New Nanowave 9 Build with pics and noobs

[hcsceo]

OK guys it's time I started my build log on my Nanowave 9. This is one of two tanks I started at the same time. My other tank is the picotope 3 and you can find info on it in my signature. I figured for what it costs to ship rocks and sand that I might as well do two and put one in my office now and that is where the picotope currently is and there is a live webcam on it. I've located the nanowave in my bedroom so that my kids can see it every morning and evening with us. Please don't ask for a live webcam on that one cause I don't want to get caught with my pants down.

 

I choose the Nanowave primarily for its features.. lighted refugium, Venturi style Protien skimmer, and dual 24 watt lights. My only concern when purchasing is that there were many posts on the heat buildup in this unit. Wanting to get started right I purchased the nanotuners fan kit and moonlight timer fix. I installed both fixes and found the temp to come down a degree or two and of course the lighting worked fine from the timer at that point. To increase the air circulation in the hood I removed every other vent post to increase the size of the vent. You can see the pics below with this mod. Still with the fan and vent fix I still got temps in the 82 range. After much thought I decided on the ICA 2.0 chiller and worked on finding a way to mount it.

 

The ICA chiller was mounted by cutting a hole in the top of the door that gives access to the refugium and skimmer area. I think used marine epoxy putty to epoxy the ICA 2.0 to the top of the door. It was mounted in such a way that the unit could still be taken apart in case the peltier device failed and needed to be replaced. The tubes were mounted with one going to the middle refugium chamber and a aquaclear 10 pump and the return hose drains into the last chamber where the return pump shoots out the "supercooled" water to the tank. Please keep in mind that "supercooled" is a joke but I have managed to get my temps under 80 degrees after my 12 hour light cycle. Picks of all mods can be found below. I do plan to paint the hardened epoxy puddy black soon so that it matches the rest of the tank.

 

Next I put in about 10 pounds of live sand and about 15 pounds of carribean live rock from aquacon.com I've included pics of the rock before it was installed in the tank. I used instant ocean salt and ro water from my drinking water system and set everything to a specific gravity of 1.025

 

Everything was installed last friday and the tank has started it's cycle. The skimmer has been a PITA to setup and was loud as could be. I ended up running a hose from the aircleaner to the tank stand and installed a air valve to control the amount of air getting to the skimmer. The pump on the skimmer was closed off as much as I could get it and I've been adjusting the airflow daily and watching the skimmate that is produced. It seems to be doing well now.

 

The cycle has now peaked on the ammonia and nitrites have been increasing and the nitrate seems to be starting now. I've been adding water every three days as it evaporates and now am waiting on the cycle to complete. I'm looking at what cleaning crew I'm going to put in now and any suggestions would be appreciated. I really want some sexy shrimp so that needs to make your list. Photos are below.

[qbical]

nice, i have been waiting for someone to try and use a T.E.C cooler (i mod pc's)

i have been thinking about all the water cooling rigs i have done and how i can incorporate that into my 14gal now. as for your live stock i am still kinda noob so i cant really give that great of a suggestion.

r u powering the tec cooler on the stock wiring? also, what pump r u using with the pelter. i was worried about using a pump that might be to strong for copper block seals.

[hcsceo]

nice, i have been waiting for someone to try and use a T.E.C cooler (i mod pc's)

i have been thinking about all the water cooling rigs i have done and how i can incorporate that into my 14gal now. as for your live stock i am still kinda noob so i cant really give that great of a suggestion.

r u powering the tec cooler on the stock wiring? also, what pump r u using with the pelter. i was worried about using a pump that might be to strong for copper block seals.

 

The pump is a aquaclear 10 which I think is rated for 80gal/hr. I have it turned down to maybe 60gal/hr. The input to the peltier is only a 1/4inch ID so it really doesn't push too much water through it. I would probably recommend a rio mini 50 instead as it is a little smaller in size. Nanotuners.com has all the parts individual including the water blocks and plumbing or you can get one prebuilt which is what I did.

[Djbacon]

Looks awesome - looking forward to watching you fill it up

[hcsceo]

Wooot!!! I think my cycle is done. I'm going to do another round of testing tonight to make sure then do a 20-30% water change. If everything is good and my nitrates are down by Friday night I'll be at the LFS saturday for my CUC and a Clown. I'll post tonights water testing tonight when it's done. I've got a Brown Algea bloom going right now so I'm excited to get these critters in to clean it up.

 

Params

Ammonia 0

Nitrites 0

Nitrates 15

PH 8.2

Temp 79-80

[Djbacon]

awesome - just a suggestion but give your CUC a week before adding your clown. You are gonna go through a few weeks of algae - cycle in your lighting slowly to keep it to a minimum .

[hcsceo]

Well I might have jumped the gun on saying my tank was cycled. The day after I got a good test on the nitrite I retested and found that the color wasn't what I expected it to have been. So I'm playing it safe and letting this cycle some more.

[Sexy Shrimp]

Good on you! It will be worth it in the long run... Algae is much easier to get rid of when there aren't fish in there to complicate things

[coralcrazy]

hm...my nanowave is also running hot....81+ i really need nanotunners to come out with the new version sigh..

[hcsceo]

If there is a god please let my cycle end.

[klarion]

It's a tough wait, but worth it. I like the heat-sink idea. (oh chiller, still cool though)

Also, I see the pictures of the tank, but where are the noob pictures?

[Reefmack]

Hi. I just had this tank delivered from Nanotuners yesterday. I got a nice deal on it from them on Ebay. They had done the dual fan mod, but a bit of a "quick & dirty" mod on enlarging the vents, so they were selling it at a reduced price because the hood was a bit "cosmetically challenged". It may be the original tank thety used to develop the fan mod.

 

I have a couple questions I hope you can answer for me....

 

1) I didn't get a power supply for the fans. All I have is a short cord with a connector. Can you tell me what type of DC power supply you got with the fan kit - what millwatts and voltage? Any idea on the plug size? I've got some requests in to Nanotuners, and maybe they'll send me one, but if I don't hear back quickly I'd like to pick up a power supply so I can get the tank set up this weekend.

 

2) How easy was the moonlight timer fix to install?

 

3) I didn't get a manual with the tank - does it come with one? I think I can figure everything out, as I already have another nano, but in pulling out the sponge and media trays last night I'm not sure I have the tray vents situated correctly now. The sponge & media trays each have a flow inlet and outlet - high on one side, low on the other. Which way should the high & low grates on the trays be situated for proper flow through the back.

 

Thanks much for any help. I have a year old Red Sea Max tank that I want to pull some rock out of so that I can reaquascape the RSM. I'll use the rock, some water, and some substrate from the RSM to get the Nanowave seeded and hopefully I can get a very quick, or even immeasurable cycle time. I used fully cured rock when I set up the RSM, along with Bio-Spira, and never did get any measurable ammonia or nitrite from day one. Hopefully I can do the same with the Nanowave.

[hcsceo]

Hi. I just had this tank delivered from Nanotuners yesterday. I got a nice deal on it from them on Ebay. They had done the dual fan mod, but a bit of a "quick & dirty" mod on enlarging the vents, so they were selling it at a reduced price because the hood was a bit "cosmetically challenged". It may be the original tank thety used to develop the fan mod.

 

I have a couple questions I hope you can answer for me....

 

1) I didn't get a power supply for the fans. All I have is a short cord with a connector. Can you tell me what type of DC power supply you got with the fan kit - what millwatts and voltage? Any idea on the plug size? I've got some requests in to Nanotuners, and maybe they'll send me one, but if I don't hear back quickly I'd like to pick up a power supply so I can get the tank set up this weekend.

 

2) How easy was the moonlight timer fix to install?

 

3) I didn't get a manual with the tank - does it come with one? I think I can figure everything out, as I already have another nano, but in pulling out the sponge and media trays last night I'm not sure I have the tray vents situated correctly now. The sponge & media trays each have a flow inlet and outlet - high on one side, low on the other. Which way should the high & low grates on the trays be situated for proper flow through the back.

 

Thanks much for any help. I have a year old Red Sea Max tank that I want to pull some rock out of so that I can reaquascape the RSM. I'll use the rock, some water, and some substrate from the RSM to get the Nanowave seeded and hopefully I can get a very quick, or even immeasurable cycle time. I used fully cured rock when I set up the RSM, along with Bio-Spira, and never did get any measurable ammonia or nitrite from day one. Hopefully I can do the same with the Nanowave.

 

Yea funny thing on the fan mod is I didn't get the DC adapter either when I ordered mine. I didn't know I was supposed to recieve it so I just used a 12v DC 500MA Adapter I had laying around. I spiced mine in directly to the wires leading from the hood.

 

I found the moonlight fix fairly easy to install. No instructions came with it but it was easy to see where the cords needed to be clipped and installed. The moonlight fix is a MUST HAVE item.

 

My tank didn't come with any type of manual. The two smaller trays should be installed with the high sides facing towards the skimmer. The refugium tray should have a little peice of plastic that is installed at the base to keep the mud from sliding out of the tray openings on the one side and the high side opening should be facing the bio media tray. Basically you can follow the water path from the bottom of the skimmer to the top of the skimmer out to the top of the sponge tray and down through the sponge to the bottom exit and into the refugium tray then up through the refugium to the top of the bio media tray and down through the bio media and out into the bottom of the return sump area.

 

One last thing. Two mods you definately want to do are these. Make sure to put a little piece of air tubing from the air intake to an air valve so you can adjust the skimmern air intake. Also I found that closing off the skimmer pump intake as much as it would let me was the best way to set it up. Finally, while you don't have water in the tank get some aquarium silicon and silicon the plastic tub to the glass so that crap can't get behind it and get trapped. I think worms and stuff could get back there and be a headache if they died making a nitrate factory of sorts.

 

If you have any questions please let me know I'll be glad to help.

 

steve

[Reefmack]

Hi and thanks! I contacted Nanotuners and they are sending me the fan power supply no charge. I also ordered the moonlight fix - I hope it's as evident as you say it is to know what wires to cut! I suppose when I look at it it will be easy to figure out (I hope). I already have some good quality air valves coming with an order from Foster & Smith so I'll be ready for that mod when my order arrives tomorrow.

 

Nanotuners confirmed that the tank doesn't come with any manual - strange. I contacted Aqua Medic in email today & got a quick email back. I was told it made no difference how the grates were set up, but that answer wasn't what I wanted to hear - I'll use your directions. I'll give Nanotuners an A++ on service and Aqua Medic a B-, only because they replied quickly

 

What plastic tub were you referring to that should be siliconed?

 

Thanks again. I'll let you know how it goes when I get this tank going. I'm impressed with it so far.

[hcsceo]

Hi and thanks! I contacted Nanotuners and they are sending me the fan power supply no charge. I also ordered the moonlight fix - I hope it's as evident as you say it is to know what wires to cut! I suppose when I look at it it will be easy to figure out (I hope). I already have some good quality air valves coming with an order from Foster & Smith so I'll be ready for that mod when my order arrives tomorrow.

 

Nanotuners confirmed that the tank doesn't come with any manual - strange. I contacted Aqua Medic in email today & got a quick email back. I was told it made no difference how the grates were set up, but that answer wasn't what I wanted to hear - I'll use your directions. I'll give Nanotuners an A++ on service and Aqua Medic a B-, only because they replied quickly

 

What plastic tub were you referring to that should be siliconed?

 

Thanks again. I'll let you know how it goes when I get this tank going. I'm impressed with it so far.

 

Ha seems strange aquamedic would say that but I suppose they would know best. Yea I was shocked at the no manual deal to. As a beginner, I had a hell of a time figuring out the skimmer adjustments. The tub I'm talking about is the black plastic tub at the back of the tank that all the trays go into. From inside the tank looking at the back wall you will see that back wall isn't sealed around the edges. So from inside the main tank just seal the edges of the back wall against the glass otherwise crap will get back there and I don't think you could ever get it out. That should get you setup just fine I can't think of a thing I would change other than what you are doing. Just watch the temp during your cycle and figure out ways to deal with it. Other than that good luck. Feel free to call on me anytime.

 

Steve

[coralcrazy]

how's the ICA chiller....i was thinking about getting one...where do you live and whats the average temp of your location??

[Reefmack]

hcsceo - I guess the "manual" was the very brief directions on the side of the box, and it did indicate proper orientation of the tray grates, unlike the email reply from Aqua Medic. But the box gave no clue as to the proper orientation. I looked at the tank last night and realized that you meant to seal the inside edges of the back section. If I get the tank set up this weekend I'll have to skip that part as I won't have time for the silicone to cure.

 

Skimmers can be tricky, but I think the air valve mod is an excellent one, and cheap & easy too!

 

In another post I'd seen a Nanowave mod using acrylic to make a thin box-like piece that would fit over the outlets to the back section - with slots cut in the top to give better surface skimming. Are you seeing a buildup of surface film in the display tank section?

 

I may also put in a Koralia Nano powerhead I have sitting around, to increase flow. Do you think the flow in the tank is enough? I guess I'll know once I get mine set up.

 

Terry

[hcsceo]

how's the ICA chiller....i was thinking about getting one...where do you live and whats the average temp of your location??

 

Coral I'm in Austin, TX daytime temps can get over 100 during the summer months however my house never gets above 76 during the day. Currently, the inside temps of my house has reached the 76 mark several times since I installed it so for all intents and purposes it has reached it's max temps. As far as the ICA Chiller, does it work.. yes? It's a mixed answer cause I'm not as happy as I thought I would be with it. It IS doing the job but barely. Now keep in mind that my tank stays at 80.5 with NO lights on and the ICA chiller can easily get that tank down to 75 during that time, but with the lights on and the heat problems associated with the Nanowave I struggle to keep it at 80-81during my lighting cycle. I've since changed my setup to turn the ICA fan on half hour prior to the lights coming on and the peltier to turn on when the lights come on and the reverse when shutting down. My light cycle starts at 12pm and runs till 10pm so that the tank starts out cooler during the hottest part of the day and this has helped my temps stay at 80 on the dot. Please don't mistake my answer to say the ICA doesn't work. It most definately does work and my tank shows that you can expect about a 5 degree change at 76 ambient air temp in a 9 gallon tank with the upgraded power supply. I think if I did it over again I would have paid the extra $150 and got a full blown chiller, however. In my situation I think it would have been a better choice. Hope this helps.

 

Steve

[hcsceo]

hcsceo - I guess the "manual" was the very brief directions on the side of the box, and it did indicate proper orientation of the tray grates, unlike the email reply from Aqua Medic. But the box gave no clue as to the proper orientation. I looked at the tank last night and realized that you meant to seal the inside edges of the back section. If I get the tank set up this weekend I'll have to skip that part as I won't have time for the silicone to cure.

 

Skimmers can be tricky, but I think the air valve mod is an excellent one, and cheap & easy too!

 

In another post I'd seen a Nanowave mod using acrylic to make a thin box-like piece that would fit over the outlets to the back section - with slots cut in the top to give better surface skimming. Are you seeing a buildup of surface film in the display tank section?

 

I may also put in a Koralia Nano powerhead I have sitting around, to increase flow. Do you think the flow in the tank is enough? I guess I'll know once I get mine set up.

 

Terry

 

Yea that instruction thing was a pain cause I had the same questions as you when setting it up. I finally sat down and thought about how the water should flow and that helped me figure it out. To me it would make no sense for the low side of the smaller trays to be toward the skimmer and it would just draw more unclean water from the inlet than the filtered water from the skimmer that is released from the top.

 

I'm going to build that acrylic mod for sure. Any tank that doesn't have a surface skimmer should have a buildup of proteins on the surface and mine is no exception. I've been meaning to get around to it and just haven't had time. It's the one last cheap mod that I really need to get done and the guy really did a great job making the template so really all we have to do is print it out and cut and glue. I've been slow to find some black acrylic to use as I didn't want light shining in there and have algae builup clogging the deal up. One change I will make to that mod is to shorten the little tabs that go into the slots in the back of the tank. This way you can raise or lower the whole skimmer box in the slots to help regulate flow rather than using the little piece of plexi he ended up glueing to the top. Once I get it on and flowing good I'll probably go back and add a little bit of underwater setting epoxy putty to the four corners to hold it in place. I'm not sure it's even neccessary but I'll feel better that there is no way it could fall off while I'm out of town or something.

 

As far as the powerhead, yes you really need more flow. There isn't enough coming from built in one. To make matters worse.. if you try and upgrade the pump that comes with it to get more flow I understand that it will cause the system to backup and not allow enough water to get to the last chamber to keep up with the pump. I'm sure this could be fixed with more cutting and fiddling of the trays but the added pump seemed to be a much less intrusive solution and you can get the flow where you want it. The one thing I didn't try is upgrading the pump that is in the tank and removing the sponge or cutting the sponge in half to see if the flow picks up enough to keep up. However, that sponge is there to help reduce the microbubbles from the skimmer and also keep larger particles from entering the refugium and causing you nitrate problems. I'm running an additional Rio 80 in mine and have been happy with the flow so far.

 

One last thing. I'm running mine without the ceramic bio media in the third tray. I've put my heater in there. Hope all this helps. Good luck this weekend.

 

Steve

[coralcrazy]

dude...if you want to sell that chiller let me know..i am in the market for one...i can't really afford the space to put a fullblown chiller in my tank area...please let me know...

[Reefmack]

hcsceo - thanks for the additional information. The "modified mod" on the surface skimmer sounds like a winner to me. I wonder why they didn't put one grate high enough to do some surface skimming? - so many great ideas in a small tank, but they missed the boat on some key things.

 

And what you said about the tray grate orientation was the same as my thoughts on it - it would make a difference. It doesn't appear that Aqua Medic in the US is promoting the tank anymore - no tanks are even listed on their website navigator, so maybe that's they aren't top notch on answering tank questions.

 

I won't be using the bio-media either - it can end up being a nitrate generator. I removed all the bio-media in my other tank, and it does just fine relying on the live rock alone for the whole nitrogen cycle. I do want to keep some chaeto in the fuge section though - as a nitrate exporter. I'm doubtful that I want to put mud in the bottom though - that might be messy. I have some, but I plan on starting up with a piece of chaeto only from my other setup. I do plan on putting some Chemi-Pure Elite and Purigen in the chamber where the bio-media was, and a small heater (if needed) in the pump chamber. I'm hoping I wan't have any heat issues - I keep the house at about 70 year round, and I haven't needed a chiller on my other tank even with a metal halide fixture on it. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

 

I had a call from home and it sounds like my moonlight timer fix from Nanotuners arrived, so I'll put that in while the tank is still empty. Hopefully it will be as easy to figure out as you said it was. That was my biggest hold-up on not setting up the tank this weekend, so if I get the timer fix in I should be able to find the time to start filling & setting up the tank. I'm getting anxious!

 

Terry

[hcsceo]

hcsceo - thanks for the additional information. The "modified mod" on the surface skimmer sounds like a winner to me. I wonder why they didn't put one grate high enough to do some surface skimming? - so many great ideas in a small tank, but they missed the boat on some key things.

 

And what you said about the tray grate orientation was the same as my thoughts on it - it would make a difference. It doesn't appear that Aqua Medic in the US is promoting the tank anymore - no tanks are even listed on their website navigator, so maybe that's they aren't top notch on answering tank questions.

 

I won't be using the bio-media either - it can end up being a nitrate generator. I removed all the bio-media in my other tank, and it does just fine relying on the live rock alone for the whole nitrogen cycle. I do want to keep some chaeto in the fuge section though - as a nitrate exporter. I'm doubtful that I want to put mud in the bottom though - that might be messy. I have some, but I plan on starting up with a piece of chaeto only from my other setup. I do plan on putting some Chemi-Pure Elite and Purigen in the chamber where the bio-media was, and a small heater (if needed) in the pump chamber. I'm hoping I wan't have any heat issues - I keep the house at about 70 year round, and I haven't needed a chiller on my other tank even with a metal halide fixture on it. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

 

I had a call from home and it sounds like my moonlight timer fix from Nanotuners arrived, so I'll put that in while the tank is still empty. Hopefully it will be as easy to figure out as you said it was. That was my biggest hold-up on not setting up the tank this weekend, so if I get the timer fix in I should be able to find the time to start filling & setting up the tank. I'm getting anxious!

 

Terry

 

yea another $30 on thier part and it could have been a really nice tank. If I was designing it I would have left out the bio media chamber and used the extra space to create an area to do surface skimming and put the water in at the base of the skimmer area. Basically it would have been a surface skimmer box, then skimmer, then sponge, then refuge, then return pump area. Also, they should have designed the hood a little larger with good fans and air flow. But hindsight is 20/20 and perhaps that is what is happening atm since the nanowave seems to be going out the window and nanotuners doesn't even show it anymore. not too many people have the tank compared to the other tanks, but it does have a lot of really nice features.

 

I didn't do the mud either but I did put some LR rubble in there. IDK if I will keep it there or not but cheato is definately going in soon. Timer fix really shouldn't be too bad. I installed the fan mod and timer fix at the same time and took less than an hour to do both. I did have to drill one hole on the side to allow the second power cord to go into the hood but that was it.

 

Good luck this weekend I'll keep a look out for posts in case you have any questions.

 

Steve

 

 

dude...if you want to sell that chiller let me know..i am in the market for one...i can't really afford the space to put a fullblown chiller in my tank area...please let me know...

 

Hey CC, sorry but I epoxied it to the top of the tank so I couldn't get it off if I wanted to. I installed it in such a way that I could replace the peltier down the road but there is no way to take it off the unit at this point. Call nanotuners I think I heard something about them coming out with a updated version of the ICA soon.

 

Steve

[Reefmack]

hcsceo - Unfortunately there is no all-in-one that has it all together. They all have deficiencies in one or more areas, and assorted problems unique to each. I've been through that with the Red Sea Max, and there isn't much left on my tank that is stock, or hasn't been modded. The Nanowave is no different, but with some tweaking it has a lot of potential IMO.

 

I emailed Nanotuners since the timer fix listing said the instructions were only available online. I couldn't find them and they quickly emailed a link back to me - on the Nanocustoms site. I think Nanotuners & Nanocustoms are either the same outfit, or they work with each other closely. In any case their customer service can't be beat! Here's the link for any Nanowave owners that are getting the moonlight timer fix. This'll sure be helpful to me!

 

Timer Fix Instructions

 

coralcrazy - I coldn't find the ICA chiller on the Nanotuners site, but did find it on the Nanocustoms site. But it had no price listed that I could see.

[hcsceo]

hcsceo - Unfortunately there is no all-in-one that has it all together. They all have deficiencies in one or more areas, and assorted problems unique to each. I've been through that with the Red Sea Max, and there isn't much left on my tank that is stock, or hasn't been modded. The Nanowave is no different, but with some tweaking it has a lot of potential IMO.

 

I emailed Nanotuners since the timer fix listing said the instructions were only available online. I couldn't find them and they quickly emailed a link back to me - on the Nanocustoms site. I think Nanotuners & Nanocustoms are either the same outfit, or they work with each other closely. In any case their customer service can't be beat! Here's the link for any Nanowave owners that are getting the moonlight timer fix. This'll sure be helpful to me!

 

Timer Fix Instructions

 

coralcrazy - I coldn't find the ICA chiller on the Nanotuners site, but did find it on the Nanocustoms site. But it had no price listed that I could see.

 

Yea I think they are the same outfit. The same guy answers both phones. Well it's good to know I installed it right seems it would have been good to include the instructions with the kit or at least the web address to download them. Like I said super easy install you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck.

 

steve

[Reefmack]

Steve when you did the install did you remove the hood? It looks like it might come off easily by spreading apart the hinge connections to release it? Sorry about all the questions but you seem to be my best (and maybe only) resource on the tank.

 

Terry