Office Distraction v2

[dropped]

Well it seems that breaking down my old office tank didn't last too long.

The last office tank in the link above i made myself without much research and somehow i managed to build a nice functional all in one tank. It ran well for 9 months and the only reason i pulled it down was i lost the star of the tank Hemmi the coral goby too carpet surfing even though i had a lid.

This time around the tank is custom from top to bottom. I ordered a 40cm x40cm x 30cm high rimless tank from a local builder. For some strange reason he decided i wanted a lid so siliconed some glass runners to each side of the tank... i personal hate them, but have not removed them yet.

A few things i learnt from building the last tank were to make sure the water level was at least a 3-4 cm from the top of the tank, and make sure there is enough room in the sump area.

Ive managed to combat both of those issues by increasing the rear sump area to be 100mm wide rather than 60mm wide. This will ensure that i have enough room for a small skimmer and fuge if i really want to go down that route. The water level will be lowered by not using drill holes for the over flow this time and using a traditional slotted over flow.

Today saw the two 100mm x 230mm baffles being installed. The right hand side will hold a media tray and the water will flow down under the first baffle into the fuge/skimmer area then over the last baffle into the heater/return pump/ato area.

Most if not all equipment will be taken from my old desktop tank

Heater: Eheim Jager 60L
Return Pump: Jebao DC-1200 (300ish gph)
Power Head: Jebao RW-4 (if needed)
ATO: Tunze Osomolator
Light: MicMol Led Colour
Substrate: Bare bottom
Tank: Custom 40x40x30 48L or 12.6 Gallons


Here is the tank taped up ready for the two baffles to be installed. You can also see the glass runners for the lid that will be removed ASAP.


Both baffles in and setting, will give them 24 hours before i install the rear wall


This last photo shows the last chamber with all of the equipment that will be housed in there, Heater, ato and return pump. All of it fits in with heaps of space to spare.

[cnseekatz]

Go go! Love office tanks!

[Matteo]

loved your last build along with the little micmol light!

[dropped]

Go go! Love office tanks!

 

Pretty sure my boss doesn't like me having an office tank, productivity takes a dive

 

loved your last build along with the little micmol light!

 

Cheers, the MicMol has been really good. Lets hope it has the light spread to cater for the larger tank.

 

On another note I ordered my over flow teeth, loc-line and clear lid holders last night off fish-street, these will take 6 - 12 days through Hong Kong post which is normally surprisingly fast.

 

Fingers crossed also that the rear wall turns up by courier today!

[dropped]

Ok so had my fish-street order come in. Picked up a loc-line return and a few other bits and pieces for my other tank such as filter socks and Salifert Ca test kit.

 

The rear wall for the AIO build also came in and it was slighter wider than i had thought, so i tried to cut it down using a jig-saw which was an epic fail as the blade walked and i didn't get a straight cut at all. Pretty gutted, now i need to order another.

 

I also am having trouble getting the glass runners off the inside of the tank that the builder decided to install, has anyone got any tips to remove these? ive tried to put a blade into the silicone between the two bits of glass but i think ill scratch the glass.

[nano_MC_reef]

i love office tanks! but it really drops the productivity thats why my boss gets mad at me every time i mention it

 

[dropped]

New rear wall designed and sent off to be laser cut, Then the tank will almost be complete.

 

[Have_A_Beer]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Following!

[Aqua Lab Aquaria]

Your weir teeth look like they may be susceptible to breaking without having material going across them at the top. Hope that makes sense.

[dropped]

Your weir teeth look like they may be susceptible to breaking without having material going across them at the top. Hope that makes sense.

yea totally possible, they are 4mm thick so hopefully they will be ok.

[dropped]

The rear wall turned up today, and it fits perfectly!

 

here are a few random pictures during the assembly. I managed to press fit the locline into the rear wall which was a bonus.

 

 

 

 

 

Mocked up in the tank held in place by tape.I think ill be able to silicone it in place tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

It seems everything turned out how i planned the weir will be strong enough as long as my fat fingers dont break the teeth.

[HarryPotter]

I would keep the runners unless you want a lot of jumpers! They're pretty discrete.

 

Tank looks great, very precise.

[dropped]

I would keep the runners unless you want a lot of jumpers! They're pretty discrete.

 

Tank looks great, very precise.

 

I've actually given up trying to take them off, it was near impossible without causing damage to the tank itself.

 

It did mean i had to cut the back wall to bit into the runners but yes you are right! it will save jumpers.

[dropped]

So the tank is officially built! only the media basket to go, which i'm going to make out of egg crate. Here are a few pictures of the assembly.

 

 

Silicone applied ready to pull the tape off

 

 

tape pulled off, using tape for coving makes all the difference, it leaves such clean lines.

 

 

Almost like a bought one

 

[teenyreef]

Nice build so far, which is just as I would expect from your last time! Following along

[dropped]

Tomorrow the tank will be getting wet for the first time.

The big question though...... Sand or no sand?

 

Spent today applying silicone to the places that were ahhh.... leaking. Easy fix, it was only leaking between two of the rear chambers.

 

Also made the media basket which came out OK, the build inst as good as the rest of the tank which is annoying me but, im sure in time ill make a better one. One pain in the ass is the runner which doesn't allow the media basket to slot straight down into the first chamber which means the basket needs to be flexible to go in.

 

Also picked up some black foam to go under the tank to replace the white styrofoam which means i can go bare bottom if i want with out seeing a heap of white though the bottom/.

[dropped]

Well the tank is wet and.... even has too much coral in it already.

 

Moved over three decent sized rocks with a few zoa and softies attached to it. And also filled the media basket with a heap of rubble i had been cycling in the sump of my other tank for a couple of months, so there really should not be a cycle for this tank at all.

 

Really only have a few more acans and a frog spawn to move over when I can be bothered already spent way to much time on this wee tank this weekend. Will throw some pictures up once everything has opened back up and is looking happy.

[dropped]

Ok first picture on move day. Not everything is happy yet but its getting there slowly.

 

Shall i keep it bare bottom or go with sand?

 

[teenyreef]

Personally I like sand in my tank, but yours looks amazing with the reflections from the bare bottom. It looks really good!

[metrokat]

Personally I like sand in my tank, but yours looks amazing with the reflections from the bare bottom. It looks really good!

Won't last though, coralline spots will spread on the bottom glass as well.

[cnseekatz]

Personal preference obviously, but I'm a fan of nice white sand. Plus it gives so much to your tank with all the micro-critters, and places for some cool burrowing fish/crustaceans.

[dropped]

Personally I like sand in my tank, but yours looks amazing with the reflections from the bare bottom. It looks really good!

 

Thanks Teeny, I have now moved my last three Acans across and last zoa mound/cluster/colony haha what ever you want to call it. When they all open back up I'll throw another picture up. I might yet put some sand in..

 

Won't last though, coralline spots will spread on the bottom glass as well.

 

That's the best part of a small bare bottom tank, you can pull everything out in 1 min and scrape the glass as needed.

 

 

Personal preference obviously, but I'm a fan of nice white sand. Plus it gives so much to your tank with all the micro-critters, and places for some cool burrowing fish/crustaceans.

 

Yea that's a good point, we don't get a lot of choice when it comes to live stock here in New Zealand so are limited in what we can get.

 

[dropped]

I still have a frogspawn to move over, however this means moving both the green and purple hammers as the frog spawn has grown quiet a bit. I think I want the hammers to be together so that might just work out. Thinking about this it might require some zoa to be moved elsewhere in the tank which isn't a bad idea as they cannot really be seen where they are currently over the back.

 

This sounds like something I need to do when the misses is out horse riding haha.

[dropped]

Bit of an update, few changes and a growth picture.

 

Always nice to see growth, even better to see new Acan heads!

 

 

 

Had been tossing up weather id be putting sand in or keeping it bare bottom, Looks like i've decided! and a bristle star came out to say hi.

 

 

 

As i upgraded the dosing pump on my big tank to a four head unit it meant i had a "spare" bubble magus which was meant to be sold ...... but it has made its way onto this tank along with a new 3 chamber coral box dosing container and dosing tube holder...... dont tell the misses

 

 

[dropped]

Got a call from the LFS to say that my coral goby was in, yay! got there and it was a citron goby, not so yay......

 

I was also going to pick up a couple small clowns, they are tiny! My partner has already named them Myrtle and Gertrude which seems to have stuck!

 

Also, excuse the sponge filter, its from the sump in my big tank and i keep it running in there just in case i need to setup a QT, seen as this tank is new i put it in for a bit of added safety.

 

 

 

Dont worry about Henry in the background, he is getting married in a couple of weeks and will be going in my big tank.