Fish's 2gal starfire cube. Pictures inside.

[Friskaburger]

Looking forward to seein some pics! Sounds really awesome! Nice work all around! Shoulda kept those two tangs though, they weren't gonna grow out that tank anytime soon! =P

[petergordet]

this tank is awsome!!! i have a 5 gallong that is stocked almost the exact same way except i have a yellow watchman goby instead. anyway, how are you pluming the tank to the filtration? can we see a pic of how you do that? i want to run a sump on my 5 gal bit cant figure houw to run an overflow withoug drilling it.

 

thanks

peter

[schaadrak]

Awsome pico, man. I love the cleanliness of it. Just be careful with that MH cooking off all your water. Maybe making a canopy will also hide a float switch and have an auto-topoff add water directly to your canister mod?

 

peter- There is a way to make a HOB overflow. I'll look for the thread and post it for you if Fish doesn't mind a momentary hi-jack of his thread.

[petergordet]

i would apperciate that schaadrak, and i also appoligize for the hijack

[schaadrak]

I couldn't find the thread I saw before that explained it so I'll do my best via my ghetto Paint pic.

Hope this helps and sorry for the hi-jack.

[TheCoralReef731]

Here is a thread, selling something like that.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...ht=HOB+overflow

[ninjafish]

No problem guys, here are some photos of the tank after adding the halide. The pictures look a little dim but only because the light was overpowering my camera until I sped up the shutter speed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A view of all 4 sides:

(I personally believe that overflows are the best way to run a tank, my home tank has an overflow/sump, but this photo shows why I am not interested in an overflow for this nano!)

 

[ninjafish]

Everyone seems happy:

 

 

 

 

 

I loved this tank before but it is now way brighter. And the shimmer is awesome I;ve been driving into work on my days off just to look at it:

 

 

 

 

 

I still have to add another piece of rock and some coral and will switch the 10K bulb for a 20k bulb that just came. After that I will add a fine sandbed instead of the crushed coral substrate that's in there now. What do you think?

 

 

- Chad

[Kogut]

I really do love your tank. It looks great, man! You might like the 20K bulb and its blue tint a bit better. I know I prefer 20K over 10K. Those 14K Phoenix HQI bulbs, though. Those are nice. My 20L is mixed CC and Fiji Pink... I hate the CC and how it collects so much algae and isn't goby or very snail friendly, but I do love that it houses so many pods. : I'd say switch to Fiji Pink for your tank, though. Sand seems to look better on smaller tanks, IMO. Keep up the good work w/ the tank!

[obarrera]

Great tank!

The light looks brighter in person right?

[milhouse74]

Where did you buy your retro kit? Also where did you get the desk light that it fit in? Mind posting a pic of that light? I have a 7.6 Gal I am looking to light in the same way.

 

David

[Travis]

Looks great Fish. It's realy going to look nice once the corals grow in

[ninjafish]

Thanks guys!

Here is a photo I took of the lamp modification:

 

 

 

I got my retrofit kit from this ebay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...452052&tc=photo

 

And this is similar to the desklamp I found:

http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Brow...%26+Table+Lamps

 

 

The great thing about this lamp is it looks so clean afterwards that you can't tell I 've modded it!

 

And yes, it is a lot brighter in person. It looks a lot like the first picture.

 

- Chad

[ninjafish]

Sorry I didn't answer the questions earlier in the thread. As for my plumbing - I have two 1/2" bulkheads in the bottom of the tank and they are connected to the intake and return lines for my modded eheim cannister filter. I used to have the intake bulkhead hidden under the sandbed thanks to an undergravel filter but I have taken the plate out and screwed in a plastic strainer to keep the critters out. It isn't quite as trick as having the bulkhead hidden but I was worried that a lot of detrius was getting sucked down into the sandbed.

 

As for heat, I am not expedting any problems. I had to run my pc light only two inches off of the water. The mh is now about 7 inches from the water with good air circulation. I can't tell any difference in surface temperature (don't touch the top of the lamp though ).

 

- Chad

[incysor]

Can you post some pictures of the plumbing to the eheim, and the mods you made to it. This is a very stunning and beautiful nano.

 

B

[adinsxq]

[ninjafish]

You bet here is a photo of the inside of the filter. You can see where I drilled a small hole through the top and threaded the electrical cord for my submersable lights through the top. After that, I siliconed around the cord and spliced the plug back on the end:

 

 

The bottom compartment houses the chaeto (lit 24/7) and the top is full of live rock rubble. Here is a picture of how it works:

 

 

I dont have a picure of the plumbing but only because it is so simple. There are two 1/2" bulkheads in the bottom of the tank with hosebarb fittings. The intake line to the filter is connected to one and the return line is plugged into the other. Easy peasy.

Between the heat from the submersible bulbs and the filter impeller, the temperature is a constant 80 degrees. (Who needs skill when you have luck ). If the temp ever got too hot, I would just turn off one of the two submersible bulbs or put them on a reverse daylight schedule.

Hope this made some sense.

 

Cheers,

- Chad

[pdhenderson]

Great tank, I really enjoyed reading this thread, great to see people push the boundries and succeed. really looking forward to doing a pico myself and hope yours thrives for along time.

I want a tank on my desk!!!!!

[ninjafish]

And I really enjoyed watching your avatar

The thing that I am worried about going wrong is salinity jumps due to evaporation. Usually two day between topoffs is ok but I couldn't push it any more.

Now my lighting, filtration, and circulation are good - just need to work on keeping it topped up.

 

- Chad

[petergordet]

maybe i am just dim but i still dont get how you plumed the tank. did you have to drill the bottom of the tank. that is the only way i could see it working? also did you have to drill through the bottom of the desk? i would like to replicate the system you have as it seems to be working more than adaquatly, but i just cant wrap my head around it.

[ninjafish]

Peter,

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. Yes the bottom of the tank is drilled to accomidate two 1/2" bulkheads. I had the glass shop drill them for me this time but I have drilled tanks myself in the past. Just use a dremmle tool with a class cutting bit. I learned to do it from an external overflow post on Reef Central - I think a guy named "Tunjee" was the author. I told the glass shop where the holes needed to be drilled so that the plumbing would fit through the electrical conduit that was already in the top of the desk. (I couldn't drill the desk myself because I work for the city and it is not my property.)

And yes, I am really pleased with how this project turned out. I do not believe that I sacrificed too much function in order to have such a clean system. Infact, I believe this tank is bullet-proof. Lots of flow (with no chance of an overflow failing), extra filtration, chaeto fuge, good lighting... even if I wasn't worried about equipment being visible, I don't think I could have built a 2gal tank any more stable than this one. JMO.

 

- Chad

[ninjafish]

Hi gang,

I put the 20k bulb in today and it looks 100xs better

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera

I'll try and snag a picture tomorrow.

 

Here is a photo of my completed autotopoff system:

 

 

 

 

 

The whole thing is hidden out of sight as well. I am using an industrial metering pump on a digital timer to inject fresh water direclty into my cannister filter intake line.

This should allow me to be away from the tank for as long as a week if I need. Also, it can add the top up water a lot slower than I could (350ml in one hour, fifteen minutes), so it should be more gentle on the livestock as well. All without anything cluttering the desk.

What do you think?

 

- Chad

[huari]

awesome clean tank and great ideas for the hiding the equipment, reminds me of knop's drilled rock nanos or Amano's FW biotopes. cool beans on the top off too! calculated evap = flow rate on the meter. Just wonder if coralline starts sticking, you'll need a tiny magfloat.

[Casabubu]

Are you sure you cant squize a few copperbands in there? They could have a party!

[Travis]

Nice ATO System Fish