Mr. Aqua 12g Long Office Tank

[spartacius]

Getting back into reef tanks after a long (~15 year) hiatus. Things have changed a bit. Lots to catch up on!

I decided to make use of a 12g long that i had lying around after tearing down one of my planted tanks.

 

My goal for the tank is to keep it relatively simple and clean. I ended up drilling the tank on its ends as I wanted a clear view through the back. This tank isn't very deep from front to back. Drilling on its ends leaves a clear view through the back. This makes things look a lot bigger than they actually are.

 

The tank sits in my office and is 3-4 feet from my workspace. I opted to set the sump up adjacent to the tank on the floor. I like having it open and accessible. For me, the mechanics of the tank are half the fun. Not easy however keeping everything quiet when it's all exposed. It took some careful equipment selection and some tuning.

 

 

Looking forward to posting updates moving forward.

 

Thanks!

 

3/4/19

 

6/2/19

 

 

 

Specs:

 

Stand:

This is my home office. Tank is on an old dresser adjacent to my work space.

The top surface is covered w/ a sheet of 1/8" textured ABS. Cheap, waterproof, durable and easy to keep clean.

 

Tank:

Mr. Aqua 12g Long ( 35.4" x 8.3" x 9.4" )

Bottom is lined w/ the same ⅛” black ABS mentioned above. Siliconed to the bottom.
 

Plumbing:

Eshoppes Eclipse S Overflow ( single 1.5" main bulkhead on the tank,  two 1" bulkheads to sump )

Herbie setup in overflow. One full siphon controlled with gate valve and a backup drain on trickle.

Hard plumbing to sump w/ Krylon painted PVC.

Return is .5" black vinyl tubing to a .5" bulkhead

Sicce Syncra Pro (550 GPH) return pump

 

Flow:

Vivid Creative Aquatics Random Flow Generator on the return

Tunze NanoStream 6040 Controllable Pump (top left behind the rock)

 

Sump:

Aqueon 20g Long - on the floor adjacent to tank

No baffles, pump sits in a small acrylic box within the sump. This is to mitigate risk of overflowing the display as well as to make the auto-top off more precise.

 

Rock:

25 Lbs of AquaMaxx Eco-Rock spread between the display and sump

 

Lights:

2 x Kessil a80 Tuna Blue w/ Goosenecks ( ~4 inches off the surface )

 

Heaters:

2 x Ebo Jager ( 1 x 100w, 1 x 50w )

Inkbird Temp Controller w/ updated waterproof probe

 

Salt:

hw-Marinemix Reefer

 

Filtration:

Aquamaxx WS-1
Innovative Marine Auqa Gadget Sump Minimax Pro Media Reactor

Running BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon

 

Dosing:

Coral Box WF-04 Dosing Pump (B-Ionic Two Part)

 

Top Off:

Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155

Aqueon 10g for reservoir

AquaFX RODI 

 

[dferrari13]

Nice build!

[FlytheWMark]

These 12 gallon longs are fascinating! They look soo much bigger. Care to show a pic of the guts underneath??

[spartacius]

24 minutes ago, Mark L. said:

These 12 gallon longs are fascinating! They look soo much bigger. Care to show a pic of the guts underneath??

A couple of quick shots.. One w/ lid, one w/out.

 

These two small tanks ( One is the sump another is a top off reservoir ) are tucked away in the corner of the room.

[flypenfly]

Interesting use of the ABS, do you just Dremel them to the right shape? 

 

Stocking plan?

[Tigahboy]

Nice and clean set-up!  I really like your scape as well.

 

How are you liking that skimmer and that RFG on the return?  Was looking into both of those for my build as well.  

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, spartacius said:

Getting back into reef tanks after a long (~15 year) hiatus. Things have changed a bit. Lots to catch up on!

I decided to make use of a 12g long that i had lying around after tearing down one of my planted tanks.

 

My goal for the tank is to keep it relatively simple and clean. I ended up drilling the tank on its ends as I wanted a clear view through the back. This tank isn't very deep from front to back. Drilling on its ends leaves a clear view through the back. This makes things look a lot bigger than they actually are.

 

The tank sits in my office and is 3-4 feet from my workspace. I opted to set the sump up adjacent to the tank on the floor. I like having it open and accessible. For me, the mechanics of the tank are half the fun. Not easy however keeping everything quiet when it's all exposed. It took some careful equipment selection and some tuning.

 

 

Looking forward to posting updates moving forward.

 

Thanks!

 

3/4/19

 

 

Specs:

 

Stand:

This is my home office. Tank is on an old dresser adjacent to my work space.

The top surface is covered w/ a sheet of 1/8" textured ABS. Cheap, waterproof, durable and easy to keep clean.

 

Tank:

Mr. Aqua 12g Long ( 35.4" x 8.3" x 9.4" )

Bottom is lined w/ the same ⅛” black ABS mentioned above. Siliconed to the bottom.
 

Plumbing:

Eshoppes Eclipse S Overflow ( single 1.5" main bulkhead on the tank,  two 1" bulkheads to sump )

Herbie setup in overflow. One full siphon controlled with gate valve and a backup drain on trickle.

Hard plumbing to sump w/ Krylon painted PVC.

Return is .5" black vinyl tubing to a .5" bulkhead

Sicce Syncra Pro (550 GPH) return pump

 

Flow:

Vivid Creative Aquatics Random Flow Generator on the return

Tunze NanoStream 6040 Controllable Pump (on the way)

 

Sump:

Aqueon 20g Long - on the floor adjacent to tank

No baffles, pump sits in a small acrylic box within the sump. This is to mitigate risk of overflowing the display as well as to make the auto-top off more precise.

 

Rock:

25 Lbs of AquaMaxx Eco-Rock spread between the display and sump

 

Lights:

2 x Kessil a80 Tuna Blue w/ Goosenecks ( ~4 inches off the surface )

 

Heaters:

2 x Ebo Jager ( 1 x 100w, 1 x 50w )

 

Salt:

Red Sea Coral Pro

 

Filtration:

Aquamaxx WS-1
Innovative Marine Auqa Gadget Sump Minimax Pro Media Reactor

Running BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon

 

Top Off:

DIY using an older Spectrapure pressure switch and relay.

Aqueon 10g for reservoir

AquaFX RODI

 

Inhabitants:

2 x Amphiprion ocellaris

1 x Clavularia viridis

1 x Zoanthus sp.

 

 

Very nice so far! 😊

[Matteo]

Cleeean. 12g longs always end up so cool looking 

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @spartacius, great to see another long tank come online! I like your offset sump system, that kind of access must be so convenient! Clever covers for it all too. Looking forward to watching your nano reef progress!

[spartacius]

1 hour ago, flypenfly said:

Interesting use of the ABS, do you just Dremel them to the right shape? 

 

Stocking plan?

1/8 inch ABS is super easy to work with. It can be scored w/ a simple scoring knife and snapped to pretty much any shape you want. This is the first time that I've worked w/ it but will definitely use again in the future.

[spartacius]

1 hour ago, Tigahboy said:

Nice and clean set-up!  I really like your scape as well.

 

How are you liking that skimmer and that RFG on the return?  Was looking into both of those for my build as well.  

The RFG absolutely works as advertised. It does however need decent flow to function properly. Under a certain flow rate the direction becomes less erratic. If you're using one in a small tank make sure you get the 1/2" variant. It runs optimally at 300-450 GPH.  The  3/4" and 1" nozzles need more flow to generate a random pattern.

 

With a tank this long I'm going to need a bit more flow in the tank. Will be adding a Tunze 6040 to the opposite side to keep things moving.

 

the WS-1 seems quite good so far. Not enough bio-load to create substantial skimate but it's quiet, simple to operate and super compact. Was debating between the WS-1 and the FC-80 and ended up w/ the WS-1 as it was more compact and a more proven.

[Friendly]

I like! can you share any photo's or diagram's of your sump setup?

[choconut74]

Awesome setup! Makes me want to switch to a 12g long too 😂

[spartacius]

Dropped the Tunze 6040 in yesterday. Seems like a perfect fit for this tank tucked away in the back left corner. Have it running at pulse between 10% and 25% to start.

 

[spartacius]

I'm fortunate enough to have an awesome little aquaculture place right near my house. I grabbed this beautiful Duncan frag yesterday. It's looking pretty happy in the tank and is already open and feeding. You can get a feel for the amount of turbulence in the tank from the below gif.

 

[Matteo]

49 minutes ago, spartacius said:

I'm fortunate enough to have an awesome little aquaculture place right near my house. I grabbed this beautiful Duncan frag yesterday. It's looking pretty happy in the tank and is already open and feeding. You can get a feel for the amount of turbulence in the tank from the below gif.

 

Excuse my ignorance but do you just have a gif app? How do achieve this? 😁

[spartacius]

11 minutes ago, OverCookedRock said:

Excuse my ignorance but do you just have a gif app? How do achieve this? 😁

Check this out: https://ezgif.com/

[spartacius]

As time marches on  I'm trying to automate as much as possible to keep maintenance down. I recently added a Coral Box WF-04 to the setup for dosing of B-Ionic two-part. This thing has been great even at the small amounts I'm currently dosing ( 3ml a day spread out over the day ). With what I currently have in the tank this is maintaining about 9.0 dKH and 450 ppm calcium.

 

I didn't want to dose directly into the display. Outside of the display, the highest flow spot is within the overflow. I cut the top section off a small syringe to make a nicely fitting insert for the hole on the top of the Eshopps lid. Everything stays put this way ( no dosing onto the floor or creating an inadvertent siphon ).

 

 

As a side note; I also ran an extended silicon tube from my skimmer venturi through the wall so it can pull air from outdoors. You can see it in the back left near the window. I noticed a pretty significant PH drop during the day while working in the office ( make me wonder what the CO2 buildup is doing to my health! ). This has made a big difference maintaining PH around 8 during the day.

This tank is on the second floor. The air line exits behind the window shutter so is concealed and protected.

[ef4life]

Your setup looks great, I love these long tanks, they just look so good.

[Matteo]

1 hour ago, spartacius said:

As time marches on  I'm trying to automate as much as possible to keep maintenance down. I recently added a Coral Box WF-04 to the setup for dosing of B-Ionic two-part. This thing has been great even at the small amounts I'm currently dosing ( 3ml a day spread out over the day ). With what I currently have in the tank this is maintaining about 9.0 dKH and 450 ppm calcium.

 

I didn't want to dose directly into the display. Outside of the display, the highest flow spot is within the overflow. I cut the top section off a small syringe to make a nicely fitting insert for the hole on the top of the Eshopps lid. Everything stays put this way ( no dosing onto the floor or creating an inadvertent siphon ).

 

 

As a side note; I also ran an extended silicon tube from my skimmer venturi through the wall so it can pull air from outdoors. You can see it in the back left near the window. I noticed a pretty significant PH drop during the day while working in the office ( make me wonder what the CO2 buildup is doing to my health! ). This has made a big difference maintaining PH around 8 during the day.

This tank is on the second floor. The air line exits behind the window shutter so is concealed and protected.

This is real. Co2 levels can change dramatically with an individual is in a room along with multiple. 

 

My windows are almost always open but great idea.