drewgrano Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 FTS 8/30/16 - Cycling Equiptment Tank: 9.1 Gallon Aquamaxx Light: NanoBox Tide Plus M w/ Bluefish Filter: Cobalt EXT Canister Filter (not using the stock return pump) Heater: Hydor 200W In-line Heater Return Pump: VorTech Vectra M1 ATO: AutoAqua Smart ATO Rock: BRS rock rubble, ~3-4 lbs Sand: CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand - .5-1 inch Livestock 9 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Looking forward to this one! This is the same thing I've got in my classroom and love it 2 Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted August 25, 2016 Author Share Posted August 25, 2016 Made some progress late last night. I'm going for as clean a look as possible so I have the plumbing coming up through the bottom and am trying to hide it all with rock. I want absolutely nothing touching the glass. The cabinet underneath is pretty small so it's making things a little bit difficult. Not sure what I'm going to do quite yet lol. 1 Quote Link to comment
tarunteam Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 You probably want the return and intake to be higher. Othewise in case of power loss more than half of your tank will drain into the sump. 1 Quote Link to comment
Scorched Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 That works if you keep the system a closed loop. All the reactors and and heater need to be inline so that water doesn't drain when you turn off power. If you go with a sump setup you should raise the drain pipe almost all the way to the surface. The return can be lower if you use a checkvalve but they are still able to fail. Keeping it higher as well will limit your chance of excess back siphoning. 1 Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted August 25, 2016 Author Share Posted August 25, 2016 Yea im going with a closed loop. Trying out the Cobalt canister filter. I like that you can unplug the canister but leave the pump on during cleaning/feeding. Unfortunately the included pump isn't quite strong enough for my setup though. Because the cabinet is small I have a lot of turns and right angles and such. Going to have to get a stronger external pump. My only hesitation towards going this route was surface film. I hate that. But I think I figured out a nice way to add a temporary "plug in" overflow system to take care of that issue when I need to. Maybe put it on overnight or something. I'll have pics later. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment
tarunteam Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 Never mind. I just assumed you were going for a sump. Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted September 2, 2016 Author Share Posted September 2, 2016 Still a work in progress. Currently I have too much 1/2 inch plumbing and 90 degree angles. Even with that Vectra I can't seem to get more than maybe 150gph worth of flow in the tank, barely enough to agitate the surface (pump is on in that pic). I can't really do anything about the 1/2 inch plumbing since that's what the in-line heater and the canister filter use, but I can hopefully eliminate the 90 degree elbows. Quote Link to comment
Scorched Posted September 2, 2016 Share Posted September 2, 2016 Uhhhh that thing could be pushing over 1000gph. Is the closed loop mode on the vectra not set up correctly? Did you calibrate it and set the max really low? Maybe your canister filter is causing everything to backup. Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted September 2, 2016 Author Share Posted September 2, 2016 Uhhhh that thing could be pushing over 1000gph. Is the closed loop mode on the vectra not set up correctly? Did you calibrate it and set the max really low? Maybe your canister filter is causing everything to backup. Never used the Vectra before so i could have it setup wrong. I didnt bother calibrating it because i thought that was just for using it as a return pump? As far as i understand when you first plug it in its in return mode so all i did was switch it to closed loop. The canister is empty right now so its not that. I really think its just all the .5 inch connections I have. I hope i have the pump setup incorrectly that would make my life easier lol Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted September 4, 2016 Author Share Posted September 4, 2016 Well I played with the Vectra some more and as far as I know I have it setup correctly. I just have my flow restricted to much. But I think it'll still be okay for what I'm wanting to do with the tank. I have it set on reef crest mode and the flow still changes quite a bit from the lowest to the highest setting, so that's nice. My other issue is temperature. For some reason I cannot get my temp to stay constant. Shifts from 79 to about 80.5 throughout the day. I think that room's temp is to unstable because of the bay windows. I set that fan up today to see if that will help out. I initially didn't want anything on the glass at all but I threw on the Auto Aqua ATO. Got sick of manually topping off after only 3 days lol. Still love the nanobox! Picture is a little dark but I wanted to show the filtration a bit. I put a 2" PVC pipe at the bottom so I could fit a smaller PVC pipe into it to create a temporary overflow to clean all the junk off the top of the water. So far I think I will only have to put it on every other day or so. 5 minutes and the dust and film is gone. Works pretty well. I was hoping to cover the filtration with rock completely but I couldn't figure out how to do it without making everything look to bulky. Coral will eventually block the view though so I think it's ok. Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 First corals are in! They've been in about a week. Doing well except for the xenia in the top left of the pic. Hopefully I can pick up a couple of fish this week and get out the real camera. No clean up crew yet either. 4 Quote Link to comment
Cren Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Nice build! I've recently purchased this exact tank and was looking into a NanoBox Tide or AI Prime HD but I'm worried about the light spread. The Nano is listed at a max of 18", have you had any issues considering this tank is 24"? Are you using the 9" or 15" gooseneck? Love how simple and clean your build is and I look forward to following along! Quote Link to comment
Mikeymikemike Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Very nice scape and I love a good clean tank there are some promising things to look forward to. I'm curious as to your reasons for drilling a hole and then using a canister filter instead of a sump and return.. or even a MAME overflow. You really went overkill on the vectra pump! The canister could have been connected to the tank with some glass lily pipes and then you could call it a day or a jeabao DC2000 for $60 would do the job too. I used a glass lily pipe and canister and that works well to keep clean lines. I hope you don't run into any leak issues as it could spill 70% of your water into the cabinet! Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted October 13, 2016 Author Share Posted October 13, 2016 Nice build! I've recently purchased this exact tank and was looking into a NanoBox Tide or AI Prime HD but I'm worried about the light spread. The Nano is listed at a max of 18", have you had any issues considering this tank is 24"? Are you using the 9" or 15" gooseneck? Love how simple and clean your build is and I look forward to following along! Thanks! I'm not to worried about the spread. As long as you place your corals based on their specific light requirements It should be fine. I have the 15" gooseneck and it worked out well for me. However I do have it attached to the wall instead of the tank. If I was going to attach it to the tank I think the 9" would be better. No experience with the Prime but I do love the Nanobox! Very nice scape and I love a good clean tank there are some promising things to look forward to. I'm curious as to your reasons for drilling a hole and then using a canister filter instead of a sump and return.. or even a MAME overflow. You really went overkill on the vectra pump! The canister could have been connected to the tank with some glass lily pipes and then you could call it a day or a jeabao DC2000 for $60 would do the job too. I used a glass lily pipe and canister and that works well to keep clean lines. I hope you don't run into any leak issues as it could spill 70% of your water into the cabinet! Thanks! I ended up drilling through the bottom because I wanted to hide as much equipment as possible. In the end, I don't want to be able to see the plumbing at all. I had a MAME on one of my last tanks and I hated cleaning it. I'm obsessive about my glass always being as clean as possible so I felt like I needed to clean it almost every other day. Just didn't want to deal with it. I really like my setup so far, but a leak would be terrible so lets hope that doesn't happen lol. As far as the Vectra... lol. Overkill, yes. Could I have gotten a much cheaper pump, yes. But I do like being able to use reef crest. And I actually have the Vectra turned all the way up but with my crappy plumbing I still barely get any flow. Might fix that later, but probably won't lol Quote Link to comment
dpoltsdsu Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Your reef looks absolutely fantastic. It is very clean looking. I wouldn't worry about that 1 degree temperature difference. I've had up to a 7 degree difference in old setups and everything did fine! 1 Quote Link to comment
Vwcrackerjack Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Awesomeness 1 Quote Link to comment
JR! Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 what a sick build. 1 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 Wait,another tank ?!?! Didn't you have this one at work !?! Super clean as usual. Looks like canister filters are making a come back,I currently have one I'm debating on using or not. How many gallons a hour is it ? So wait a Vectra,canister filter ? 1 Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted November 18, 2016 Author Share Posted November 18, 2016 Wait,another tank ?!?! Didn't you have this one at work !?! Super clean as usual. Looks like canister filters are making a come back,I currently have one I'm debating on using or not. How many gallons a hour is it ? So wait a Vectra,canister filter ? Yea... I keep moving and therefore starting new tanks. This move should stick though so hopefully this one stays up for a while. I like canister filters on these smaller tanks. Really simplifies maintenance and water changes in my opinion. Love the Cobalt EXT filter. It uses an external pump so that you can disconnect the canister but keep the flow. Makes it easy to feed the tank and not worry about all the food getting stuck in the filter. And yes, I have a Vectra on this tiny setup lol. But I have 4 half inch elbows that are apparently really limiting my flow because even with the Vectra turned all the way up it's not even enough flow to move any sand around. It's still nice to be able to use the reef crest mode though for some variable flow. Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted November 18, 2016 Share Posted November 18, 2016 How are you liking the 9g so far ?! Ive been thinking of getting on for awhile now,cant defode if i want to go smaller or a bit bigger. Thats crazy,i figured it would be hard for you to even keep water in the tank lol. 1 Quote Link to comment
drewgrano Posted November 18, 2016 Author Share Posted November 18, 2016 No complaints so far. Aquamaxx tanks are great for the money imo. Quote Link to comment
brad908 Posted November 18, 2016 Share Posted November 18, 2016 Super clean set up, looks great. 1 Quote Link to comment
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