Mantis Reef

[Carinya]

It's been a long time coming but my upgraded mantis reef is very near completion. I'd first like to give a huuuuge thank you to all the folks on the LED Array for a Pico thread, especially Neanderthalman, Llamaguy and Zachtos. I don't have much experience with DIY and hardly any with electronics. This wouldn't have come together without your help.

 

The old mantis tank was made from home depot acrylic just to test my DIY and to see if I liked the size. The DIY was good & I LOVE the size so went ahead and ordered starphire glass, LEDs and a sheet of pre-drilled pvc. Here are some pics.

 

14 x 10 x 10 tank, with a sheet of acrylic laid on the bottom inside the tank to keep it safe from the mantis breaking it. My mantis is small, but better safe than sorry.

 

Created a false wall for the back out of acrylic & then painted it with Krylon Fusion. Here are the notches for the overflow. Used a hand saw & then a dremel. Much better than the ones I created on my original mantis tank.

 

Testing for leaks & flow

 

The hood. I know it's hard to see what's going on but it's basically an acrylic box with a shelf to hold the sides of the LED sheet and a clear acrylic guard below where the LED array lays. There are some improvements I'd like to make to this design (such as it's just a little bit crooked) but it will do for now.

 

And finally, the array. 480 bulbs in the display area. 60% 10K white, 20% blue, 20% UV. Fuge is 24 7K white bulbs and that power supply is also wired to 3 moonlights and (not shown in this pic) two 12v PC fans that were hot glued to the back.

 

Here is the new nano partway filled up (I have to go to the LFS & get some more water...) side by side with my 18g via aqua. The via aqua has a 150W 14K MH retro'd into the hood. Sorry the 18g glass isn't super clean right now. I think comparisons on brightness are hard to make at the moment because the new tank is so cloudy. The base for the nano is just a wood frame and a Krylon-painted acrylic shell. You can see images of it from my old mantis thread (linked earlier here). Since the new tank is the same size, I just used the old base.

 

It is definitely very bright and it is going to fit so much better on my desk than the 18g. Plus with the space in the back for chaeto and carbon, it ought to be a healthier tank than my 18g. Not that the 18g has been any trouble...

 

My plan is to move the LPS & SPS into the new LED nano, then move my old mantis in there after I'm mostly done arranging rocks. The softies from my 18g will go into a temporary tank until being permanently relocated to a yet-to-be-designed seahorse tank. I'm sure that project will take me a few years at least.

 

Thanks for looking.

C

[Fishfreak218]

WOW, that looks great.. were did u order the starphire glass from?? also how did u attach the false wall?? w/ Silicone??? also do u think the Krylon will stay on the Acrylic... (i know it bonds to plastic but still)..... i was thinking about doing the same thing... but decided not too.. but u tempt me... lololol..

[Carinya]

Thanks!

 

I ordered the glass from a local glass shop.

 

False wall is attached with silicone. I know it's not a great bond for acrylic to glass but it is secure enough for a false wall. I used a ton of the goop & let it dry a good long time.

 

The Krylon will stay. I have already tried it on my first mantis tank, which had a similar false wall, and there have been no issues for 6+ months including keeping some zoos, snails, hermits & macro in there..

 

C

[Haagenize]

wow.. when i first started reading i thought you were going to do the false wall the other way (like not the long way but the short way) but it turned out different

 

can you tell me how you made the base?

[Carinya]

The base for the nano is just a wood frame and a Krylon-painted acrylic shell. You can see images of it from my old mantis thread (linked earlier here). Since the new tank is the same size, I just used the old base.

 

Here is an additional pic. (the tank shown is my old tank)

 

[Fishfreak218]

also.. how did u get such a clean job at the silicone.. it looks like the tank was made by like.. Oceanic or something.. did u take a razor to the excess silicon, or what??? im very interested in this thread....

[travisurfer]

sweet tank

[Haagenize]

so i guess the acrylic on the base isent attached to the wood?

[Carinya]

Thanks for the comments & interest, guys.

 

No, the acrylic on the base is not attached to the wood. It sits around it.

 

I did the silicone seals the way it's described in this post by placing masking tape parallel to the joint, putting on the silicone, smoothing it with my finger, letting it dry several days & then carefully peeling away the tape. When the tape broke/slivered as I peeled it in a few places I did use a boxcutter type knife.

 

C

[Haagenize]

sweet why didnt you just buy black acrylic?

[Fishfreak218]

i bet its cheaper to just get normal and then paint it black..

[neanderthalman]

Nice Job! mmm....starphire.....

 

The false wall looks to be flexing a bit - any thoughts on bracing it in the middle? A peice of scrap arcylic wedged between the false wall and the back glass should hold it.

[Fishfreak218]

how thick is the acrylic for the false wall???

[Haagenize]

Nice Job! mmm....starphire.....

 

The false wall looks to be flexing a bit - any thoughts on bracing it in the middle? A peice of scrap arcylic wedged between the false wall and the back glass should hold it.

hey i see it too =D

[Carinya]

Yeah, it is. I have an eggcrate fuge divider in there now that helps brace it. During flow testing I did not. The fuge area is just barely wide enough to fit the eggcrate, so the acrylic is bolstered a bit. The eggcrate is just a shelf-type thing to give me somewhere to put the chaeto and a bag of carbon (or whatever).

 

The divider is .25" thick. Well, I think the Home Depot acrylic is slightly less than that...like .23? I made the mistake of making the false wall out of .1" thick acrylic the first time. You should have seen THAT bow. Good thing I hadn't affixed it permanently when I did my first flow testing.

 

I didn't buy black acrylic b/c I don't know of an acrylic shop around here, had the clear stuff on hand & just didn't want to mess around with finding a source. I have no idea which would be cheaper.

 

C

[Haagenize]

you spray painted the other side of the acrylic right? the side facing the wood

[Carinya]

on the base? then yes.

[Haagenize]

okay thanks

 

hmm led lighting for a 6g, what are you planning to put

[Carinya]

Semi, per the original post:

 

My plan is to move the LPS & SPS into the new LED nano, then move my old mantis in there after I'm mostly done arranging rocks

 

My lps consist of 2 acans, a frogspawn, a sun coral, a dendro, a candy cane, two blasto w's and one blasto m. Sps are a green monti cap, green slimer, green monti digi, a pink pocillopora and a green tipped policopora.

[Haagenize]

i thought SPS dont live well in LED lighting..

[aquaman7]

tank looks great... did you order the glass pre-cut?

[Haagenize]

^ i think she did

[Carinya]

i did

 

we don't really know what grows well under LEDs yet

[neanderthalman]

Agreed. Zachtos tried recently, but beleives the problem was chemical warfare in such a small tank.

 

I'd try, but I know damn well that my water qulity isn't good enough.

[Carinya]

I think chemical issues are holding the SPS back in my 18g. But I just can't swear off the xenia, toadstools, mushrooms, zoos...*sigh* So that's part of the reason I'm splitting them up.

 

And Neanderthalman, I think (well, I hope) there's a difference betw a 1.6g (that's what your hex is, right?) and my 6g in terms of ability to maintain stable water params. I'm hoping my chaeto fuge will help as well as the carbon. But still, nobody really knows yet.

 

My planned maintenance is 2x/week target feeding the lps & mantis and 2x/week top off (no ATO). 1x/week 1-2g water change. Depending on how things go, I might step it up to 2x/week 1g water change. We'll see.

 

C