SDartifex countertop extension [retired]

[SDartifex]

Hello all, welcome!

A short introduction to the concept behind this reef:
Because I had just moved into a pretty small apartment I was forced to downsize from my previous 25G cube. As I moved in and situated furniture I realized I would be forced to locate the tank off the end of my kitchen counter. Because of this location and my borderline obsession for aesthetic minimalism I had to design a system that could be viewed from any side with very minimal equipment detracting from the overall beauty of the reef. After 2 months of sketchup designs and conceptual overflow systems this is what I came up with

The current FTS:

The system's current equipment:

• Tanks:
  • ADA 60-f with a DIY floating acrylic lid (Display)
  • AGA 20G standard (Sump and refugium)
• Controller:
  • Neptune Systems Apex, w/Lab PH probe and DIY breakout
• Flow:
  • MP-10 (Display)
  • Hydor Korallia nano (Refugium)
  • Quiet One 1200 (Return)
• Lights:
  • ​ATI Powermodule 4x24 (Display)
  • DIY LED's 4x3W (Refugium)
• Filtration:
  • ​Reef Octopus NWB-110
  • GFO (Media bag)
  • Carbon (Media bag)
  • Purigen (Media bag)
• Dosing:
  • ​Marine Magic Triple
• Top off:
  • ​Tunze Osmolator 5017

Parameters:

• Carbonate: 11 DKH
• Calcium: 450 ppm
• Magnesium: 1600 ppm
• NO3: 1-2 ppm
• PO4: undetectable

[buddythelion]

Whoah, this thread is looking great already! Are you planning on drilling it?

[danimal1211]

nice job on the stand. subscribed

[Spirofucci]

That is gonna be one killer set up. I love tanks that can be viewed from all sides, its almost like having two tanks.

[SDartifex]

(Spoiler tag is the original first post)

 

Last August I was forced to sell off all my livestock during a move. So of course ever since the last of my frags left I have been itching to get back in the hobby, but I had to downsize to accommodate my new home. I eventually decided to build an ADA 60-f and I decided I wanted to do so with all 4 sides and the top viewable and aesthetically tolerable to accommodate the placement of this reef at the end of my kitchen counter. So far I have fabricated a 1" steel square tube frame, planed and sealed some pine boards for the tank and sump to rest on and begun to acquire or design all the necessary items for the build

The tank was my first item to arrive and is also my first experience with an ADA aquarium.








Ive also begun to culture some dry rock in a rubbermaid bin and am quarantining some live rock I intend to use to seed the dry rock. If I dont observe any pests from the seed rocks by the end of the week I will begin seeding the dry rock with it.






The button polyps may go before I move the rock into the tank. Depending on how I decide on stocking I feel like they may become a problem further down the line if I dont take care of them now.

Whoah, this thread is looking great already! Are you planning on drilling it?

Thanks, I initially considered drilling the tank from the bottom and using two acrylic standpipes for a herbie like system without a box, but didn't like the idea of exposed coral if there was a power outage. Then I thought about a single drain on the side but there are no bulkheads slim enough to fit without tubing hanging over the side of the stand. I've decided to go with a hang on system, but this is by no means an overflow box. Payment was just cleared for it very early this morning so it will ship soon, you'll have to wait until it comes in to find out though

nice job on the stand. subscribed

Thank you, It was a lot of fun to build. Keeping everything square was a little frustrating though since metal tends to move while your welding.

That is gonna be one killer set up. I love tanks that can be viewed from all sides, its almost like having two tanks.

Agreed, I love being able to observe all sides of the tank. No hiding allowed

[SDartifex]

While taking a break from studying for some mid-term's I put in a shelf with those wall mount brackets for garage shelving. Its not as sexy as welding a bracket to the frame, but it is adjustable which wil come in handy when I get around to building an acrylic sump and getting an appropriately sized skimmer

[SDartifex]

The overflow arrived!

 

I was working on mounting some things and planning my sump when it arrived, and the box was in surprisingly great shape for standard international post.

 

But even in all the nice packaging the MAME arrived broken

 

So now I'm waiting on Kimiko at MAME-Design to reply to my email on the matter..

 

I was really hoping to get things wet today too

[JR!]

can i have their email too. i wanna order one for my next tank

[SDartifex]

can i have their email too. i wanna order one for my next tank

 

Yeah its: aqua@mame-design.jp

 

Their order process is a little wonky for international orders but they do their best to help you through. LMK if you grt confused and I'll try to help ya out.

[SDartifex]

So after a week of no observable pests I decided its a good time to start seeding the rock. So I spent a couple hours to set up the rock work filled the tank and then put in the seed pieces. I put up my temporary DIY par38 and moved the canister over with an inline heater. Okay enough talk heres some photos.

 

FTS, the tanks a little cloudy still..

 

The stand as is while I complete the sump and get my overflow sorted out

 

View from my living room couch

 

I still got a lot of work to do, but im happy to finally have some water in this thing after a month of looking at it dry everyday.. The rock is in the early mid cycle with ammonia dropping and nitrite around 20ppm so hopefully in a week or two I can start stocking.

 

Anyways pretend like the seed rocks aren't there (they'll go in a fuge eventually) and LMK how you feel about about the scape

[Spirofucci]

Looking good!! I did the same thing on adding seeded rock and then took it out.

[JR!]

any updates for us?

[SDartifex]

The cycle seems to have finnished. I did a waterchange after 3 days of no changes in NH3 NO2- or NO3-. After 24hr's I tested again to find everything below detectable with my cheapo dip tests I've been using. This weekend I should have time to grab my saliferts from storage to get a good reading on nitrates. Anyways I've thrown in some snails to start working on the film of diatoms/cyano (cant really tell yet).

 

Ive been slowly progressing on the sump, in the hour or so I get of free time during weekdays. Its nearly complete though and I think its gonna work nicely once I get everything installed .

 

As for the overflow, I'll be going into the post office to claim insurance for the MAME tomorrow. I reallllllllllly hope it doesn't end up being a three month nightmare.. Kinda considering just drilling the tank now but I know I wouldn't be happy with the look if I had some ugly pvc pipes coming out the side of the tank. Maybe I'll look into machining some acrylic at the shop I work in. If I can thread a couple pieces and use an o-ring for a gasket or maybe even just silicone; I think I could put together a slick little setup with some blocks we use to make flowmeters.. lol I'm gonna have trouble sleeping now

 

Sorry for the wall of words, but you asked for it pics are comin soon, I just gotta take some time to upload them this weekend.

[igotreefermadness]

Mame + ADA reef tank sounds extra sweet. I'd try waiting it out.

[Looselyhuman]

Looking good, sucks about the overflow. Maybe get one of these and swap it out with the Mame whenever it arrives: http://www.aquacave.com/Eshopps-NANO-Overf...-P3087C883.aspx

[SDartifex]

Took some photo's on my way out to work

 

Artsy fartsy

 

The FTS

 

Got my first coral today as well

 

And the stand a little more cleaned up while I'm planning out the facade

[SDartifex]

Mame + ADA reef tank sounds extra sweet. I'd try waiting it out.

 

Yeah thats where I've settled too. I was just so bummed about the mame coming in broken and impatient to get my sump going to show off what I'm planning to do with it

 

Looking good, sucks about the overflow. Maybe get one of these and swap it out with the Mame whenever it arrives: http://www.aquacave.com/Eshopps-NANO-Overf...-P3087C883.aspx

 

I would but on my college budget I dont think I can fit it in. I'm definitly trying my best to source top of the line, but I'm workin baller on a budget

[JR!]

there is way to do a diy mame. might be a worth looking into. if its gonna be a pain to get a new one that is. ill see if i can find the linky

 

edit:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=254404

 

found it.

[SDartifex]

Yeah Ive seen those around while I was researching my build. There awesome but I dont think I want to put that on a walk around system. It would be alot cleaner just to drill an overflow If I end up giving up on a hang on solutions. I'm thinking a few months cleaning a canister wont be too bad though. Just wish I had some lily pipes to get rid of those ugly green tubes..

[Spirofucci]

Tank looks great! Congrats on yer first coral!

 

LOL, @ the Salifert test kits as art work.

[SDartifex]

Tank looks great! Congrats on yer first coral!

 

LOL, @ the Salifert test kits as art work.

 

Thanks buddy, I just orderded some more rics from aquascapers since they got that sweet deal going on. They should arrive tomorrow if all goes well

 

My girlfriend has been nagging about how ugly the stand is without a facade, so I thought the saliferts would look better than all the disorganized cables behind em I just wish the weather would get a little more dry so I could get some plywood sealed to cover the frame.

[SDartifex]

More ricordia's today from aquascapers

 

From the top

 

All blue

 

Pink

 

Orange

 

bonus from colin

 

and one more shot just for fun

[Spirofucci]

Nice rics! I love my rics just as much as any other coral in my tank.

[SDartifex]

Nice rics! I love my rics just as much as any other coral in my tank.

 

Thanks, I've actually never kept any mushrooms before but always wanted to have some ric's. Something about their bubbly texture and of course there epic colors just draws me in.

 

The day after I got those last 4 I woke up and went to the kitchen to start some coffee. While waiting for it to brew I noticed two of the new guys were missing, but since I knew they werent attached to anything I figured they had just been blown under a rock or something. Well I was half right, I found one under the rockwork but couldnt find the nice big blue that I had added the day before. After a few minutes of interrogating the cats like it was the spanish inquisition it hit me that I hadn't checked the canister filter which had no device to keep something like that from happening. A few minutes later and little blue was back in his place, I turned down the mp10 a little and put an old pillbottle on the intake to act like and overflow skimming off the top rather than sucking from the bottom. I finnished all this just in time to go to work without breakfast...

 

Lesson learned; Always glue your ric's down

Blues has been happy as a clam though so at least my mistake wasn't fatal this time.

[SDartifex]

So things are progressing nicely and I got a ton of pods crawling the glass all day.

 

Also while out getting some water I decided to get some tester SPS pieces just to see how they'd do since I've yet to see any nutrients for over a week now. They weren't marked but I'm guessing this is either a red planet or rose milli, once it grows a little I'll feel more comfortable trying to pin a name to it.

 

Then theres this guy, some kinda smooth skin, but I really have no clue what.

 

Finally my big score today was this guy, though he never really opened up while the lights were on so this is the best shot I got for now.

 

After shooting for a while I noticed some red spots on the smooth skinned acro, and they were without a doubt redbugs...

 

I wish I had a macro lens to get a decent shot with but you can make em out with this

 

So now he's in quarantine while I decide what I'm gonna do since I dont have any interceptor..

 

Oh yeah and I glued down the two rics that weren't attached to any rocks