Undertheradar's new nano...

[Undertheradar]

Well, I had this 10g...built the stand myself, drilled the tank, made the sump, mounted a 70watt halide...but since other tanks have been set up, the 'showness' of this tank has gone down...but I wanted to keep it going as a second tank for LPS, softies, sexy shrimp, porcelain crabs, etc. All the things I like that get lost in a larger tank...

 

So I went out and bought a 15L. Then I emailed specs to firstclassaquatics.com (fadetoblack) for a custom divider to be made for the tank. It has a 5" wide overflow slot in the top, and a 1-1/8" hole for a 1/2" bulkhead.

 

On the back of that 1/4" cast acrylic black divider, I used 1/8" acylic to make a bracket with a slot in it for holding the overflow mesh. This would allow me to swap out overflows for easy cleaning...or swap mesh for teeth, or holes, etc.

 

Then I put a MJ600 that I had around on the bulkhead. The barb fitting fits the pump exactly.

[Daemonfly]

Looks good =).

 

 

You going to leave the fuge area sides bare or paint them, cover with wood, whatever?

[Undertheradar]

Well, this tank is intended to keep everything from the previous 10g setup, but under the stand of another tank...and I wanted to make a stand that would allow me to slide it around if needed, twist out, etc. So I used three 25" 2x4s and a couple angle cuts on the legs...those angle cuts give me just enough clearance to twist the tank 90degrees while under another stand, as well as provide 12" of support for the 2x4s on top of them. Those 'easy-glides' help as well...

 

So, there the tank was, 15g, 1/4" black acrylic divider & overflow, MJ600 with a hydor flo, and a handy stand for moving this thing around in another tank's stand...what was next? Well, heater, lighting, tops...

 

So I got out the nano-lumenarc...

[Von digity]

yo man.. nice tank, I want to see it up and running.

 

How hard was it to construct your nanonarc?

[Undertheradar]

Here are some details, the back fuge will not be covered with anything, I want the most viewing space I can get...and its going under another tank, so its not that important...

 

The first pic is the Mesh I use for the overflow...its black needlepoint mesh. I use a knife to snip out some of the squares to make 1/4" squares. Its the best stuff to use for a nano IMO.

 

The second pic is a detail of the hydor flo setup.

 

The third is a pic of the tank set up under the stand of the 40g. It took me all of 10 minutes to place all the stuff that was once in the 10g. I has the glass tops done by a local shop out of 1/4" plate glass...with the back 7.5" notched out for electrical for the pump and heater.

[Undertheradar]

Now things got sticky. I can not find a glass shop that can make a 7.5 x 7.25" LoE tempered glass sheild for the nano-lumenarc. I might just settle for tempered. But for the time being...I was just going to use another halogen fixture.

 

I wired up the bulb and modified the 70watt ballast and all the other fixtures that I had for it with 15V heavy duty flat plugs. That allows me to swap the ballast with any one of 3 fixtures by simply unplugging...but the plugs are flat prong, so no moron (me) can mix up the cords and end up plugging in a powerhead to the ballast, or the halide light to the wall outlet.

 

So in swapping around ballasts, I think that the ballast had a little too much to deal with...it blew out. All the wiring looked fine (and, FWIW, works fine now), but I had to contact Aromat (Panasonic) to get a new one under warranty. They suggested dealing with my dealer, and the dealer would get credit. "Oh, great" I figured...mail the ballast, wait for another, that would take forever...right? So I put 3x36wattPC bulbs over the tank to keep it going.

 

I contacted Jorge at illuming.com...where I bought the ballast 2 years ago. Jorge was more than polite and offered to send me a new one with the 2 new pheonix bulbs I ordered from him. Before I knew it, I had a new ballast in my hands, and just the request that I send him the other one so he could try to get a credit. WOW.

 

Here are some more pics with the power compacts...

 

The tank can be covered with the birch plywood panels that cover up the stand by sitting inside the legs. The tank can twist and fit entirely under the stand.

 

You can also see the 'extra' halide fixture I made, conduit hanger, heavy duty plug and all. I tried it yesterday and in the 10 minutes that I had the glass lid off the firefish jumped out of the tank and onto the floor. Wow...

 

The stock list will be something like this:

1 pistol shrimp

1 yellow watchman

3 porcelain crabs

3 sexy shrimp

1 firefish

1 marshall island hermit

4 blue leg hermits

8-12 baby welso green open brain corals

2 rocks of super green palythoa

silver xenia

fuzzy green mushrooms

purple mushrooms

some kind of tree coral...unknown type but a wicked purple and blue

blue, green, and pink rics

 

and when I get the halide up and running, the galaxea, which has grown into a head the size of a 16" softball in my 40B will go in here as well as a bubble coral.

 

added: so the firefish has me thinking that maybe a halide isnt the best way to go...besides, with the full lid and no overflow, evaporation is so low I only need to add a cup of water a week.

 

Maybe I should get a 4x24wattT5 fixture or retrofit a hood....hmmmmm. SPS dont seem to like T5s too much, but this will be a LPS and softy tank...so....any thoughts guys?

[RP Beesh]

nice setup

[Undertheradar]

Thanks RP Beesh. Well, its been a while, holidays and all, but I had to make a stand for that halide pendant. I used 1/2" conduit, and the thread on those fittings is the same as plumbing pipe thread, so I made the stand out of 1/2" PVC. I love it because it allows me to put the halide wherever I want, regardless of the tank or stand.

 

I took the glass lid off, and within 10 minutes, the firefish I put in there had jumped out and died.

 

This time, I am running the halide with the 10,000K Ushio...but after the 14,000K, I dont really care for the color anymore. But the output on the 14,000K was dismal. Hmmmm.

 

So I am going to either get a 150watt halide ballast and run a bluer bulb, or I am going to go back to the PC bulbs... or... a 4x24wattT5 setup...hmmm. I could DIY one with Icecap reflectors for about $150 I bet. But that is alot of money...$200 for a halide ballast and bulb, or for T5s...a bit much for such a small & cheap setup. So I think its time to switch back to PCs. With flo blubs I can use the full glass lid and the evaporation is about a cup a week...if that. I like not needing an ATO...

 

This has me thinking...the only reason I have only a 15g under the 40B is because I have to have a place to put the Auto-Top-Off Bucket. But, I could have a custom acrylic chamber made...something like 6" x 18" x 24"h that would allow me to move the bucket out from under the tank, and be able to use the entire bottom rack of the stand, 36"x18", for a larger prop tank. Hmmm. A 30B? I have one in storage that I could make an internal baffle for and use... Just have to have a full glass lid made, but thats easy...prolly $20 in 1/4" plate glass. A 30B would justify a new T5 lighting system, or a new 150watt ballast. I could even use an existing ballast and run the 30B with 4x39wattT5s! That would look cool....

 

Once again, I set up a tank, and within weeks, decide on something totally different that requires me to change everything....lol.

[RP Beesh]

let me ask you something. do you think a acyrlic lid for the tank is a bad idea? will the ligth go through the acrylic sheet our will more of the light will reflect compare to glass?

[Undertheradar]

I am sure that the glass cuts out more of the light than the acrylic would, but I intended on using halides with an open top...and the top was to protect the PC lamps...which I think I am going to end up using anyways.

 

At that, the glass was 1/4", and didnt seem to matter much for softy & LPS growth, and I was using a 1x10,000K 36watt, with 2xactinic 36watt setup.

 

The advantage over glass is that it doesnt warp like acrylic would, and it can handle the weight of the light fixture laying on it. For the 30B, I think I will ask for three panels of 1/4" starphire glass however...to get the most out of the 4x39wattT5 setup I plan to use.

 

Good question though. It did go through my head...