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[Len]

Rikko's official thread:
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[Rikko]

Well, I'm a late starter but I've had ideas for a desktop nano cube swimming in my head for weeks now.

At this point I add I think it's really idiotic when I can't fall asleep until 4am because I'm too wired thinking about overflows and reflectors. It's so embarrassing I can't even get embarrassed about it.

The tank and lighting I picked up today... They will be a surprise for when I get a few photos taken and posted. These photos aren't intended as my submissions for the "big 3" on the contest, but more of a build log for the DIY types who dare believe they're more reckless than I.

I've got the following areas that I've isolated for heavy planning:
(Details will follow as the setup evolves)

Equipment:
Duh. Tank is between 8 and 11 gallons.. Depends if you use math or read the label. I'll be using my high tech milk jugs to get a precise amount.

Sump characteristics:
Since the tank is a desktop nano, I need to both eliminate as much crap from the display as possible while simultaneously minimizing the space that is being taken up. That becomes a serious problem for me. The sump either has to be beside the tank, above it, or below it. Above gets messy and I'll avoid it, much though I adore the surge tank on my 65 gallon. Below is problematic since I have pet chinchillas in the room who are unleashed thrice weekly to cause chewing mayhem upon the room. Thus it must be beside. I think I'll use a 5 gallon AGA as my sump and silicone in a few baffles. I'd also like to make an adorable little skimmer which may not work very well but will look like a widdle baby in-sump skimmer so I feel like I'm really really big.
Return pump? Most likely just a powerhead given that there won't even be a foot of head.

Overflow characteristics:
I essentially want to emulate the cheapass overflow as seen on Nano-Reef.
I stole a sheet of clear acrylic from work that once upon a time was used as a door for a reptile display cage. With some choppin' I'd like to make that overflow unit on a smaller scale so it takes up little space, while being a little more efficient. Don't ask me what I mean by that, the beer's just kicked in.

Lighting characteristics:
Beyond the actual lights I'm going to use (oh man you guys are gonna love this), the physical presence of them needs to be considered. "Blue" supplementation is also a factor. Another vulgar trick up my sleeve for that, too.

Stocking:
Man, I dunno. We've got some Tonga branch coming in in a couple weeks.. Would be nice to get my hands on some if it comes with enough small pieces. I'd initially thought I could make this tank a simple BB growout tank on my desk, but now I have many, many designs.

Water flow:
Well, my return pump should be the primary flow provider, but if I use a powerhead I don't know that it will suffice. At least one powerhead (Maxi-Jet) will be used as a safety check on the overflow (read the whole Nano-reef thread to see what I mean) and the rest I may try to get via a surge.

Such are my thoughts this dark evening. We'll see what the morrow brings.

[Rikko]

All right, work has begun.

The tank is a tempered, 3 piece cube with no rims. The base is actually bigger than the sides giving it a footed look. It measures 13.5"lx11"dx13"h.

Here she is just after bringing her home.


I had her at work and a little free time.. Which is lucky. She came with an ORANGE base. Luckily it was a little scratched up (it was very old and forgotten at the wholesaler's) on the bottom and I realized that it was just chipped paint. A razor blade and a hell of a mess later and she looks like something I can work with.

Those dimensions don't really describe it that well. A picture is worth a thousand words, and 10 to life depending on the degree of protesting:



Now for the light I'm planning to use... Just a crude little compact fluorescent bulb.. Not even a PC:



Pogo had had enough of that crap by now, so I continued work alone.


Now I had to paint it. My tanks always need a black background. I hate taping on backgrounds and dislike most of the design that are available. Couple coats of spray paint are my new motto. Besides that, I wanted to do something with the base. I wasn't totally set on any substrate and thought it this were just to be a frag growout tank, I'd run bare bottom. Rather than seeing the ugly arborite of my desk or the styrofoam I might put under the setup, I thought I'd paint it. I decided on white to get additional light refracting up into the tank to preserve as much as possible.

I painted the bottom all white and then forgot about the damn fluted base! Scrape scrape scrape... Finally:



Next I wanted something of a rim on the tank. Nothing big, just something to keep salt creep under control. I had a slab a acrylic at work that was left over from a few jobs we did. I traced the shape of the tank and cut it with a 1" rim. I'll silicone it onto the rim once I get it perfectly shaped.



Now to fit it onto the tank...



What the hell?? Let's flip it:



Great. My tank is non-symmetrical. That's reassuring. A good reason to temper it if everything else is wonky.

The last step I got to was purchasing a high quality sump. I drove my Rolls Royce to my nearest high end "Walmart" to consult with their interior decorators. They pointed me to a suave 1870s piece that they felt would complement my decor:



Yeah, yeah. I think it'll work. Here's the label:


My criteria for the sump were some height, no longer than the tank so I don't have to see it hiding behind it (preferably a little bit smaller so it can fit closer into the corner as well), and deep enough to permit me to try some ghetto skimmer designs.


Next will come some R&D with an external overflow to see what works and what doesn't.


And now comes the most difficult trial of them all.. Cleaning off the tank site:



(That moisturizer is for my elbows, I swear)

[Rikko]

Well, got myself a nice cheap 800GPH pump that I thought I could throttle down as a return pump.. Jebao WP-3000. Wow. What a piece of crap.
Left it in my sump container overnight. It's a little noisy, but I can live with that. Label says 1.5A@120V - a UK website listed this pig at 70W consumption. Come back this morning, there's a brown oily film at the water level on the sides of the container, and the 2 gallons of water are at.... 100 degrees.

NOT appropriate for a nano, NOT appropriate for a setup. I'll see about sending it back and go with a Maxi-jet after all.

[Rikko]

I thought perhaps I should post an update so people don't think I've totally forgotten about this little project.

The Rubbermaid sump has been converted into a new seawater addition system for my 65 reef (ie. screw this). Instead I found out that my dad works with polycarbonate at work to create safety shields/operator windows etc. on machinery that they fabricate. Any piece under a few feet long is essentially trash for them: my gain!
The sump is now a fully custom build (not yet cut and assembled, I just have the front and cut back and have been tracing my baffles etc into it). The right third of the sump will be a hard-mounted protein skimmer. I'll be using a limewood airstone fed through the bottom, and a network of ramps within the assembly to delay the bubbles rising (I was going to use bioballs too, but I thought more ramps would be more effective and wouldn't require any cleaning), and near the top an intake for a powerhead to provide countercurrent flow. The only removable part here will be the neck and collection cup. I don't know how well a rectangular skimmer is going to function, but I'm game to try.
The top/center of said sump will have the overflow box built in. Nothing really novel in that, though I'll have to experiment with different overflow designs to see what's quietest for my application. The internal part of the overflow will be another polycarbonate block, most likely 5-sided and clipped on instead of siliconing it to the back.
My 'U' tube is proving to be difficult.. I absolutely require 2 tubes for redundancy, but good luck making that.. I was hoping to bend 3/4" PVC but can't seem to get the kinks out of the bends. Maybe I'm not using a fine enough sand? Not enough heat? Somebody PM me if you have experience bending PVC!

Substrate is resolved.. I found a calcite that is sold to feed mills as a calium additive in feed. It's a dark grey and white speckled sand with a great variety of particle sizes and in the tank I tested it in looks GREAT! I have enough for a 3-4" sand bed which is about what I'm used to.

No progress on the canopy.. Quite honestly I'm not looking forward to it. I still stare into the light from time to time to hurt myself.

[Rikko]

The sump is almost done, now. I did run out of polycarbonate so I'll need to acquire a bit more. I had enough to create the 5 external sides of the sump but not enough for all the internal boxes and dividers. I should have more by Monday and hopefully get it done by the end of the week.

I guess I'll have to suck it up and experiment with more PVC bending. It just sucks to waste over a foot of it every time and have it not turn out. How else to make a U tube? I suppose I could buy replacement Aquaclear U tubes but I hate the colour even more than white PVC.

We got some fresh Tonga branch rock at the store today but I wasn't in. Tomorrow I'll pick up some pieces and start curing them for the tank.

I've got all of the calcite sand sitting washed in the tank now and I keep coming back to it.. I do like the colour and think it'll turn out well. I ended up with a good 3" sand bed. I suppose that'll suffice for a nanoDSB.

The canopy is still being ignored. I guess on Monday during the day I'm going to have to just suck it up and start banging things together until I see something I like. I don't particularly care how bad it looks, but I find it extremely difficult to come up with a compact design that allows the light to mount. I'm fairly sure I'll have to build it out of wood to get it the way I want. That's fine by me - I plan to cut and fasten mirror tiles to the underside to regain a lot of light. I could always do the bent Sterilite lid trick that popped up in this very contest, but I prefer something more sturdy, and if I have to frame it to get that stability I might as well just use wood. Or polycarbonate? Interesting..

[Rikko]

I still like the sand.

Sump is almost finished. All pieces are cut to size and I've cemented it the baffles for the skimmer. Tomorrow (or maybe later) I'll cement the side wall on and also the overflow box.

Canopy I've decided to build out of more polycarbonate. Just a simple box painted black on the inside of the outer pieces to hide the internals, and the internal reflector will be a triangular wedge with mirror tiles in it. I'll mount the monster mogul by gluing 4 sheets of polycarbonate together and drilling a hole. I figure 1" of solid poly will be more than strong enough.

The new LR is curing. Smells like hell and looks great. I'll have to use that pathetic epoxy putty to build a structure of LR in the tank, but it should look really nice.

I still have no idea what to stock the tank with.. It'll definitely have to be something small and entertaining. I'd like to try a citron clown goby but they seem really finicky - the tank should probably age many months before trying that.
I think in a tank that size sexy shrimp would stand out.
I'll probably steal one of my chitons from my main display for a little algae control, too.

[Rikko]

Finally got around to snapping a few photos. The tank should be completely wet-testing tomorrow night. I think I'm totally done with my Weld-On until I get the canopy underway. That should be pretty minimal. The nastiest stuff is behind me.

This morning I picked upa Lifegard Quiet One 1200 as my return pump. I don't know why, in hindsight, as it's scarcely more flow than a powerhead, but it can stand a little head height so that might benefit me over a Maxi-Jet as planned. It also looks cool? It'll push 296 GPH. That's about right for what I'm planning. It should be around 37X for the display itself, maybe 20X for the entire system. Current is MUCH more important to me than overall flow. I haven't decided what to do for my return but I might try a partial manifold. Probably not, I just wanted to say 'manifold' like I'm cool and know what the hell they are.


There's the completed sump. It ain't pretty. It's 100% polycarbonate salvaged from my dad's work and cemented with Weld-On 16. I did a brief integrity test earlier today (hence the water droplets) and she's holdin'. Considering the reasonably low pressure on it, I'm sure it'll hold up just fine for years.
The right hand side is the integrated skimmer chamber. More details on that in a better shot. The top has the outside of the overflow box. One hole with a 3/4" PVC threaded piece is there. I may added something underneath if the water exiting annoys me, but I don't expect the water level to be low enough to pose a problem. I just used Weld-On to secure it. Maybe PVC to polycarbonate isn't the best combo for Weld-On, but the fit was already tight enough for me not to be terribly worried about it.
The rest of the area, as you can see, is just water volume. If I ever decided I wanted some macro in there, I could easily hang a light off the side of the sump and let it tumble in there.


The "left" side of the sump. All you really need to note here is the PVC elbow I welded in there. I'm going to use a second small powerhead to pump water from the main area of the sump to the top of the skimmer. That's to increase my counter-current flow and get more air bubble contact time. With luck this little skimmer will kick ass. If it follows most of my DIY, it'll suck ass instead.
Note also the slanted angle I put on it. That's mostly to reduce salt creep behind and beside the sump where I won't be able to access it very well. The front is level with the tank lip and the back is.... higher than that. Ahem. My angled side pieces don't line up on either end because I consciously decided there's no need for that, so screw it, I'll make it way off just so people don't think I can't use a saw.


The "right" side of the sump. You see my little baffle system. The little lip at the top you see is for the skimmer cup to sit (see next pic). In theory that whole area will be crammed full of foam. In theory. Theory
The bottom area is just big enough for an airstone to fit in. I used a large Coralife airstone as my model in case that's the only one I can find. I might as well use them, too, even though I have the smaller Lee's ones available.


There's the right side with the skimmer cup on top. The whole collection assembly is removable to make cleaning easier. I will be putting a collection cup on top of the PVC (it's 1/2" if you pretend to care), but it's still freshly glued onto the wedge. Speaking of which..



That's the skimmer cup I threw together. Drilling the hole for the PVC was pretty nerve racking.. I'm pretty impressed with how well the Weld-On binds the stuff. The PVC itself is just siliconed on. Seeing as how it's a zero-pressure, totally irrelevant system (if it falls off, what'll happen? nothin'), I find it's completely adequate. The additional smear was where I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could use Weld-On.


You can't.



And there's the notch I hacked out of the bottom to allow the airstone in. It's bigger than I would have liked, but the airstone is pretty big. It also doubles as the exit for water being pushed into the skimmer compartment.


My other problem was bending PVC to make a couple of U-tubes for the overflow itself. My dad ended up making me a jig that pushed all the sides of the PVC in to prevent collapse. It wasn't 100% successful but I'll be damned if anyone else can do it any better without some sneaky trick they won't tell me. I'll tap the top of one or both with airline and feed that to the powerhead in the sump as a loss-of-siphon protection.


There's a fit test for the sump behind the display. It's slightly smaller to hide it a bit and the height will be hidden by the canopy which I'm sure will look like a donkey's ass. Damn Len and his deadlines!
Oh yeah, and there's the calcite substrate I was talking about. Under bright light it looks pretty cool.


A diagonal shot of the whole mess together. I have hope.


And finally, I whipped together a very crude overflow box for inside the display. It measures 4" across and 2" deep. I cut the teeth with the table saw and hope to god that there's enough there to permit about 300GPH through it.


And I siliconed it to the back of the tank. Looks ok. I'm sure when algae and coralline are smeared on it it'll look like hell.


Tomorrow this thing needs to be running or RDO will boot me out of the contest! I'll run it with FW overnight just to make sure nothing needs tuning and then dump ye olde salte mix in. Guess that means I have to do another water change on my 65.
The airline tap for the U-tube can come later.. I may epoxy in a check valve just to make it easier later on. My MJ900 already has a venturi on the input from a failed DIY skimmer for my 65 - I just need to add something to throttle back the input and I can hook it directly to that.

The canopy is going to be annoying, but I'll get the frame done tomorrow. A simple polycarbonate box and then I'll step back and decide what to do. I'm 99% sure my actinic supplements will be ultrablue LEDs. I have about 45 of them left and I think they'd look pretty cool. They should also be extremely easy to wire in, and I can add a small switchboard to decide how many banks I want on. There's no good way for me to play with different amounts of them so I'll have to just put 20 or so on the reflector and see if it's too much.

Checked my LR last night. One piece still smelled like whatever is under my bed. Another smelled fine. I remembered how bad the first one smelled and stopped at that point. If it's not cured it's going in the tank anyways. Great field test for the skimmer, eh?

To do ASAP:
- silicone the tank rim to the tank lip
- build the canopy
- cut U tubes to the correct length and get them siphoning
- plumb the return line for the pump. It's a nice threaded fitting at least, looks like 1/2"

[Rikko]

Looks like I should move my photos.. My computer has lost its IP twice in 2 days now and I can't renew it from work. Oh well, for those that didn't see the photos, use your imagination.

Siliconed the acrylic lip onto the tank this morning. It should be firm enough tonight to let me work with the whole setup.

I brought my return pump to work with me today. I'll stop by Rona on the way home and pick up some PVC fittings to let me plumb the return to the tank. I'm thinking I'll split the output into 2 nozzles (uncontrolled, let the chips fall where they may) to get a little more chaotic flow in the tank. I'd like to avoid putting a powerhead in if possible as there's pretty limited real estate as it is.

If all goes well I'll leave it running overnight and tomorrow I'll fill it with some SW and toss the rock in. Then if time permits tonight I'll get cracking on the canopy as well.

[Rikko]

Success!!!


I opted to split the return line to get some slightly more randomized flow. The bottom is capped PVC with several holes drilled into it. I would have liked a ball valve on there but there just wasn't room.
My only setback is the flow rate on the pump - it's just too high for the overflow I made. First, the teeth aren't wide or numerous enough to permit enough water through, so the water overflows over the overflow box (irony?) and in (good thing I didn't make it flush with the lip of the tank).. I'll widen the teeth tonight with a file or Dremel and see what's needed.
The other problem there was that a single 3/4" U-tube wasn't enough (mostly because there isn't enough of a drop in water level from one box to the other) so both need to be running.. That's not good for the redundancy I wanted. I may end up just making them out of 1" or using 90 degree elbows and forgetting the cute but annoying curve idea.


Not much to say here...


The overflow is gurgly and annoying, but that's really secondary at the moment. I just need a 3/4" threaded fitting and I can extend the pipe underwater.. Should be good enough but I could improvise some kind of silencing mechanism if need be. The skimmer isn't running yet.. Is there much point if it's running with freshwater?


And the overhead shot.. This has all been running for about 12 hours and the water level in the sump is the same as last night. That's my sole criterion for success.

Now alls I gotta do:
- silence that overflow
- make the overflow teeth bigger and thus reduce the water level in the display a little bit
- add a larger U tube and tap it with airline
- make a lid for the sump. Nothing fancy, just a piece of polycarbonate to hang on there to cut down evaporation and some noise
- build a damn canopy! (this'll be a day to itself, but I have Friday off)
- take over the world
- cut a piece of styrofoam to put the whole mess on on my desk. It's already on the piece I'll use, I just need to reduce it.

[Rikko]

Awright, it's filled up and running on my desk with fresh salt in it.. I didn't bother waterchanging my 65 because I'm lazy. I have no real issue dumping live rock into a tank of really really fresh salt water but don't feel like doing it to my critters, especially with a sea hare introduced only a couple days ago in there.

It's... Uhh. Noisy. That overflow definitely needs to be shut up. I made the 'lid' for the top of the sump, but given how many holes are chopped into it to allow room for the overflow tubes and the return, it's really not that effective at stopping noise.

I'm not putting a heater in.. Strange decision, I know.
When I reached into the tank yesterday morning, having left it running OUTSIDE (this is Vancouver), the water was a lot warmer than I'd expected it to be. As usual, simple little aquarium pumps are dumping a crapload more heat into the water than I expected. I'll see where it levels out at (probably pick up a digital thermometer from work on Saturday so I can keep a close eye on it) and maybe just let the pump do the heating until the winter months arrive.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to throw all my rock in there and use that crappy epoxy putty (I swear it's glorified Play Doh - it doesn't cure hard enough underwater) to make as interesting an aquascape as I can manage. The Tonga branch will definitely make it look better than lumps of Fiji ever could (kudos to Kyle and Peter at Coast Mountain Aquatics for finally getting it - NOBODY else was even willing to make an effort).

I'm also going to work on the canopy tomorrow, but I'm certain that my initial submission photo is going to just have an NO fluorescent fixture parked on it.

Onto the canopy:
You all saw the goofy oversized screw-in compact I plan to use. It's a full spectrum 6400K bulb which is spectrally excellent, but I find the colour too yellow for my liking. My blue spectrum will be made up using LEDs. I have both ultra blue and ultraviolet (that's UV/blacklight spectrum, not purple) LEDs that I'm going to build into the reflector to help modify the colour. To get better spread, I'm going to try sanding down the LEDs - a dude on some forum said it unfocuses the beam, which is really what I'm looking for here. I'm thinking 20 LEDs tops for this. I'd really like to leave ONE LED off the main circuit so that it can be a moonlight as well, but I think that the only way I can do that and still have it on a timer would be to have an additional AC adapter powering it... Meh. I'll do without for the time being.
The canopy box itself needs to be oversized - I'm glad I checked before I made one to size and then started putting the guts in.. The bulb itself is pretty well exactly the length of the tank, and that's not counting the mogul socket it sits in. By the time I've got the socket mounted in there satisfactorally and the cooling fan mounted at the other end, I expect a good 5" of overhang to either side.

Ahh, tomorrow shall tell.

[Rikko]

YEAH! It's done!
I spent the whole day making the canopy and have to say I'm really proud of it. There's little gaps and glitches I didn't expect, but all in all it's working absolutely great and there's nothing I'd change about it.


Here's the assembly more or less together. It's a box but I welded in a couple of angled pieces of polycarbonate and siliconed mirror tile to them. That's helping reclaim quite a bit of light. It's no parabolic reflector, but it's still doing a tremendous job.
Mirror tile is really, really nice to work with. I've done a lot of work with plate glass and this stuff was a joy.
See the seams there? The tiles were 12X12 but my canopy is around 14" so I had to splice it. Don't ask why the splices are different lengths, it's stupid...
The bottom (from this viewing angle) is the hole cut for the fan. I got a PC cooling fan to do the job and cut the hole with a jigsaw. Then I smoothed the hole with a sanding disk we have that fits into the drill press. The top is where the mogul socket for the PC light slips in. That took the most work early in the day. More on that with the next pic.


Here you see the box with the wedges welded in. The mount for the light socket is 4 layers of polycarbonate welded together (1" total thickness). I sanded the holes open after that to get a really tight fit. I don't have to fasten the socket in or anything - I had to get it in there with a mallet and it's not slipping out any time soon.


Here's a view from the fan hole side. Note the direction of "up". I feel it's important to leave visual cues for people.


The LED supplementation was pretty easy once I'd worked out what power adapter I could use.
See, that's the most annoying freaking thing about the whole project... A DC adapter has a listed voltage and current on the back... Which is totally meaningless for this purpose. Basically it says that when you have a device plugged into it that draws the rated, say, 100mA, then it will get 12V. If you aren't drawing 100mA, you get MORE voltage. When an LED gets mad and explodes like hell with too much voltage, that doesn't help.
Even worse, I didn't have any adapter (and I have 10 of 'em in my electronics box, too) that could run both the fan (I need 10-12 volts) and my LEDs without the voltage collapsing due to the high load. Thus, the fan itself is running at around 13V (and noisy as hell, though fortunately the grinding-snarling-vibrating "QUIET ONE" pump totally masks that) and my adapter for my LEDs puts out around 7V.
Ok, enough whining. Here's what happened:
I used polycarbonate to make the casing for my LEDs. Why? Because it was there. Shut up. Next:
I drilled holes at an angle so that the LED casing can be mounted at the front of the tank but shine towards the middle. I deliberately did NOT measure the distance between LEDs nor the exact angle so the light would be a little more random. Above you've got the blue LEDs freshly glued in. I decided to take a chance and use Weld-On to fasten them in. I think LED casings are made out of epoxy... Seems that Weld-On is compatible.


Front view of said LEDs.

Hey, that guy on the top left of the page is being sentenced for his role in a plot to bomb an airport. He looks pretty uncouth, if you know what I mean.


Here's with all LEDs in and soldered together. Like I said before when I was whining, the power supply gives me around 7V for my LEDs. These LEDs work best at 3.3VDC (ie. any less and they're not that bright, any more and you're pushing them too hard). If you don't know electronics, you can wire devices in series to get an additive property for voltage - ie. two LEDs in series means that only 7V/2 goes through each - 3.5V (the meter tested it at 3.2V). That's safe. Then, in order to get them all connected, I wired each group of 2 in parallel (voltage remains constant across a parallel circuit). I clipped as much of the leads and wire as possible and smooshed them into there and cemented on another wall.


Front view. It almost looks like I took high school electronics, doesn't it? In fact, you can tell I did from all the spit everywhere - where else would you learn to strip wire with your teeth and get yelled at because it's bad for your teeth?


Last I made small caps and drilled a couple holes for the power leads out.



Top view of the finished product (sorry 'bout the blur - I was lazy and only tried to take one shot). It's not lit there - that's just reflection from the overhead lights.


Inside view, man. I added mirror tile to every side surface (not the ends, though.. Way too many angles to work out for such small gain when you consider the way the bulb is situated). The bolts holding the fan on are stainless. There are no nuts on the other side holding it on... What? Yeah, turns out it's such a tight fit on the fan there's no room to screw the nuts on. No prob, it's not going anywhere.


I did have one ghetto moment there... I had no electrical tape for when I soldered the power leads from the fan and LEDs to the DC adapters.... I had to use scotch tape.




And, finally, after all that agony, here she is:



I'm not totally decided on the aquascaping. I had 3 other pieces and just chose 3 that sort of sit in there the easiest. The others are in my 65 finishing curing (oh shut up, they barely smelled anymore and my cleaner shrimp love that kind of crap).



I didn't buy that calendar and I only put it up to make my mom feel better.


Oh, the supplemental LEDs? Don't show up. At all. Not even worth taking a picture. I'll use 'em as moonlights. I'll post photos of THAT after I have some corals in there and you can see the UV LEDs making them fluoresce.



Needless to say the skimmer isn't running at the moment.
I still need to:
shut up the overflow
take the QUIET ONE pump and.... yeah.
get skimmer goin'
paint the exterior of the canopy black.. There's some light leakage still.
add a third U tube for redundancy.


And that's it. Hope you enjoyed my progress!

[Rikko]

I got the overflow quite a bit quieter. I might still try a mini-Durso or something but for now it's tolerable. The Quiet One pump is still grinding like hell and making me furious. When I have a few hours to myself I'm going to disconnect it and see what the problem is - when I held it free-floating in the sink it was pretty silent.

I also added a few acros to the tank... Sorta. We received a few nice acro colonies at the store and one of them had a few tiny broken pieces with it - the biggest piece is about the size of a marble. I thought I'd take them home and drop them in and see what happens. Looks like one of them is toast (I don't think there were any live polyps on it to begin with - the colony was pretty bleached when it arrived), but the others have polyps open constantly. They're a really nice blue so I'm hopeful it does well and even colours up in there.

I'm leaving the moonlights on all night. I think I'll just leave it unplugged for a week or so at the end of every month to halfass simulate lunar cycles. I'll whip out the tripod and try to take some good night shots to show what it looks like.

I also brought home a really torn up looking mermaid fan algae that wasn't doing well at the store. It still looks like crap but I don't think it looks like any less crap than when I added it two days ago.

There's a lot of crap floating off the rock now - I'm really tempted to bring home a hermit crab to start picking at it.

I painted the canopy too and I'm really happy with how that turned out. First I did a base of white spray paint underneath for the benefit of the clear areas (a couple of strips along the front and both sides) to get some reflection, then I got a Rustoleum spray from Home Depot that leaves a textures gray finish. It looks like powder-coated aluminum now - I'm really happy. The light still shows up a bit through parts, so I'll have to do another couple coats in a few days. I'll get some pics of the canopy as well.


I'm leaning towards trying an anemone in this tank.. I've seen some beautiful green carpets and I really think the light coming off that bulb is sufficient. I definitely want a bunch of sexy shrimp in there. It's a nice, little, quiet tank and I think they'd work well in there.
Problem is I really like my LPS too, though it seems a waste of all that light... Hrm.

Oh, and the overflow is working very well. I was worried about air bubbles building up inside the tubes but because the flow is so high all the bubbles that enter are quickly sucked right through to the other side. I bought some braided flexible PVC tubing that I'll try to use to make another U tube. The PVC is great but I really prefer to be able to see inside the tube.... At least a little bit.

[Rikko]

Running total to date:
(Just so's I don't forget way later on)
Tank/pump/light - $160
Assorted plumbing parts, paint et al - $25
Weld-On - $10
Polycarbonate - free
Calcite sand - free (sample! woo!)
Live rock - $30 (guessing here, since several pieces didn't get used)
-----------------
Total to date: $225


Most of the stuff I was able to get wholesale or nearly so, so my budget wasn't much of a problem.
I haven't paid for any of the livestock because most of it (including the rest of the bleached acro colony that's doing really poorly at the store) is on death watch. If it picks up, I'll probably take it back. If I get attached to it, I'll pay for it later.

[Rikko]

Ugh. Here comes the education.

First of all, Quiet Ones pumps suck. Completely and absolutely. I'll see if I can return it without the box and say it's defective.. I can't see anybody suggesting that this racket is 'within operational parameters'.

Second. Diatom bloom. Oh yeah. That comes from high nitrates which comes from rock that wasn't 100% cured. That's ok, at least I got my day 1 pics up before it struck. Did a 75% water change (It looks like this system only holds about 6 gallons of water). Things should look better in the morn.

Third. Evaporation. Holy crap for crap! No wonder that Astrea snail wasn't moving! I'm probably evaporating 10% of the water daily! Tomorrow I get myself a float switch and build a topoff system. I don't mind having a couple gallons of DI water sitting somewhere above the tank if it makes that huge a difference.

I've also decided my tax refund is going into a digital SLR camera. Expect slightly less bad photos in the future. And if they continue to be dreadful, we can only blame me and not the cheap Kodak jobbie.

[Rikko]

I'm still too horrified to post any photos (not so much, I guess, I'm just too lazy to find the camera).. Here's a brief update anyways:

I took back the "QUIET ONE" pump and said it was defective. Unfortunately, I tossed the box so the best I could get was a replacement (and they put my old one in the new box and sent that back). The new one is definitely quieter, though still a bit loud for my liking. I'll probably just replace it with a Maxi-jet 1200 and call it a day and keep the pump for the future.

Wrapped a filter sock around the outlet of the overflow.. Bubbles are now essentially zero and that means essentially zero bubbles returning to the tank.. It's still a wee bit cloudy from me stomping around in the sump but it's already looking a bit better.

The diatoms are dying off.. I think the mermaid fan algae is making a recovery.

The little acro nubs have mostly died off.. That diatom bloom didn't do them any favours.. Nor did the hypersalinity days..

I also took my ghetto cover for the sump and put it under the light.. Evaporation has been curbed substantially and will have to do until I find someone who has float valves in stock.

I see lots of mermaid cup algae sprouting up all over the place. I hope it lasts - it didn't in my 65.

And that spiny shell astrea snail hasn't moved in a really long time... I guess I have to go poke him now.

[Rikko]

Another boring text update, which shall change soon...

The tank is cleared again.. Looks great. The Quiet One pump quickly resumed being a noisy POS. It also moved a little bit too much water. I replaced it with a Maxi-Jet 900 last night and now the only thing I hear is the drain pipe and the cooling fan.. Both don't bother me that much.

Now then.. WHY did I replace it last night, you ask? Here we go...
I had the good fortune of having a nice piece of Tonga LR with a couple of BTAs land in my lap. The rock was a bit gross.. Lots of Valonia and what might be Chlorodesmis growing on it which I didn't need in my tank. Fortunately the BTAs got good and mad about the bag they were in and dropped off the rock on the way home. BTAs went in the nano (after another 70% water change just to clear up any stray nitrates) and the rock is cookin' in a bucket.

Now don't get me wrong, they're nice little anemones.. Green tentacles with red tips.. Lovely.. It's just that damned anemone mobility I don't like. I woke up to the siphon being broken in one of the 3 overflow tubes and the pump sucking air. Had about a gallon of water on the floor and in my desk drawer, and a BTA in the filter sock in the final drain of my overflow. I yelled at him some and threw him back in the tank.

The MJ900 is far less flow but also means that a single U-tube is enough to keep the overflow running. I have 2 on there for now, and the BTAs have also attached and aren't moving quite as much. I'm running the LEDs 24/7 for the next couple of weeks so they can get a feel for where they need to be to get the lighting they want.

I may yell at them again later. I haven't decided yet.

The acros are toast, but the mermaid fan is still hanging in there.

I ordered a new camera the other day... Nikon D70. Should be pretty sweet. I'll take some more interesting shots when it arrives.

[Rikko]

Here's a mini-update:

Things are going so-so. I built my auto topoff and the bloody thing drips, damn it. I'll work on it today as I'm off.

Diatom bloom is starting to settle down now and there's a minimum of nasty hair algae growing. The BTAs have stopped moving and are looking pretty happy. Too bad one of them hangs out at the back...

I also built a plastic base for the light unit. There's far less evaporation now, but also I guess a little less light penetration. I guess it's probably a fair trade when you consider there won't be able more salt creep on the reflectors and bulb itself.

[Rikko]

Crap

One of my BTAs is dead and the other is really upset. I'm not sure what's going on, as all the usual params are bang on. I did a 60% change twice in 2 days and found that my "chemically correct" water was a little brownish and it smelled "unreefy". The remaining BTA is looking a little better and I'll do another big change tonight to see if I can remove whatever happened.
Also added a big bag of carbon to the sump.

Temperature is still a steady 77-78 and my topoff system is properly working (I stopped trying to use airline tubing and epoxy and instead got proper plastic hose and Weld-on).

The diatoms are still in decline, though.. I guess that's something.

[Rikko]

Well bloody hell, I lost both of my BTAs. My salinity keeps slowly creeping up - I can't really tell why seeing as how my topup water IS freshwater. The only "odd" thing I have in there is the calcite sand... Could it have high salt levels and be gradually dissolving over time? Hm.

Well, I'm no longer working in the pet industry and finalized the shutdown of the store I was managing.. Goodbye retail, hello "real job". I rescued several things from the store towards the end that were either on death's door (including a couple of tangs in my 65 that are doing annoyingly well now.. time to start planning 'the big one' I guess...) or simply couldn't find homes - namely 3 curlique anemones. They're rather fun and I do like them, but they definitely aren't attractive nor conducive to a friendly nano. They're all on the bottom - I expect the top level of the tank will have the corals and the "beasts" can roam around down there. They're also a horrendous waste of the light I'm pouring in there.

Diatoms are pretty much gone and some neat stuff is starting to come off the rocks - including some ugly algaes that I'm going to leave and see what happens.

I'm having a microbubble problem in the tank.. Seems that my return pump is somehow getting bubbles in the return stream. The downside is that they distribute in the tank well enough that the rockwork has that bubbly look like cyano (minus the red).

At least the curliques are happy....