0.5g SPS 'femto' tank - PNWMAS competition

[burningbaal]

PNWMAS is putting on a under-1-gallon competition that I want to enter. The other hard thing about this is it has a price limit. all equipment, motile inverts and fish have to fit in a $120 budget, and already-owned things have to be accounted for in the budget! the budget is to level the playing field so we get more of a fair competition (which hopefully means more people enter!)

 

so I bought (updated as the list was honed):

1/2 gallon vase (roughly cube shaped) at goodwill for $4

AZOO mignon 60 filter for $14 (a little over a quart of volume added, about 16gph)

25w controlled heater

DIY led kit from rapidLED including heatsink, 13v constant current driver and 4 diodes (2 blues, 1CW, 1UV)

I'll be getting rock, substrate and water from my 90g reef to kick start it,

livestock (SPS, a sexy shrimp and possibly teeny goby) both from my 90g and stores/local reefers.

 

coral plan so far:

1"-ish frag of blue digi

1/2" ish frag of brown-polypped birdsnest

hoping for a small frag of encrusting/scrolling sps and 1-2 more branchies...green and red/orange/pink preferred.

plan twice weekly 50% water changes for maintenance.

 

pictures will come as things come together. And yes, this is my first-ever post on nano-reef.com, though I've been stalking reef forums for years and had my tropical reef for a little over a year now.

[albertthiel]

Well good for you and best of luck .... the fridge idea is a good one and hopefully it will work for you.

 

Since it is so small ... watch carefully what you put in ... small stuff that can live in colder waters. What temp are you going to keep it at ?

 

Albert

 

 

PNWMAS is putting on a under-1-gallon competition that I want to enter. I decided to really push it and try my first coldwater tank. the other hard thing about this is it has a price limit. all equipment, motile inverts and fish have to fit in a $120 budget, and already-owned things have to be accounted for in the budget! the budget is to level the playing field so we get more of a fair competition (which hopefully means more people enter!)

 

so I bought a 1/2 gallon vase (roughly cube shaped) at goodwill for $4 and 50ft of 0.15inch (ID) tubing, tomorrow I'm buying a used minifridge for $25. the plan is to put a bowl/bucket of water in the minifridge with a long coil of the the tubing in it. a 3 gph aqualifter will pump the water from the tank, into the fridge, in the bucket, back into the tank. hopefully it has enough contact time in the minifridge to equilibrate the temp and enough turnover to keep the tank cool. we have a vendor near me that exclusively deals in temperate marine aquatics (coldwatermarineaquatics.com), I'll be getting rock, substrate and water (for faster cycle) from them, then some livestock (anemones, a shrimp and possibly teeny fish). I'm hoping to light it with LEDs and do twice weekly 50% water changes for maintenance.

 

pictures will come as things come together. And yes, this is my first-ever post on nano-reef.com, though I've been stalking reef forums for years and had my tropical reef for a little over a year now.

[Jenna Ann]

What light are going to use?

[albertthiel]

Since he did not specify it it is hard to know especially on such a small system .... Hopefully he will respond to your question but since this is a cold/temperate system I do not feel that he is going to need a lot of light at all ..

 

Albert

 

 

What light are going to use?

[Islandoftiki]

Following along... I'm a fellow PNWMAS member and will be joining the competition with a warm water reef vase.

 

I'm excited about the craigslist dorm fridge as a cheap method for making a cold water tank.

[burningbaal]

My lighting is still up in the air a bit, but I'm thinking of putting a 5w cool white cree and a 3w royal blue over it with the 'moonlight' driver from rapidled.com, hoping to hold it at 55 or so degrees, though it seems there's a fairly wide range of tolerability. I'm hoping to keep some nemes (aggregating and strawberry, probably) and a shrimp. I'm trying to come up with a vertebrate I can keep, but with the size of the 'tank', it's pretty tough.

 

thanks for the interest, and nice to see you found my thread, tiki!

[albertthiel]

With pleasure and not a problem ... search on the net for temperate water inverts and search for lighting requirements for what you select and you should come up with some answers and possibilities. Good luck.

 

Albert

 

 

My lighting is still up in the air a bit, but I'm thinking of putting a 5w cool white cree and a 3w royal blue over it with the 'moonlight' driver from rapidled.com, hoping to hold it at 55 or so degrees, though it seems there's a fairly wide range of tolerability. I'm hoping to keep some nemes (aggregating and strawberry, probably) and a shrimp. I'm trying to come up with a vertebrate I can keep, but with the size of the 'tank', it's pretty tough.

 

thanks for the interest, and nice to see you found my thread, tiki!

[burningbaal]

ok, so the temperate part didn't work out...too bad I put it in the thread title

 

I got a roughly 5" cube vase from goodwill (whatever the dimensions it holds just under 0.5g of water). I got an AZOO Mignon 60 for a powerhead and to store the heater (got a http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_pa...products_id=686 that should keep a good temp).

 

bought the 2-diode moonlight driver from rapidled.com, a 5w cool white diode and a 3w violet/UV diode. also got a 4" x 4.25" aluminum heatsink (it didn't say it, but it was already drilled/tapped and was only $4).

 

I'm going to put all four diodes in series on the driver (constant current of 350mA),so they'll all be very underdriven, which of course means the spectrum will shift, but we'll see how it goes. it should mean that they last a long time.

 

now to wiring and figuring out how to mount the heatsink (with the diodes).

[x3thelast]

ok, so the temperate part didn't work out...too bad I put it in the thread title

 

I got a roughly 5" cube vase from goodwill (whatever the dimensions it holds just under 0.5g of water). I got an AZOO Mignon 60 for a powerhead and to store the heater (got a http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_pa...products_id=686 that should keep a good temp).

 

bought the 2-diode moonlight driver from rapidled.com, a 5w cool white diode and a 3w violet/UV diode. also got a 4" x 4.25" aluminum heatsink (it didn't say it, but it was already drilled/tapped and was only $4).

 

I'm going to put all four diodes in series on the driver (constant current of 350mA),so they'll all be very underdriven, which of course means the spectrum will shift, but we'll see how it goes. it should mean that they last a long time.

 

now to wiring and figuring out how to mount the heatsink (with the diodes).

 

can you take a pic of the heater in your tank? im just curious of how much space it takes. im still looking for a heater to warm up my 1 gal tank for the winter.

[burningbaal]

can you take a pic of the heater in your tank? im just curious of how much space it takes. im still looking for a heater to warm up my 1 gal tank for the winter.

 

I'll try to get a pic up, but I have the heater in the filter, not in the tank. It's about 4.5" tall and probably 3/8" in diameter, not counting the rubber ends that are a little bigger around.

[albertthiel]

can you take a pic of the heater in your tank? im just curious of how much space it takes. im still looking for a heater to warm up my 1 gal tank for the winter.

 

I saw real real small one by Tetra the other day at an LFS

 

Albert

[x3thelast]

I saw real real small one by Tetra the other day at an LFS

 

Albert

 

was it adjustable?

[albertthiel]

was it adjustable?

 

No I think it was a preset one for 78 F but you would have to check on their web site or do a search for someone who sells them. It WAS small though

[brandon429]

thats the one i use but fitting it in your tank may be tough. in my tall vase its easy. it wouldnt have to be -completely- submerged just most of the element, that at least saves you two inches of submersion

[albertthiel]

thats the one i use but fitting it in your tank may be tough. in my tall vase its easy. it wouldnt have to be -completely- submerged just most of the element, that at least saves you two inches of submersion

I think I may have seen a smaller one at Petco ... maybe an Aqueon (Central Pet and Garden who now seem to own just about the major manufacturers). That one was really short too.

[burningbaal]

I think I may have seen a smaller one at Petco ... maybe an Aqueon (Central Pet and Garden who now seem to own just about the major manufacturers). That one was really short too.

 

it seems that most heaters that are made for tanks under 5g are the 'always on' type. they say they're preset for 78 degrees, but that's an assumption for the exact situation they want you to use it, a lot of people have found their tanks at 90 degrees and higher. this was recommended to me after a local guy used it on his pico and seems to be doing well so far, though it's just tap water and table salt (and untested salinity) right now. but the temp feels about right.

[albertthiel]

it seems that most heaters that are made for tanks under 5g are the 'always on' type. they say they're preset for 78 degrees, but that's an assumption for the exact situation they want you to use it, a lot of people have found their tanks at 90 degrees and higher. this was recommended to me after a local guy used it on his pico and seems to be doing well so far, though it's just tap water and table salt (and untested salinity) right now. but the temp feels about right.

 

Agreed it seems that if you use them on smaller tanks than what they are supposed to used on that the temp will go a lot higher because of the lesser amount of water ... good point !

[TheUnfocusedOne]

Tetra heaters are garbage... There are 25w and 50w heaters on the market that will work fine for your 5g tank. Hydor Theo is one of the most highly recomended heaters I've come across. I've never had any issues with the ones I've had. Avoid the non adjustable ones, they're useless.

 

 

You can edit your title btw.

[brandon429]

if the preset ones are thermostat controlled they are still ok unless malfunctional, my tetra never lets me down

 

it always shuts off at 78

[albertthiel]

Tetra heaters are garbage... There are 25w and 50w heaters on the market that will work fine for your 5g tank. Hydor Theo is one of the most highly recomended heaters I've come across. I've never had any issues with the ones I've had. Avoid the non adjustable ones, they're useless.

 

 

You can edit your title btw.

 

No issue with what you are stating but I have a question about the You can edit your title btw ... what do you mean by that ? Not sure what you mean. Let me know. Thanks

[burningbaal]

You can edit your title btw.

thanks, got it

 

here's the basic setup with tap water (heater barely fits in the filter, I'll need to cut a little notch out of the filter lid for it)

[x3thelast]

nice! get to cycling!

[Islandoftiki]

Looks awesome. What do you think about the filter. I ordered one off of Amazon and it was backordered. It should be here tomorrow. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use it or go with an airstone.

[x3thelast]

Looks awesome. What do you think about the filter. I ordered one off of Amazon and it was backordered. It should be here tomorrow. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use it or go with an airstone.

 

i had that same filter. using the stock sponges that came with it was fine but when i shoved filter floss in there the flow was backed up fast. switched over to ac20.

[rmhuntley]

Damn, I've been away from the club for longer than I thought if I didn't know they were doing a contest like this!

Time to get back in contact w some ppl here in Pdx