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20L - new GBTA!


midna

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Well, my 10g is cursed or something. I add fish and they hide in the rocks never to re-appear. I add shrimp, they find their way behind the false wall in under 24 hours. I add SPS, I get flatworms that are seemingly immune to flatworm exit. I add macro algea, it spreads and can't be removed. So, I'm putting it on auto until I have money for a 20L upgrade, than I'll make it a macro-algea display/sump for the 20L.

 

Equipment

 

Rock/Flow

Anyways, on to the plans. I plan on two major rock "piles", hopefully I'll find just 2 larger rocks to use. So very minimal rockwork. Most of the rock and biological filtration will be done by the 10g. Return from 10g I'm hoping can be a maxijet 1200, since I already have one. I also have 2 koralia nanos I'll use in the 20L until I can afford a vortech.

 

Lighting

It will be lit by 2 hanging DIY led pendants. LED setup will run me about $250. I'm currently thinking 2 UV, 4 Red (or maybe 2 red, 2 green), 14 Royal Blue, 14 Q5. Driven by two eln-60-48p.

 

Stocking

 

Fish/Inverts

Stocking will be a six-line (keep the flatworms/other pests in check), two small gobies (trimma tevegae?), 5 sexy shrimp, bumblebee shrimp, candy cane pistol shrimp, emerald crab, and CUC. I'll keep Asterinas in the sump to feed the bumblebee sine he loves them so much. My only fear is the sixline pestering my shrimps, but I had a sixline in my 10g before it disappeared and no shrimps got eaten.

 

Coral

I want to get a nice sized frogspawn for the sexy shrimp. I also want a decent Platygyra colony on the end of one of the rocks. Other than that, lps will be kept minimal due to slow growth and expense. I like lps, but I can get sps cheaper. Along the bottom of the rocks there will be polyps, shrooms, a few LPS, and a clam or two. SPS on top. I have a green slimer, purple bonsai, aquadelight, sunset monti, and a few other sps waiting to get in the 20L whenever I can get it running.

 

Plumbing

 

I'm not sure how I want to drill the tank exactly. This tank won't happen for a few months anyway, so opinions are welcome. Here are my two current thoughts. My goal is as little equipment as possible visible in the 20L and lots of open/negative space. I would like to put the pipes in a corner, but I fear breaking the glass.

20lidea.png

 

My other thought is something like this, where the pipes would be run under the sand. Has anyone tried anything like this? Would I regret it? Is it possible? Edit: The elbows would stick up pretty far... that's why.

20lidea2.png

 

Thoughts, comments, complaints?

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I have not decided which particular method to go with on plumbing method 1. I figure one of the drains to be a backup no matter which I go with, and the other I would put a gate valve on to quiet the flow. I would like the setup to be fairly quiet. Have any recommendations?

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I think a coast-to-coast would work well. You could try a Calfo-style as well but that's more work.

 

Putting ball valves on drains and using them to quiet the flow is what you might call "fraught with danger". All you need is a snail (or anything!) to jam up in there and you'll have a flood. With a backup drain, it'd have to happen twice, but it's still not a risk I am willing to take. I have a ball valve on my drain but it isn't used for quieting the flow; it is used to stop flow from display to sump if I need to do maintenance.

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I'll make this suggestion yet again :D Why not use an external overflow? Nothing but a slot cut into the back of the tank with a Dremel glass cutting bit and a overflow box siliconed to the outside. Quiet, simple, no space taken up inside the tank.

gluedupoverflowbox.jpg

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Thanks for the warning Fosi, only one of the lines would be constrained. The other would be above the water line in case the first got clogged as you mention :). Had that happen recently on a large tank, fortunately we had planned and the second line to the sump took over just fine.

 

I do like the idea of a ctc/calfo overflow mgdmirage. I've been seeing more and more of that style and it looks pretty clean.

 

I like the external idea yardboy. I read that when you cut the notch for the external part, it has to be done just right or you risk the tank cracking down the road. Is this true?

 

I'm still debating the aesthetic affects of having the pipes running in the tank from the bottom, or outside the tank. Inside the tank, they would eventually blend in, especially if the back of the tank was black. If the pipes were outside they would always look kinda ugly. The tank will be out in the open and not have any surrounding cabinetry.

 

I also just had the idea of removing the black trim on the 20L and adding a clear acrylic holder for some mesh. I'm getting married in December and my fiance has cats so I need some sort of mesh to prevent fishing expeditions. I saw a thread on here on how to make a mesh out what appears to be window screen parts, and I would probably use that design.

20ltopframe.png

 

Keep the ideas and suggestions coming!

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If you are going to have two LR piles, instead of wasting time and money making custom LED pendants it would be a perfect opportunity to use two of Evil's LED PAR38's.

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To be honest I didn't even see that thread. Now that I have, I think I still would want more than 2 of those bulbs. I like lots of light... If I had the money those bulbs look like a huge timesaver, but at the moment DIY allows me to reuse some of the LEDS I have from the 10g to help lower the cost. Plus I like DIY :). Thanks for the info though! I'll be buying my remaining LEDs from the nanotuners store if those prices remain for a while, and hopefully they'll get some meanwell drivers too.

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Quote: I like the external idea yardboy. I read that when you cut the notch for the external part, it has to be done just right or you risk the tank cracking down the road. Is this true?

 

I rounded the corners to reduce that type of stress. I've done three of them with no problems and they've been set up for nearly two years. I've had more failures from drilled holes on the backs and/or bottoms of a tank cracking due to stress on a bulkhead than any other problem.

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Ok, thanks for the help! That may be what I go with than. I'll use whatever pipe I use to hang the lights with to hide the external plumbing.

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Awesome another 20L!!!!!

my aqua scape is pretty much what you have in mind,

on suggestion I have, is go with smaller pieces of live rock, the you'll be able to play with your aquascape more and it'll give you a lot more places to put coral.

good luck on the project, im looking forward to how your LEDs come out

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Awesome another 20L!!!!!

my aqua scape is pretty much what you have in mind,

on suggestion I have, is go with smaller pieces of live rock, the you'll be able to play with your aquascape more and it'll give you a lot more places to put coral.

good luck on the project, im looking forward to how your LEDs come out

 

:). Thanks for the suggestion. The LEDs will be a while. I'm hoping for another group buy in the future. This tank probably won't be setup for a few months. I'm going to be moving around for a while and I don't want to mess with moving it all over with me. But it WILL happen, just slowly and well planned.

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What about a peninsula style with external overflow. That would probably be pretty clean I would think. Two drain lines (grey) coming from the overflow box, the first is lower and is the only one being used. It is closed with a gate valve to make the flow quiet. The second is higher and would only be used if the first line got clogged.

 

I'm not sure where to put the return, the green spots are possible return spots that I'm currently debating I like the middle or bottom one the best.

 

The black is how I would probably hang the lights depending on where I end up moving too.

20lpen.png

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You could do it that way I suppose, but I've found a durso overflow is noise free and with some small grid (I just used a cross of acrylic) so any snails that go through wouldn't clog it up has not given me any trouble or noise whatsoever

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  • 3 months later...

Well I've got the 20L now. omgomgomg

 

Lighting has changed though. Got a T5 unit that fell in the water and burnt out 2/4 of the bulbs. It looks like the second ballast is bad. I'm going to leave 2 bulbs in there (fiji purple and an actinic), and retrofit the 2 missing bulbs with LEDs instead. So, I'll get the color I've been missing from LED, but still have the awesomeness of the LEDs.

 

I've cut the 20L. 10 inch slit on the back about 1" tall. I'm going to do an external overflow box. I want to use the Herbie overflow method. Any recommendations on pipe size for the drain if I do that? I'm leaning towards 3/4".

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lets see some pics. Curious how this will turn out.

 

I'll try to get some pics up later tonight.

 

External was probably a good move, not a lot of real estate in a 20L. Will check out your thread later.

 

I'm hoping it turns out ok. I'll get some pics up later tonight of my progress.

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This is kinda what I'm envisioning right now. Something wavy on the island, not sure what. Anemone would be neat, but no way to guarantee that it wouldn't roam. I also want most of the rock off the sand. That should help with water movement.

 

20lplans.png

 

Stocking ideas:

 

Some sort of algae blenny

yellow coris wrasse (pest control)

maybe a yasha/pistol pair

3 small trimma/eviotas

 

sexies of course

bumblebee shrimp

asterina stars (for the bumblebee :))

cuc

 

I also think I'm gonna soak the 10g rock wall in vinegar after I get all the life out that I can. I'll use it as a sump and fill it with pulsing xenia. Any ideas on a super cheap light that will grow xenia like a plague?

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Can't wait to see - external overflow looks interesting.

I'm hoping it works out ok. Never done it before.

 

Torches would be a cool alternative to nems!

Good idea! I need to find a good source for colorful torches :)

 

img5727c.jpg

 

img5732v.jpg

 

img5734e.jpg

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