Pico Equipment

Hello again, I am planning an outdoors (most likely) 2.7 gallon 8.5 inch cube pico tank. I am going to have a sump similar to that of a nano cube. For this tank I'm going to get some of the smallest and most reliable equipment, so far here's my list-
Hagen Elite mini submersible aquarium heater 25W
5.5 or 2.5 gallon sump/fuge
Phosban
Chemi-pure elite
Purigen
Rio return pump
I need a fuge light too and many other items Any equipment recommendations?

 

Have you checked out microreefs ? they have everything pretty much, might be worth checking out since they have complete packages that include the live rock and some packages that include a mini chiller too.
Good luck

 

Mini chiller? I'm checking it out! Thanks..
List has been edited.

 

You might be biting off more than you bargained for. A tank that small is going to have great swings in temperature. It doesnt take much sunlight to heat a few gallons to painfully-high temperatures. It will also cool down pretty quickly at night. I dont know your climate but it can get pretty chilly in the evenings. Stability is important with a reef, and large swings might be past the capacity of your heater and chiller. Also evaporation. You might find massive evaporation during the days.

Then there is lighting. In a small tank with controlled sunlight, you might end up with a green pond in no time.

Ive seen guys try to do large out door salt ponds and evaporation is always a big problem. Even with really big tanks.

 

Right now where I live it's staying approx. 75 in the day (sometimes warmer/cooler) and approx. medium to high 50s at night and medium 60s during the evening. The tank will be in shade 100% of the day, for evaporation I will do daily to every other day top offs with bi-weekly water changes. I will have a chiller and a good heater too. Probably a fan. For lighting I will get either a small Orphek or Boost LED par bulb.
Thanks

 

yeah i'm impressed with their selection of well everything, they have a ton of gorgeous pico tanks, the 8 gallon shallow makes me drool hahaha

Seems to get A+ reviews from everyone on nano reef. Just thought i'd share since pico aquariums have their own challenges , i kept a 6gallon picoreef for 4 years recently upgraded to something bigger but overall i still love reefs under 5 gallons, they can be really beautiful. Anyway good luck

 

Bump

 

micro reefs is a great site, but really a chiller is unnecessary, unless you live in florida or texas where the average daily temp is over 90 degrees. but really even an air conditioned house will help with that. i would suggest g=going with a par38 bulb from orphek, great little lights especially for that sized tank. or you could always get one of the little fixtures off of microreefs.com.

 

evaporation is easily handled with an ato top off. also the wavelengths of most led lights are not hospitable to algae so i do not believe that will be a very big problem. as for temp swings im pretty sure hes good, assuming his house is air conditioned because he lives in california and im assuming it is because im guessing it gets quite hot hell have no problem keeping it a good temperature.

 

I live in the bay area. In August and September it can get 100-105 but usually stays around 90. Since the tank is so small I can do daily-every other day top off's with a half gallon container.