skibum513 Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Earlier this year I left on a deployment to the middle east. Not wanting to abandon reefing for 6 months I decided to take a tank with me! The tank was great while I was there however I was unable to bring it back home... thanks customs. Anyways for anyone interested here's the story. For this tank I needed to make something that would be easily transported, small, easishe to maintaine, and very hardy. I decided on a cold water tank with creatures from tidepools seeing as they are fairly hardy and use to not having water for short times (airport security). The tank was built out of a Nalgene bottle with quick disconnect houses for water lines. Temperature control and flow would be provided by a diy peltier chiller and a 12v water pump housed inside a box that would be separate from the tank. Lighting was provided by a diy led. Once setup I contacted Stue from Cold Water Marine Aquatics and ordered 1 green surf anemone 1 aggrigating anemone and 2 purple shore crabs. They arrived quickly and we're in great shape! I placed them in the makeshift aquarium and they seemed to enjoy their new home. After 2 weeks it was time to leave it packed up some aquarium salt measuring devices and freeze dried krill into my bags along with my m4 and plate carrier and headed off to the airport. The trip to the middle east was quite an ordeal I carried the tank in my backpack and had to drain it noumorus times for security. Once past the dreaded tsa I mixed up some water and filled it up. During the the 3 days of traveling the tank had no temp control and no flow this took a toll on the tank and when I arrived at my destination the crabs had died. I changed the water and hooked up the chiller pump combo and set up the tank for the long haul. During the next 6 months there were a few set backs and steps forward. Careing for the tank included water changes every 4 to 7 days and feeding every 3 to 5. Water changes were done with less then ideal water and freeze dried krill was the only source of food. The chiller keep the the water pretty stable at 55 degrees. 2 months in my brother mailed some macro in a care package that I added to the tank. This seemed to help the tank mature and the algee grew like mad! During my time there we had a few times the ac in the tents went out (120 outside with cold water life was a bad combo) the temp reached almost 90 degrees in the tank with the little chiller doing all it could to keep Temps down. Both anemones made it through that ordeal! By the end of the 6 months both anemones had grown algee had grown in the tank and it had matured nicely. I was pretty happy and belive this was the first tank keep in a tent in the middle of a desert for that amount of time. Unfortunately for this tank on the trip home a customs agent got a little curious and decided to take it when he realized the pink blob in the tank was alive. Unfortunately I was unable to get it back and the little tank ended up in a garbage on anow air force base. Despite this sad ending in learned a lot from this little tank and enjoyed having it for those 6 months. Well hope you enjoy the pics and feel free to ask any questions. Equipment Tank- 32 oz Nalgene bottle with quick disconnect hose fittings, neoprene wrap to help maintain temp, pond foam and rock interior Pump- 12v cpu pump off eBay Chiller- diy setup using 60 watt peltier and 5.8a 12v power suply, cpu water block modified for aquarium use and computer heatsink Thermostat- off eBay attached to peltier chiller, temp prob located in overflow line from tank Light- diy setup , 3 cree led chip fro,my ledgroupbuy , fan and heatsink Life- green surf anemone, aggrigating anemone, 2 shore crabs (died), sea lettuce and unknown algee Link to comment
Astinus Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 WOW! What a Journey! Sorry U had to leave it behind THANK YOU for ur Service! Welcome Home Brother! I Served in Iraq...2003. Balad. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Wow. that tank had quiet the journey! Very cool! thanks for sharing Link to comment
GunslingerGirl Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 That's a super cool story! So sorry to find out it ended... how did you get it through so many times before they realized it was alive? Link to comment
Newstead Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Just amazing you were able to make it thrive in the desert! Sorry about the end, but welcome home and thank you for serving our country. Link to comment
el fabuloso Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 What an awesome setup and cool story to boot. Sucks you weren't able to keep it. Link to comment
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