A salesperson at my LFs offered me 250 dollars when I showed them my new DIY tank.

[Micki]

Too Cool!

[dogstar74]

Luxurious!
Excellent!

[leeweber85]

That's one high-class nano! I thought about adding the false wall on my 5.5 but thought it took up to much precious space.

Your tank seriously looks great though.

[JeBuS]

GSchiemer, i hate u!!!!!!

[tripsandfalls]

Beautiful nano, man.

I'm curious as to how you rigged your auto topoff. Mind explaining? And what kind of flowrate d'you got running through that filter?

Cheers,
- trips

[melev]

tripsandfalls,

[welcome]

[Saltz Creep]

Originally posted by tripsandfalls
Beautiful nano, man.

I'm curious as to how you rigged your auto topoff. Mind explaining? And what kind of flowrate d'you got running through that filter?

Cheers,
- trips

Thanks.
The float switch is spliced into the hot wire of the powercord of an Aqualifter pump. When the water level falls the switch completes the circuit and the Aqualifter trickles in water until the level is reached. No relay is necessary as the switch is rated for much higher than the low current which the Aqualifter draws. The pump was the smallest I could find, but even at 80gph I had to cut the flow back by pinching the outlet of the return.

[melev]

You know what? That is brilliant! if it is true, that is. I know the AquaLifter only uses 3w of power, but it is plugged into 110v outlet. Are you sure it isn't still passing 110v, even though the pump uses so little power itself?

I'm ready to cut my cord in half now.

[vinstr]

Ok, I feel stupid asking this but her goes...what is a NANO tank?
Whatever it is though, that thing is sweet!

[Horace]

Nano is a universal term for Very Small....A tank is often called a nano when they are like 10g or less.....

[Horace]

Originally posted by melev
You know what? That is brilliant! if it is true, that is. I know the AquaLifter only uses 3w of power, but it is plugged into 110v outlet. Are you sure it isn't still passing 110v, even though the pump uses so little power itself?

I'm ready to cut my cord in half now.

So long as the plug has a transformer built in, not just a regular plug, the power would already be regulated down to the wattage that the pump uses. I would imagine that is the case here. Otherwise you would be passing 110v through the switch like you said.

[Saltz Creep]

Voltage is not an indication of power. You can be shocked by 10,000 volts but if the current was only 0.00002 milliamps you'd feel nothing. I'm not an electrician, but if I understand it correctly, it's not the voltage (potential) but the current (amperes) that is drawn and multiplied by the voltage that gives total wattage (power). If you look at the gauges of different wire used for 110V household current, it depends on the how much current the appliance draws that determines the gauge of wire.

Anyway, the float switch is rated for 70 watts. The Aqualifter draws 3 watts.

[Saltz Creep]

Sorry. Edited double post

[melev]

I was emailing the owner of floatswitches.net today and told him what you'd done with the AquaLifter to get his feedback. Here's his reply:

As for the aqua lifter question... If it plugs into your household outlet, it ain't low voltage! The switch should operate fine on 120V household current, but the problem is when a pump sometimes draws spiking voltage. A pump rated at 3 watts can pull up to 10x that or more when it is turning on or off (don't
ask me why!) At 10x, this should still be safely below the 50 watt limit that the switch can handle, but my feeling is why risk it? Also, I'm just not crazy about the idea of powerful household current running through a device submerged in salt water.

His solution is to use a relay and a 9v battery instead. Myself, I'd probably use a 9v power supply even though a battery would be nice for a tiny application like your nano tank.

Your idea sure sounded great to me, but as far as I can tell it is the same as me splicing an extension cord. You just removed 6' of wiring from my setup, but didn't make it safer.

[Saltz Creep]

Maybe floatswitches.com has lower rated switches
My switch is rated at 70W, that's 23x times higher than what the Aqua-Lifter draws. It has been turning on and off at least 20 times a day for 3 months with no problems.

[GSchiemer]

Originally posted by JeBuS
GSchiemer, i hate u!!!!!!

Oh well, another Christmas present I won't be getting.












jerk

[mhurley]

GSchiemer and Jebus,

You can both consider yourself warned. Feel free to toss your insults at each other elsewhere.

[Taikimoto]

sorry to BTTT this but I have to ask. I currently have a 2.5 nano, it used to be reef but when i moved I switched it over to planted. You can see the current setup here:

Reef Projects

Under the Nano section. As you can see I have 4 magnetic ballasts powering the lights (well three hooked up right now) and was wondering if these smaller (and lighter) electronic ballast from wallmart would work better. Basically, Im looking for a lighter alternative that is more portable, because as it is now the ballast mount has to stay stationary unless I want to tear apart everything.

Thanks for any comments.

[Saltz Creep]

They should. Wallymart also has 24 inch strip lights with more powerful electronic ballasts made by the same company.

[NeilsReef]

Nice looking nano, plus I enjoyed all the DIY!

[fish lad]

woow

that all i can say

but can i ask why did you cover the back wall in expoxy

[Saltz Creep]

^To hide the filtration system from view. I could have used dark acrylic instead. If I ever use this design again, I'll do just that.

[arkight]

nice looking tank

[dogstar74]

How are those ballasts holding up? I am really curious, as I would like to try these lights, but I am wondering how they hold up.

Could I place appx 5 of these over a 20 tall? Do you think the light would penetrate 16 inches?

Thanx for the reply.

Aaron

[BrentN]

Very nice, creep. I wouldn't dis the back wall- should get some coralline and look great with that texture.