jT's 12G Long Nano Journey

[jT415Gz]

FTS

 



 

- Old FTS



 

 

Video Clips

 

- Pet Rocks

- Fancysnows Quarantined

- Fancysnows Free at Last

 

 

Display by Mr. Aqua

 

MA-730, Glass Aquarium aka 12 Gallon Long

 

Specifications

- Dimension: 35.4 x 8.3 x 9.4"

- 12 Gallons.

- Extra fine silicone finish.

 

Stand by Gorilla Racks

- 30" x 12" x 30" (up to 60" tall)

- Modular design

- Up to 500 lbs. safety load capacity per shelf

- Made of industry standard steel

- Includes particle board but ditched it for .5" plywood

 

Sump/Refugium R-100 by Eshopps

 

Specifications

- Dimension: 24" x 12" x 16"

- Volume: 20 Gallons (max.) - 12 Gallons (actual usable)

- Material: Clear acrylic w/black baffles

 

Return Pump by Sicce

- Syncra 1.5

- 360 GPH

 

Return & Overflow System by X-Aqua

- In/Out

- Internal pulse maker

 

Circulation Pump by Ecotech Marine

- Vortech MP10W es

- Favorite Modes: Reefcrest @ 50% & Nightime & Feeding

 

Cone Skimmer by SWC

- 120

- Water level 7.5"

+ DIY acrylic stand 6" x 6" x 2" x .25"

 

Heater by Eheim Jager

- 120W

- Set @ 79-80F

 

Auto-Top-Off System by Tunze

- Osmolator Universal 3155

- Sourcing pure h2o from a 20 gallon Brute

- Worth the money

 

RO/DI Unit by BRS

- 5 stage Chloramines Standard System + Membrane Flush Kit + Auto-Shutoff Valve + PSi Guage + Handheld TDS Meter

- Glad I opted to buy this. Great long term investment. Almost, decided to buy water from LFS.

 

Fuge Lighting by CADLights

- Very cheap plastic

- Numerous White & Blue LEDs

- Low wattage

- Fits perfectly on the rim of the sump

- Good enough for Chaeto

 

Lighting by RapidLED, Steves LEDs

 

LED's

Driver A [900mA limit]

Philips Rebel ES Neutral WHITE 3W LED 5,000K 1000ma [8]

 

Driver B [650mA limit]

Violet UV 3W LED 410-420nm 700ma [3]

CREE XP-E Blue 3W LED 465-485nm 1000ma [3]

Philips Rebel ES Cyan 3W LED 490-520nm 1000ma [3]

Philips Rebel ES Deep Red 3W LED 670nm 700ma [3]

 

Driver C [900mA limit]

CREE XT-E Royal Blue LED 450-465nm 1500ma [12]

 

Driver D [in near future]

Control True Violets/Violet UV

 

Heatsink

6"x20" black (36 LED's max) w/acrylic splash guard

 

 

Mounting

Y-Hanging Kit to ceiling with toggle-bolts (adjustable - up, down, pivot forward and back)

Above rim approx. 9-10"

 

Optics

80 degrees black (none on UV)

 

Drivers

Mean Well ELN-60-48P Dimmable [3] (1.3A max rating)

 

Controller

Typhon LED Controller by BoostLED w/Custom Enclosure (Thanks Sammie)

 

Dry Pukani Rock by BRS

- 15lbs of large assorted pieces

+ Sliced most in half w/hacksaw

 

Tropic of Eden Sand by Premium Aquatics

- Reef Flakes

- 20lbs.

 

Media

- Filter Floss 6' x 10" cut to size of 4" x 12"

- Mesh Filter Sock 200 Micron 4" x 14"

- Clear FX Pro 500ml

- Seachem Matrix Bio-Media 1 liter

 

Macroalgae

- Chaetomorpha softball size

 

Plants

- Mangroves x5

 

Livestock

 

Fishes

SA Fancy Snowflakes aKa San Francisco Clowns (Video)

Yasha Hase Goby

Tail Spot Blenny

 

Invertebrates

Red Banded Pistol Shrimp

Porcelain Anemone Crab

Halloween Hermit Crab (red & purple coraline on shell)

Banded Coral Shrimp (blue)

Reef Scarlet Hermit Crab (Lazy)

 

Corals

- Florida Ricordia's

- Fungia

- Toadstool

 

Cleanup Crew (What's your sign? "Will Work for Food!"

- Dwarf Ceriths

- Nerites

 

 

Feel free to make any suggestions/recommendations in regards to my entire build.

I still have a long journey on the \"learning path\" in this hobby and constructive criticism would benefit me as well as others getting their feet wet.

 

Also, post pics of your tanks (FTS, Close-Ups), equipment, live stock as I would love to witness the creative ideas behind all of them.

[Deleted User 4]

Nice setup you got there.

[jT415Gz]

Nice setup you got there.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm slowly gathering the parts and thinking about the minor details and reading a lot of different topics. I like how your setup has open space which gives it that 'larger look' than it actually is.

 

Random Photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AquaticDiscounts]

Cool you finally drilled it.

[jT415Gz]

Cool you finally drilled it.

Yup and it took lots and lots of patience for me to stand there in one spot and drill one hole then run out of juice, wait some more for the 2nd battery to charge, drill the second wishing I have enough juice. I'd say about 10 minutes per hole due to me being extra cautious drilling closer to the rim then recommended by the diagram.

 

BTW, I found a white plastic piece in the cadlights sump, which looks like a either a spur gear or something related to the SWC?

 

Oh and another Q: About how high did the water level reach on the overflow at full flow rate from the return line?

[Isaac5981]

This is a cool looking build.

What are the tank dimensions?

It looks much bigger than 12 gallon's in the pictures

Will be following

 

Isaac

[jT415Gz]

This is a cool looking build.

What are the tank dimensions?

It looks much bigger than 12 gallon's in the pictures

Will be following

 

Isaac

Thanks for following

The tank is a Mr. Aqua

When I finally get the other parts, pieces and spare time to finalize the build then I'll start thinking about adding descriptions and such in the first post.

[polarblair2000]

Love the look of that tank! How long do reckon before it gets wet?

[Spirofucci]

Those are great tanks! I have seen quite a few of these with great set ups. Looks like you are on the way!

[Isaac5981]

These Mr. Aqua 12 longs look so much bigger than they are.

Have seen several great nano reefs using this tank.

Should be an interesting build to follow.

[jT415Gz]

Love the look of that tank! How long do reckon before it gets wet?

I agree. The inspiration for this tank came from all of the members here on N-R and R.C. that do have this particular tank with very nice setups. I said to myself " I must have this tank ".

Well, it is partially wet with salt but only up to where it meets the overflow due to waiting on the sump to arrive and so I'll get it fully wet then. I did add the reef flakes to the tank. Pics of that soon.

 

Those are great tanks! I have seen quite a few of these with great set ups. Looks like you are on the way!

Yeah no kidding, I've seen numerous mini-reefs, freshwater and planted only setups that utilize the space that these tanks provide. Lots of options to play with, which I love to have in any equipment I may own.

 

These Mr. Aqua 12 longs look so much bigger than they are.

Have seen several great nano reefs using this tank.

Should be an interesting build to follow.

lol Jedi Mind Tricks of the infamous "12G Water Box"

[jT415Gz]

added an additional driver and 12 RB's on its own circuit

 

having issues removing this mesh wheel

[jT415Gz]

Received the eshopps R-100 refugium yesterday and put it together, finally.

I haven't tested the SWC 120 yet, might do that in a few days.

I think next is to grab the saw and multiply the rock.

Oh, and I also received three more pieces (5 lbs.) of BRS Pukani last week.

 

[jT415Gz]

a little update to keep this virtual journal alive and breathing.

 

I hated how I could see my old painted wall that's behind the tank and the visible guts of the filtration system that is underneath the gorilla rack. I found this at HD which is very cheap and it comes in 36"x72"x3/8" and is firm yet flexible and easily cut to spec. with a razor. You can paint it any color you like if you wanted to use it as a background behind the tank. Highly recommend it! You could use foam core board too, but this stuff is a lot cheaper and you get more of it. Win win.

 

I wanted to keep the 'see through the tank look w/o any background' so with this in mind I needed a nice clean canvas to support the vision I had that kept bugging me. This product worked out well in my book. The hardest part was getting it into my 2-door liftback! lol But we made it.

 

Oh and another thing that bugged me was the old dirty window blinds that you see in the other pics above^. I changed it out with 'blackout' window blinds by Bali @ HD. Free custom cut while you shop.

 

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-20...SkuId=203228586

 

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-20...p;storeId=10051

 

 

 

the end result with all lights on @ 11% power.

[dday80]

Nice work so far. This tank is going to be cool. Sub'd

 

I see that you're selling some LED's. Are you changing up the lights?

[jT415Gz]

Nice work so far. This tank is going to be cool. Sub'd

 

I see that you're selling some LED's. Are you changing up the lights?

Right on dday80! Yeah, post the led build I talked to some knowledgeable people about going completely full spectrum and what I needed to fill in the gaps. So ultimately I decided to go with less led's, different ratio's of led's and end up with less led's in total and add Deep Red's to the array.

 

Here is the thread that I've found myself reading a lot lately Full Spectrum and LED Aesthetics.

 

Here is the future list of led's:

 

Revised

Driver D [500mA limit]

True Violet LED - 390-430nm 500ma [3-4]?

Violet UV 3W LED 410-420nm 700ma [3-4]?

 

Driver C [1k mA limit]

CREE XT-E Royal Blue LED 450-465nm 1500ma [12]

 

Driver B [650mA limit]

True Violet LED - 390-430nm 500ma [4]?

Violet UV 3W LED 410-420nm 700ma [3-4]?

 

CREE XP-E Blue 3W LED 465-485nm 1000ma [3]

 

Philips Rebel Cyan 3W LED 490-520nm 1000ma [3]

 

Philips Luxeon ES Deep Red 3W LED 670nm 700ma [3]

 

Driver A [1k mA limit]

Philips Luxeon ES Neutral WHITE 3W LED 5,000K 1000ma [6]

 

I also received an MP10 today and removed the Koralia nano 425's.

Still need to stop being lazy and shape the pukani rock that's sitting around.

 

Untitled by jT415Gz, on Flickr

[jT415Gz]

Finally stopped being lazy and cut the rock with a hacksaw.

The scape is in the testing phase, so a 'work in progress' and I dumped in Bio-Spira last night, we'll see how it seeds.

 

I bought 15lbs. BRS Pukani Dry Rock and I cut about 12lbs. of it which are the ones in the display and in the picture (s). The rest may find a home in the refugium. The Pukani was not that tough to cut as I anticipated (first time cutting any kind of rock). Since the rock is so porous and is not completely solid like other heavier/smaller rocks you may be familiar with; the hacksaw glides right through, halving the Pukani in as little as 2-3 minutes of non-stop hacking action with light pressure applied. I just allowed the weight of the hacksaw to apply the pressure for me. I must say I have gained bicep/forearm muscle mass. LoL

 

The pieces of Pukani I received were mostly large pieces to boot, about the size of basketballs and would only look proper in a larger tank of 55gals +, but the individual pieces were impressive, we are talking fanned out flute shapes, vertical towers (narrow at bottom and tapers outwards towards the top) and some medium to small flatter plateau shapes. 90% were very white more like a cream color and nicely clean at the start.

 

I've read quite a number of topics on how Pukani will leach back Phosphates when submerged in water.

Soooo.... I was like "oh great, another thing to buy and do" but I must say it was actually pretty fun and I learned from it. I went to HD again (probably went there 6 times in one month) picked up a gallon of Muriatic Acid, Chemical Protective Gloves, and Protective Goggles. I came home and threw the first half of rocks in a 5 gallon bucket, and mixed in a 5:1 ratio of tap water to muriatic acid.

ALWAYS ALWAYS pour ACID into water first and not the other way around. As soon as I dumped the acid in it started to foam like wild fire, up and out of the bucket with a brownish color, which is good because now you know how dirty your rock actually is and the acid is doing what its supposed to. The acid eats away at the rock which in turn removes the outter layers of it, leaving you with a clean slate almost like a brand new finish. I would keep adding more acid to the buckets as soon as the foam stopped sizzling until I ran out of acid. After that I poured in an entire box of baking soda in the buckets to neutralize all of the remaining still active muriatic acid, pulled out the rocks from the bucket, dumped out the water/acid filled buckets into the backyard, rinsed the area and buckets out with a hose.

Soon after I took the bucket of rocks to my shower area and used the shower head to dislodge any loose particle matter that had been softened from the acid, off the rocks. There were lots and lots of little dark colored things coming off of these rocks, even though the rocks looked really clean when I first got them.

I then let them soak in RO/DI for 24 hours to remove any excess dirty water:acid and let them air dry outside in the backyard for 48 hours. Next thing to do was give them a nice bleach bath, I did a 5:1 water to bleach mix, let them soak for 24 hours and air dry/sun dry for 5 days to let all of the water:bleach evaporate. Once I could no longer smell the scent of bleach on the rocks anymore, it was time for another RO/DI soak for 24 hours then air dry/sun dry for 24 hours (maybe longer depending on the weather).

 

And now I finally got off my *ss and cut the rock and here it is, layed out as you see in the pictures.

Again, this not permanent scape, I will certainly be moving things around as my imagination sha'll wander and explore all possibilities this tank and rock are capable of.

 

So far, I knew that I wanted a good amount of open space in the front of the tank, various towers in different heights and widths, some plateaus for good coral placement, utilize the rear of the tank to be filled in with rocks, the top half of the tank to be open and free for fish to swim around, and the bottom half to have a background of rocks with a few rocks in the middle, foreground to create the illusion of more depth then the tank actually has. I always wanted vertical towers too; narrower at the bottom while tapering towards the top.

 

What do you guys think? Comments, suggestions are welcome~

 

P.s. The lights were on @ 12% power with all royal blues. The other strings of led's are out of order due to layout changes and in addition to new led's. So, more to come and thanks for watching!

 

[dday80]

Wow, that was an awesome read on how you prepared the rocks. Great job! Looks great too. I would suggest space between the glass and your scape so that you can use a magnet cleaner for the glass.

[jT415Gz]

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In addition, from now through July 4th we are offering 10% off all orders (please enter code rapidled10 at checkout) on top of the regular free shipping for orders over $250.

 

Thanks for the continued support and Happy 4th!

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

The Rapid LED Team

[jT415Gz]

picked up some water seasoning for the tank......aquavitro salinity......let's see if the statements made hold water.......

i can almost hear the NASA police banging on my gate wanting their bucket back..............

 

[jT415Gz]

current parameters of second week cycle...........i feel like a wanna be Chemist..........that's colorblind

 

[jT415Gz]

quick vid

[Quantum]

Wow those are some really good looking rock pieces!

[jT415Gz]

Thanks Quantum! I had to slice them up thin so they would fit because all of the pieces you see in the display were once all 4-5 large pieces of rock and that's not all I have. I have left overs in the water prep. room and a large piece inside of the refugium. All of it is 15lbs.! Inexpensive, large porous dry pukani rock from BRS and lightweight.

 

I may still move some of the rocks around so the placements probably aren't very permanent. Takes me sometime until something *clicks* inside my head with a better idea. lol love and hate when that happens.

 

Do you have a tank with pictures? or even better a build thread?

[Lawnman]

How many lbs of sand are in your tank and how many lbs in the sump? Nice choice on the sand and the salt