JBinFla Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 A little background on this build. Back in December Nano-Reef.com member joeyhatch11 posted a thread titled FREE NANO TANK!. I was (am) a complete noobie at this but figured what the heck and entered. A couple weeks went by and I was in the middle of a bad day and when I got home I checked my email. WHAT? I won? Yep, as luck would have it I did win... Sooo... After building a nice 12" glass cube for me, joeyhatch11 sent it via 2-day delivery and here is what it looked like after unpacking: Full shot: Corner detail: So since I got a free tank, looks like I need to hop on Amazon and pick up a few items. First was a filter. After receiving it and seeing the size, I do kind of wish I'd have gone much smaller. It is at least 6" wide and takes up most of one side of the aquarium. I've seen much smaller filters, and since I'll be light on fish I am thinking I don't need major filtration. I may end up buying a small canister filter, but in any even, it is now running with the API SuperCLean Power 5-20gal power filter. Pic showing ceramic bio-ball type elements. I'm going to use it "as-is", at least at the start. I did buy some nitrate removing filter pads ($9/ea?!?!?!) for this thing. It only held 5-gallons of water when I filled it up after rock/sand. So maybe this LED will be just right at 16-watts. It's a Wave-point 12-inch Super Blue and Daylight micro LED fixture. It fits the tank nicely but leaves little room on the side it's mounted for anything else (again, I'm thinking a small canister filter may be just right as intake and output pipes could fit just fine on the side of the light) And here's the whole thing before any water went in it: Not to bad at this point, but again I'm not really sold on the filter even if it works better than expected. I'm just really wanting a cleaner look for this thing. Anyway, so a trip to PetCo and I picked up some live rock and a feather duster for entertainment. There was a red mushroom anemone on one rock so I'm kind of using that as a tester to see if something like that can survive a cycle. I did get some beneficial bacteria to add and a fish (brown damsel) to add ammonia to the system. So, here's a picture of the rock with mushroom: Sorry for the bad pictures, my iPhone doesn't like the LED that is for sure. On a side note, any tips for taking pictures under these LED's without the camera going all blue and washed out would be appreciated. The mushroom really "pops" under this light, it's a stark red contrast to everything but in this picture not much of that comes through. Here's the rock with feather duster: In the back, you can barely see it because the photo is so washed out, I have some caulerpa prolifera macro algae. It has done well in my main tank. It grows well in the sand bed and my tang will eat it from time to time. I'm hoping it will keep any phosphates down. Well guys, that's it. Sorry for the bad post-pictures as the LED light really doesn't agree with my iphone. As the tank matures, and I add stuff I'll add some more pictures. Again, thanks to joeyhatch11 for the free tank, and to my wife for allowing me to clutter our house with fish habitats! - Joe Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Nice setup! If you want to upgrade the filter but still want to keep it HOB, then look into a Fluval Aquaclear, most likely the AC50 or AC70. You can search up some fuge mods to make it into a refugium or you can buy an intank media basket for ultimate filtration. Also, do you have a heater on this tank? Link to comment
aviator300 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Thanks to joeyhatch11 for this type of drawing. It shows a real commitment and enthusiasm for our hobby and thanks to you sir for creating a build thread which follows the spirit that i think joeyhatch11 intended. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Looks like a nice tank and a nice start to it! That's a bummer about the filter and light not fitting... Is it possible to mod the light so that the legs are further apart or possibly remove 1 leg so the filter will fit? It looks like with some careful drilling you could relocate the legs... Link to comment
mrBananas Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Tank's looking good! If you want to spend about 5 mins, you can easily do some white balancing on a free photo editor like GIMP. Here's your pic using the auto white balance feature on it. It's hard to judge how close this looks to the actual thing without having seen it myself, but you can always fine tune it. Link to GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ Link to comment
joeyhatch11 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 That's great I'm glad to see everything is coming along. Can't wait to see update pics in a few months. I'm sure it's going to be epic!! Link to comment
JBinFla Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Thanks guys, and thanks mrBananas for the tip. I have Gimp and am somewhat familiar with it's use (no expert tho!). I didn't think I could fix it. I know when I take pictures of my Biocube with PC lights things look good, or at least like what I see. The LED seems to consistently produce washed out pictures. Yes, I have a heater. I didn't put one in at the start and temps dropped like a rock so I put one it keep it around 78°F I'm hoping in a few more weeks to add a few more items, maybe even transfer some things from the cube as it's a bit over stocked Link to comment
ajmckay Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Hows the tank coming along? Link to comment
joeyhatch11 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Any updates on this build? I would love to see its progression? Link to comment
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