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Pod Your Reef

The Coral Cavern - 25G Shallow Reef


Jruberti

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Build Specs

Aquarium: Drilled Innovative Marine Nuvo Black 25

Stand: Custom Birch Plywood 24" x 20" x 36.5"

Lighting: Nano Box Duo Plus M w/ 15" Gooseneck

Water Movement: MP10W ES

Controller: Reef Keeper 2

Skimmer: SC-65

ATO: Tsunami AT1

Heater: Aquatop Quartz Glass Submersible Heaters 150W

Overflow/Return: Glass-Holes Overflow & Return kit

Return Pump: Tunze Recirculation Silence Pump 1073.020 634 GPH

Sump: Eshopps RS-75 Reef Sump

Live Rock: KPA Liverock 25 lbs in display and 5 lbs in sump

Sand: Tropic Eden Reef flakes 20 lbs

 

Fish/Inverts

Tail Spot Blenny

ORA Extreme Misbar Ocellaris Clownfish (living in the sump...he is the devil)

Yellow Clown Goby

 Large Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (named long john)

 Small Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (named lil john)

 

Coral

ORA Neon Green Sinularia Finger Leather

ORA Green Zoas

Blue Sympodium Colony

Butternut Stylophora

Australian Red Blasto

Red Sea Pom Pom Xenia

Purple Rim Danae Montipora (arrived out of water...trying to nurse it back to health)

 

Testing what my old MP10W ES can do :lol:

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July 15, 2016 - Picking up the tank

 

I ordered the IM Nuvo Black from Salty Supply. The tracking link they sent didn't work so my tank ended up sitting in a Southeastern Freight distribution center 30 min from my house for a couple days. Apparently they never setup a delivery date for my tank and it was just going to sit there. After a few phone calls, I was able to drive up to the distribution center and pick it up myself even though it was supposed to be delivered to my house. The tank didn't fit into the trunk of my civic so I had to improvise :P.

 

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August 1, 2016 - Custom Stand

 

Since the tank is fairly short at 24" x 20" x 12", I wanted the tank to be raised to sitting eye level. I've seen a couple shallow tanks that looked funny with tall seamless stands so I decided to follow in the footsteps of the standard IM stand, and utilize a lip for the top part of the stand. The IM stand has a lip on the top and bottom, but I decided to not go with a bottom lip for a cleaner / floating look. The final dimensions of the stand were 24" x 20" x 36.5"

 

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August 8, 2016 - Test Fitting

 

Here's the first test fit of the tank, and I think it's looking pretty good. The door of the stand is easily removed, and I'm sure it'll be a feature I'll be happy about in the future.

 

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August 9, 2016 - Drilling!!!

 

To save money, I wanted to reuse some of the plumbing from my previous 11.4 gallon build. I decided to try and reuse my glass holes super nano con dientes overflow kit and a 1/2" return kit. Since it has been a couple of years, I decided to replace the gaskets and go from a PVC return line to a vinyl one. I used to drill bits offered by glass holes and drilled the tank in my backyard using the water hose and a cordless drill. Here's the tank after drilling and rinsing. You can see my helper Ollie on the left :lol:.

 

 

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August 10, 2016 - Painting

 

If you look at the picture above, you can see that the tank comes with frosted black back glass that's translucent so I decided to paint the back with some flat black krylon fusion spray paint. I think the result looks much better.

 

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August 11, 2016 - Cleaning

 

Since I am reusing a lot of my old equipment like my sump, skimmer, and return pump, they needed to be cleaned. 5 gallon bucket + 50/50 water and vinegar solution did the trick overnight.

 

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August 12, 2016 - Plumbing

 

Since it's a rimless tank, I needed to add some foam to the bottom to account for any imperfections in the stand. Since the top of the stand is virtually level, I decided to go with a black yoga mat from Walmart for $7. Here's the tank after it was in place.

 

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I initially plumbed the tank with the black vinyl from glass holes but after installing it, it was crimping and didn't seem strong enough so I decided to go with braided vinyl from home depot. The braided vinyl was significantly stronger and easier to work with. Now I just need to do some wire management and it'll be good to go.

 

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August 13, 2016 - Waiting

 

Now I'm just waiting on my replacement filters for my RO/DI unit and some other stuff then I'll start the leak test and get cycling.

 

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I'm torn on where to place the cord for my vortech. I'm thinking either vertical like it is in the picture above or horizontal. What do you think?

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Cool build! Following for sure

Thanks!

 

Neat idea with the black, another build to follow. :) If you documented the overflow drill / install it would be interesting to see.

Thanks! I don't have pictures during the drilling, but I have some before and after in the post above.

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Cencalfishguy56

Thanks!

 

Thanks! I don't have pictures during the drilling, but I have some before and after in the post above.

so flippin awesome! Glad braided vinyl worked for you, it made plumbing mine so easy and 4 months in and I have had no issues, go vertical on the cord!
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so flippin awesome! Glad braided vinyl worked for you, it made plumbing mine so easy and 4 months in and I have had no issues, go vertical on the cord!

Nice! The cord is still driving me insane but I'll leave it vertical for now :lol:

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Amazon Order

I decided to get a few essentials today...probe holder, TDS meter, refractometer, test kits, and filter socks.

 

Light

I think Dave has started working on my Duo Plus M so hopefully the tank will have light fairly soon. I've always wanted a Nano Box light so I'm excited about this!

 

Sand

After looking into substrate, I decided to order some Tropic Eden Reef Flakes from Premium Aquatics. I read that it's a good enough size to not get blown around by the vortech ;). All my previous sands immediately form a crater near the vortech so I'm interested to test this out.

 

Leak Test

I'm still waiting on my BRS order of RO/DI replacement filters so I can leak test and start cycling.

 

Live Rock

I'm undecided on the live rock situation. Here are some options I can think of...please let me know if you have some better ideas!

  1. LFS Liverock - 2 hr drive to some decent fish stores on their LR shipment day to find pieces in person
  2. Online Liverock - but idk the best place to order from nowadays
  3. Dry Rock - one of the options from BRS maybe

I'll post my scape ideas soon!

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Cencalfishguy56

Amazon Order

I decided to get a few essentials today...probe holder, TDS meter, refractometer, test kits, and filter socks.

 

Light

I think Dave has started working on my Duo Plus M so hopefully the tank will have light fairly soon. I've always wanted a Nano Box light so I'm excited about this!

 

Sand

After looking into substrate, I decided to order some Tropic Eden Reef Flakes from Premium Aquatics. I read that it's a good enough size to not get blown around by the vortech ;). All my previous sands immediately form a crater near the vortech so I'm interested to test this out.

 

Leak Test

I'm still waiting on my BRS order of RO/DI replacement filters so I can leak test and start cycling.

 

Live Rock

I'm undecided on the live rock situation. Here are some options I can think of...please let me know if you have some better ideas!

  • LFS Liverock - 2 hr drive to some decent fish stores on their LR shipment day to find pieces in person
  • Online Liverock - but idk the best place to order from nowadays
  • Dry Rock - one of the options from BRS maybe
I'll post my scape ideas soon!
if you go the dry rock route, I vote reef cleaner dry rock, then you don't have to worry about cleaning it
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I'll definitely consider the reef cleaner rock.

 

I have a bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro Salt from 2012 that wasn't opened until a couple months ago. Should I buy new salt or use it? I'm not sure how salt mixes hold up in storage (was in a garage).

 

*edit: decided to just order a 50 gallon bag of reef crystals just to be safe

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You can leak test with regular water right? Great build by the way.

 

definitely lol but I was hoping to fill up with filtered water and if no leaks, then I was just going to add the salt and start mixing :)

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Sand came today! This stuff has a much larger grain size than I thought, but I think it'll work :)

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Would it be weird to use all 30 lbs in this tank?

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I had the tank filled up and it wasn't leaking so I turned the return pump on...and now I'm getting a leak from the return bulkhead. It's probably a drop every 5 secs. I tried loosening and tightening the bulkhead, but I think I might be in trouble with this one. When I was drilling, a good bit of glass chipped off at the end and it's probably causing this. I was hoping the gasket would cover this area and still form a seal, but I don't think it is. I'm not sure what to do so I'm just going to order a new return side bulkhead and gasket since these are from my previous tank and old. Glassholes is usually quick so I'll update soon.

 

:(

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Is the chip on the inside or outside of the tank wall? If the outside it should't matter as the sealing gasket is on the interior flange of the bulkhead, not the exterior side that the mating threaded washer screws down against. If it's inside the tank you could try sourcing a bulkhead with a larger flange, or trying a thicker gasket. You may also just have a bit of a catch in the gasket, able to loosen the bulkhead off and wipe clean the gasket and flange surfaces again?

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Is the chip on the inside or outside of the tank wall? If the outside it should matter as the sealing gasket is on the interior flange of the bulkhead, not the exterior side that the mating threaded washer screws down against. If it's inside the tank you could try sourcing a bulkhead with a larger flange, or trying a thicker gasket. You may also just have a bit of a catch in the gasket, able to loosen the bulkhead off and wipe clean the gasket and flange surfaces again?

It's on the inside. The gaskets were old and the bulkhead has scratches all over it so I'm hoping that's what's wrong. The new return kit I ordered shipped out today. If this doesn't work, I'll look into a thicker gasket. Thanks!

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Hope that works for you. I'm not sure the firmness of the gasket you had, but if your replacement doesn't fix the problem check to see if there are any types of gasket / hydraulic places nearby that could offer you something in a softer/more forming material. While I haven't used that for sealing glass, we've done similar at work to seal hydraulic connections with flawed mating surfaces (that weren't able to be resurfaced).

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The new return bulkhead and gaskets came today and so far so good. No leaks yet!

 

Something else also came today...

 

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Dave is fast! I ordered on the 11th, it shipped on the 17th, and it got here on the 20th.

 

...brb time to mount the nanobox :D

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Beautiful, clean build. You're giving me some inspiration for the stand on my current tank. How's the Krylon working out for you? I usually use Rust-O-Leum to paint glass and haven't tried Krylon yet.

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Beautiful, clean build. You're giving me some inspiration for the stand on my current tank. How's the Krylon working out for you? I usually use Rust-O-Leum to paint glass and haven't tried Krylon yet.

It's all I had on hand. I did like 3 coats and it already chipped a few times. I had to do some touch-ups but now that the tank is in place, I think it'll hold up fine. I used it on my previous build and it was never an issue until I moved the tank / took the lights on and off.

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