wastedtime Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 That is a nice looking tank, Great job on the stand as well. Link to comment
JustinReef Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Cool, make sure it doesn't blow hot air. On my mh I had 2 computer fans installed on the left and right side of the fixture using industrial strength velcro, parallel with the water. I think it's way more efficient to bring the fans as close to the water as possible like the ones sold by many including tunze. Also, the light stand doesn't look centered, it might be 1/2-1inch more on the right. Ok thanks for the advice. I have usually relied more on a large sump fan to keep the tank cool but in this case with a lot of light over a small tank, I figured I better cool near the light as well. I will look into the light stand. I did measure to find the middle but it may be off a little. That is a nice looking tank, Great job on the stand as well. Thank you. Oh, and I almost forgot! I am not actually 7`tall That cabinet is a king Murphy bed (pull down wall bed). It`s very large and annoying. The tank is obviously not staying in front of it, I have just been building the tank in front for now. I don`t know where the tank is going to go, our place is a mess of boxes. Link to comment
joshik Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 I am new to Nano-reef.com but have been in the hobby for over 10 years now. What a great site! My wife and I are moving soon and have to downsize tanks. I had decided on the ADA 8.5G 24x12x7 until I found the ADA made, Do!Aqua tank in the exact same dimensions for half the price. I looked at them side by side and yes the ADA was clearer glass but knowing I was going to drill this tank, it felt like less risk to go with the Do!Aqua. I now kind of regret not going with the true ADA as money wasn't really the issue...oh well! All photos will be taken with my iPhone for convenience System specs ADA Do!Aqua 8.5G aquarium Drilled for "herbie" style drains 10G sump Vortech MP10 Bubble Magus NAC6 skimmer Tunze return pump (dialed way down) Reefkeeper Lite DIY ATO with float valve 7G top off water tank 150 Watt Metal Halide Phoenix 14K Fan cooling DIY plywood stand Livestock I will be transferring my livestock from my current tank. Mostly SPS and photosynthetic gorgonians. I have had most of these corals for many years so I have to frag them down a LOT to fit the shallow height of this tank. Stand I love the Restoration Hardware Aviator line of furniture made from galvanized steel with the industrial look. I recreated this look twice before for larger aquarium stands. Below is an example of a Restoration Hardware dresser in the style I went for. Overflow I wanted to incorporate a herbie style drain which I have used on my past 3-4 tanks and been very happy with. Basically a gate valve controlled main drain which is adjusted to keep up with the return pump exactly at the same flow. I did NOT want a big ugly overflow box in such a small tank so I drilled for two bulkheads side by side but at different heights and then used two black 90 degree PVC pieces upturned. Light I gutted a Current USA 150 Watt Metal Halide Sunpod that I had not used in a long time and build a plywood casing sheeted inside and out with galvanized sheet metal to get the same look as the stand. Drilling Here are a few camera phone pics of the drilling process. Nothing too exciting. I will update this regularly! I have never really done a proper tank thread in the past. looking good! my brother wants the aviation desk from restoration hardware! Link to comment
JustinReef Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 looking good! my brother wants the aviation desk from restoration hardware! I wanted that desk too before I decided to build these stands which have satisfied my need for metal furniture Link to comment
JustinReef Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 I started the transfer yesterday but ran into some bad luck--my sump cracked! It's an old sump but I still can't figure out how it cracked along the top when I grabbed it with my hand I will have to build a new one but that will probably not be until after I move in two weeks. For now, I am using my 7G ATO reservoir as a temporary sump. It's a really bad footprint and will result in a lot of microbubbles but its better than nothing for now. Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Great execution on a great idea!!! Can't wait to see what you do with the scape. Link to comment
JustinReef Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Here is where things were at last night...you can see the two tanks side by side. I will have the new tank up and running later today. You may notice (or probably not) that I changed the light a little. Actually I rebuilt it completely. The first one scared me as it was plywood skinned inside and out with sheet metal. I felt the plywood was a fire hazard. This one is smaller and lighter, made of only sheet metal. More to come tonight... Link to comment
JustinReef Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Great execution on a great idea!!! Can't wait to see what you do with the scape. Thank you! I just looked at your tank and you have one of the coolest scapes I have ever seen. Very interesting. It is great for coral placement, good work! Link to comment
JustinReef Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Don't know if there is much interest in an update without pictures but here goes... Everything AFTER building the stand and initial set up has been an EPIC FAILURE Yesterday was like Then Then to the wife.... To start, the bulkheads are too high, kinda. The drains work fine but the main drain keeps the water level a little too high in the display for my liking and the emergency drain (when it kicks in) would put the water level right to the top. I will try to fix this by drilling holes near the top edge of the PVC 90's that act as my overflows. Essentially creating a row of holes that should keep the water lower. Then the aquascape. This was the real I have a new respect for scaping small tanks. It's 100 times harder than a large tank. The smallest tank I have scaped was my 34G solana, which was EASY compared to this thing. A big part of the problem is that my corals are mature colonies. The lights were off but you can see the size of the gorgonians in the photos above...many are 9-12" tall. The tank is 7" tall. Even after heavily fragging them, its tough. The crazy thing is, with all the frustration, I am excited to work on the tank tonight. What a weird hobby. And my Amano inspiration, screw it, not even going to try for that EDIT: Forgot to mention that I will most likely not keep any of my current fish, I think the tank is just too small. I really wanted to keep my Bangaii Cardinal pair but they wouldn't be happy I don't think. Also, the ATO tank I planned on using temporarily as a sump may just turn out to be my sump long term. It doesn't have baffles so I won't use the skimmer. Another reason not to have many fish I guess. Link to comment
TimberC Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 What's going on with this set up? It's time for an update with pics Link to comment
JR! Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 projects are never fun unless their are bumps in the road. there are gonna be plenty more. trust me.... Link to comment
CarrillXXP Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 I dub this tank the "Enola Gay". Very cool thread. Link to comment
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