My 3rd Reef Tank - Build Thread - Long Nano w/pics

[gregrocks79]

I love you how mounted your tank to the wall, lookin good!

[gregrocks79]

I love you how mounted your tank to the wall, lookin good!

[mathias999us]

OK, now for some updates.

Next, I got to work installing the fans and lights:


The fans fit nicely, but I had to "mod" the standoffs slightly to make them fit. The length of the hood proved to be DAM close, as in, if the bulbs were 1/16" longer, they wouldn't fit. But, everything fit nice and tight, so I can't complain.

I decided to mount the fourth bulb up higher than the other three for a few reasons. Mainly, this would allow the necessary height in the sump for some taller equipment, specifically, my sapphire skimmer. Additionally, this would greatly improve the air flow and ventalation in the hood, since if all four lights were mounted at the same height, the reflectors would essentially isolate the vents on the top of the canopy from the water's surface. Finally, I'm hoping that this will make the end areas of the tank in the back have a little bit lower lighting levels for some lower-light corals. The downside here is that this strip along the back of the tank will receive less light, but that shouldn't matter much, since this bulb is almost entirely over the sump box. I doubt the chaeto in my fuge will know the difference of a few inches in bulb height . I can always move the endcaps back down to mount on the rails in the future if I want.

A few other pics:


Bright!:


This tank is dusty!

[mathias999us]

gregrocks79 -
Thanks man! I'm diggin' it too so far.

[mathias999us]

OK, next it was on to the plumbing. After a lot of hunting through bins at the local hardware stores, I was able to find all the fittings I needed to put the plumbing together. This was somewhere through the process, doing a leak test:


No leaks, so I was finally able to fill 'er up with water:


Bubbles died down after a few hours:

[reefman13]

NOW TO STOCK IT!!!!

Nice job.

[mathias999us]

reefman13 -
Hehehe, yeah.... I'm gonna take my time with that, but it's getting to be about time. Thanks!

[mathias999us]

After finishing this work, I encountered a bit of a roadblock with my plan. I discovered that when the light ballasts were hooked up to the reefkeeper, it would continually restart every 15-20 seconds, each time shutting the whole system down for about 10 seconds. I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to diagnose the problem, swapping plugs around, moving the ballasts, googling, and coming up with nothing. The only thing I was pretty sure about was that the ballasts were generating some sort of interference that the reefkeeper didn't like. Finally, I found a post from a guy who had a TV reception problem caused by his IceCap flourescent lights. After he spent an hour on the phone with IceCap, they told him to try to ground his reflectors. This seemed to fix his TV problems, so I tried it also. The reefkeeper problem immediately went away, and hasn't happened since. So, apparently, a grounded metal sheet or mesh that runs the length of the bulbs drains off enough of the EMI generated by the lights to reduce interference problems. So, problem solved, woohoo!

[saltyshoe_nano]

and so it begins?

[saltyshoe_nano]

dbl post

[mathias999us]

The next morning, I ran into another problem - heat. As soon as the bulbs turned on in the morning, the tank would start to heat up, and the fans would kick on. But, the fans weren't able to control the temperature effectively. So, I did a few things to remedy this. I removed the decorative fan caps because they were creating a restriction on the flow. This made a difference, but not as much as I wanted. Next, I installed two additional fans to blow directly on the surface of the water. This made a big difference, and all four fans could easily cool the water down very quickly. But, it was a bit loud. I changed the hood fans out for some quiter ones, then, I split the fans up on two different power supplies. One hood fan and one water fan run on a 6 volt supply, which is slower, but VERY quiet, nearly silent.. The other two run on a 12v supply, which moves a lot more air, but is a lot louder. I have the reefkeeper set to heat the water to 79.0 on the heater circuit. Then, the quiet fans kick on at 79.3 and drop the temp to 79.2 to turn off. Finally, I have the louder fans also kick on at 79.4 and drop the temp to 79.3 to turn off. So, if the quiet fans can't keep the temp below 79.3, then the loud backup fans kick in, and all four fans run. So far, the quiet lower voltage pair is easily keeping the temperature under control by themselves. I expect in the summer that the louder fans may need to run occasionally, and if things are really bad, I might prop open the canopy and/or remove the 4th bulb over the sump.

Here's a pic of one of the new fans I installed that blow on the water. You can also see where my sapphire skimmer sits in the sump box here too:

[mathias999us]

saltyshoe_nano -
ALMOST there.... Almost....

[mathias999us]

Installed my ATO from AquaHub:


Used a 2.5 gallon glass tank for my FW reservoir. It was a tight fit, but it made it. Also got my pump and SCWD wrapped up in sound insulation here, which made a big difference. The eheim pump is REALLY quiet. The tiny submersible pump on the sapphire skimmer is louder than the big eHeim, so it was worth the extra bucks. Also, the aqualifter pump for the ATO is basically silent, which is great:

[mathias999us]

Added some caribsea Fiji Pink Aragonite, and let it clear up. I think it looks pretty good:



That's as far along as I am at this point. Next step is to order some LR. So far my plan is just to order around 20lbs of "nano" LR from Premium Aquatics, and build an open wall all along the bank and around the corners that leans against the black divider wall.

If anyone has a better idea for LR, I'd certainly be interested to hear. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for reading,
Mathias

[saltyshoe_nano]

that tank is awesome! lol I want one lol I just got mine up and running you should check it out lol nothin like your but keeps me occupied lol heres a link sorry if you think its a hijack..... cause its not
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1272461

[Zestay]

ok i have to disagree on the mounting location.. i think its a horrible idea.. i mean.. your going to have to STAND up to stare into your tank for hours on end...=)

only kidding man. looks awesome good luck with the tank. you say your ideas for a skimmer yet?

[pardalis]

Very cool tank!!!

[mathias999us]

saltyshoe_nano -
Thanks, that tank looks pretty neat. I'm liking the shallow and wide/deep layout. Good for all your inhabitants. I'll follow along with that.

Zestay -
Heh, it's true, standing gives the best view. Thanks for the encouragement. Yep, I have a sapphire NC12 skimmer in part of the sump compartment, next to the overflows on one end.

pardalis -
Thanks!

[saltyshoe_nano]

lol install a bench on the other side of the wall...you seem to be quite the handy man so it shouldnt be to big of a problem...or just keep the wooden one

[sfsuphysics]

Wow that is some awesome work on the cabinetry and really serves a major purpose both holding everything and hiding everything I love it! I was going to do something similar for a nano-contest a couple years back where I'd build a 5 foot long tank along the contours of my fireplace mantle, but then found out my acrylic fab skills ... well suck pretty badly ... so nothing came of it, but yikes man I'm impressed by what I see.

[D to the P]

everyone standing in that hallway to marvel at your tank might be a fire hazard! haha, that really is a beautiful piece of work, can't wait to see it with some livestock.

[alpine]

Mathias

Looks like some serious progress has come along.The tank is looking great.For some reason I thought you were going to run a mini sump in the cabinet,since you had installed bulkheads.

As for liverock,you should definately get a nice piece of tonga branch in there.Of course you might have to break it up some,but it would look awesome with some zoas growing all over it.My friend has a 72 bowfront with a large multibranching piece of tonga in his tank with various colors of zoas growing all over it.It looks totally awesome.

[Devtech]

looking nice mathias, tank is coming along great, mines in the algae stage looking really ugly lol i hate this stage

[mathias999us]

saltyshoe_nano -
Heh, ironically, my wife was just suggesting that... it may be one of my next projects.

sfsuphysics -
Thanks! I had calvin415 fab the acrylic for me. I've made some acrylic sumps before, but nothing clean enough for a display piece. I think acrylic fab probably just has a bit of a learning curve. Thanks for the compliments.

D to the P -
HAHA, maybe I'll put a fire extinguisher in the tank cabinet . Thanks for the kind words.

alpine -
I see. I have the bulkheads installed because I'm running an external pump for a closed loop / return pump for the sump chamber in the rear of the tank. So the bulkheads lead to a pump and a scwd in the cabinet below. For the LR, unfortunately, my LFS's suck, so I won't get a chance to hand pick anything. I think you're right though, so long branches would look cool. I took my chances with the nano LR from Premium Aquatics, so we'll see what they send. Thanks for the encouragement!

Devtech -
Thanks! I know what you mean about the algae stage. I have another little 6gal nano that's currently cycling for about 4 weeks now, and just started to get diatom bloom and first signs of hair algae. I'll probably manually clean it up a bit, and put a CUC in soon. I've been following your tank, time for an update man!

[mathias999us]

Well, I've ordered my 20 pounds of NANO LR from premium aquatics, but it's not supposed to be here until next friday, so that's probably it for updates until I get the rock put in next weekend. Then I'll post some pics of my aquascaping.