Pjanssen Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 This is all really new to me (reefing, threading, forums...), so bear with me while I post what I hope to some day be a totally awesome reef tank. Equipment: 5 gallon cylinder acrylic tank Duetto 50 submersible power filter, with carbon canister removed. Duetto100 submersible power filter. Rio 50 Powerhead [s[Reef Sun 50/50 10w cfl light. waiting for nanobox LED[/s] Trulumen 3-led 453nm lunar light Also natural sunlight from window, until I encounter problems Aqua Cool side mount cooling fan nanobox led light system w/ 4 3watt white and 4 3watt actinic on disable driver (I think these are the specs, but not 100% sure) Stock: Live rock and live sand purchased from LFS Variety of empty shells. This tank started running on May 1, 2011, using purchased real ocean water from Petco. Per the LFS(not Petco) recommendation, I added Bio-spira live bacteria start up. I kept waiting for an ammonia spike, but never got one. After 3 weeks I added a CUC. CUC: 3 nassirius snails 1 blue legged hermits 1 scarlet hermits 1 Emerald crab I also added 1 peppermint shrimp for fun, but he disappeared without a trace within 36 hours Livestock: Added June 1,2011. 1 Pajama Cardinal-named PJ 1 High Fin Red Stripe Goby-named candy 1 Pistol Shrimp- named Derringer unfortunately, lost all three when I moved them to another tank to build my rock wall The day after adding the livestock, I had a slight ammonia spike. I did a 50% water change, and everything has been good so far. I test daily right now for pH, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates. The parameters are: Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates >5 pH 8.1 temp 78-82 Full Tank shot Aquascape Emerald crab Goby Coby and Pistol Shrimp Pajama Cardinal Scroll down to see the building of the rock wall. I figured out too late that I could/should put it up here. curent full tank shot-May 16, 2012 Pink Damsel Black and Gold Damsel Link to comment
Lee Van Reef Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 I'm not gonna lie. Thats effing awesome looking. Link to comment
Nanoreefwanabe Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 from one 5g vase to another, that looks great.. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 Just added my first corals. This is a green star polyp, which han't reopened since I put him in my tank. Hopefully soon This is a ricordia that was really pretty in the store. hopefully it perks up and looks just as good in my tank. This is a really bad picture of a zoa. for some reason I can't get my camera to focus on it Link to comment
ednangel Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Your tank is very unique, did you had it custom made? regarding your little trip I would say remove it from the window or close the blind to stop sunlight from coming in. Reduce the salinity by adding bits of freshwater daily and reduce your light cycle couple of hours. It should be ok... Very interested on the origins of this tank.... Link to comment
nate82 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Looks like a modified version of this http://www.showeryourpets.com/octrcoaqsbot.html Cool tank and nice start. Secretly always wondered about those tanks. Keep us updated! Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 Looks like a modified version of this http://www.showeryourpets.com/octrcoaqsbot.html Cool tank and nice start. Secretly always wondered about those tanks. Keep us updated! It is that tank! Good eye. I took the pre-fabricated fake coral structure out so that I could put in live rock and real corals. Lighting and temp control are my biggest challenges.. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 Your tank is very unique, did you had it custom made? regarding your little trip I would say remove it from the window or close the blind to stop sunlight from coming in. Reduce the salinity by adding bits of freshwater daily and reduce your light cycle couple of hours. It should be ok... Very interested on the origins of this tank.... http://www.showeryourpets.com/octrcoaqsbot.html Link to comment
ednangel Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Thanks! i need more pics of your set up and mods Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 Thanks! i need more pics of your set up and mods I have a thread. Have you looked at it. It's only one page so far. A work in progress to be sure! Any other questions I can answer? Ask away! I have a thread. Have you looked at it. It's only one page so far. A work in progress to be sure! Any other questions I can answer? Ask away! Oh sorry. We're on my thread Duh! What else do you need to know? That's how new I am. What's mod? Link to comment
chaostactics Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 tank should be awesome with the LEDS, really crazy expensive up front, but its unique Link to comment
chaostactics Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I bet you can cram a dissasembled par 30 or 38 bulb under the top. Also think about taking a drill bit not a masonry bit unless you have very hard rock. And drill down the middle of a few pieces of rock. You can then stack the rock on a stand like CPVC pained black with crylon fusion. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 I bet you can cram a disassembled par 30 or 38 bulb under the top. Also think about taking a drill bit not a masonry bit unless you have very hard rock. And drill down the middle of a few pieces of rock. You can then stack the rock on a stand like CPVC pained black with crylon fusion. I've checked into PAR 30 & 38 bulbs. The advise is not to use them because they shouldn't be enclosed, and they would be too close to the water. IDK. It would be a whole lot cheaper than what I'm looking at. What do you mean by disassembled? I was actually looking at a PAR30 bulb in Home Depot today and wondered if I could switch out the warm white led's for cool or neutral white and blues. Link to comment
chaostactics Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I've checked into PAR 30 & 38 bulbs. The advise is not to use them because they shouldn't be enclosed, and they would be too close to the water. IDK. It would be a whole lot cheaper than what I'm looking at. What do you mean by disassembled? I was actually looking at a PAR30 bulb in Home Depot today and wondered if I could switch out the warm white led's for cool or neutral white and blues. So the par 38/30 bulbs can be disassembled un-like standard light bulbs. Instead of using the screw in base (what would normally screw into a light bulb socket) open it up and snip the wires running to the screw base and wire them directly to a power cord (you can buy grounded power cords with open ends at home depot and lowes. Taking the screw base off makes the height of the bulb considerably smaller. You could then take the bulb in its parts and cram it under the top of the tank. If you're worried about heat you can buy a small cpu fan or two and do some very careful dremel work on the lid of your tank there and get a professional looking air intake and out put for the cooling fans to draw in cool air and push out hot air. You can get fans at places like newegg.com. Lastly if you're electrically inclined you could tap into the converted DC power in the PAR bulb and run the fans off of that, ( I think there would be enough extra juice to "share". That way when ever the bulb comes on the cooling fan comes on automatically. To further reduce space and heat you could take this part of the PAR bulb (i took mine apart just for you), and extend the wires (seen in black with a white connector when you pull the bulb apart (its a pair of small guage black and red wires wrapped in heat shrink tubing) a few feet so you can remotely mount the power dc converter and driver for the leds. That would cut way down on the size of the bulb you would have to jam under your top and really really cut down on heat. You owe me a damn cookie by the way Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 s**t! Now you tell me. I just, today, sent dave fason at nano box a TON of money and my lid to custom make me a light! What AWESOME timing you have my friend! But okay, I make the best cookies in town, just ask anybody. I'd be happy to send you a dozen-just tell me where. BTW what do you do for UMMC? My mother lives in Montgomery County. Rockville. Link to comment
chaostactics Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I don't do anything for UMMC now, I used to volunteer at Shock Trauma and PACU there. I work as an ER nurse @ Baltimore Washington Medical Center which is a hospital in the UMMS (or University of Maryland Medical System UMMC being the flagship hospital) which is or was with in the last year the biggest ER on the eastern seaboard. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 whoa that tank design is epic! Thanks. Stick around. Changes are coming. Is that a picture of you diving? Where do you like to go? are you going out for mini season? Can't wait myself. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 bad news: Fish fatalities Since I'm planning to build a cool new rock wall in my tank, I decided to take advantage of Petco's $1.00 a gallon sale and bought a 10 gallon tank to house everything while I was building. I thought I was doing everything right-testing water params and making sure everything was close to the same in both tanks b4 moving etc. But I guess I added too much of the old sand to the new tank and released a bunch of toxins. Over the course of 24 hours, I lost first PJ, then Candy, then Derringer. RIP little fishies(and shrimp). Link to comment
Flake Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 I LOVE this tank design. I can't wait to see it with the LEDs Link to comment
Thrassian Atoll Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 I LOVE this tank design. I can't wait to see it with the LEDs +1 tank is really cool, I can not wait to see the led either Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 removed duplicate pics from here Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 I decided to build a rock wall in my tank, in order to hide the necessary equipment. Here is step by step(almost) of my build. small live rock pieces hanging out. basic materials. Egg Crate pliers and empty tank. I forgot to take pictures, but I also used loctite 2 part epoxy. The kind that sets in 6 minutes. And zip ties. Frame. Beginning the build. After reading some threads about concerns of the egg crate leaching phosphates into the water and causing unwanted algae blooms, I decided to soak my egg crate in vinegar foe 24 hours. I then spray painted it with brown Krylon fusion paint. finished rock wall. The top left and right of the wall were left open to allow for flow from the pump and the in=tank filter. I used beckett waterfall foam sealant to fill in the holes of the egg crate. What a mess that was! expanded way more than I expected. I had to do a lot of carving and trimming for it to fit in my tank. Inside the tank. In the tank with 2 -3 pounds sand, and 1 cup of live sand saved from the original tank. View from the top. Duetto 100 filter on the left. Rio50 powerhead on the right. view from the back. filter on the right. Powerhead on the left. So now I am just waiting for Dave at Nanobox to finish my LED's I do have a question or two. I had to leave my "live Rock" out of the water for a couple of days. Is it still "live"? When I drained the tank, I saved the water and some of the sand and kept it cycled for the few weeks that it took me to get the wall built. I used half of that water and about a cup of the sand in the new set up. Do I need to recycle the tank before I put my corals (1 small zoanthid, 2 small rics) back in? Link to comment
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