asiankidd's Modded Nano Cube 24 gal

[asiankidd2]

Well hello and thanks for taking a peek at my tank, i have been a member here for a few months and have made many great friends from this forums, while being here i have been exposed to a plethora of mods that i never knew existed for this tank, my first major mod was the metal halide retrofit that i stumbled upon on Jeremy's post aka Shao-in-nano since then i have been having more fun modding my tank than actually putting things in there...haha but here are some pics for you guys to see, and if my post can help inspire someone to mod their tank like i was then this was all worth it, i would also appreciate your comments also.

 

 

Thanks

 

-Jon aka asiankidd2

 

 

Begining of the tank 2x32 PC 50/50 bulbs notice the lack of a surface skimmer, ewww

 

 

 

this is a close up of my stock lights well stock before the mh retrofit with my ccfl moon light

 

 

 

to fix the surface skimmer problem i cut a portion of the false wall and viola, i would have gone with nanobob's or nanoskim skimmer, but both their skimmers couldnt support the amount of flow i am running (600 GPH) 2 300 gph pumps. to cover up the grate i used and old cassette cover and just cut it to be a flat piece held by a boba straw<-- removable so i can clean out the filter floss weekly

 

 

 

for the increase flow, i went to home depot and got some 3/4 tubing, and some t connects, and wrapped the pump from chamber 1 to a tube that runs along the rim of the tank and ends at chamber 4(water being pulled from chamber 1) check out the surface aggitation im getting.... :-D

 

 

 

here is another shot of the surface aggitation im getting with my setup.

 

 

 

as for the lighting upgrade i added a 70 watt MH lamp to it, using the astralux 70 bulb, this bulb i found to be one of the best because of the incorporated UV STOP this bulb has that filters out UV that most DE bulbs dont have, but to protect myself from future bulbs i cut my splash shield and completely replaced it with TEMPERED+LAMINATE glass this way the tempered would take the thermal shock from the light and water, while the laminate will filter out 98% of the uv rays. Cooling was a major problem for most people who do this setup, but i have found a few ways to overcome this problem, Using 2 60x60x25mm fans that push 45cfm each and then mounting them on an angle and a special mount that alows the fan to either suck or blow air direcly from the outside, helps move fresh cool air from the right side to left side, and to prevent the bulb from thermal stress of direct air, the fans tilt position alows the air to become turbulant inside the canopy and mix with all the stagnet air and then getting flushed away from the fan on the left. In addition i replaced the stock fans with 2 more of these fans, and made them blow in on the water, for evap cooling.

 

 

To counter the evap, i made my own auto top off system, and placed the float valves in chamber 4

[asiankidd2]

 

In addition for the moon light i went with a luxeon Starburst LED these guys are a single 1 watt wide angle LED, wow i cant tell you how bright these guys are, i previously had 7 4000mcd 5mm leds on my tank, and these were dim compared to this 1 led. Plus the accuracy of the actinic wavelength makes my tank literally glow in the dark

 

 

 

to make the connections cleaner from the back, i used a cat 5 connector and ran it to the back of the hood, so that my fans, moon light, and auto top off are all controlled from this 1 cable which is the blue cat 5 network cable you see.

 

 

all that goes to a custom project box that controls everything, The 2 knobs on the left and right control zone 1 and zone 2 of my cooling, zone 1 being my evap fans, and zone 2 my light/canopy cooler, the knob in the middle controls the moon light, it is interfaced with my own timer circuit that controls the dimming effect of the moon like the moon phase timer, because the fans are high powered and using a standard pot wouldnt be able to handle it so i installed in the box a voltage regulator circuit, which the knobs control the fan via that circuit, from there i can accurately control the fan speed, the fan itself is triggered by an internal relay that connects to a 110v power outlet of course the fans are only 12 volts, so a 110v relay was used this help cut down on the bulky use of transformers like many other people use, and the connection from my tank to this controller is done via standard cat 5, in this pic you can see my fluke attached to my auto top off plug also, i have yet to find a pump to use so i used my fluke to tell me when i need to fill up the water, its a standard 110volt 3 prong outlet on the side so any power head will plug up to it and pump water to my tank.

 

 

 

then using a reefkeeper system, i can plug my controller box to it to interface my fans to turn on at a certain temperature, and when my lights go on my canopy fans are triggered, you can also see my custom project box that houses my aromat ballast for the 70 watt mh, this is everything tucked under my stand, its messy and i have yet to clean it up....

 

 

 

 

with all this work comes the live stock this was my old live stock most of them are gone now to a bigger tank, but this is what i had....

 

 

this is the tank currently its stock list is, a skunk shrimp, a blood shrimp, a true percula, a maxima clam, and a rose bubble tip anemone

[shao-lin nano]

Nice job on all the mods Jon. It looks like all that planing paid off. This is probably one of the most electronically advanced NC upgrade I've seen.

 

Clam looks really cool, I can tell it's your tank's center peice. I'm still waiting for the day I take the clam plunge. So when are you going to get some corals man...you've spend so much on equipment upgrade it's about time you get into some nice corals. Not that your clam isn't nice.

[asiankidd2]

hahha i just took the plunge today to get corals, i found a guy by the name of johnny who is moving and is selling all his corals so i bought it all today, picking it up tomorrow morning, so far i got 2 colony of zoos, 2 patches of GSP, 2 large colt corals, 3 headed candy cane, and a tennis ball green torch. I think i got it all down...

[markgsa]

That's sick! Very clean job.

[rcar1046]

Do you have a link to that moonlight?

[skipm]

You have made some very impressive upgrades and have a wonderful looking tank. Thanks for sharing. Skip

[artarmon42]

That is one hi-tech nano!!

Good work!

[stoney waters]

Very clean mods. The MH reflector is interesting. Where did it come from? It looks like it spreads the light out evenly. Other modders have complained that the smaller reflectors give to much of a spotlight effect because they are positioned so close to the water.

 

-Stone

[asiankidd2]

rcar:

 

the moon light is made by luxeon, they sell primarly just the leds, and i used my own handy work to build my own moon lighting system, you can find their leds at a variety of places, search for luxeon under google

 

Stoney:

 

thereflector i made from old hammertone reflectors used by halogen fixtures, i simply bent mine out and snipped away until i got the form i wanted, this way my light isnt focused on to just one spot by over the whole tank, i have seen others with the smaller more focused reflectors and i think that just kills the effect of having a MH retrofit,

 

thanks again for all the comments, hopefully i can help any of those who are trying to do the same thing

 

-Jon

[asiankidd2]

here is an update on my tank, i got some GSP frags, Clove Frags, Green people eater colony, hammer coral and a awesome Torch that is splitting... hope you guys enjoy

 

[asiankidd2]

Recently got a new digital camera and decided to take a few shots of the tank recently my live stock has been shifted, i got rid of the blue tang, as i was uneducated on their tank requirements and was planning on starting up a bigger tank but that was post poned due to a possible move for employment, but i have added a mated pair of true percs, and since my tank has been a clown species tank at the monement

 

livestock are:

 

mated pair of true percs

a juvi perc

sebae clown

 

 

Inverts include:

 

green bubble tip anemone with purple tips

Rose anemone

cleaner shirmp

blood shrimp

Hammer coral

neon green cloves

eagle eye zoas

crocea clam

Torch coral

green people eaters

and some GSP

 

 

 

sorry photo bucket was down pics soon to come

[johnxboi]

very nice tank!

[asiankidd2]

 

here is an update of my tanks progression, i was able to procure some clove frags from jeremy aka shaolin-nano this thing was a beautiful piece, and grows faster than my zoos,

 

 

in addition i got rid of my livestock again well some of them and now i have only 3 clowns and a fire fish, dont mine the anemone it looks bleached, but that is its true color, white with purple tips

 

 

 

in addition i decided to construct a more professional looking surface skimmer, this time with teeth, and a adjustable grate that lets me adjust the flow it can handle, it is held in place with magnets like the nanobob skimmer

 

 

and here is my current fission skimmer, modded of course but i dont have any pics of the mod, i basically switched out the air line to a larger 5mm hose, and added and adjustable valves to allow more or less air, and i currently got it skimming a storm. Because it fills up so fast, and the skimmer is so low, i ghetto modded a vicks bottle to hold extra skimmate until i come up with something more permanent.

 

 

and i converted my first chamber to a fuge with some cheato, there is a drop it light i made from a cold cathode flourscent, buts probably around 5 watts of light but it works wonders, and grows really fast

 

 

here is a FTS @ 6 months hope you guys like it :-D

[bb2prelude]

sweet setup!!

[shao-lin nano]

Looking good Jon.

 

Just becareful that the clear tubes you used for the extra flow doesn't get alge in it. How's the firefish? Social or hides a lot?

[asiankidd2]

hey there jeremy, how was snowboarding? anyways i changed out my tubing a month ago, i didnt think about the light clogging up the tubes, until after, but i went to HD and got some nice black tubing to replace it. As for the firefish, i guess its pretty social its out most of the time i wouldnt say its the most social fish there is but you definatly see him when you want to....hahah.

 

Whats new with your tank? are you planning on picking up a nanoskimmer soon? i wanna see how you might modify it in the future to get it working better, i have some plans but it requires major modifying, which i dont want to do cus i could just sell it and get some of my money back, and then go to HD and buy the pieces to make one from scratch....the modding never stops haha

[Kabe]

Are those new outlets the only ones pumping water? Or is the original pump still on aswell?

[asiankidd2]

Are those new outlets the only ones pumping water? Or is the original pump still on aswell?

 

hey there kabe, both the stock and new ones are functional. In addition i had upgraded both pumps to 300 gph pumps take a few gph out for head loss....

[embryoguy]

i agree with shaolin,

 

one of the best electrical projects ive seen for a nc.

[stoney waters]

I love your tank.

 

What kind of clip did you use to fasten the tubes to the rim?

 

-Stone

[asiankidd2]

thanks again everyone for the comments, as for the clips they were plastic s clips i had lying around to be honest i think they were made for curtains, but i just cut them in half and used them like a "C" shape and just clamped them over the tube and onto the rim of the tank, and viola they stay in place real well and the tube eventually get "cured" and stays rock solid in place

[Confusion]

How do you stop the acrylic splash guard underneath the MH from melting? I understand you have some extraction fans and that but i would have thought that having plastic that close to a MH bulb would cause it to melt?

[asiankidd2]

How do you stop the acrylic splash guard underneath the MH from melting? I understand you have some extraction fans and that but i would have thought that having plastic that close to a MH bulb would cause it to melt?

 

 

i actually replaced my whole splash shield with 1/4 inch thich tempered glass, check above for pics

 

-Jon

[bowfront26]

awesome tank jon, i like the "drop tube fuge light" you've got. I also have a skunk and blood shrimp in my NC. do yours interact much?