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7.2g Cold Water Reef Build


Tamberav

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AquaticEngineer

Tank looks amazing Tam! That little Northern Star Coral has sure opened up!

 

General rule of thumb I have found when using acrylic as insulation is that you get about 5 degrees of thermal buffer for every 1/2" of acrylic. So with a 1/2" acrylic tank and the water running 55F, the outside of the acrylic will be about 60F anytime the room is warmer than the tank water. With 1" acrylic you get about double that, close to a 10 degree buffer between the outside temp of the acrylic and the water.

 

The above numbers are mostly useful for figuring out when and if condensation will occur. The rest of the "how well it will chill" question all depends on water flow and the chillers size.

 

With my 1/2" Micro-Reefs tank my 1/13th HP chiller came on for about 5 minutes every 45 minutes during the summer with house temps in the upper 70's and low 80's, then only every hour or so when it was between 65-70F which is my normal house temp.

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

Looks like your thread is taking off, will have to say not too many reefers really know the beauty of the California coast until they dive in it or visit a public aquarium.

 

JUST DO IT! AND YOU WILL SEE THE BEAUTY FOR YOURSELF.... GO VISIT THE PUBLIC AQUARIUM OR DIVE THE PACIFIC OCEAN. OR DO WHAT I DO, VISIT THIS THREAD TO GET MY DAILY HIGH.... SINCE I DON'T DIVE ANYMORE....

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Post links to your other reefs in your signature whenever you get a chance

 

I have not updated them in forever (just busy). Some I don't even have threads for :P I just started a 5g pico 2 days ago and I may start a thread for that one, there is just something about tiny tanks I love.

 

OMG! I just realized you upgraded your cubey to a fuval spec V. That is the pico I just started, I love the dimensions... trying to figure out how to get an ATO to work with it....

Tank looks amazing Tam! That little Northern Star Coral has sure opened up!

 

General rule of thumb I have found when using acrylic as insulation is that you get about 5 degrees of thermal buffer for every 1/2" of acrylic. So with a 1/2" acrylic tank and the water running 55F, the outside of the acrylic will be about 60F anytime the room is warmer than the tank water. With 1" acrylic you get about double that, close to a 10 degree buffer between the outside temp of the acrylic and the water.

 

The above numbers are mostly useful for figuring out when and if condensation will occur. The rest of the "how well it will chill" question all depends on water flow and the chillers size.

 

With my 1/2" Micro-Reefs tank my 1/13th HP chiller came on for about 5 minutes every 45 minutes during the summer with house temps in the upper 70's and low 80's, then only every hour or so when it was between 65-70F which is my normal house temp.

 

Personally... I would suggest to always go the thickest acrylic you can afford. I have had power outages, one was for a couple days even... nothing died because I was able to swap frozen bottles of ice with the acrylic acting as a buffer so they didn't melt too fast. I was able to add the ice... go to bed... and wake up in the morning to swap them without the tank getting too warm. No deaths. I figure the thicker the acrylic... the slower the temp will drop should something go wrong and the more time you have to catch it.

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

I like to make things simple. Next time you reach in he refrigerator and pull out some cold juice or soda, pour two cups. Make the cups different in make, one glass and one in plastic. Works best if you have those old thick plastic cups from the 70's any glass cup will do.

 

When you pour your juice in both, which one transfers the cold quicker?

 

The slower the process the better the insulation

 

MG

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Micro-Reefs Aquariums

How's this cold water reef doing these days Tamberav? I'd love to see a new FTS, even from a phone ;)

Been wondering that, but do know her tank was doing well as I got some pics she sent me for my site when it was up.

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Wow!! New to this thread and just read the whole thing front to back.... I have been in discussions with Mike on what size tank to go with.. I have been successful with nano and picos in the tropical world but they are very sensitive and require constant monitoring of the water conditions and chemicals.. This looks much more steady once up and running... I was sold on the 2/3 gal when I saw a few pics of them.. and like I said I am ok with the smaller pico systems, however..... this will be my first temperate system and the larger size means more critters...and easier to control parameters...!!!! The tank is beautiful and you have done an amazing job keeping everyone in the loop for a very long time... I now know another contact now when I have questions.. Thanks for the inspiration..!!!!

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

I am designing 3 gallon in 1/2 inch acrylic and bringing back nano to cold water sysyems.

 

It was the smaller 2 gallon that started my line of cold water.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Micro-Reefs Aquariums

I am designing 3 gallon in 1/2 inch acrylic and bringing back nano to cold water sysyems.

 

It was the smaller 2 gallon that started my line of cold water.

 

I finished it and decided to reintroduce the 2 gallon system that was debuted on Reef builders, but I enhanced it with 1/2 inch CAST ACRYLIC in order to giver superiority in insulation and less usage of the chiller.

 

It's on my site for $299.99 and comes with everything out of the box to explore temperate oceans!

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Hey all, I am still alive, and so is the tank!

 

I was on vacation for about 1.5 weeks. My husband had medical school interviews in Wisconsin and Oregon and I went with for support and fun. Good news! My husband was accepted to Wisconsin's medical school!! He will also hear back from Portland and Minnesota at the end April. I believe Wisconsin had something like 6000 out of state apps and only accepted 100, yikes! I am not sure where we will end up if he gets accepted elsewhere too but we will be moving in July sometime. I will downsize from 6 to 3 tanks (the coldwater + reef + freshwater) upon moving to make things easier.

 

We had a lot of fun on portland and went tide pooling. I got to see some really big nem's, sculpins, crabs, ect in their natural habitat. We also drove down to Cresent City in CA and hiked around the redwoods. I got some pictures I will be sharing :)

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

Let me share a couple pics of the 2 gallon cold water system that ships with everything needed to own your very own temperate aquarium right out of the box!

 

20160310_165529.jpg

 

20160310_162728.jpg

 

20160310_165414.jpg

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

This is what you can have in a 2 gallon Micro-Reefs Temperate system... Pictures don't lie, especially if I was the owner of the tank... :) The system is on my site on SALE!, these animals/corals are crazy sick colors and shapes and do bizarre stuff our Tropical cousins never do! BELIEVE ME, IT'S 55 F DEGREES OF COOLNESS, HAPPENING HERE!!!

 

11gu03m.jpg

 

34dq3yd.jpg

 

2qu2m86.jpg

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

What is the bottom fish?

That is a temperate gunnel, in fact if you google the name (temperate gunnel) you get three pictures I posted about the fish, does that make sense how rare they are to the hobbyist

 

They are supper cool looking and mine was tiny small no bigger than 1.5 inches. He was the coolest fish I owned.

 

Here he is with my other awesome cold water fish Green Sculpin... This is from the 2 gallon tank as I don't want people to think they are from different size aquariums. This all happened in 2 gallons of cool water... :)

 

28j9utt.jpg

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

What species of gunnel

Ok now you are getting too technical for me, remember I am not Stu or Josh from COLD WATER MARINE AQUATICS, I am a fabricator of acrylic nano sized aquariums. :)

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

Lol, forgot about that... :)

 

Ah I now remember the species of Gunnel, this one you see on my photo comes from the special family phylum, species called: Micro-ReefsGunelosia LOL, hey but here is another picture of him in my 2 gallon temperate tank, so he should have that species name right?

 

20gfepv.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hey all! I had a bit of a disaster 5 days ago, I was working a 16 hour shift and when I got home the power was tripped and fuse blown in the chiller (apt in old house so wiring sucks). The tank was pretty warm, I lost the gorg, the muscles, and aggregating nem. I thought I was going to lose the urchin as he was listless but came back around after a few days.

 

All the fish are alive, some of the nem's look mad still but are coming around. I had some brown slime show up in the back and cyano. I think because I probably lost bacteria and micro fauna. So I did a 100% W/C and remove a bunch of the sand bed.

 

I can see a little GHA sprouting now too.

 

Going to just do extra w/c's and try and feed the nem's extra.

 

All in all, most of it survived.

 

I'll be moving in June and hoping to move to an apt building that was build in 2015 which should make wiring situation better. Once I get settled and find a job there, I would like to get a custom tank made from Mike that can fit both my chillers and have more room for a bit larger pump in the back.

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Where are you moving to, in Duluth or outside? I saw that you are a Minnesotan, I live in Moorhead (across the river from Fargo)

 

Outside, Milwaukee I think. You started on your cold water tank yet?

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  • Tamberav changed the title to 7.2g Cold Water Reef Build

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