NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 HEre is my idea for a Pico tank for my desk at work. Anyone have any comments on it? Its going ot have live rock, sand and an airlift tube in themiddle for water movement. I want to use Luxeon LED's for lighting... the goal is to make a nice little self contained tank with not ugly crap hanving of fit I will have a snail, mini star or 5 and a shrimp of some short then fill it with my rare and exotic zoa's Link to comment
Jackson Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Looks great! But with the LR surrounding the Airlift, do you think you will be able to drill it without ir breaking into smaller peices? Would you use one large piece or many smaller peices? Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 That part is sitll unknown I think it would work best with one large piece just not real sure how to drill it with out the rock just blowing apart I may take a tube and glue a bunch of small pieces to it and make it look whole Link to comment
tinyreef Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 you could skip the tube and just release the bubbles from the bottom of the LR, allowing the bubbles to travel randomly, a la 'lee eng' system. you might want some more distance between cover and water surface. salt creep will be a daily event for you otherwise. Link to comment
Kogut Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Remember that the bubbles are going to create salt creep and a skimmate-like substance at the top. Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 Yea i was thinking that. Im going to get some lenses for the LED's so they dont get all rusty so ill probly move the top about 1 to 1.5 from the top. Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 How are you going to skim the surface? All that bubbling will also create skimmate... Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 oh your right... hum... I have no way to skim the surface.. the bubbles will be pretty big will they still make skimate? Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Give and take, big bubbles will pop and create salt creep very high, I'm getting creep in my sump 7 inches above the water surface... small bubbles will also create creep, but also skimmate... What if you have a closed loop for circulation instead? Out the bottom to a small water pump and back up through the bottom through mutiple outlets... Still the same affect, but no bubbles. Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 I jsut got a neat idea... how about have the ltitle tank sit on top of a short fatter tank with a pump in it... the pump would pump water in the bottom of the tank and spread through the live rock and then the water would overflow the little tank run down the outside walls and into the lower tank... so i would skim the surface and it gives an AWSOME look when you have water on the ouside.. some clam tanks do this. Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Yes it's been done for clams but the amount of flow to keep all 4 walls viewable is tough... I'd recommend having one wall lower than the others and have it overflow just one wall. Also be sure to install a check valve otherwise in a power outage the entire display will back flow and empty. Here is a link of this being done for clams. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=494682 Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Also, no way to mount a hood, you would need to suspend lighting... Link to comment
embryoguy Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 all you have to do is slightly tilt the tank so water overflows to the back side. my concern with your tank is the lighting. i ve never heard of anyone using leds as the main lighting source. Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 Well i was thinking of running 1" clear PVC up from the bottom to the top and highter than the tank. The top of the 1" PVC will hold the light hood thing off the tank and then i could drill a hole just below the water line to act as a syphin break Good idea about just doing 1 wall too Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Do you specifically want it viewable from all 4 sides or are you just trying something different? The amount of engineering something like this would require far outweigh what is capable just going with a nano cube or for that matter just slapping a HOB filter on a tank and looking at it from 3 sides. I did a 2.5 with a HOB and micro jet without any skimming and it worked great. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=44630 Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Okay here is what I've come up with, viewable from 4 sides, center flow, and all items concealed with full lighting. Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 Well I like complicated things and I want to put it on my desk so I would need it small and i would like viewable from 4 sides. Your drawing there is pretty cool how could you get the pipe inside a pipe? Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 First the outer tube would need to be large enough to work with CPVC or PVC either 1.5 or 2 inches, and then the return would be considerably smaller and preferably flexible tubing so you can work with it in tight areas. The entry and exit points would need to be sealed probably with just silicone as there would not be any pressure on the joint itself. This is the only way I can see this idea working, and remaining effective. You would probably want to put a float on a stick down the overflow so you can measure water levels otherwise you'll start getting air sucked into the pump. Water level will be crucial in this as the tube will replicate a sump and there will be no room for massive evaporation. Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Just did the math, assuming you use a 2in Pipe, 6 inches of pipe is 1.3 cups of water... My 2.5 Nano had about 1 cup of evap a day, so daily top off would be needed, or a slow drip from a resivior (which could be consealed in the canopy also). Just maintenance for thought. Link to comment
NicksAcrylicReef Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 My desk isent that big yet IM gonna build some stuff this next week probly try both designs... Can you calculate how many GPH would be needed to keep water flowing over all 4 sides on a 6x6 cube? haha doesent seem like it would be much tiats a pretty small are Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Not sure how to do that calculation, but while it not might sound like a lot, remember that in a 6x6 cube, that flow is huge! Just look at the link to the clam tank and read what he's done. In order to get all 4 sides flowing, it was very turbulent. Be sure to take pics of what ever you do. Link to comment
calvin415 Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Be sure to check out this thread, very similar idea... http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=53815 Link to comment
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