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Cultivated Reef

Ankle Deep Reef~ Filterless 12.5 Gal


derf9h

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Well after about 2 hrs of messing with the plumbing, I have flow. All the tubing is temporary for now, still have a lot of work to do on the stand eventually before I do final hard plumbing. The surface skimming is immaculate on both drains as you can see in the pic. My return flow is very low, which is where the IM wavelink will come into play. I’ll sacrifice return flow for quiet return flow. 

 

My new equipment should be here tomorrow so I can start testing new lighting and wave making.

 

Also need to swap out the stainless hose clamps for plastic crimp style ones and paint all the pvc. 

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So I’ve completely changed my vision for this tank. I’m going completely filterless. No skimmer, no sump, no hob filters, etc. 

 

I’m going with a layer of live sand and then live rock. I have both wave makers (wavelink and jebao) in there now and 2 50w heaters. Ordered my ink bird temperature controller yesterday and it’ll be here tomorrow. 

 

Also threw on a small hob filter to polish the water over the next couple of weeks while I put in rock and try to scape. I will probably put this filter on for a week a month at most or maybe when the water looks like it could use it. It’s cloudy now from me working on it and trying different rocks out. 

 

I’m not sure what prompted this switch over, but I’m pretty excited about it. Good or bad, this will definitely be an adventure.

 

Also will be removing the plumbing from the end of the tank. I just made plugs for the bulkheads. Will paint these black eventually. 

 

Stay tuned for different updates lol.

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15 minutes ago, derf9h said:

So I’ve completely changed my vision for this tank. I’m going completely filterless. No skimmer, no sump, no hob filters, etc. 

 

I’m going with a layer of live sand and then live rock. I have both wave makers (wavelink and jebao) in there now and 2 50w heaters. Ordered my ink bird temperature controller yesterday and it’ll be here tomorrow. 

 

Also threw on a small hob filter to polish the water over the next couple of weeks while I put in rock and try to scape. I will probably put this filter on for a week a month at most or maybe when the water looks like it could use it. It’s cloudy now from me working on it and trying different rocks out. 

 

I’m not sure what prompted this switch over, but I’m pretty excited about it. Good or bad, this will definitely be an adventure.

 

Also will be removing the plumbing from the end of the tank. I just made plugs for the bulkheads. Will paint these black eventually. 

 

Stay tuned for different updates lol.

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Don't be afraid. It’s easy. 😊

 

You don’t need all that other stuff. 

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Elizabeth94

Interesting decision esp since you drilled the tank! There are many awesome tanks without all kinds of equipment. Water changes will be your best friend and on a 12gal tank I don’t think that you’ll have much issue keeping up 🙂 

 

Tagging along! 

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So WV’s tank was probably subconsciously the start of this decision. I really like this idea and her tank. So I will try my hand at it. I don’t regret drilling the tank. I actually had an idea to hook an external pump to the bulkheads just to circulate water, which I may do. I’m a pretty laid back person so it’s hard to get upset or regret things. 

 

The more I started messing with the tank and the plumbing, the less I liked it. I’m more of a clean-clutter type person in real life and I want my tank to match. Having an immaculate tank with perfect plumbing and neat cords and shiny new stand just doesn’t fit me. As much as I like those tanks, I like my cords in knots and lights hanging from coat hangers hung from a nail in the wall. 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, derf9h said:

So WV’s tank was probably subconsciously the start of this decision. I really like this idea and her tank. So I will try my hand at it. I don’t regret drilling the tank. I actually had an idea to hook an external pump to the bulkheads just to circulate water, which I may do. I’m a pretty laid back person so it’s hard to get upset or regret things. 

 

The more I started messing with the tank and the plumbing, the less I liked it. I’m more of a clean-clutter type person in real life and I want my tank to match. Having an immaculate tank with perfect plumbing and neat cords and shiny new stand just doesn’t fit me. As much as I like those tanks, I like my cords in knots and lights hanging from coat hangers hung from a nail in the wall. 

 

 

 

Im with you up to the “cords in knots” part. 😄 —I’m a weirdo when it comes to wire management. 😂

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Thanks for the support you two. Looking forward to getting rock in the tank. I’ll probably pick up my sand tomorrow. 

 

WV- if you want a great tiny wave maker, the small wavelink is awesome 

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Scaping done. Fish, crabs, snails, and a few frags are in. Water cloudy from all of this. 

 

I ended up using 10lbs of live sand and put 90% of my live rock in. Both wave makers are on 1 and making a nice flow. My clown has even found a current he can ride from one end to the other. 

 

I’ll take some more pics when the water clears up. 

 

Also, the lighting is much more spread out than it looks in the pic, not sure why it looks like that. 

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Ok so for being kind of a neat person, since I am not doing filters or sumps etc, I figured I might as well try to organize my wiring. Good luck ever unplugging anything ha ha ha ha. 

 

Seems to be a lot of wiring for such a simple tank...

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I really like my new Ink Bird temp controller. Easy to program and big bright numbers on the display. 

 

I got the one that can control two heaters. They also make one for heating and cooling. 

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Nano sapiens

Coming along nicely.  Interesting turnaround from starting with a sump and then going sumpless (pros and cons to both methods).  Making the heater and pumps as unobtrusive as possible is always a bit of a challenge.

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That’s why I decided on 2 50w heaters instead of a big one, I was able to mount them on the black side wall to minimize their appearance and they are only 6” tall anyways. 

 

As far as the wave makers go, now that the water is clearing up and I can actually see everything, I’ll go in and relocate them behind the rocks. I need to find some of those sponge cover things that come with vortec powerheads, seems no one makes them to sell separately. 

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Updated pic tonight. Picked up a crap load of zoas, a frogspawn, another clownfish, and a six line wrasse today. I’ll take more pics when the zoas open more. Oh and a thing of Xenia I forgot about. 

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I’m running some chemi pure elite blue until this weekend in the HOB filter then it’s all coming out. I’ll start doing weekly 20% water changes (roughly 2 gallons) and see how it goes. 

 

I’m also going to paint the back of the tank in black this weekend. I was going to leave it unpainted but Im thinking I won’t be so limited in space if I can push my rockwork against the back wall.

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spacer.pngRe-scaped the left side rock after adding more live rock. Also painted the back black. 

 

I think I’ve nailed my flow patterns with the two wave makers. Might be just a tad on the high side but I like it and will see how the corals do. You can see the movement of the Xenia in the attached gif. 

 

WV- if you read this, how do you deal with surface scum? I’ve got one of my wavemakers pointed at the surface and it seems to be breaking things up, but I’m used to a super clear surface. 

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11 hours ago, derf9h said:

spacer.pngRe-scaped the left side rock after adding more live rock. Also painted the back black. 

 

I think I’ve nailed my flow patterns with the two wave makers. Might be just a tad on the high side but I like it and will see how the corals do. You can see the movement of the Xenia in the attached gif. 

 

WV- if you read this, how do you deal with surface scum? I’ve got one of my wavemakers pointed at the surface and it seems to be breaking things up, but I’m used to a super clear surface. 

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Looks good in there. 

 

 

If it’s moving fast enough there can be no scum! 😄

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I don't want to run my wave makers any higher or it'll be too much for the Xenia and frogspawn. Small tank, big problems lol. 

 

I think I have an idea for the surface scum. I'm going to use two of my existing bulkheads and create a small closed loop system with a single powerhead sitting inside a plastic box outside the tank. Should be interesting lol. I guess I'll put it together then post pics after testing.

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