Tank of the Month - April 2007

[Jadams]

Absolutly gorgeous tank! Congrats!!!!

[MJSavage]

Awesome and well deserved!

Mike

[slumpysix]

Outstanding tank! Congrats!!

[fancyfish]

Kudos. Grea tank. Kudos to reef central as well for finally awarding this honor to something other than a large sps dominated tank.

[alipset]

Beautiful.

[fisheebill]

Very nice, congratulations!
I wish I could use natural seawater.
Love the bubble algae looking hitchhiker.

[highquality]

Wow, very nice! I too am excited to know how long some of the sps have been in there. some of the colors were fantastic. way to go, you clearly put a lot of work in.

[nUgZ]

I've always been a fan of your tank and your photography. Congratulations Louis.

[louist]

Originally posted by richnbowl
Great tank. Two questions though.
How do you like the AquaMedic Oceanlight fixture you have?
and
What type of calcium reactor do you have running your system?

I like the AquaMedic Oceanlight. My main regret is the lack of actinic for aesthetic purposes I couldn't stand the buzzing sound from the magnetic ballast and changed it to an OSRAM electronic ballast.

That calcium reactor is made by Aquatica Australia, which is no longer in business. He sold all his stuff at a garage sell and I picked it up for AUD$40 (USD$33). It works OK, but the tuning is a lot more fiddly than my other DBReefTech CR-5C.

Originally posted by b_mattias
how long have you had it? maybe I missed it but I don't think the article said.

This tank has been setup almost 1.5 years. Keep in mind that small colonies look big in nano tanks. This is also one of the main advantages of a SPS-dominated nano tank; you get to enjoy the look of a "mature" tank in a much shorter time. In addition, in Australia, we get frags in trades, but we never really purchase frags. The reefing culture is a bit different from the US. We have cheap corals and really expensive clams! There are also very very limited aquaculturing.

Originally posted by kneepuck
I'm interested how you constructed & installed the, "external Durso standpipe." Can you elaborate?

I based this design on "Tigahboy's" (nano-reef.com) schematic drawings. He uses this same design on some of his tanks. Is basically a durso as we understand it, but sits outside the tank. Here are some photos that should clear things up. The green airtap on the top allows you to control the amount of airflow into the durso.





I always get asked if surface skimming is an issue with a setup like this. In the case of a nano tank, no. I switch the return pump off for feeding, and this drains all the surface water into the filter bag. However, this same design does not work on a large tank with a very large surface area. On my 4' tank, I made a skimming box that screws onto the bulkhead, and this allows for surface skimming . If anyone is interested in that, I'll post a photo of it.

Originally posted by Kelpie
I have an Aquaspacelight that is very similar looking to your AquaMedic Oceanlight. Please tell me where you found the legs for yours.

Kelpie, I got the legs from Chris of Nano-Tuners. The legs should work with most AquaMedic lights since it uses the same groove as the ones used by the flaps. So you will need to choose between one but not both unless you take the dremel to it. Shoot Chris an email, he's very good with inquiries.

The bubble-algae looking hitchhiking crab is actually a decorator crab that live in macro algae. He can change looks very quickly. One moment he is definitely a chaetomorphia-camo one, and the next moment he's holding Caulerpa instead. It's quite funny when he's hanging onto a mangrove, while holding Caulerpa

[cital]

Great Tank, Congratulation! I wanted to ask, do the mounting legs for the light come with it, or did you have to make/buy those separately?

[Kigs]

beautiful tank! well deserved congratulations

[louist]

Originally posted by cital
Great Tank, Congratulation! I wanted to ask, do the mounting legs for the light come with it, or did you have to make/buy those separately?

Originally posted by louist
Kelpie, I got the legs from Chris of Nano-Tuners. The legs should work with most AquaMedic lights since it uses the same groove as the ones used by the flaps. So you will need to choose between one but not both unless you take the dremel to it. Shoot Chris an email, he's very good with inquiries.

[ShrekPL]

No coment. Absolutely the best.

[seahorsedreams]

That is simply awesome Louis!

[Misled]

Well deserved Louis. Very nice indeed.

[Denadai]

Awesome nano reef. Congratulations !

For how long do you have the mandarim ???

[sbwood007]

You are the Nano Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[visualscapes]

Awesome tank Louis!

What kind of drill bit did you use to make the holes for the bulkheads? TIA!

[triggerman41]

wow, thats awsome

[mrsgoose]

Gorgeous tank - very clean and beautiful! My question, however, I thought a true nano tank was self-contained? I didn't realize you could have such a large refugium/sump and still be considered a Nano. I'm very new to the hobby and am struggeling with a 29g. Your tank is an inspiration!

[Ocean In A Box]

louist -
Really fantastic setup!!
Inspirational to those w/ nano's or starting one.
Can you explain more detail about how you drilled such a small tank, whole location and why, materials/tools used, etc?

Thanks,

[louist]

Originally posted by Denadai
For how long do you have the mandarim ???

I've had the mandarin for the same length of time the tank has been setup, ~1.5years. She was the first fish introduced into the tank and currently is the sole inhabitant. At one stage she shared the space with a seahorse (H. barbouri), who taught her how to eat competitively.

This mandarin was eating frozen food at the LFS (I got an audition). However, I still had to train her to recognise the pipetter and me. These days she will surface as soon as the pumps go out. In fact, she will attack the pipetter if food is dispensed too slowly.

I feed her once a day until she is full. There are no competition for food in the tank. The hermit crabs try, but they are just bus boys.

Originally posted by visualscapes
What kind of drill bit did you use to make the holes for the bulkheads? TIA!

I used a 28mm diamond hole saw to drill the holes (28mm hole saw for 20mm fittings). I got the holesaws as a set of 4 off Ebay. The seller was unfriendly and I never heard some him, but it was cheap and shipping was pretty efficient. They were ~USD$37 inc. shipping. These drill bit will have much less diamond content than their $90+ counterparts, but I wasn't planning on making drilling tanks a career! The 28mm bit lasted me 3 holes (2x5mm glass, 1x10mm glass). When that worn out, I just use the 25mm bit instead

The way I drilled was this:
1. Drill a scrap piece of perspex to use as template
2. Clamp the template to the tank glass (easy to do since holes are close to edge, you can use sticky tape too). The template is to prevent drifting when you just started
3. Plug your ears with tissue unless you wish to lose your hearing for a few hours
4. Get a small container and fill it with water and have it close by. This will be your cooling tank.
5. Start drilling! Apply only feather light pressure and try to be perpendicular to the glass. Every 40 seconds (or when your arms get sore), stop and dip the drill bit in the container or water to cool it. Using this method, the bit never got beyond ~25 celcius.
6. As you get close to the end, go SLOW and GENTLE. This will facilitate a cleaner exit hole. I stuck a piece of sticky tape across the exit hole to hold the drilled out glass

That's it. It's pretty simple. It's time consuming, but using my cooling method, it's very clean, no mess. I used this same technique to drill my 4' tank which has 10mm glass.

As for the hole location; I drilled close to the top since that's the level I wanted the bulkhead and water level. Keep in mind that this setup works well for a nano tank, but isn't ideal in a large tank. I did a modified version of this for the 4'.

Originally posted by mrsgoose
My question, however, I thought a true nano tank was self-contained? I didn't realize you could have such a large refugium/sump and still be considered a Nano.

There's never been a official definition of the cut off size. However, usually it's the size of the display tank that determines whether it is a nano tank or not. Some people consider an 80g to be a nano tank. Personally I don't have a definition for a nano tank either, but I know one when I see one. Like a federal judge once stated, "I can't tell you what pornography is, but I know it when I see it"

[cfishrun]

Originally posted by marino420td
Gotta love when TOTM goes to a photographer! Great Shots Louis.

Agreed! What camera/lens do you use for those macro shots?

[louist]

Originally posted by cfishrun
Agreed! What camera/lens do you use for those macro shots?

I was wondering when that question would pop up

All the photos you see there are taken with the Canon EOS 10D with:
70-200 f2.8 IS L
180 f3.5 macro
MP-E65 macro
28-80 f3.5-5.6 (the "Dog Toy")

FTS and non-macros are with the 70-200 or 28-80. All macro shots are with the 180 f3.5 and all super macros (> 1x) are with the MP-E65.

In case you are wondering, I am not a professional photographer. I just somehow ended up in two very expensive hobbies Early mid life crisis? I am actually a bioinformatician in medical research. Photographing insects is my main repertoire before I starting reefing.

I'll post more photos if people are interested. Some may no longer be relevant to the tank as it is now. Or unless you guys want to go totally OT and see some photos of bugs?

[nUgZ]

Post all the pics you want Louis. They're all awesome.