Got a Fluval Spec sans for $10. Figured I'd take a shot at a pico.
DIY Skimmer:
In action:
It works! (Kinda); It does skim out gunk however it seems to accumulate more in the airline tube than the bottle (had to clean out the airline tubing tonight):
Everything together (without the back partition):
For lighting I settled on a Zetlight:
Hmmm:
Sand and rock:
With water (light isn't actually as purple as my camera makes it out to be):
Fast forward a month and a half. The algae plague is my fault for continually forgetting to buy a timer switch (plus forgetting to turn the light off...):
So I bought a snail (hasn't quite caught up to the algae):
Also bought a hermit crab (the blue berry mushroom and montipora I just moved from my other system).
Sorry about the crappy photo quality. My cellphone camera doesn't seem to agree with the Zetlight. I'll eventually get around to using my real camera.
Suggestions on livestock?
I do actually have two ricordea's in there.