Whiskey27 Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Hello all! I've been in the hobby for a while, but before I left the state for a long distance move I was working on a Nano tank, and that's the only one I was able to take with me. Now that my large tank was gone, I put all the tech into the nano, and I'm thrilled to have put coral in it this week. Here's a quick rundown of the build, it was supposed to be a desktop tank before life changed: The stand was built around a 1x1 populr frame: IMG_6124 (Edited) by Wiskey2727, on Flickr The back section was designed to hold the tech: IMG_6127 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It was covered in Oak, and I left space under the drawer to hold all the extra wires:IMG_6167 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Here is with some staining, and some trim going on. The whole top lifts up, as well as a small door in the front for feeding: IMG_6396 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It has an AI Prime 16 HD, and flow monitors for the return: IMG_7397 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the auto water change setup for now, but I will eventually replace the small containers with larger ones to last at least 2 weeks once I'm confident in it: IMG_7496 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the current scape: IMG_1011 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Whiskey 9 6 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 6 minutes ago, Whiskey27 said: Hello all! I've been in the hobby for a while, but before I left the state for a long distance move I was working on a Nano tank, and that's the only one I was able to take with me. Now that my large tank was gone, I put all the tech into the nano, and I'm thrilled to have put coral in it this week. Here's a quick rundown of the build, it was supposed to be a desktop tank before life changed: The stand was built around a 1x1 populr frame: IMG_6124 (Edited) by Wiskey2727, on Flickr The back section was designed to hold the tech: IMG_6127 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It was covered in Oak, and I left space under the drawer to hold all the extra wires:IMG_6167 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Here is with some staining, and some trim going on. The whole top lifts up, as well as a small door in the front for feeding: IMG_6396 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It has an AI Prime 16 HD, and flow monitors for the return: IMG_7397 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the auto water change setup for now, but I will eventually replace the small containers with larger ones to last at least 2 weeks once I'm confident in it: IMG_7496 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the current scape: IMG_1011 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Whiskey That stand is very cool. 1 Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 The tank is viewable from 3 sides: IMG_7450 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr These are the wires under the drawer, it pops out easily for maintainance: IMG_7436 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the current view of the back section: IMG_7437 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr And here are some of my new corals!IMG_1078 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1080 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1086 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1087 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1091 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr I love the forum!!! I'm looking forward to hanging out here! Whiskey 8 2 Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 4 minutes ago, WV Reefer said: That stand is very cool. Thank you Christy! I love woodworking 🙂 Whiskey 3 Quote Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 That drawer is brilliant! wish I had thought of that when I built mine. Also love the light hood. Yep, might have to rebuild mine. Looking forward to seeing this progress. 2 Quote Link to comment
SaltyGallon Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 That is a seriously impressive/tidy stand!! Quote Link to comment
Adiantum Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Nice job on the stand! It gives me inspiration for the future. Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 On 3/26/2020 at 6:50 AM, Pjanssen said: That drawer is brilliant! wish I had thought of that when I built mine. Also love the light hood. Yep, might have to rebuild mine. Looking forward to seeing this progress. Thank you!!! I've built a few stands over the years, and always wanted a drawer, but they got in the way of sump plumbing. That's not an issue with this tank! Whiskey 1 Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 On 3/26/2020 at 7:00 AM, Azur said: That is a seriously impressive/tidy stand!! Thank you! It's fun to try out different things and see what works. Whiskey Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 On 3/26/2020 at 5:52 PM, Adiantum said: Nice job on the stand! It gives me inspiration for the future. Thank you!!! A tip for you if your planning to do the same. I've already run into trouble with the equipment being in the back. A better design would be setting that section on drawer rails so it can slide out and mounting the stuff to the back. Twice now I've had to spin the thing to get better access. Whiskey Quote Link to comment
Mrod1! Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Wish I was handy every time I see these cool projects. Would save me a lot of money and also not pestering good friends who usually bail me out, lol. Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 On 3/29/2020 at 10:04 AM, Mrod1! said: Wish I was handy every time I see these cool projects. Would save me a lot of money and also not pestering good friends who usually bail me out, lol. Lol! Honestly it doesn't pay off, based on the amount of time spent, and money put into materials, you really have to love it to do something like this 😉 Whiskey Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 I have more pictures!!! And more stuff in the tank. I'm thrilled to report that the auto water change is working great, even if it is a little loud. I've set it up to change 3/4 gallon per day, during the time between 12 midnight and 8AM. I have fish now!!! It's a little tank, so I'm sticking with small fish that don't swim much:IMG_1147 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1145 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr And some new frags!IMG_1132 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1135 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1142 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr And one SPS,.. this guy is fairly low light for SPS but in this tank he fits right at the top because it's focused on lower light LPS:IMG_1152 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Whiskey 2 Quote Link to comment
Nthanhalan Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 Nice wood work. wish I have your skills. Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 On 5/16/2020 at 6:01 AM, Nthanhalan said: Nice wood work. wish I have your skills. Thank you!!! Whiskey Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 The tank has been doing okay, but it's not quite on the tracks yet. I've been struggling with 3 things primarily. 1. The uglies,.. they didn't come forever so I thought I skipped it, NOPE! With this dry rock the algae stages are going way slower than I'm used to. I've never started a tank with dry rock, so maybe this is normal, but it's taking it's sweet time that's for sure. 2. Cloudy water. I don't know why, but this tank's water is always cloudy. For the longest time I thought it was a bacterial bloom and that it would go away, but it's not going away. Now I'm thinking phyto because I've been dosing things like live Phyto and Pods etc. I ordered some filter floss to see if it helps. 3. Light. This one was me over-reacting. I'm fairly new to LED only light so I read a bunch of research around their use. I ended up landing on the Coral Labs research about LPS and they recommend 75 PAR. I did this and some corals are okay, but others were not doing well at all. I think the reason is because although 75 PAR is fine for a flat prop rack with no shading it didn't work well for me with shading and a display tank. I also feel that some LPS like Acans and Trachies where they are focused more actually need much less light than ones like candy canes and torches. I took my PAR meter to stores with LED lighting that had coral doing well, and found that they typically had corals like I keep in 150-250 PAR. I've changed my lighting so that my tank has about 250 at the top, and 120 at the sand. All corals are already doing better. My light is currently running at 100% on the blue channels and 15% on white. Total it reports that it's putting out about 35 watts, and it's about 9 inches off the tank. That being said, here are a few pics of where I am now: IMG_1560 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1561 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1571 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1585 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1588 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Thank you, Whiskey 5 Quote Link to comment
sadie Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 looks good. Love the rock work and placement of coral. 2 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 cool project. Like the stand. Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 Thank you!! It's been a really fun tank so far. I'm looking forward to it "clicking in" and really taking off. Whiskey 1 Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted June 27, 2020 Author Share Posted June 27, 2020 So over all the tank is doing pretty well, but I seem to be dealing with a couple of issues now. 1. The light - turning this up was the right move for sure, but it's not been the total fix, I believe that it was one part of the puzzle. I'm not going back, but I did bring the blues from 100% to 95% because it made the fan in the light slow down a little. There was no real difference in Par. 2. Food for the coral - I think I've been missing nutrients in a form the coral can enjoy. I've started feeding 3 times per day and including some coral food and its causing the LPS to open further. They don't accept direct feeding, but boosting the nutrients seems to be helping. 3. I think I have a serious case of Ulva, it's growing all over the rocks at the bottom of the tank, and the elevated nutrients aren't making it shrink. I'm going to focus on what makes the coral healthy for now, and get some snails to try and combat the algae. Whiskey 2 Quote Link to comment
Break Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 Your stand is next level, well done! Also, I am very jealous of that auto-water change set-up - how long is it lasting before needing to be re-filled? Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 On 6/27/2020 at 2:28 PM, Break said: Your stand is next level, well done! Also, I am very jealous of that auto-water change set-up - how long is it lasting before needing to be re-filled? Thank you!!!!! The auto waterchange is fantastic for a tank this size! it is loud though, so I have it running at night. In my case I'm changing about 800ml per night, that works out to about 2 gallons per week. i have 5g buckets so they last about 2.5 weeks before i swap them out. i have empty and full sensors that kill the awc system and sends me an email and text when i need to swap the containers. Alexa will also tell me when I wake up as part of my dismiss alarm automation that reads a tank status report. Whiskey 1 Quote Link to comment
Break Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 10 minutes ago, Whiskey27 said: Thank you!!!!! The auto waterchange is fantastic for a tank this size! it is loud though, so I have it running at night. In my case I'm changing about 800ml per night, that works out to about 2 gallons per week. i have 5g buckets so they last about 2.5 weeks before i swap them out. i have empty and full sensors that kill the awc system and sends me an email and text when i need to swap the containers. Alexa will also tell me when I wake up as part of my dismiss alarm automation that reads a tank status report. Whiskey That's awesome, 2.5 weeks is pretty solid - especially dig the automated text message! 1 Quote Link to comment
Whiskey27 Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 Guess what?!!! I've started a new tank!!! It's just cycling now, but it will be a very simple 3 gallon which really will go to work. It has nothing in it yet,.. just salt water, but given how long this one took to cycle with dead rock I wanted to get a head start. It's been running for probably 3 weeks now. Now back to this tank. Feeding a little bit more and running the tank a little bit higher nutrient has been great for the coral!!! The corals that were struggling are doing better already, and the ones that were doing good, are now doing great. I've changed water changes to 1 gallon once a week (still automatic), and though the Algae is liking the nutrients as well I'm not worried about that right now. My focus is helping the tank find it's footing. The cloudy water sortof comes and goes, it's gone for a month, than there for a week, and gone for a month. I'm sure it will settle out soon, it's already getting better. That being said, here are some pictures:IMG_1609 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1618 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1621 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1625 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1628 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1639 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr IMG_1630 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Whiskey 3 Quote Link to comment
Jimpens71 Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 On 3/25/2020 at 10:30 PM, Whiskey27 said: Hello all! I've been in the hobby for a while, but before I left the state for a long distance move I was working on a Nano tank, and that's the only one I was able to take with me. Now that my large tank was gone, I put all the tech into the nano, and I'm thrilled to have put coral in it this week. Here's a quick rundown of the build, it was supposed to be a desktop tank before life changed: The stand was built around a 1x1 populr frame: IMG_6124 (Edited) by Wiskey2727, on Flickr The back section was designed to hold the tech: IMG_6127 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It was covered in Oak, and I left space under the drawer to hold all the extra wires:IMG_6167 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Here is with some staining, and some trim going on. The whole top lifts up, as well as a small door in the front for feeding: IMG_6396 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It has an AI Prime 16 HD, and flow monitors for the return: IMG_7397 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the auto water change setup for now, but I will eventually replace the small containers with larger ones to last at least 2 weeks once I'm confident in it: IMG_7496 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the current scape: IMG_1011 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Whiskey On 3/25/2020 at 10:30 PM, Whiskey27 said: Hello all! I've been in the hobby for a while, but before I left the state for a long distance move I was working on a Nano tank, and that's the only one I was able to take with me. Now that my large tank was gone, I put all the tech into the nano, and I'm thrilled to have put coral in it this week. Here's a quick rundown of the build, it was supposed to be a desktop tank before life changed: The stand was built around a 1x1 populr frame: IMG_6124 (Edited) by Wiskey2727, on Flickr The back section was designed to hold the tech: IMG_6127 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It was covered in Oak, and I left space under the drawer to hold all the extra wires:IMG_6167 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Here is with some staining, and some trim going on. The whole top lifts up, as well as a small door in the front for feeding: IMG_6396 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr It has an AI Prime 16 HD, and flow monitors for the return: IMG_7397 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the auto water change setup for now, but I will eventually replace the small containers with larger ones to last at least 2 weeks once I'm confident in it: IMG_7496 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr This is the current scape: IMG_1011 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr Whiskey Wow looks amazing, you should be proud 1 Quote Link to comment
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