9 gallon temperate tank build

[Nemcrazy]

I've been doing temperate tanks for almost a year now and love the new side of the hobby. I have a 20 and a 110 display lobster tank turned Coldwater reef. While talking to some people at work about them a coworker was pretty interested and asked if I could build one for her. She gave me a budget and off I went:)

Here is some of the basics. Her living room is kept in the low 70's year round. So I decided to go with a glass tank an Ehiem 9 gallon cube. She wants a clean and minimalist look to it. She didn't like the look of the led light it came with

and I felt it wasn't relevant to Coldwater. So I ordered the 6 light ultra-premium dimmable retrofit kit from rapid led. That should be a pretty involved piece of this build. For chilling I'll be using the chill solutions thermo electric chiller. It should be able to keep the tank around 60. I will post some pics of the build tonight. I.e. The tank and rapid led kit. So far I've had a blast with this build:)the money is there I just have to pic and buy lol.

[Nemcrazy]

Well after opening all the packages (well, not all) I have it all set up and looks like I should have it done in a week or so. Hopefully in time to hook up the chiller and do a wet test so I can make an order for some live stock.

[lljdma06]

This is going to be pretty cool. I will follow.

 

You all in the biotope section are making me miss my Caribbean reef with all your cool temperate tanks & biotopes.

 

L

[AquaticEngineer]

NICE! My chill solutions chiller will be here on thursday I will let you know how it does on my system.

[Nemcrazy]

Ok I'm back I had some distractions happening, but now I'm back. I'm switching out the glass Ehiem tank for an aqueon 8. I used that tank at a recent PSAS event. And was gonna trade it and some other stuff for another lobster tank. But it looks like that fell through so I'm using the Aqueon 8which is better design wise with the rear overflow sump area and the acrylic helps too. I'm spray foaming and painting the back wall tonight and tomorrow. I'm thinking of using a sand bed rather than peagravel. Because the owner wants some moonglows if possible. My timeline for the led light to be completed is one week giving me time to fix any bugs. Anyway back to work

[AquaticEngineer]

Sweet! If she is going to have a sand bed we've been catching 2" Sand Dabs (looks like a little flounder) recently. I put one in mine

[Nemcrazy]

I just heard my doorbell ring. And low and behold my Chill solutions csxc-1 chiller was on the door step. Its rather slick looking. I think while the foam rock is curing in the aqueon 8, I'm going to run a test on the 9 gallon Eheim cube and see what happens there. Just for funsies:) It would be fun to see the temp drop on that tank and see about sweating. My living room is a bit humid with all the tanks and if its gonna sweat in this state my living room is a great test lab.

[Nemcrazy]

Update time. So let me introduce you to the almost finished product. I hooked up the chill solutions chiller which was super easy. It keeps a 58-64 temp range on on average. I and put on a spray foam wall and painted in the coraline. Haha I know its cheating but looks cool, and you cant tell the difference after stuff starts growing in there. Also I brought my daughter for her first trip and she loved it. We went down to the oregon coast with the guys from Coldwater marine aquatics and collected some new stuff. It was was a nice lowtide so there were some really nice pieces everywhere.I havent needed to use any of the stuff I was gonna giver her yet maybe tonight I'll do that. Don't be alarmed by the toothpicks. They are holding some social tunicates in place. I also used the toothpicks to hold in the large painted anemone in place till it settled in the hole that i designed for it to sit. Once again using that foam is usful.

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here is a better view

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A bunch of nano nems chillin

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Nano california cucumber

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[Reef Fever]

looking really good!

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Very nice!

 

9 gallons at 58 F is impressive. What are your ambient temps? How loud is that chiller is it on constantly?

 

Humidity?

 

Any condensation? You are using acrylic right?

 

Your wall is very creative and makes this build!

[FlowerMama]

nice coloration

[Nemcrazy]

Well a couple answers first. It's the 8 gallon aqueon and it's 1/4" acrylic. The room I have it in is warm and humid. It's only a couple feet from the exhaust of my 140 gallon lobster tank. So ambient temps are hard to figure. But it gets to 76 and humid. If I had this tank upstairs where it's much less humid it would never sweat. But where it's at there is some fogging at times and little else. The chiller is fairly quiet and always running it does the job.

[Nemcrazy]

Oh and the total water volume is around 6 after the rock and sand.

[Nemcrazy]

Update. What I thought was fogging was salt that was spread all over the acrylic. It is nice and clear now:) the social tunicates are not fairing well it might be to much light. Or something... I'm feeding it stuff that has made my corynactis explode with growth I may have to put some of those in here. To replace the tunicates that is. The metridium senile is doing great. Here is a pic of baby metridums setting up shop on the side of a green surf anemone:-D

 

[markalot]

Very neat concept, looking forward to following the progress.

[AquaticEngineer]

Update. What I thought was fogging was salt that was spread all over the acrylic. It is nice and clear now:) the social tunicates are not fairing well it might be to much light. Or something... I'm feeding it stuff that has made my corynactis explode with growth I may have to put some of those in here. To replace the tunicates that is.

I was getting some fog too after the die off of my colonial tunicates, mine didnt fair so well either I tossed in a couple of mussels with barnacles on them and it cleared up in about 3 hours

 

What are you feeding your corynactis?

[Lalani]

[Nemcrazy]

I did an 80 percent water change. And piped in water from the lobster tank. Which is where all the water has come from. Why not? It's only 2 feet away.

 

the corynactis has doubled in size maybe more! I'm using coral smoothie. I squirt them directly. The growth is bonkers! If it keeps going I'll give some to this tank. Then break up that shell and scatter them.