Artarmon's all-in-one custom nano!

I admit it! I love the looks of a Nano Cube!

It's self contained, has the false wall & rear chambers to hide stuff in, etc, but there were limitations that I never quite overcame. I managed to shove a 70W MH into the stock hood and even created wave effects. But, I never did manage to get a chiller or a protien skimmer in there.

So I figured that I would sit down and design a nano tank with everything I wanted. I asked Tom at Aquatic Design Habitats to turn my designs into reality. This is the story of that tank!

I start this thread ~1 week after I received the tank from Tom. It has been leak tested, filled with salt water and I'm using this upcoming weekend to test the system (pumps, skimmer, lighting etc). Who knows where this story will go (or how it will end )...

Some basic information on the tank...

* 24" (length) x 12" (high) x 18" (deep, 12" for the display and 6" for the rear chambers)

* Acrylic ~22 gallons, with 3 rear chambers (overflow/skimmer, fuge, filter-media/return)

* Venturi protien skimmer

* 150W Metal Halide (HQI 15k XM)

* 65W Actinic (Sunpaq Actinic 03)

EDIT [sept 30, 2005] The MH and PC were replaced with 4x 24W T5-HO buls. This is now a T5 tank

* 13W Fuge light (Realux 13 Watt Compact Flourescent 7100 K)

* 2x ViaAqua 480 powerheads on a wave timer, each on a separate return chase

* 1 ViaAqua 1300 powerhead on a return chase

* Tronic 100W heater

* IceProbe Chiller

* Reefkeeper Digital Power Center

The system came in lots of boxes

Everything was very well packaged (I now have more packing peanuts that I know what to do with

Here is a full shot of the rear chambers (looking from the back)

Looking from left-to-right, the chambers are:

* Overflow, skimmer, VA1300 powerhead

* Fuge area

* Filtration chamber with 2x VA480 powerheads, and bulkhead for IceProbe

And this will be a bare bottom tank, I got another layer of acrylic that has been roughed up to better hold the rocks.

lol... that tank's plastic.

Originally posted by adinsxq

lol... that tank's plastic.

Heh yeah, I thought I'd try acrylic this time (my first plastic tank ).

Being BB, I'm hoping it is less likely to scratch! We'll see how that theory pans out

The hood came with 2x80mm and 2x120mm AC fans (yes, plug it straight into the wall outlet )

They were loud, and didn't seem to push alot of air around. So I swapped them out with 2x

Silverstone 80mm and 2x Vantec Stealth 120mm fans.

I also bought some 1800ma variable voltage adapters and wired it to use the PC molex connectors.

IceProbe goes into the side bulkhead

The hood "attaches" to the euro-bracing, allowing it to swing open and close

And the "completed" look

A final test of the lights before filling the tank with water...

Fuge light only

Then turn on the actinic

Then turn on the MH

To fill the tank, I use roughly 20G (4 boxes) of Catalina NSW (natural salt water)

Lots of micro-bubbles as the skimmer adjusts, which really brings out the MH shimmer lines

All the electricals are controlled by the Reefkeeper (if you haven't bought one, look into it... it's great!

)

Here's a side shot of the tank, showing the skimmer working overtime and the heater is working to get the water up to the desired 79-80F range

awesome, how much was just the tank and hood?

For those who have never used a protien skimmer, it seems so expensive that it's hard to justify needing one.

For those who have seen what a skimmer can pull out, you'd never go without it!

This is what my skimmer pulled out of the water less than 30 minutes after turning it on

Now remember, this is a brand-new tank filled with Catalina NSW (that appeared crystal clear to my eyes). All this in less than 30 minutes! :x

For the record, it hasn't collected much more in the last 3 hours... it only pulls the crap out of the water column, and nothing else.

Originally posted by jasonincuritiba

awesome, how much was just the tank and hood?

Thanks Jason.

The "plastic" was ~$700, but I paid just under $1500 for the setup (which includes the lighting, pumps, skimmer, chiller, shipping, etc).

I also paid ~$250 for stuff that I bought separately (Reefkeeper and Tronic heater).

After I got it, I probably spent ~$200 replacing some parts I was not happy with. Such as the fans, variable voltage adapters, MH bulb (got 15k XM, rather than the 20k Aqualine it came with) and 65W lamp (got dual Actinic 03, rather than the 10k/blue it came with).

So all up, it wasn't cheap

For the people who know the type of fire sales I do, keep an eye out in the Classifieds. I'm going to be listing near brand new items in the next week or so

you should pm me before listing Im always looking for stuff.

supernip LOLz

someone's a baller... you're looking at close to 2K and you don't even have liverock yet! i wish i had that kind of money. :bling:

That will be a monster tank!

WOW! Great setup

looks awesome already.

go, acrylic! =)

cant wait to see it when its up!

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Darold sent me a PM, but his mailbox is full. So I thought I'd post my answers on this thread, as it might be of interest to others...

The Silverstone fan is DC, so it requires a voltage adapter. On the topic of the Silverstone, that is the most amazing fan I've come across (as you may know, I look at alot of fans). At 7.5V, it's nearly silent. At 9-12V, it pushes out monster air. The fan's design allows it to suck air in through the sides (that's why you see slits on the side of the fan).

If you're running out of space on your power strip, I recommend using "power pigtails" (http://www.cablesonline.net/1footpowex.html). They're cheap and great for conserving valuable power strip outlets

Great setup dude!

It really do look like ultimate cube.

I agree with adin for a fact that its acrylic but they are great if you can avoid the scratches. Just remember, scratches outside doesn't really matter because you can buff it out but watch out for the inside scratches. Inside scrathes don't come from substrate, it comes from re-arranging rocks and corals. You barley touch the wall with live rock, and you will get a scratch. And i mean just a slightest touch. So be careful. I have had both glass and acrylic tanks and acrylic is good because its easier to mod, clearer then even starfire glass but I would still take cheapest glass tank over acrylic for scratching issues. But if you really be careful handling stuff inside the tank, you will be fine!

Also one more suggestion.

If you have 24" length then why not go for VHO attinics?

They are sooooooooo much better then PC attinics. No contest period!

How is temp doing with pendent inside the hood?

LOOKS AWESOME!!!!

Thanks oogie!

Originally posted by oogie

If you have 24" length then why not go for VHO attinics?

They are sooooooooo much better then PC attinics.  No contest period!

I had originally spec'd it for URIs.

But (believe it or not :ermm: ) I was trying to reduce cost initially. The VHO ballast + URI would have been ~$200, compared to the $70 for the Sunpaq retro.

The reason for that was because I'm not 100% sure MH is the best lighting for this system. I was worried about the heat and the spotlight effect. So far the heat isn't a problem, and the spotlight effect (you can see it in the shimmer photo I posted previously) seems cool right now

I designed the tank to be 24" so that I could also use T5s. I'm going to see how the MH works out, bearing in mind that I could go to MH/VHO (if I like the MH) or T5s (if I don't).

Originally posted by oogie

How is temp doing with pendent inside the hood?

So far so good...

I ran it for 4 hours last night and it seemed fine (the pendant's metal was warm, the air being exhausted by the fans were only slightly above room temp). The MH will do the full 10 hour (and the actinics will do 14 hours) today. So we'll see.

As for the water temperature, I've got the Reefkeeper set to keep the temps between 79.5 and 80.5. Heater is set on until 79.5. The chiller comes on above 80.5 and set to bring the temp back to 80.0.

Thats so sweet!!!! I think i have project coming up

when you decide to sell stuff, dibs on the halide bulb. and the halides if you sell it when are you gonna install a calcium reactor?

LOL nip! Yup, I owe you, so you'll get at least 48 hours advanced notice before I list anything

For this tank, I'm going to skip the dosing (CA or otherwise) and just rely on NSW. But I know you were asking about the reactor, just so you could buy it off me for cheap