mary jane and true blue. Also a small micromussa frag. Will add rastas to that and a frag of john deere leptastrea when it grows out. Now I got to get rid of these other frags.View attachment 23914View attachment 23913View attachment 23916View attachment 23915

Sweet little tank!!! Loving all these softies between you and Gary's tank!!

 

[Lazyfish]

The cube has a fish!
At 0.75 inches it looks tiny even in this tank. Not likely to get much bigger.

Eviota atriventris.
Gold neon evoita goby or black belly dwarf goby.
I wasnt sure what its swimming habits would be couldnt find too much on behaviors.
It perches alot moves like an inch then perches again. It will ocasionaly swims a bit in the open water then goes back to perching. This fish has been at the lfs quite a while in a tank probly half the size of this one. He seems to be settling in well so far.