Islandoftiki's Mantis/Pest Tank Pico Contest Winner!

[ccapasso]

Very nice. Glad to see things are coming along well. I think that stand will turn out real nice when its all said and done. Good idea!

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, it's coming together tonight! The RKL, heater, and chiller should be fully operational by the end of the evening!

 

Here is the chiller mounted inside the cabinet. Notice it's mounted on a spring loaded bracket so it will always make positive contact with the bottom of the tank.

 

 

Here is the tip of the chiller probe that will contact the bottom of the tank. The rest of the chiller probe has been insulated.

 

 

The door is installed and the RKL is powered up!

 

 

View with the door open:

 

 

Now to organize the wiring and install the tank! As always, the tank is running a little warm at 80.3 degrees, this will be a good chance to see if the chiller will drop it down to 78 where I want it to stay.

[M@!]

Looks awesome. I really like how much equipment you are using on your "pest" pico. Going to be one sweet tank when it's done.

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, time to install the tank!

 

A little bit of arctic silver heat transfer compound at the contact point.

 

And the tank is installed and the chiller is running. Let's see how long it takes to drop the tank temperature .4 degrees.

[ccapasso]

Drool.....

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, moving right along here....

 

 

Wiring organized and done... Note the drip loop. You all should have these!

 

And for the moment you've all been waiting for....

 

The final product!

 

And you may be asking, did the chiller work? See for yourself. 78.0 degrees! Bam! Took about 1/2 hour to drop .4 degrees.

[Islandoftiki]

Drool.....

 

I have every confidence that your new mantis tank will be equally drool worthy.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Very impressed and interested to know that just the tip of the iceprobe while being insulated and treated with artic paste, gives the thermal properties you are reporting.

 

I was under the impression that the entire probe had to make contact with water to elicit maximum contact time for performance.

 

You are showing otherwise, very impressed!

 

Our probe on the temperate 2 gallon pico is making 100 percent contact with the shaft and we bring her down to 55 degrees, but with ambient in the room at 86 degrees, the probe suffers and climbs to 66 degrees and struggles to stay there.

 

Because it is a very gradual climb our tide pool critters have no problem adjusting, it takes literally the whole day for it to climb up to 66-67 and then the whole night to early morning it's back to 55 degrees.

 

My brother uses his ice probe on the AC20 just like us, and runs a tropical tank, it hardly stays on to bring down his tank, like yours but he is fully submerged.

 

Please watch and keep us posted on the efficacy of your new installation, once again, I tip my hat to your creative endeavors.

 

MG

Edited April 26, 2012 by mikeguerrero

[Islandoftiki]

If I get only 20% of it's available cooling properties, I reckon it will keep the tank's temperatures in check, or at least a lot more stable. I imagine I'm getting well over 20% of it's available cooling with this setup. Obviously, I can't actually test it's full capability on this tank without killing everything, so I'd have to get a spare fluval spec to test the total efficacy. These are all just guesses, but FWIW, it's working! I'll make note of overall performance if we should happen to actually get some warm weather again.

 

The house is also air conditioned, so it's unlikely the ambient temperature will ever get above 80 degrees.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Excellent thanks!

 

Love the furniture stand, makes me want to start selling them for our picos!

[Islandoftiki]

I'm still thinking about the light. Obviously I had to take the shade off of it so the LED bulb would get enough ventilation and not overheat, but it's not 100% aesthetically pleasing. I still have a few more days to figure out what I'm going to do about it. Perhaps a tastefully ventilated shade. I'm pretty sure I can do that. I have a infra-red non-contact pyrometer, so I can measure the temp of the bulb and make sure it isn't getting too hot with whatever I decide to do.

[MetaTank]

Super clean, looking fantastic! Nice wire bundles, sexy drip loop...haha

[Islandoftiki]

Here's something kinda funny. My new blue xenia frag disappeared. It was just a small frag, but I can't find it anywhere. I think the mantis moved it or hid it. I wonder if it's in his cave?

[M@!]

Here's something kinda funny. My new blue xenia frag disappeared. It was just a small frag, but I can't find it anywhere. I think the mantis moved it or hid it. I wonder if it's in his cave?

Hahah I be he did! Maybe he wanted an indoor tree? Edited April 26, 2012 by M@!

[Islandoftiki]

Well, I can find that xenia anywhere, not in the mantis cave, not anywhere. So my final conclusion is that majanos will eat xenia.

 

Anyhow, enough yapping, time for pictures!

 

I got the final icing on the cake today! A perfect sized small frag of yellow colony polyps!! Woot! I found them at Rose City Aquarium while picking up some sale goodies for my main tank!

 

Here are the beautiful green palys donated by local reefer nelsz3!

 

Wouldn't you like to have this lovely aiptasia in your main display tank? I didn't think so...

 

Full tank shot. I just noticed the mantis shrimp make a guest appearance! Can you find him?

[M@!]

I vote for TOTM! Give the xenia a few weeks I bet it shows back up, it is not supposed to be that easy to kill. Mantis is in his cave, bottom middle of the tank. You can't miss those eyes!

 

I think I've been to Rose City aquariums, small shop in an industrial area?

[Islandoftiki]

I vote for TOTM! Give the xenia a few weeks I bet it shows back up, it is not supposed to be that easy to kill. Mantis is in his cave, bottom middle of the tank. You can't miss those eyes!

 

I think I've been to Rose City aquariums, small shop in an industrial area?

 

Yep, you spotted him! Well done! He's been a little reclusive tonight, but came out to get his mysis shrimp dinner. I fed some of the majanos and aiptasias today as well. Those new green palys even grabbed a bit of free-floating mysis.

 

Yeah, Rose City Aquarium is in an industrial-type area, although it's now becoming less so. It's now across the street from Hopworks Urban Brewpub, which is extremely popular. They're actually selling off all of their corals at fire-sale prices because they're moving to a new store right by where I work, which is even more dangerous for me! I picked up some nice goodies for the 10 gallon tank for super cheap. I got a really nice featherduster worm and a superman rhodactis mushroom.

 

I played around with the shade for the light today, but I'm not sure if I'll be using it or not. I'm going to have to hack it up pretty bad. We'll see if I have enough time to sort it out. Otherwise, it'll stay as it is.

[Islandoftiki]

The missing blue xenia showed up this morning. The mantis was using it as a door to his cave. I rescued it and tossed it into my main tank until I can get it glued down this afternoon.

[jcastle]

WHOA

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

I'm still thinking about the light. Obviously I had to take the shade off of it so the LED bulb would get enough ventilation and not overheat, but it's not 100% aesthetically pleasing. I still have a few more days to figure out what I'm going to do about it. Perhaps a tastefully ventilated shade. I'm pretty sure I can do that. I have a infra-red non-contact pyrometer, so I can measure the temp of the bulb and make sure it isn't getting too hot with whatever I decide to do.

 

Your whole setup looks so appealing in design, up until you look at that light. I'm not a fan of the open bulb fixtures unless they are concealed, just me.

 

With you coming clean about the 100% aesthetically look, I would agree, not yet there 89%

 

But I know you, your OCD will kick in and you will figure something out. Reefers like you always prevail, just another guy glued to your thread.

[Islandoftiki]

Your whole setup looks so appealing in design, up until you look at that light. I'm not a fan of the open bulb fixtures unless they are concealed, just me.

 

With you coming clean about the 100% aesthetically look, I would agree, not yet there 89%

 

But I know you, your OCD will kick in and you will figure something out. Reefers like you always prevail, just another guy glued to your thread.

 

You know me, Mike. It'll drive me nuts if it's not 100% perfect. I have one more option if I can't get the shade just right. I have the BoostLED fixture that it came with. I'll have to build a bracket onto the back of the cabinet to hold it though. But it is an option.

 

One of the drawback of these par30 and 38 bulbs is that they're supposed to be run naked for ventilation and it's just not super awesome looking. I still have the weekend to play around with it.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

What the LED light emits is just awesome, and the bulb itself looks nice black on the head. But what catches my eye quickly is the ceramic white at the base of the light, I suppose they use that to control or dissipate heat?

 

Then there is the fixture you are using, I love it all up until the end that looks like small annoying aluminum hat that is too small for a big head.

 

You will find something other than that small hat that doesn't match. I know, stay tuned!

[Islandoftiki]

That little hat thingy comes off, but the whole thing looks less appealing without it. I'm formulating a few more ideas... The gears are turning!

[Islandoftiki]

So, just for fun, I was playing around with a time-lapse video app on my phone this afternoon. Here's 10 minutes of pest tank action condensed into 30 seconds. Watch that little mantis go! He's like a little black streak... When I shot this, he was busy being a civil engineer, moving sand from the front of the tank to the back via his little upper cave pass-through.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Gears are turning? That is magic to my ears!