Yeast's Rimless 10 Gallon Desktop Aquarium

[yeast]

Hello all,

 

 

Background

 

 

I have been keeping aquariums for 17 years, first freshwater then later on saltwater. This will be my fifth saltwater aquarium and currently my only aquarium.

 

 

The Theory

 

 

Simple, efficient, minimalist.

 

I maintain the aquarium during my free time at work, so it is low tech, low maintenance but should yield high results. There will only ever be 3 items that need to be plugged in for this aquarium for each of the important aspects of an aquarium. Adequate water flow, intense light and stable temperature.

 

 

The Equipment

 

 

- Koralia 425. Small, quiet, efficient and powerful. Perfect for my application.

 

- 50 Watt stealth heater. This has been recalled and I will be returning it next week.

 

- 10 gallon Hagen rimless aquarium.

 

- 70 Watt metal halide, hellolights reflector, NAIS electronic ballast and 20K ushio bulb. I have fashioned a DIY light hanger and will detail it's construction here:

 

Tools required:

Drill, screwdriver, wrench, hacksaw, measuring tape, zipties.

 

To create the light rod, you will need:

 

Electrical conduit ($5 for 10 feet f 1/2" conduit)

 

A 90 degree conduit elbow ($5). Alternately, you can get a pipe bender and bend the pipe for a seamless bend.

 

A hole plug (5/8" worked well for 1/2" conduit). This is to cap the end of the pipe. ($1)

 

Bolts, nuts and washers. These are used to fasten the conduit to something to hold it up and to make the attachment points for the pipe to hold the reflector. ($2)

 

Conduit hangers/clamps ($2)

 

And if you're like me, a can of black spraypaint to make it look uniform and sleek. ($6)

 

 

How to create the light hanger:

 

 

Step 1: Measure how tall you want to make your hanger. Don't forget to take into account how high you want your reflector off the water and how tall your reflector is. Measure both the height and how far over the water you want it to extend.

 

Step 2: Cut the pipe. You will cut 2 pieces if you are using the elbow, or 1 for the bent pipe.

 

Step 3: Attach the elbow or bend the pipe.

 

Step 4: Drill holes into your reflector and mount the clamps using bolts, nuts and washers. The washers will be wider than the average bolt so the bolt doesn't fall through the hole you've drilled.

 

Step 5: Paint, if you're going that way.

 

Step 6: Attach the clamps to hold the pole vertically. You can attach the clamps to the back of your stand, a piece of furniture or to the wall. You can also make something work depending on your unique situation.

 

Step 7: Push the rod through the clamps on your reflector.

 

Step 8:Put on the end hole plug to clean up the hollow tube.

 

Step 9: I used small black zipties to clean up the wires and attach them to the rod.

 

Done!

 

 

Livestock

 

 

Clean up crew:

3 Mexican Red Leg Hermits

3 Cerith Snails

3 Astrea

3 Nassarius

1 Turbo Snail

 

Coral

Green millepora

Green acropora

Variety of zoanthids

Red mushrooms

 

Fish

None currently.

 

 

The Aquarium

 

 

My cubicle. I have added a second monitor and stacks of work.

 

Initial setup.

 

Live rock added. Acropora, red mushrooms and zoanthids were on the rock already.

 

Today. You can see the light and some of the crabs, snails and corals

 

Closeup. I haven't taken any of these photos with the light on. Those will be forthcoming. I am using my HTC Desire Z for photos. I will get a new camera when I can.

 

 

That's it for now. I will update this as I can. Thanks for looking!

 

 

UPDATE

 

May 17

 

 

 

May 19

 

 

[marqese]

Very nice...what kind of tank is that?

[yoshii]

I like the tank

How are you planning to deal with evap with that MH?

[Mini-Dude]

I love it! You are very good with DIY!

[owlbassboy]

very nice mate, thats a brilliant idea for hanging the light

[yeast]

Hi everyone,

 

The tank is a Hagen Euro style 10 gallon. They had 5 gallon, 10 gallon and 20 gallon aquariums, all rimless on the shelf.

 

The evaporation is being replenished with my coffee mug. I do it every day or every second day. Since I spend a lot of time at the office, it's not difficult to find a time to do this. I will see if it gets tedious.

 

I took some photos this afternoon:

 

 

[d'Espresso]

nice

[yeast]

Thanks.

 

I lost one astrea snail to the hermits yesterday. The water change water was cooler than the aquarium and my snails didn't like it so much. I should know better but lesson learned.

 

Current plans are to let the aquarium sit for a bit. The rock is half cured, half uncured so I believe my cycle was expedited due to this. This is an office aquarium so aquarium residents will need to be colourful and active. I am unsure about clownfish. I like them very much but I will have to get 2 as my experience tells me they pine away as single individuals. I am limited to 3 fish and the clownfish would take up 2 of those spots.

 

Coral will be mixed and easy to look after. No specific feedings other than what the fish miss. SPS will be mixed in, as well as some smaller LPS and more zoanthids, ricordea, mushrooms, and maybe some green star polyps.

[yeast]

A small update. Everything seems to be much happier in the tank and everyone is moving around nicely. I think I will put the first fish in the aquarium early next week. It is the long weekend so I will want to be able to check on what transpires after I put them in.

 

Here are some photos I snapped of some different angles. The white balance on my camera phone isn't working very well.

 

 

[yeast]

Added a Bicolor blenny and blue xenia frag just recently. Bicolor is picking at pellets but hasn't eaten a full one yet. There are plenty of copepods I've seen him munching on, so he has at least some food intake. Hoping he will be better soon.

[LarryMoeCurly]

I love it! You are very good with DIY!

 

+1

[yeast]

Thank you. I did a water change today as the sand was developing some gas pockets. I am using tap water with salt and so far I am not having any visible nutrient problems. The blenny took well to the first water change and was swimming happily about not long afterwards.

[yeast]

Hey all,

 

The blenny jumped out of the aquarium. I have not replaced him and the only inhabitants of the aquarium are my cleaner and peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs, snails, coral and microfauna. Here are some updated photos:

 

 

 

 

[Coastie]

Surprised no one has ripped you for using tap water.... You should just buy a $0.98 gallon of distilled water for your top offs and likewise for the water changes. The less fish you keep the less frequent the water changes will NEED to be. I've got a gramma in my 15 and its pretty active. Get a gramma and a clown goby... Then toss in some cool inverts like a pom pom crab.

Just my thoughts.

[craigofva]

Did you make this tank rimless? Or did u get it this way.

[josh4107]

Nice tank, this is going to be a good one to follow! What watt mh are u using?

[yoshii]

Coastie, the clown goby probably won't jump, but I wouldn't put a gramma in here, they get spooked more easily and it would most likely jump out

[.Newman.]

the fish and cleaner shrimp are able to jump. some might just be at higher risk than others. its best to get some sort of lid if you want to save your livestock.

tanks is going to look incredible btw. i really like the scape.