Fish's new tank

[Jordon]

cant what so see the finished product.

[ninjafish]

I have already paid for the tank and it is being built as we speak (I hope).

 

- Chad

[addam4208283]

this is going to be sweet!

also i just finished reading jemrams thread. you have a reg apprentice there across the pond. do you still have either of your last tanks or no?

ADAM

[Pili]

Sweet! What did you end up going with as far as the overflow/holes are concerned?

[ninjafish]

this is going to be sweet!

also i just finished reading jemrams thread. you have a reg apprentice there across the pond. do you still have either of your last tanks or no?

ADAM

 

Ya, I was quite flattered that Jeremy decided to set up his cube. He really has done a great job of it too. Baisically took my 'office nano' idea and turned it into a full-fledged home tank.

Unfortunately, I have always had to sell my current setup in order to finance the new one - that is the only way to get it approved by the Chief Financial Officer in my home . Besides, for me, building a system is the biggest challenge and the most fun. The moment that I feel I can't really do any more with a tank, it starts to get a little boring for me (that's a curse that I;m gonna try and fix with this project). This one is going to be a keeper....

 

- Chad

 

Sweet! What did you end up going with as far as the overflow/holes are concerned?

 

The tank is going to be 36x18x18 (cover the whole stand) but there will be an overflow wall at the 30" mark so the last 6" of the tank will be the overflow area. There will be two sump drain bulkheads in the bottom of the box, and three other 1" bulkheads that come up from the bottom of the box, turn 90 degrees, and go through another set of bulkheads partway up the overflow wall and into the display. The middle one will be the closed loop intake, one side will be the closed loop return, and the other side will be the sump return. I am going to paint the inside of the overflow box so that all the plumbing will be hidden and the only thing visible will be the three naked bulkheads in the overflow wall. The tank will be frameless and be made of starfire glass. I hope that I explained it properly.

 

- Chad

 

Also, I have decided to use the Iwaki as the sump return and the Coralife for the closed loop. I was running both setups through the RC headloss calculator and came up with the following scenarios:

 

Coralife on loop 744gph

Coralife on sump 709gph

 

Iwaki on loop 761gph

Iwaki on sump 734gph

 

As you can see, if I used the Iwaki on the closed loop, it would have approx 60gph more output from that return bulkhead then the sump bulkhead. I thought this might lead to more of a directional current in the tank (eg a definite clockwise motion). By swapping the pumps, both bulkheads are within 10gph of each other (which counting error rate, might be baisically the same output). I think that with a more equal outpt from the left and right bulkheads, the current will be more randomly dispersed when both streams meet at the far end of the tank.

 

- Chad

[addam4208283]

what is starfire glass?

ADAM

[ninjafish]

what is starfire glass?

ADAM

 

Actually it's a certain brand of low iron glass, but it has also come to be the generic term for any brand of low-iron glass. A bit more expensive, but optically clearer than regular glass.

I hve had my lst three tanks built of the stuff and have always been very pleased with it. There really is a noticable difference.

- Chad

[ninjafish]

Here is a photo of the magnets I am using:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I also put an outline of screws around the base to stop the screens from being pushed inwards:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today would have been a great day to paint the wood, but it was so cold (-6 degrees Fahrenheit) that I didn't want to leave the house!

 

 

- Chad

[POSSUM]

Wow fish ! I just checked out your videos. Very nice...

[ninjafish]

Thanks Possum,

I'm glad you liked them! I think that the last video in the trilogy drags on a little. It was made back when I first set up the larger tank, and was a little bare in the livestock department.

 

- Chad

[mybuickskill6979]

dude sounds like a sweet tank. can't wait to see it.

[simbio]

Chad, I admire all your work, and I’m inspired by it. It looks very neat and well thought out. I don’t know what you do for a living, but to me it looks that it requires judicious thinking and good self-discipline. I learn from you.

 

I'm sorry you had to broke down your 7.5 gl. cube. For how log did you have it running? Did you have any issues with it that you would want to improve, if you didn’t have to sell it? I’ve always worked with much larger systems, but lately I started to like smaller tanks, and I intend to set one cube up soon. I would really appreciate any extra input. If well maintained, do you think a project like your 7.5 gl. can perform for 2-3 years without any major problems? Again, thanks for the inspirational projects.

[ninjafish]

Thanks, Chris it's good to have you here.

 

Simbio,

Thank you for the compliment - I almost fell off my chair when I read your post! By profession, I am a police officer. What do you do for a living? Psychologist? Fortune teller?

 

I have said this before, but aesthetically, my favorite of my two cubes was the 8" cube. Because it was so small, it looked more miraculous than the larger tank. The reason that I went to the 12" was so that my mantis shrimp would be more comfortable and so my corals would have more room to grow. The only drawback to the design is not being able to incorporate a skimmer (and still have it hidden). This however, was never a problem for me because I had low stocking levels, excellent turnover, and a good amount of LR and chaeto! I had a spot in my canister for a small bag of carbon but I never used it because the water was always so clean.

To tell you the truth, I do regret getting rid of my cubes, I have a rare affliction that causes me to start to lose interest in a project once it reaches that point when I feel I can't do anything more to make it better. As long as you do not suffer from the same disease, there is absolutely no reason why a tank like that wouldn't run for decades never mind three years. I really believed that that the crowning touch was my autotopoff, I had it tuned to add water at the exact rate that it evaporated. People talk about nano tanks not being as stable as larger tanks - but this design was far more stable than any of my other tanks. Even my 90gal experienced some salinity swings because I only topped it off twice a day - not 3/4 of a milliliter every three minutes! Water changes were really easy, on the 7.5gal I would swap out 2gals of water every week - probably even more than necessary but it was so easy I didn't mind. I did not dose or supplement anything to the tank so my levels didn't go all out of whack. Even with the sps and lsp corals I was keeping, the weekly water changes maintained my calcium levels just fine.

I never did try it, but I firmly believe that before I added the mantis shrimp, I could have filled up my topoff reservoir, locked the door, and not return for a month - and still not lose a single coral. The longest I was ever away from the 2gal cube was for a week, but the tank never even knew I was gone - all I had to do was clean the glass when I got back. The stomatella snails were eating the diatoms off the glass and spawning directly into the water column. That supply of live food, along with the 70w halide kept my corals happy. Everything else was on timers.

If you are thinking of setting one up, I say go for it, you wont regret it.

 

Sorry everyone for the rant.

 

- Chad

[simbio]

Police officer? Oh, that explains it then. Me, Psychologist? Fortune teller? Neither. Although, I think I would’ve enjoyed to be a fortune teller - kind of a psychologist, but one who has fun at work . By education, I have some engineering background and, also, a degree in IT, which I now try to combine it with over 30 years in this wonderful hobby, to create a LIVING for my soul.

 

Thanks a lot for all the additional info. "Unfortunately," I suffer from the same disease as yours. For instance, I used to breed clown fish, Amphiprion ocellaris, in 1994 and 1995, and sold or trade them to the local fish stores for salt or aquarium equipment. I got tired of it, and moved on to something else. I’ve spent enough money moving from one project to another, but, I guess, that is one way of gaining a lot of experience. However, now I want to focus my efforts on working and studying small reef aquariums, and since aesthetics, along with the well-being of the specimens, are paramount to me, your very neat work got my attention. I also like the longer, shallow aquariums. We'll keep in touch.

 

Regards,

 

simbio

[jemram]

I have a rare affliction that causes me to start to lose interest in a project once it reaches that point when I feel I can't do anything more to make it better.

 

You call that rare

[ninjafish]

Simbio,

Wow you have quite the background. I just stumbled into this hobby five years ago...

I look forward to seeing your work.

 

- Chad

 

You call that rare

 

Haha, well my wife doesn't understand it but...maybe it's not that uncommon here.

[simbio]

Simbio,

Wow you have quite the background. I just stumbled into this hobby five years ago...

I look forward to seeing your work.

 

- Chad

 

I’ll be glad to share my work with the fellow nano-reefers. This new project is yet in the research stage. I’m still going between a cube and a long, shallow tank. I also have a brand new 15 gallon aga aquarium, and wonder if I should set this one up, to save myself some extra expenses.

 

- Regards

[ninjafish]

The 15gal would be a lot less expensive... realize though, that would will end up making a custom tank eventually .

 

 

 

Update:

 

I re-thought my design and decided that having my return plumbing go right through the back wall posed a risk of overflowing my sump. Even with a syphon break, the water pressure in the tank would still drain a fair amount of water.

 

Because my return plumbing is now going up and over the back wall, there wasn't really a benefit to closing it all in the way that I had originally planned.

 

Here are some sketches I did:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I plan on having black acrylic on the back wall to prevent the overflow and plumbing from being visible.

 

 

 

- Chad

[jemram]

Looks like a good plan. I do like tanks with the equipment all at one end. I take it you're going to have the tank so you can see from all 3 sides?

[ninjafish]

Thansk Jeremy. Ya, it's kind of that 'room divider' shape. At only 36' I'm not really going to be dividing any rooms with it , but I decided I'd rather sacrifice one of the short panes for the overflow and returns, than the entire back wall. I am going to be stetting the tank up in my undeveloped basement for the time being and will have it out in the middle of the floor so that I can walk around it.

 

- Chad

[addam4208283]

nice sketches. like Jeremy said above, is this going to be seen from three sides, with the plumbing and such in a wall?

ADAM

 

should have waited a couple secs then i would have had the answer to my ?

lol

ADAM

[ninjafish]

Haha, I know, I do that all the time.

No although this 'room divider' style is best when hidden in a wall, or one-piece stand/canopy, I didn't think it would be worth the trouble for such a small tank. I might have an acrylic box made that I can just put against the back to hide the overflow and some of the plumbing....

[simbio]

At only 36' I'm not really going to be dividing any rooms with it .

 

- Chad

 

Chad, it’s OK man; we didn’t really think that you were using it as a real divider, so no need to explain yourself

 

Now, on a bit serious note. How are you going to solve the salt crust that will build in time? It looks that there will be some splashing and water spray.

 

Two years ago, I’ve designed an 80-some gallon cylindrical tank for two Chambered Nautilus (Nautilus pompilus). The return was designed to be two PVC pipes that went all the way to the bottom of the tank - 30" deep. Each pipe had 4 mm slits at 2 cm intervals, from top to end - the goal was to obtain a very gentle return water current. All what I did to brake the siphon and prevent a masive overflow of the sump was to drill a small hole in the top elbow (that was sitting in the air). The tank it’s still running today and, so far, this simple safety system worked every single time - never had a flood.

 

BTW - Although the tank is being turn into a reef display (warmer water temp, more corals), those two Nautilus and about two dozen Catalina Gobies, darting in and out of the live rock, was an unforgettable view.

[ninjafish]

You've kept Nautilus? Wow, that is very impressive . You don't happen to still have photos of that tank do you?

 

My pictures are a little misleading because I couldn't figure out how to draw the return pipes turning another 90 degrees and down into the water. I might use 45 degree elbows on the ends to direct the flow down towards the bottom front of the tank. Because the returns will be below the water level, I am not anticipating very much splashing. I think that I will get a ring of salt creep around each of the return pipes - right at the water level - but that should be easy enough to clean.

 

- Chad

[Deleted User 7]

That looks like a nicer version of what I just made this weekend! Works well, too.

 

 

Looking great, can't wait to see it.