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Hey! Summer Summer! Smedric Shmiggory's - an ADA 60-F - reef ledge style!


milk

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update * October 2012* - 10 months old!

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Video - - -

 

 

This is kind of a long post, but as I drink more tea, I am pulling more ideas from the dregs as I write!

 

I was inspired by "bommies" (isolated clusters of reef), shown here - http://reefbuilders.com/2011/01/03/nice-vi...ng-inspiration/

 

and here http://www.nanoreefblog.com/features/desig...om-the-maldives

 

Ultimately the effect would be pulled off more smoothly in a larger tank, but for now - I really like the idea of very minimalist, small isolated areas of reefs that serve as oasis's for fish and other reef dwellers. and I really like shallow tanks!

 

So, I bit it and bought a ADA 60-f after seeing all the hawt ADA's around these forums. Obvious inspirations are Jonny's tank, rehype, gabe and Shreiba's seagrass box (where I first got the idea for a minimalist tank with one rock).

 

Here's a stupid picture of my tank and box thats gonna be my stand (I'm thinking about stuccoing everything on the cabinet to cover the fake wood except the top portion to create a textured, spanish/west coast feel, might relive the depressing winter in chicago). I'm going to cut the extra trimming off the mat eventually. ;)

 

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So far so good.. plans for the tank under the hood..

 

- algae scrubber/ refugium (I have had this running on my 10g for about 2 months or so and I love it! all parameters are great and I get to feed my tank and corals more!)

 

- 18 gallon rubbermaid sump with lots of LR

 

- 100 watt heater (hope this will be enough, it kept my 30 gallon tank heated well enough).

 

- homemade battery powered ATO

 

- phytoplankton cultures and a 10 gallon copepod breeding station ( still looking in to hatching BBS for pipefish)

 

- 2 par30 LEDs ( I have 3 blue 2 white one already, but I believe it looks too purple. I'm going to get another one, hopefully 3 whites and 2 blues, or maybe all white to balance it out - I might even try to throw a small PC over the tank to balance out the purple and make it looks more T5-ey. I think some of the par LEDs are kind of too saturated with their color. I've seen a lot of people going back to T5's and metal halides, although I do like the LEDs for now.)

 

- MP10 (cat chewed through the cord :o , but I sent it in and ecotech repaired it for free! even though I'm technically out of warranty :D )

 

Livestock planning

 

My current livestock which includes a naked Ocellaris clown and a tailspot blenny..

 

- looking in to getting a bluestripe pipefish (maybe 2, have been researching somewhat, a lot of folks say they do relatively well in community tanks and with moderate flow, unlike a lot of other pipes, horses)

 

- really would like another naked clown, or maybe a regular ocellaris,

 

- even though its frowned upon in nano's, I've thought about maybe trying a mandarin sometime down the line ( as stated above, will want to have a healthy pod population in both the tank system as well as a separate breeding tank - just need to get my phytoplankton going , here is a fine article on the process http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/breeder )

 

- cleaner shrimp, a few sexy shrimp, a pom pom crab and maybe a fiddler crab if I follow through and have a large enough section of the rock jutting out the water with a waterfall from the return).

 

for corals, I want to keep it simple

 

I got really lucky and picked up a beautiful sky blue milliepora colony (6" x 5") off a reefer for $30 and a giant green monti for $10.

 

I also have a lovely pagoda cup coral that will likely be the only piece I keep from my old tank..

 

I was debating whether to have a small flat rock in the middle 1/3 of the tank and place the milliepora and monti cap fairly low, maybe position the pagoda on their or off to the side somewhere. This would be the only area of the tank with coral, possibly the only coral I keep..

 

OR - creating a similar small footprint, but have the only rock jutting out of the water relatively far, and drain my return down into a 'basin' like jonny's... this would make a cool fiddler den.

 

however, I am really interested in the Todd's torch (the very long, stringy tentacled torch, not sure which euphyllia this is) I heard they go for $40 ^ a head? anyone know where to buy one?

 

not my pic

 

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there's a reefer who's trying to get rid of this torch for $20 (beautiful piece, not sure if it's the same kind as the one above however)

 

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I understand that this particularly species of torch ("todd's" torch) can get extremely long tentacles, over a foot in the right flow/ lighting. This might be an issue further down the line if it gets to that, but I thought it would look great as a show piece separate from the rest of the "bommie" on the opposite side of the tank,placing it high on a jutting rock giving it lots of room to spread out.

 

I might want to go against the grain of my original idea of having such a minimalist "bommie" setup with only a few large SPS corals in a shallow tank (haven't really seen anything like this before) and drop in a giant flowing piece to distract from it.. guess I have to locate one first.

 

 

Here is another interesting idea.. I clammed across this tank the other night - if I don't do the torch thing, I might build a similar raised platform out of rock and stick a clam on there as a showpiece.. there's got to be a good way to get them from shoving off.

 

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With all that being taken out of my head, I feel like I'm even crazier, and still have a lot of things to do. Have to drill the tank, (I'm having the overflow built by a local reefer), plumb it, create a lighting rack etc.. glarg

 

here's my old tanks by the way - http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=279100&hl=

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Thanks T, I'm looking to get another bulb most likely. The boost par30's are smaller I think so it might look weird with two different sized bulbs. I saw some tanks that had them (this review: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...3312182&am) the color seems to look similar, maybe slightly less purple. I was looking for a more 12K bulb, but I might sell off my boostLED to try some more out.

 

On a side note, I've always loved featherdusters and I was thinking I might start collecting them so that one day the entire bottom of the tank would be a giant, fused feather duster colony, constantly opening and closing in various binary-like ways. A feather duster garden. I've heard that feather dusters can attach to SPS so I'm not sure if it would be a problem. I have 3 already (petco has them $10, plus my discount ;))

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ready to get to work - picked up plumbing/hardware, sump and paint from home depot.

I haven't stucco'ed anything since preschool so lets go - still wondering if I should leave the top laminated wood exposed or if I should stucco the whole thing?

- picking up my overflow box on wednesday, going to drill that day and get the system pumping.

 

 

 

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Alrighty - finished up with the first coat, first attempt at stucco.. went pretty well, a lot of touch ups to do, but overall got the effect I was going for. Going to paint the borders and handles teal with a dark red/maroon outline perhaps.

 

 

Going to keep this baja themed and possibly keep a mexican throw rug underneath the tank for style points and to keep water off the paint/

 

Tried a few styles and an elephant reindeer fabric I had laying around the house. Might just keep it plain with the mat underneath.

 

Let me know which one you guys like

 

btw - can someone tell me how to upload a thumbnail picture that people can click and make bigger?

 

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Nice build, all these ADA's make me jealous. Do you have any pics of your scrubber/refugium?

 

 

thanks - not yet, i'm waiting on my overflow box to be ready for pick up, either tomorrow or friday. As soon as it gets here I will drill it and hook up all the plumbing. Right now the scrubber is running on my other 10 gallon with my livestock.

 

I had a regular 10 gallon previously, but fell in love with the dimensions of shallows long time ago. I'm debating whether turning this tank with one giant euphyllia torch piece that flows everywhere from the center.. probably have a pagoda and a milliepora colony as well.

 

Everything will be hopefully running by the weekend!

 

9 gallons shallow? Sounds familiar.... :happy:

 

check my sig bro!

 

 

I remember checking out the thread a few weeks ago -a lover of those dimensions right here g.

 

Whatever you put under it, make sure it's level.

Personally, I'd do a flush cut yoga mat or toolbox/cabinet liner.

 

 

good point about the leveling - all the material is relatively thin, but even a small fluctuation might muck it up.

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So just drilled the balls out of this tank earlier tonight - probably picked the worst night to do it, gusty rain and sleet.. but I had 'company' (beer) and it turned out OK. This was my first time drilling a tank and I had read a lot/ spoken with a few reefers about handling my business. I taped a hose and kept it running continuously over the drill area -the only problem I really encountered was have the drill 'walk' across the glass when I first began a hole. I didn't have a template, so several curved scratches were induced a few centimeters around the hole as I tried to get the groove going.

 

Once the main groove of the hole was established, it was a piece of cake. It takes a while, and being the first time, you wonder when the hell the holes going to get punched out (takes a few minutes of intense, jaw clenched drilling to get er done). I'm happy with my end result, and happy with the overflow box.

 

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fin to pick me up some liverock tomorrow and get some water up in this biatch.

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Looks great... let me know if you want to "adjust" that box my man. Patience grasshopper... I would fill it up first and do a run with just water to see if everything is working as you want, water level in the tank right, drain working good and so on. Would suck to pick up some killer rock then have it sitting in a bucket for a few days while you work out the kinks. ;)

 

Steve

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Looks great! I agree with glazer do a leak test first. And then simulate a few power outages as well to be sure your SUMP or Tank doesn't overflow.

 

I love these shallow tanks. Following!

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im pretty excited to see what direction you take this in, i just finished drilling and painting my 45-f which will be lit by a diy 12x3w led setup from rapiled. considering the size of these shallow displays, its all about proper stocking and aquascaping, i prefer a more zen style.

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Well, I couldn't have done it with out chya'll tear tear :tears: and money of course :bling: - and the man with the plan, glazer.

 

I'm gonna do a water test today - then kill the runway when I pick up some rock from aquatica or chicago fis hand coral.

 

 

 

im pretty excited to see what direction you take this in, i just finished drilling and painting my 45-f which will be lit by a diy 12x3w led setup from rapiled. considering the size of these shallow displays, its all about proper stocking and aquascaping, i prefer a more zen style.

 

I'm equally as excited - Not sure where this tank is going, but I plan to keep it simple and clean ------with a pipefish I dream about on some nights.

 

I'm going to pick up some krylon fusion spray paint today to black out the piping - I've been told this stuff is reef safe.

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lol - I had a towel covering the sump that I had running with a heater and a powerhead for the live rock I just picked up yesterday..

 

My cat decided to jump onto what he thought was a solid surface from the pool table - hilarity ensued

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