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DarkMagic's ULM $290 5g Reef


DarkMagic

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FTS 6/12/2019:

 

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Original Intro:

 

Alright guys here we go. I’ve been out of the hobby for a while. My wonderful 55g crashed 4 years ago, about a month before my son was born, and I just didn’t have the heart to rebuild. I also left my job to start a small business, and the tank space quickly turned into office space.

 

Nevertheless I’ve been craving a return to the hoby for a years. This is the longest I’ve resisted such an urge. Especially now that my kid is 4, he picks up my old aquarium books to look at the pictures, and knows strange works like anemone and acropora… I feel like I owe it to him to set up a tank. That’s totally how I’m going to justify doing this, by saying it’s for the kid. >)

 

Mostly I’ve been out of the hobby due to space and financial constraints. Nano-reef has been tremendously inspirational in this regard, especially in recent months. In particular, the things I’ve been seeing people to with jars… freaking jars and bubblers… has blown my damn mind. Thanks to all those of you who have been pushing the limits of what’s possible and sharing your experiences with really small pico tanks. I think nano-tanks are the future of this hobby. If we can affordably keep exceptionally beautiful animals, happy and healthy with reasonable maintenance, there will be a lot more people getting into it.

 

Here’s the build philosophy:

 

  • It’s gotta be small. I have no space for a tank and a 4 year old who throws like a champ. So this is going in a bookshelf. That’s right. I’ll be converting one shelf into a hood, and placing the tank on the shelf below.
  • It’s gotta be quiet. The bookshelf is right next to our couch where we watch tv, and the wall is shared with our bedroom. One of the things I hated most about the old tank was the constant hum, whir, gurgles, and slurps coming from it. Not again.
  • It’s gotta be cheap. We’ve been running a small business and while it’s paying the bills, we’re nowhere near the point where we have a lot of disposable income for a tank.
  • It’s gotta be easy to maintain. I’m not saying I don’t have time to take care of this tank, because I do. I’m looking forward to spending hours in front of it. But I also need to be able to leave it for a week at a time without having to bother friends to come over a check on it.

 

With that in mind, here’s the equipment I have on order:

 

Tank $54.78 @Amazon - I spent a damn long time debating between the Aquamaxx 4.6g and 6.4g. The 6.4 was never really a choice because it’s .014” too wide for my space, and I have no flexibility there. The 4.6 looks amazing, but it’s a hair too narrow. I really want to fill as much of the 14 3/16” space I have. So I’ve finally settled on the Penn Plax 5g curved glass aquarium, the closest a stock tank has come to filling my space. I also contacted a few glaziers in my area about a custom tank, it would have cost 3x more. While the Penn Plax tank does come with a filter (70 gph) and light (10 white leds?), I think they’ll be repurposed. Which brings me to the next item.

 

Flow $23.26 @Amazon - going with the Hydor Koralia 240. With no sump, it will be the only source of flow in the tank. The filter thing that came with the tank won’t go to waste though, I’ll be using that for salt mixing.

 

Lighting $24.95 for the bulb and $7.29 for a hanging socket @Amazon - Going with the 12W ABI Tuna Blue PAR38, supplemented with the crappy white light that comes with the tank. I don’t expect the white light to actually provide any par, but I do expect it to add enough visible spectrum so I can see the corals. Not a huge fan of the super blue look. If I went with the Aquamaxx tank, I would have chosen the Blue and White version of the bulb that has 5 whites built in. Overall, I’m excited about having the wider spectrum in the UV range.

 

The weird thing about the ABI light is that the optics are (allegedly) 30°… I may or may not have a bit of a laser beam situation on my hands, but I’m actually looking forward to that. I think by concentrating the light in the center of the tank, I’ll be able to create a concave topography and let the corals grow towards the center. Will cover aquascaping in a future post.

 

Heaters $32.99 + $11.97 @Amazon - I’m getting two heaters. For inside the tank, we’re going with the Cobalt Neo-Therm 50 watt. At $32.99 it’s relatively expensive. But faulty heaters are one of the top causes of tank crashes, and I have no space for redundancy here, so I’m putting all my eggs in one basket. I also like the form factor.

 

Also getting a crappy Penn Plax 100w for salt mixing.

 

Rock $13.45 @BRS- I’m going with 6lbs of the Reef Saver dry rock. My first go-round, I really loved the life that came on live rock. Sponges, feather dusters, stomatellas, asterinas, pods, all awesome. But that excitement wears off fast when you’re fighting a never ending uphill battle against bryopsis. I’m going to start with a clean tank this time and see if I can more or less keep it that way. If you’re an aptasia and you’re reading this, be forewarned, my entire tank can fit in a microwave. I will literally nuke you. Stay out of my tank.

 

Substrate $5.24 & $5.28 @Amazon - I’m going with a sheet of white textured ABS plastic and some aquarium silicone to hold it down. I don’t want sand and don’t like the look of a bare bottom, so we’ll see how this idea works out. It’s one of the slightly more experimental things I’m doing. If I don’t like it, I’m kinda screwed because it’s not gonna be easy to get out.

 

Salt $27.99 @BRS - Red Sea Coral Pro. This tank is going to rely exclusively on water changes, so good salt is a must. And it will be a coral dominant tank, so we’re going with the most coral-focused salt I know. It also comes in a half size which is still 11 water changes.

 

Odds and ends:

 

Traceable Probe Thermometer $29.18 @Amazon - because a) I don’t trust heaters and I plan to rely heavily on water changes and want the water temp to match. Perfectly.

 

Glass Scraper - $15.51 @BRS

 

Top Off $6.49 @BRS - Not going automatic just yet. I’m going to buy a ¼” ball valve which will be attached to some airline suspended from a small top off container on top of the bookshelf. I’ll just top off the water manually for now, and maaaaayyyybe try to find a drip rate that keeps the tank mostly full throughout the day.

 

Black Paint $3.77 @Amazon - for the rear of the aquarium. A quick coat of paint seems to be the single best way to improve the look of a tank. Black also radiates heat.

 

Cabinet Hinges $7.99 @Amazon - To turn my bookshelf into a cabinet.

 

What’s missing:

 

Sump - This is a totally sumpless design. With cost and noise as primary concerns, a sump just didn’t make sense for me. This means so chaeto (though I will include some during cycling), and no protein skimmer. The practical ramification of which is that I’ll simply be limited in bioload. We’ll return to this later when I write up my stocking list, but suffice to say there will be no fish in this tank, and very few non-coral animals.

 

Also, I lost my last tank to a sump return pump malfunction… something burned up inside it and released noxious fumes into the water (and the rest of my apartment for that matter, blue acrid smoke). Avoiding a sump is not something I’m too sad about.

 

Refractometer - I have three pieces of equipment leftover from my 55g, a digital refractometer, and TDS meter (I think), and a PAR meter. I don’t know why I saved these things, but I will be putting them to use.

 

RODI - I’m going the distilled route for now. Will see how annoying it gets.

 

Light Timer - Already have a nice digital one which I'll be using.

 

UPS Battery Backup - I'm currently running my computer stuff on an APC XS1500. If the power goes out, I'll move this over to the tank. According to my math, if my little tank is drawing 20 watts on average, I can run my tank for 2 days on this. Not saying it's impossible, but I've never seen a power outage take that long in my area.

 

For those of you who have been following the math, that’s $270.14. Plus assorted taxes and shipping brings me up to $290. If I had to buy a refractometer, it would have been $350. For the sake of sensationalism, I’ll be calling this the ULM $290 Reef.

 

And so the shipping wait begins. See you all again soon!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, DarkMagic said:

@sublunary @Big E reef Thanks for the interest, especially considering the pictureless wall of text above!

Don't ask me why, but I have always loved the idea of how cheap can I do this and be successful. Don't get me wrong, I can spend money with the best of um, but it's just really rewarding to know it's your hard work that did it, not the money you threw at it.

 

I also think this would make a really cool contest. who can build the most stunning tank for the least or fixed amount of money, and you can't use anything you already own( other then sh!t like test kits, refractomerter, rodi) and you can't frag your big tank to populate the new tank. You are completely dependant on deals, diy, and elbow grease.  

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Packages arrived, and I got to work! Before we dig in, here’s the Full Bookshelf Shot:

 

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First, you’ll notice I got the tank. Perfect fit! Really glad I didn’t go bigger. The Penn Plax came with some other goodies (a pump, light, and lid) which I’ll take a closer look at after we get water in the tank.

 

Second, I needed to prepare the bookshelf. I’m using the Ikea Billy, as basic as they come. This thing definitely needs some reinforcement before the shelf can support 50 lbs (water weighs 8 lbs/gallon plus tank and rock). There’s no way the little pegs that hold this shelf in place are adequate. Brackets and screws should do the trick, here’s a closer shot that shows how it looks… not great, but not bad:

 

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Third, my ABS plastic substrate came in. I cut it as best I could, but haven’t glued it yet as I’m still waiting for the silicone to arrive. I think it actually looks a lot like sand (except for maybe the seam which will be superglued shut), and should be pretty easy to keep clean. Let me know what you all think!

 

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And finally, I set up some of the rockwork. This is one of the more experimental aspects of the tank. I think most people go for more of an “island” look, where there’s a main piece or two of rock for coral to grow on, surrounded by sand.

 

My rockscaping strategy is to mimic the concave feel of a jar, and to give the coral ample room to grow inwards towards the light. It’s this natural competition for light, with some corals getting more and some less, which I think creates the most dramatic high contrast aquascapes. The rockwork in this tank will be pulling double duty hiding the heater, wires, and circulation pump. That’s why I’ve stacked most of the rock in the corner. For most people I’d say 5lbs of rock in a 5g tank is enough. I ordered another 5lbs of rock to stack in the right corner, though not as high because it won’t have to hide equipment.

 

Anyway that’s the plan. I realize the rockscape doesn’t look too aesthetically pleasing right now. Time will tell if this can be a good foundation for a dramatic aquascape. Let me know what you think!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not a lot to finish up here before adding water. I put hinges on the shelf to make it look like a cabinet (and some weather stripping to contain the light), glued the substrate down with silicone sealer, finished the rockwork, installed the lighting and set the timer, painted the back wall of the tank black, and that’s pretty much it! At the last minute, I also decided to add some silicone sealer to the corners of the bookshelf. Spills are inevitable, if it's a big one, I'd like to keep the shelves and books beneath the tank as dry as possible.

 

In case you missed it, I posted some PAR readings for the bulb last week. Based on those readings, I decided to move the top bookshelf up two clicks so the lights a bit higher, better spread, and less intense.

 

The results are in! First a shot of the full bookshelf:

 

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Here's how I turned a shelf into a cabinet and hid the light:

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And finally the tank close up, the only wires going in are a heater and Koralia. The wires are being held together so it looks like one thing:

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Circulation is decent, but not great. Noise is barely perceptible, feels like it's not on sometimes. I wish the shelf was a bit longer so I could make a bigger cabinet door. Wound't mind having it block more light (though I held a cardboard box to the cabinet to test how much difference a longer shelf would make and it's not much). Also very pleased with how the "substrate" came out. It looks enough like sand without the drawbacks of being messy. I think it will do well.

 

What do you think!?

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Looks amazing! I will more then likly be stealing this idea from you and doing my own in the future.

 

You may have mentioned it before but do you know the name of the Ikea shelf you are using? And can you put a link to the abs substrate( looks super slick)

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19 hours ago, Big E reef said:

Looks amazing! I will more then likly be stealing this idea from you and doing my own in the future.

Please do, would love to follow along and see the idea spread! The Ikea bookshelf is the Billy. The middle shelf is structurally much stronger than the other 4 shelves that are only held in by pins, but I went ahead and added a set of brackets to make it much stronger. I think the shelf as is would be able to hold the weight of the water, but didn't want to take any risks. 

 

Here's the ABS sheet I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UBUY6U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1  It was surprisingly thick and completely inflexible. Took about 15 minutes to hacksaw through. If I did it over, would definitely go thinner.

 

19 hours ago, Kontactk said:

What are your ideas for stocking? 

Still debating a few specific species, but the emphasis will be on soft coral. I want to be able to meet 100% of the tank's calcium and alk needs via kalkwasser. I did 2-part on my old tank and threw off the salinity without realizing. The few SPS will probably be limited to birds nest corals (because I love the shape) and monti caps. No encrusting corals. For LPS, perhaps an elegance coral, an acan or two, and frogspawn. That should it for things that suck calcium. I plan to add a rock flower and mini carpet anemone early on, which will probably take up a good chunk of floor space. And then a mix of all the typical soft corals. Zoas, various mushrooms and riccordeas, assorted polyps. No fish, maybe a skunk cleaner, definitely a pom-pom crab family. 

 

The two corals I keep debating in my head are zenia and GSP. I love them both, but I'm nervous about the growth. I think they'll help me get the filled in look I'm going for much more quickly, but not sure that I'll be able to keep them under control without a sand bed to isolate them. Thoughts?

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Great start, I was glad to see your return be so practicle and built into your current space.  

 

Do you have any plans for a screen to keep little hands or FOD out?

 

I would skip the GSP, like you said with no sandbed, its free reign on all surfaces for it to run.

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36 minutes ago, rO.oster said:

Great start, I was glad to see your return be so practicle and built into your current space.  

 

Do you have any plans for a screen to keep little hands or FOD out?

 

I would skip the GSP, like you said with no sandbed, its free reign on all surfaces for it to run.

Thanks! Def leaning away from GSP. The space is so small that even setting up the rock was a challenge. I don't think that's a fight I can win. 

 

The tank came with a clear plastic lid. It's a bit soft and already has managed to get quite scratched, and it also seems to somehow amplify the noise coming from the tank. But now that I see how much cat hair is fining its way into the tank, I might have to put it on after all. 

 

As far as little hands are concerned.... jeez I never realized how much time my kid spends doing handstands on the couch. His foot's come close to kicking it a few times. :scarry:

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I would also avoid the xenia as well....I have some in my 10G right now and the only way I can keep it separated from my main pieces of LR is to keep it in the corner. I plan to take it out in the future, but right now I'm viewing it as a form of nutrient export since it grows so dang fast.  

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Coral yay! Eight frags for $90 from a local reefer in Manhattan.

 

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Still struggling with white balance but this seems to look ok. The tank is bluer than this, but the corals seem to be the correct color in this picture. Here's the haul:

 

1. Red Chalice (?) - Top right. I thought this was a monti, but the seller told me it was a chalice. Compared to the red monti I had before, the plate is very thin, mouths very small, and I can't tell how many segments each polyp has as it's tiny. It came as one plate, but I chipped it while moving the other chalice.

 

2. Hollywood Stunner (?) - Far right. Again not 100% sure on the name here. The seller had a huge colony of this, plating beautifully in low light. Deep blue with green/yellow mouths. His frag tank had them under bright light and they were definitely losing color. This is sorta a purple brown with green mouths. Hope it colors back up in the next few months and gets a nice blue back.

 

3. Zoas across the bottom. They're pissed at me because I've been fragging them as I find aptasia. Literally just cutting off the affected chunk and throwing polyps in the garbage. Would much rather lose a few polyps now and potentially avoid aptasia than deal with a problem forever. 

 

4. And last but not least, a nice green mushroom with an orange fringe. It spit its intensities out when I bought it home, but it's adjusted well now! This is the only one facing the camera for a nice closeup:

 

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Also excited to see critters on the glass. What do you all think?!

 

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A few new corals in the tank. From a local reefer I grabbed 4 zoa frags, a monti digi, and a tiny red yuma for $55. From a store I grabbed an elegance, a small rock flower anemone, and some clove polyps (which haven't opened since their peroxide dip... not sure they're going to make it) for $100. Everyone else seems to be doing good. Some Reef Chili is on the way, going to start feeding these hungry mouths, as well as the algae/bacteria that need to support all the pods etc I've seen crawling around.

 

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Definitely missing blue and purple in my color palate, so will be on the hunt for those colors in upcoming purchases. Anyone have any thoughts?

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Wow good deals! Everything looks great. That elegance is stunning.

 

I'm a huge fan of purple photosynthetic gorgonians.  I've found them to be pretty easy. I've also been drooling over purple monti caps online, but haven't seen any in person yet. If they are as cool as their pictures, some might look good mixed in with your red caps/chalice/whatever that ended up being.

 

Blue sympodium is pretty neat if you can find it. 

 

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17 hours ago, sublunary said:

Wow good deals! Everything looks great. That elegance is stunning.

Thanks! 

 

17 hours ago, sublunary said:

Blue sympodium is pretty neat if you can find it.

Oh yea, def on my radar. Most local reefers aren't selling basic polyps like that, I have no idea why. Whenever I see them in tanks, they contrast well against zoa gardens.

 

17 hours ago, sublunary said:

I'm a huge fan of purple photosynthetic gorgonians.  I've found them to be pretty easy. I've also been drooling over purple monti caps online, but haven't seen any in person yet. If they are as cool as their pictures, some might look good mixed in with your red caps/chalice/whatever that ended up being.

Would love to add a purple gorg to the tank! The shape alone is so beautiful, really feels like a reef. Unfortunately it seems hard to find healthy frags of them around. They're not given as much care and attention as acros. Are you going to reefapalooza NYC in a few months? If so, would love to buy or trade for a piece of one of yours!

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3 minutes ago, DarkMagic said:

Would love to add a purple gorg to the tank! The shape alone is so beautiful, really feels like a reef. Unfortunately it seems hard to find healthy frags of them around. They're not given as much care and attention as acros. Are you going to reefapalooza NYC in a few months? If so, would love to buy or trade for a piece of one of yours!

 I am so happy you mentioned Reefapalooza, I've never been and had completely forgotten to look into it.  I now have birthday weekend plans!  I'll be happy to trade for something.  We'll talk when it gets closer!

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43 minutes ago, DarkMagic said:

Thanks! 

 

Oh yea, def on my radar. Most local reefers aren't selling basic polyps like that, I have no idea why. Whenever I see them in tanks, they contrast well against zoa gardens.

 

Would love to add a purple gorg to the tank! The shape alone is so beautiful, really feels like a reef. Unfortunately it seems hard to find healthy frags of them around. They're not given as much care and attention as acros. Are you going to reefapalooza NYC in a few months? If so, would love to buy or trade for a piece of one of yours!

Www.live-plants.com, 

 

or, I have some frags of different photosynthetic gorgs. Located in the Upper east side 

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6 hours ago, sublunary said:

We'll talk when it gets closer!

Sounds good, looking forward to it for sure. :)

 

6 hours ago, William said:

Located in the Upper east side

Oh sweet, a local new yorker, and with a nice tank! Will shoot you a PM as soon as I figure out how that works on this site.

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Alright got another update today! First and most importantly a FTS. I'm finally happy with the white balance setting. The colors are accurate, the only thing that's off is the exposure. My tank isn't this shadowy, it looks much more uniformly lit. Interesting to see that this is how the camera picks it up though. I've noticed that nudging a zoa colony an inch to the left or right has a big impact on happiness. I should probably check things on the PAR meter again to see what range I'm in. Will also play with the DRO settings at some point to see if I can brighten up the edges without overexposing the center.

 

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Since the last update, I've added a few new corals. The toadstool and utter chaos zoas were $20 each. The frogspawn and 4 other zoas were $10 each. I've had them all for a few weeks but haven't uploaded pics until today because I was fighting a battle with zoa eating nudis. It's only been a few days where they're all opening up and looking relatively happy. 

 

The hardest hit colony was the yellow fringed zoas on the right rock. They closed up so tightly it looks like the yellow zooxanthella transferred from the fringe to the mouth, turning them all a powdery yellow color. Very strange, and interesting to see how they evolve over time.

 

I'm also starting to see some decent algae growth on the rocks (though no coralline). Letting it be for now as I think it's best to let the tank find its own balance. There's no official cleanup crew, but there are copepods, small snails, stomatella, asterina stars, and mysid. I've been feeding reef chili on an irregular basis. At first overdoing it to get the nitrate levels up a drop, now backing off to let the tank find balance. Also feeding a dose right before the 100% water changes. I also have some dried fish snacks I hand feed the elegance and RFA, which they freaking love. 

 

One thing I'm disappointed in is the coloration of that stunner chalice on the right. It's hard to see in the picture, but it's continued to lose color. Might have to change where it is in a last ditch effort to color it up. Anyone have experience with them?

 

And one more shot of my frogspawn, which I just noticed this morning, has two new baby mouths. Mazel tov!

 

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TitusNuvo20

That's strange about the hollywood stunner chalice. We have a couple pieces that seem to be happy directly below our prime in our Fusion 20. I hope you can save it. 

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9 hours ago, TitusNuvo20 said:

We have a couple pieces that seem to be happy directly below our prime in our Fusion 20.

Hmm any idea what kinda PAR it's getting? 

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TitusNuvo20

That I don't know. We actually have two frags of it. One in the sand bed and one about halfway up the rock. Our light schedule is the AB+ settings from ecotech. 

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Visited a local reefer last night, he was giving away free sour apple birds nest frags! Also picked up a chalice (cat's eyes?), and three zoas for a $35 haul. Will post a pic of my tank once the corals have settled in and opened up, but just wanted to share some picsI took of the seller's tanks. He's in Chinatown NYC, if anyone wants to swing by, he's got lost of awesome stuff for sale and amazing prices:

 

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