Innovative Marine 4 Gallon Pico

These tanks are nicely built and have very clean lines. Due to the lack of surface area, Dissolved Oxygen could be an issue if you put too many fish in them. I didn't want to ruin the looks of the tank by putting a powerhead in there so I purposely keep the sump a little lower than normal so that the water has to fall into the last chamber (the return chamber). The falling water off-gasses CO2 and Oxygenates the water a little. I also have the return nozzle turned sideways so a little water goes to ripple the surface of the water and the rest sends flow around the bottom of the tank. Another thing that I'm going to do once it's in stock is to buy their Spin Stream and that will help with flow as well as Dissolved Oxygen issues.


The LED moonlights are too bright and corals will not go to sleep. I had a choice.....make a nice clean light look ugly by putting some ugly electrical tape over some LED's or use a second timer just for the moonlights.

Water changes are easy. I unplug the pump, take out 2 quarts and then replace it. It takes less than 60 seconds. (I have to do water changes because the black tunicate, orange tunicate, tree sponge, and feather dusters all need daily doses of phytoplankton. Additionally, the Tubastrea as well as the Dendrophyllia require target feeding on a regular basis. If I didn't keep up on my water changes, my nitrates would be 100 in just 4 or 5 days.

 

Hi Curtis

I assume the Blue LED moonlights are very bright then? any chance of an image with the tank lit with just that
are you using a commercial phyto product or culturing your own?
an interesting collection you have going on there IMO

 

im assuming this is a cadlights mini series? those are great little tanks i am very interested in switching the stock from my five over to a 8 gallon mini.

 

They went WAAAAAAAY overboard. I'll take a picture tonight when the sun isn't shining off the snow. It's very bright in that room right now.

It would be a pain to maintain a culture of several different species. The easiest species to culture is nannochloropsis. Unfortunately, trying to feed the tunicates with nannochloropsis would be the equivalent of handcuffing a starving human, removing his dentures, and then handing him a whole watermelon to try and gum. It just isn't going to work. My product of choice is Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast. I've tried all sorts of difficult animals before that people say should stay in the ocean and they all eventually starved. When I did my research, it's because of the watermelon example I gave above. The second I switched to Phyto-Feast or Phycopure as to opposed to DT's which is almost entirely Nannochloropsis, I had success with these animals. I was going to move my scallop in there but I hadn't realized just how huge he got in the biocube. He would dominate the entire tank. (Scallops will also slowly starve with Nanno).

 

Photo taken in complete darkness with no flash (less the moonlights). As you can see, it even lights up the wall. (Heck, it lights up the whole room).

 

this picture does not do how bright the light is justice. It is very bright!The biggest problem with this tank IMO is the flow. Not enough movement in the bottom. There is an adaptor you can purchase that will "spin" in the tank to increase the flow, so we are looking at getting this soon.

 

Hello Curt.


Great tank!!!!!!

 

Nice pico!

 

This post got me in trouble. LOL I used to work with one of the owners of Innovative Marine. I also work for a LFS that is a distributor and I sell all of their aquariums.

I don't think that my review was overly negative like they seem to think it was. I even pointed out easy ways to handle some of the shortcomings and one of them involves an add-on sale that will make them more money. Besides, there are issues with every AIO aquarium I've ever purchased. I have 8 of them so I might know a thing or two about nanos. One of the first things I do with a brand new nano is before there's even a drop of water in it is to rip out the supplied powerhead and upgrade it.

Regardless, my review stands. I've known many people on this forum for many years. I'm a "no-nonsense" person as they know and 3Reefer's have a right to expect an honest review out of me. I really like this product. I wouldn't have purchased it if I didn't. I expect I will sell a lot of them but every one I sell will have also be sold with a spin-stream. Models evolve over time. Hopefully future models will have a low power moonlight in addition. I currently run the moonlights all day long as it makes the colors in the chili coral, pipe organ, Favia, and Ricordia pop. (The last three corals were added after I took the pictures).

 

Nice looking tank Curt! Thanks for the honest review. Upgrading the stock powerhead is always a good idea.