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Zombo's FrankenWave9: Mirrors and LEDs


Zombo

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Well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! When I got my first Nano Wave 9 and it arrived with not only a broken hood hinge pin, but a shattered back, I tossed it in the dumpster at work. Then I thought, "Well, if other noobs start out doing a nano by building one, I should just fix this one and go for it!"

I took a few measurements and went to the local glasssmithy and had him cut a piece of 3/8" for the new back -- my original plan was to utilize the guts of the NW9 for overflow/skimming/fuge, and be happy with that. I then remembered the inspired build by Lalani, the awesome 10 gallon pico that she did for her mom, featuring the full tank spillover, with the simple 'fuge/return setup and I then decided that was the way to go! But WAIT! What if I used a mirror for the spillover!?!

Back to the glass shop, back glass and tank in hand -- explained to the dude what I had in mind, and he delivered: I got the mirror, cut and drilled, and the back glass, all for $25. Back home with materials in hand, I started with the mirror first, and being my first experience with siliconing anything, well, things got a bit sloppy ;) After 24 hours, I tackled the back glass. This piece went much smoother that the mirror :)

I still have to finish waiting for all the silicone to cure, then I'll water test -- I have pictures at my gallery, found here.

Thanks to all of you, especially Kim (Lalani) for the inspiration!

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Looks cool! Great job. I don't think I've ever seen a tank with a mirrored false wall before. I'll be following along to see how it looks stocked.

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Thanks! I consider it to be a creation fueled by caffeine (coffee/Monster), Guinness and Nano-Reef!

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one reason why mirror false walls are not used as it will stress the fish out if it sees its reflection, though maybe it won't matter. Did you use 100% silicon with no mildew killers?

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Before I'd use a mirror in the tank, I'd make sure I knew what the coating on the back of the mirror was made of. The most common materials are silver or aluminum.

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I used DAP Aquarium silicone for all my assembly, and since concern over the mirror backing worried me a bit, I coated it with 4 coats of the N-R favorite: Krylon Fusion Black :)

As far as fish stress, that's going to be a non-issue; it's going to be nothing but LR, inverts and softies. Well, that's the plan for now, until I decide what lighting scheme I'm going to use!

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Check that out! It looks great, Zombo! Mom wanted to use a mirror for the false wall in her tank, but since we're going to have fish in there, I decided it wasn't a good idea. Plus, I wasn't sure what the mirror backing was made of, always a tricky situation. I hope the krylon holds on, because it didn't work for me.

Anyways, can't wait to see yours set up! :D

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Well, so far, so good, did a 24h water test on the setup and it didn't lose a drop! :D I siliconed the bottom back on it early this morning, and am still debating on the top, whether to go rimless or use the NW provided top and do some modding...

I'm wondering whether I can find some higher output CF's that will fit inside the hood (it currently has 2x24w 12"), or gut the hood completely and remote ballast 3x24w's. Too bad there's no 12" T5HO's -- I don't really want to fsck around with HQI in a hood :( Any suggestions are welcome!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Carriegiesler

Zombo,

I just recieved my Nano Wave 9 on Thursday and it has a small pin size hole in the silicon on the front right corner with resulting in a small drip. I re-siliconed it and hope it will hold, I will be able to test it tonight. However if not how did you get the top off? Do you think I could pull the bottom off the same fashion as you did the top and put a new bead of silicon around the full bottom? What do you think?

 

Just out of curiosity where did you purchase yours from?

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Yeah, you can get the bottom trim off, but it's a b10tcH. I just ran a razor round and round the silicone bead until it started getting looser, then gradually tugged it off. Beer helped in this effort :) The top trim came off pretty easily with only a modicum of effort - in fact, I don't think I even had to resort to razoring on the bead at all.

I got mine from Aquarium Wholesale Direct - they specialize in factory seconds and refurbs, however -- I have not gotten one of the three I ordered without some issue or another, but pieced together a complete one and sold it to a co-worker, and have another pretty much NIB save the missing hinge pins - it's for sale and all boxed up (I had it double boxed). I've also got a spare rear compartment available.

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On another note, I have completely gutted the stock hood for this, and am going to be working with evilc66 on creating a kickass DIY'd LED lighting system for this. Yeah, I know it's gonna cost more money to do it up, but when I weighed the cost vs. the savings in electricity, ability to tweak colors and have a very low maintenance hood, it was a no-brainer.

With the mirrored false wall in place, the surface area is only 135 sq. in., so I'm figuring on 6/7 cool white LEDs and 2/3 Royal Blues to come out with a roughly 12-14k Kelvin result.

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funkyfish77

I have been thinking about doing some DIY leds on a 5 gal flat back hex . keep us posted on the progress

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I got mine from Aquarium Wholesale Direct - they specialize in factory seconds and refurbs, however -- I have not gotten one of the three I ordered without some issue or another...

You've piqued my interest here. Would you say ordering from them was worth the hassle of the DIY? It seems like a great resource if you're willing to get your hands dirty. I'm all about ordering fixer-upper gear as long as it doesn't come in totally mangled.

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Carriegiesler

Same place I ordered mine from. I figured it would cost me more to send it back for a replacement. And after hearing what you have stated about the three, this is probably the least of the possible issues I could have. Well we will see what happens tonight when I test the seal. Cross your fingers for me.

 

On a more happier note I just finished making my foam background with greatstuff and marco rock. I think it looks pretty sweet. I will post some pics shortly.

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Carriegiesler -- awesome! None of the 3 I got had leaks, one had a shattered back an one missing hingpin, one came with no hinge pins, and the third was missing the hinges on the fuge light hood.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Long time, no updates --- I finally got around to ordering the parts for my retrofitted hood -- I'm looking at a nice 13 LED array with 5 Cree XR-E Q5's running at 1000mA and 8 Cree XR Blues (460nm) running at 700mA.

 

From DealExtreme:

Cree XR-E Q5's

Cree XR Blues

 

From LED Supply:

700mA Wired Buck Puck

1000mA Wired Buck Puck

 

From MPJA:

36V @ 4.2A/150W DC Power Supply

 

I have the power supply and Buck Pucks in hand, just waiting for the LEDs to ship from Hong Kong, and for evilc66 to get some heatsink lovin' finished up. Pix when I start assembly.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I have all day tomorrow to work on these. If I get lucky, I might even ship them out Saturday.

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

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Where did you buy your nano-wave 9 at? I cant find any websites that sell them.

 

Here. Only $89 shipped.

 

Oh yeah, my Q5's got here today, evilc66 :D

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AcroporaLokani
Here. Only $89 shipped.

 

Oh yeah, my Q5's got here today, evilc66 :D

 

Wow thats an awesome price. Did it come with the skimmer and all that stuff or was the broken hinge the only thing that the tank was without?

 

And by the way your idea of the mirror background seems cool, I remember seeing a tank at the Monterey bay aquarium that used three pilers covered in coral/anems but they had mirrors covering the back wall of the tank and it made it look like there were about 20 pilers. It looked so cool. When I saw you were using a mirror thats the first thing I was thinking of.

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Oh yeah, my Q5's got here today, evilc66 :D

 

Sweet. Mine showed up today while I was out :angry: Gotta go pick them up from the post office tommorow.

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