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Cultivated Reef

Introducing my Nano!


Whiskey27

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teamschreiba

Looks great and the custom setup is awesome! I’ve had on and off cloudy water as well with the dry rock. From my research, it seems to just be ongoing bacterial blooms until the bacteria balances out with the bioload of the tank and the rocks mature further. Mine is never really bad although it is noticeable when viewed from the side. From the BRS videos, it looks like you could add a UV sterilizer to clear up the water but I think if you wait it out, eventually they’ll stop popping up. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/2/2020 at 3:44 PM, Pjanssen said:

I see a future TOTM!

That would be amazing!!!  I'm working on a much nicer base for it now, I'll post pictures when I'm done.  With the current setup it will make Apex management much easier.

 

This was made to be a work tank and sit on my desk, but after my move a different one is coming to work, so now this needs a little stand.


Whiskey

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On 8/2/2020 at 4:35 PM, teamschreiba said:

Looks great and the custom setup is awesome! I’ve had on and off cloudy water as well with the dry rock. From my research, it seems to just be ongoing bacterial blooms until the bacteria balances out with the bioload of the tank and the rocks mature further. Mine is never really bad although it is noticeable when viewed from the side. From the BRS videos, it looks like you could add a UV sterilizer to clear up the water but I think if you wait it out, eventually they’ll stop popping up. 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but then I lost patience at about the 5 month mark LOL.  I have a UV and a Skimmer and the UV really didn't help much, but when I added the skimmer (just in the display) it had an instant effect.

 

So I bought a little nano skimmer for the back of this guy, and now it's crystal clear.  That might help with yours as well.

Whiskey

 

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I feel like this tank is finally starting to get it's legs under it.  The corals are doing much better, algae is disappearing, and it "feels" healthy finally.  I'm working on a better cabinet for it to sit on, but here are a few updated pictures.

50379326016_9eb48b908a_b.jpgIMG_1817 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

50378632098_0b4ff02334_b.jpgIMG_1814 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

50379506532_338e8799f5_b.jpgIMG_1812 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

50379326261_5d7850a619_b.jpgIMG_1811 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

50379326371_3404a968a7_b.jpgIMG_1808 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Whiskey

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50 minutes ago, Jungle_v_i_p said:

Looks good! What a cool build and they way you’re heading with everything. I dig it.can’t wait to see your three gallon after this one👍🏼

Well,.. since you asked.  This is the 3G as it sits right now.  It's run by a small Arduino that does topoff and temp control.  It's basic, and always will be, the intention is to keep soft coral, crabs, snails and a shrimp maybe at work:

50316699322_c6aef206f0_b.jpgIMG_1784 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Thank you!

Whiskey

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44 minutes ago, Whiskey27 said:

Well,.. since you asked.  This is the 3G as it sits right now.  It's run by a small Arduino that does topoff and temp control.  It's basic, and always will be, the intention is to keep soft coral, crabs, snails and a shrimp maybe at work:

50316699322_c6aef206f0_b.jpgIMG_1784 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Thank you!

Whiskey

Super cool!

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22 hours ago, Jungle_v_i_p said:

Super cool!

Thank you!  I look forward to it stabilizing and getting more corals in there.  So far it's been at work for almost a full day and nobody has noticed yet.

 

Whiskey

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39 minutes ago, Whiskey27 said:

Thank you!  I look forward to it stabilizing and getting more corals in there.  So far it's been at work for almost a full day and nobody has noticed yet.

 

Whiskey

No one has noticed?🤔 what an odd group of people😆

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1 hour ago, Jungle_v_i_p said:

No one has noticed?🤔 what an odd group of people😆

Ha!  To be fair I'm kind of in my own little corner over here.  Most of my work is done remotely, and people don't come to my desk all that often.

 

Still though,.. Once someone notices I'm sure to get all kinds of visitors!

Whiskey

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  • 1 month later...

This tank was doing so well!!!!

 

But,.. Oklahoma got hit with a nasty ice storm, right now 250,000+ people are without power, I am one of them.  I lost power about 48 hours ago, for the first 24 hours I was able to keep the tank at 65 fairly easily using an indoor rated propane heater, and my backup on my flow worked well and lasted 48 hours as expected.  The propane heater also kept the house in the mid 50's which was livable.

 

The second day though I ran out of propane and had to leave when the house dipped into the 40's.  I tried to run an inverter off my car for a bit to heat the tank but even the 50W Heater couldn't deal with the cold outside, and coming from CA I really don't have winter cloths yet.  Everything in my house is electric so I couldn't even warm water on the stove, or use hot water from the water heater in a container to heat or anything.

 

Today my house still doesn't have power, but my work does!  Do I brought as much coral/snails/fish as I could to the little 3G at work.  The home tank had gotten really cold, one fish was dead, but another was still alive.  Snails were moving, and the urchin was alive,.. so hopefully at least some fish, inverts and corals will pull through.

This is not normal for this area, but since I'm going to be setting up a very large tank when I buy my own home again it looks like a generator will be necessary to live here.

Here is the work tank stuffed full of corals: (sorry for the crummy cell phone photo)
50539900248_35a0fae843_c.jpgIMG_0454 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Whiskey

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have power now!!  And since there is nothing in this tank at the moment I figured it was the perfect time to move it over to it's new base so I sped up that project.

 

This tank was intended to sit on a desk back in CA, but everything changed right as I was finishing it up.  Now that I'm out in Oklahoma I don't have a desk to sit it on, so for all this time it's been sitting on this really ugly temporary, towel covered sowing table that I bought for $5 at Goodwill.  That looked like this:
50583328938_811c7b8fd1_c.jpgTowel Thing by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

But now I've finally finished construction on my custom base.  This is the most ambitious stand project yet, I even made floating panel doors and drawer fronts for it.  The APEX has moved to a board inside the stand for easier maintenance, and I even have drawers for text kits and coral tools.  Here is how it looks now:
50584190527_21f69f82b9_c.jpgIMG_0656 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Whiskey

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/9/2020 at 1:12 PM, farkwar said:

 

Adobe_20201108_122407.jpg

You had that saved and ready to go didn't you?

In fact, did you make it yourself?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay weird.  Those were separate posts.  but I'll put some white space so this makes sense now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So,.. this tank has had a ruff go of it.  The recent power failure due to the ice storm was really brutal, and it went on for over a week.  I'm really lucky that I was able to save some corals in my work 3G Pico, but it had just been setup and really wasn't ready, plus the tank got into the 50's before I could get anything out so there were some losses.  

 

Plus, some corals ended up being so happy at work that they just stayed and never came back lol.

 

This is what the tank looks like now.  It's on it's new base, and now that the 135 is in the living room it's in it's proper place, right by my bed.
50699747248_573f4fa002_b.jpgIMG_2084 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

This thing is desperate for some stability.  I have a move coming up in a few months, but until then, and after that I'm hands off.

 

Oh, yeah.  The place I'm moving to will have an external generator connection on the first day.

 

Whiskey

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On 11/9/2020 at 12:32 PM, Whiskey27 said:

I have power now!!  And since there is nothing in this tank at the moment I figured it was the perfect time to move it over to it's new base so I sped up that project.

 

This tank was intended to sit on a desk back in CA, but everything changed right as I was finishing it up.  Now that I'm out in Oklahoma I don't have a desk to sit it on, so for all this time it's been sitting on this really ugly temporary, towel covered sowing table that I bought for $5 at Goodwill.  That looked like this:
50583328938_811c7b8fd1_c.jpgTowel Thing by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

But now I've finally finished construction on my custom base.  This is the most ambitious stand project yet, I even made floating panel doors and drawer fronts for it.  The APEX has moved to a board inside the stand for easier maintenance, and I even have drawers for text kits and coral tools.  Here is how it looks now:
50584190527_21f69f82b9_c.jpgIMG_0656 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Whiskey

Looks really good. Did you mill everything yourself? Either way solid job on the construction.  Is that oak?

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25 minutes ago, Jungle_v_i_p said:

Looks really good. Did you mill everything yourself? Either way solid job on the construction.  Is that oak?

Thank you!

 

The top and bottom are kindof made two different ways.  The top I was trying to save every square inch, so I used 1/4 oak ply with 1/4 and 1/2 inch trim pieces that I routed out to hide all the end grain.

 

The base part was made more like cabinetry because I wanted to try out floating panel doors.  It was made out of 1x4 oak for the frame, then the drawers were mounted to that.  The doors and drawer fronts were made from 1x4 around the edges, and a glue up of 1x6 planks for the center floating panel.  I'm not sure my router was industrial enough for creating those center sections out of oak.  This may be the last time I try that,.. or maybe I need better guides next time.

 

It's silly how heavy that base is - Thick oak gets very heavy very fast.

 

Whiskey

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a quick update, this tank is really humming along, and I moved my Rock Flower into this tank because it didn't seem to want to settle in the 135 without any sand.

 

Here is the Apex mounting area of the new Stand:

50594362213_8ca8f4f766_c.jpgIMG_0683 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

And here is what the tank is looking like with the Rock Flower:

50808527526_cb4235acbf_b.jpgIMG_3213 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

Whiskey

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cockatoo fish man thing
On 3/25/2020 at 7:30 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:

48772670241_cd06938845_c.jpgIMG_6124 (Edited) by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

The back section was designed to hold the tech:

48779240503_6bd69a88a4_c.jpgIMG_6127 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

It was covered in Oak, and I left space under the drawer to hold all the extra wires:
48818676032_4fcb32495a_c.jpgIMG_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:

49016644133_a56acf76d6_c.jpgIMG_6396 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

It has an AI Prime 16 HD, and flow monitors for the return:

49616097438_db96c81c8d_c.jpgIMG_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:

49677031278_d81b6e794e_c.jpgIMG_7496 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

This is the current scape:

49677030803_a8e1262ac3_c.jpgIMG_1011 by Wiskey2727, on Flickr

 

Whiskey

Beautiful! i just upgraded my tank as well!

 

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