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Cultivated Reef

Lab Bench Nano Reef


bredler

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My friend/lab technician and I are setting up this little reef tank on my lab bench.

 

  • Mr. Aqua 12", 7.5g cube. Under it is a piece of foam core board to insulate it from the benchtop, which acts as a huge heat sink, and to distribute weight evenly.
  • Finnex HOB Box as Refugium. Has LR Rubble and a filter sock with Carbon in the first chamber, will have Chaeto in the 2nd chamber, and the third chamber will either have a single blue leg hermit or will be merged with the 2nd chamber to grow more chaeto depending on how the demand for nitrates looks.
  • Ebay Pump used instead of air-driven lift tube. Custom 90 degree fitting to allow mounting the pump higher so the tube doesn't get in the way and to lessen the danger of pumping all the water out of the tank if the fuge fails or clogs.
  • Koralia Nano for circulation
  • BoostLED Par30: 2 Royal Blue, 2 Cool White, 1 Natural White
  • Light fixture is just a cheapo drafting lamp that someone gave to me.
  • Finnex FugeRay refugium light
  • SeaChem Pearl Beach Aragonite Sand, small bag
  • Reef Crystals Salt Mix
  • 50W Catalina metal heater with external thermostat. Nice and compact and good-looking but it can seriously pump out some heat. I just keep flow on it to make sure the heating is evenly diffused and it's great!
  • D-D Seawater Refractometer
  • Gravity/"water cooler" style ATO made from rabbit water bottle with the ball bearings removed and the tube shortened. Mounted with a custom mount I made from a block of polyethylene.
  • Buna Ultra LR from Live Rock N Reef

2 Days after startup the water parameters are:

 

Salinity 1.026-and a little bit...so 1.0265ish

pH 7.7

Alkalinity 8.3 dKH

Calcium 450 ppm

Mg2+ 1520 ppm

Ammonia 0 ppm

Nitrate 40 ppm

Nitrite 0 ppm

 

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The Tank!

 

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Front Shot, before I put the ATO on, but the hardscape is the same.

 

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Side Shot

 

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The Fuge!

 

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The ATO

 

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My handiwork with the pluming and the ATO mount.

 

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A closer look at the ATO mount.

 

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Without the jug

 

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Man this tank is awesome !!! I love the rocks and the scape. What're you're stocking plans ?

 

Following along btw lol

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I can't believe you would do this, doesn't your institution's EH&S have policies about animals and clean areas in labs? As much as I would love to have an aquarium in my lab, I just can't see these things adhering to protocols

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It's not a 'clean' environment in my lab. Not even negative pressure. Our windows open. Somone from EHS has seen the tank and so has my boss.

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I'm surprised too, but hey, if you are allowed go for it. I don't even think I'm allowed to have one at my desk and i can eat there (still working that one out)! Even looks like there is some other tank or terrarium in one of the pictures.

 

What kind of lab is it?

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Interesting ATO. :)

 

Thanks, I've done two like it before and they've all worked out great. I tested the salinity in the tank the whole week and it was consistent, then I tested the remaining 1/8 or so of the bottle and it was 0 salinity. So mixing in the bottle doesn't seem to be a real concern. Best part is that there are no moving parts, and since there are no moving parts it's not loud when it fills and it can fill small amounts often because there's no pump to burn out!

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wow.such.chris

There are tanks in several labs here in milwaukee at the freshwater school. Cichlids, guppys, frogs. All sorts of stuff.

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