Short cube frag tank

[allan]

Okay, my turn to do a little tank. My frag tank as my fuge doesn't seem to have the necessary space for extras.

http://img.tapatalk.com/6008f53c-5eb2-6406.jpg

It will rest there on my coffee table. I believe ace said it would hold 16 gallons, so I will be doing 16 gallon water changes from the other tank.

It will either go here...

http://img.tapatalk.com/6008f53c-5f0c-8276.jpg

Or here....

http://img.tapatalk.com/6008f53c-5f26-5f03.jpg

Where the lamp is.

Filtration will be weekly 15 gallon water changes and macro algae. I'm thinking calulpra since it grows so crazy.

No livestock, maybe a crab and a couple of snails.

I've got a small pump that will go in there. Not sure about a heater.

[reefreak]

nice allan what lighting are you going to use?

[Scutterborn]

I like the lamp location. I kept looking at the pic and was doing a "where's Waldo". I couldnt see the tank! Then I backed out and read the next line... I seriously doubt my own intelligence sometimes!

[Scutterborn]

I would worry about algae with the window right behind it though.

[Big_Pun]

still think you should look into moding a hang on back filter as a fuge. I've had great success with them on small tanks, look at Emilys zoa garden with sps.

so what's the theory on using old tank water from the big system? why not just make 3-4 extra gallons when you change out the big tank, do them at same time.

[chunkymonkey]

Nice.....did you make it?

[allan]

Nah, it's an Ace made tank. He put it together with some acrylic he had lying about. Made ford tough, though. I could probably drop it and it wouldn't leak/crack.

I'm thinking by the lamp as well, Ben. I just have to ensure that I've the room to access my fuge in the big tank.

Idk, Chris. Just makes sense to use the old tank water for it. There's plenty of calcium in it, and since I'm still using the other 95% of it in the display tank there shouldn't be any issues with the 5% I'm using again in the frag tank. This way I keep it simple and low budget. If it doesn't work... Well, I doubt that would be an issue. No reason to throw money at it needlessly.

If I discover that I'm running into any issues then I will entertain the HOB fuge. But that dude around here that kept a micro reef in a vase could really show us a thing or two about keeping it simple.

I plan on using a MH for about three hours twice a day. The rest of the time it will be a cfm bulb for the macro development.

[Zack]

What are the dimensions of that cube?

[allan]

Sorry dude, missed your question. 16" x 16" x 13". Eurobraced just a few blocks south of 1604. :)

I got busy this morning and started the light stand. As you know I plan on using a MH 150 pendant to run this little guy.

I created a tall bracket so I would have room to raise or lower the MH as necessary to provide adequate water temp. A small fan will be mounted on the neck to provide a gentle breeze for evaporative heat loss.

15542

The base. Plan on painting the tank side blue, but if I get to lazy to drive out to HD I will paint it white. The frag tank will be bare bottom.

15543

The neck, I wanted to run the light power cable down through the neck... But I forgot.

15544

Inside the neck... This would have been the perfect time to place the power cord, but I was distracted because I was taking pictures. Should put one on face book... But it's not a plate of food...

15545

Skipped ahead a bit, was sneezing and sweating and just wanted to be done. I added some trim to the base, neck, and the arm that holds the light.

15546

Only 5 pics per post in tapatalk so...

[allan]

Here is a close up on the arm...

15547

I went with sharp 90 degree angles to keep with the cube concept, and because I don't have the necessary skills or patience to do otherwise.

Went inside and noticed my tri-color war coral is hungry as heck.

15548

[Mr Cob]

nice job Allan, that war has some mad polyp extension

[allan]

Yeah, first time I've seen it that needy.

[allan]

Turns out that I had blue paint lying about.

Not sure if I mentioned it before but the neck is supported by the tank... It holds on its own but I don't want to unnecessarily stress it until there is water and tank on the shelf.

15552

[allan]

Put water in it.

Going to run it over night to see what the temperature does over 6-8 hours.

As a test subject I've got a purple tip valida, armor of a god zoas, birdsnest, and a few pulsing xenias. Want to see how they weather the storm before I put in other stuff.

15563

15564

15565

[Scutterborn]

Looks like your rockin a pretty groovy wave! Looks good


-Ben-

[allan]

Thanks Ben. So far this morning the temp is 79 degrees.

So it looks like the light is at the appropriate distance to prevent overheating. Wednesday I will put it on a diurnal schedule so I can monitor throughout the day.

[Sherita]

I'm loving this little tank! Can't wait to see it full of eye candy.

[allan]

I left the house without turning off the light, so we will see what happens.

The purple tip valida had some color creeping up on it. It had browned out in the fuge without any, or much, light. The AOGs were half open and half closed. I don't expect them to run right until it has a decent night shift. The birdsnest was showing some polyp extension and coloring a bit green as well.

I found a tuft of halimeda so I tossed that in as well. I can use that to somewhat check my calcium levels... and to see something grow.

I'm thinking I may just do a twice a week 5 gallon water change with the new tank... pulling waste water from the big tank for nutrients and stuff. No livestock in the frag tank.

Except maybe for a hermit and a snail? Thoughts?

I was thinking of coral frenzy a few hours before a water change so that I can get that stuff out of the system when I do the water change. Or most of it anyway.

[Mr Cob]

does the nano have any filtration aside from what I can see...macro algae and a piece of live rock in the display? If not, I think the water changes from your main display will be very benefitial and you will definitely need to do them twice a week to keep your parameters stable.

[allan]

That's the only filtration, yes. But remember, I'm not placing any livestock in there. Nothing that will produce waste... except for perhaps a snail or crab... but jury is out as to whether I will do that or not.

So, if I don't put any livestock in there... what will tweak the parameters?

I have toyed around with the idea of constructing an acrylic overflow HOB Fuge... but I'm thinking that I want to create one from scratch. A little pump to put water into it, through the macro/fuge and to spill over into the main tank.

[Mr Cob]

Coral produce waste dude and so do inverts, and if you feed the tank/corals then you will also have waste from the stuff that does not get eaten. Your display water will have waste in it when it comes into the nano and unless you have a way to remove the excess nutrients then you will have problems, which is why I agreed to doing multiple water changes weekly to keep the parameters stable.

[allan]

Okay, so no to the inverts.

Yes to the twice a week five gallon water change.

I'm depending on the nutrients from the main tank water to feed the softies... and depending on the macro to rid the additional nutrients from the tank. Originally I wasn't planning on feeding this tank at all. Except for the light, no food into the tank. Then I had the bright idea of feeding the tank a few hours before doing a water change. Are you saying that perhaps I shouldn't do this?

[Mr Cob]

as long as you can keep an obedient water change schedule that is multiple times a week and about the same amount of water each time I think you will be ok, you are kind of employing the same concept that vendors use when going to a convention such as MACNA, they set up a system for 3-5 days and as long as they keep the tank with clean water they are good to go. Kind of like not allowing the tank to ever cycle.

I have done the same when doing photoshoots for MCC. I'll set up a tank to take shots and be too tired to tear it down afterwards so I just keep it going for a week or two (lol) but do small water changes daily from the main display tank. Only thing in the tank would be coral, light, heater and powerheads....and I would feed the corals too but as long as water keeps going out and coming back in it's all good.

My only problem is...how long can you keep that up?

[allan]

At least until I either give up the house or maybe seven years.

I plan on doing the water changes by siphoning up the bottom of the tank so detritus won't be an issue. A gallon of RODI sitting by the tank for top off, and just keep my water container full of water. Then dip out five gallons twice a week.

My psuedo example can be found here http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?69257-14-genera-of-coral-in-a-vase-for-six-years-allelopathy-is-not-what-we-thought-it-was&highlight=7+years

[Mr Cob]

very awesome...but that vase has a DSB which is a major filtration benefit, have you considered having one as well?

[allan]

No, I'm tired of sand and I don't want to take up the room to put one in.

Old habits die hard, I was contemplating tying it in with the other tank. That would be relatively easy... But then I'm back to the old multi tank system that I wanted to stay away from.

[Mr Cob]

Seems like this tank will be more work than you imagined in comparison to tapping it into the main display which would leave you with little to zero maintenance.

The vase idea works because of his regular water changes and that DSB. You got the water change theory down but without a main source of filtration I think your water changes might need to be more frequent than just a couple a week. More like every other day. When I would set up the temporary frag photoshoot tanks I would have to water change daily.

[allan]

If it becomes problematic then I will either dial into the big tank or create a HOB fuge.

Right now the main source of of filtration is the rock and macro algae.

[Mr Cob]

I like the hob fuge idea, I had great success on smaller tanks utilizing that idea. A simple penguin filter converted over to a fuge works great.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

[allan]

Or this one...
http://reefbuilders.com/2011/09/29/ecoreef-zero-population-1/

I wanted to build the fuge to give me something to occupy my time... or course I'd never get the right angles down correctly.

[Mr Cob]

thx for sharing that link Allan, that's way cool man. Worth mentioning...is they slowly removed coral and rock over the course of two years, wonder if they could just start without all of it and what exactly did they start with?

[Mr Cob]

ok, if I understand it correctly, it started as this:

http://reefbuilders.com/2010/04/22/ecoreef-one-a-model-for-a-low-energy-nano-reef-tank/

[allan]

I believe that the "slowly removing live rock" was an experimental method to ensure they weren't causing any harm to the coral. I was thinking about that as well, but chose to disregard it for just the way they did it. You mentioned that coral gives off waste... My premis is that the waste given off by the coral will not outstrip the LR and Macro's capabilities. I'm making an assumption here. With the coral that i've got in there now, I should know something by thursday or friday as to whether this experiment will fail without due diligence on my part.

I'm hoping that it will work well. The key here is not to provide a significant amount of ammonia and nitrite that the LR and Macro can handle. I may have to do a much more than a 5 gallon twice a week... more like a 90% once a week. But I plan on starting out with a 5 gallon twice a week. Nothing of imporance will be placed within the tank until after I've verified that the inhabitants can survive.

I would also argue that in the Vase story, I wouldn't call that a deep sand bed. That's one of the reasons I decided not to go that route. The vase has a 2" sand bed, granted the surface area vice the depth is significant, I've always attributed a DSB as 4-6" depth.

[Mr Cob]

The key here is not to provide a significant amount of ammonia and nitrite that the LR and Macro can handle. I may have to do a much more than a 5 gallon twice a week... more like a 90% once a week. But I plan on starting out with a 5 gallon twice a week. Nothing of imporance will be placed within the tank until after I've verified that the inhabitants can survive.

I would also argue that in the Vase story, I wouldn't call that a deep sand bed. That's one of the reasons I decided not to go that route. The vase has a 2" sand bed, granted the surface area vice the depth is significant, I've always attributed a DSB as 4-6" depth.

yeah, I agree Allan, the key will be balance and not have a waste load larger than what the one piece of live rock and macro algae can handle.

I didn't realize the vase sandbed was 2", it looked much larger...4"+ I'm with you on 4"+ to be a valid DSB.

[allan]

15576

Time lapse photo... Day three. Added a fire coral frag and lunar eclipse, the AOG is open but color is dark. Could be the 15k MH.

[allan]

Not sure if this still counts as a nano cube. After a long spirited debate with my little friend, mr Cobb, I decided to tie into the big system.

Lowered the 150 MH, started putting in a few more frags to reduce the amount that I've got in the DT. I may have to lower it a bit more, but as soon as I find that spot I will replace the zip ties with something a bit more pleasing to the eye.

15682

15683

I'm thinking of building a trim around the top that will overlap the tank so I can house some stunner strips I've got hanging around.

[Scutterborn]

Not sure if this still counts as a nano cube.

It's still a nano and it's a cube.... Just has a really, really, REALLY awesome sump!

-Ben-

[Sherita]

^^^^^That right there^^^^^

Love that little tank Allan! It's purdy :)

Now I gotta get off my tail and get a build thread started for the 140, but it will never be as awesome as the sump for that little cube :)

[Mr Cob]

Allan now you don't have to worry about anything lol. Hey man, how did you plumb it? I can't tell from the pics.

Ben, no joke....that nano has a flippin big sump.

[allan]

Lol, I hadn't thought of that.

I drilled the back of the tank, two very simple lines, in and out. I have a 1.5 pump tuned to its lowest setting feeding the tank, I was hoping the flow would be a bit lower but the drain is holding well.

I will snap a picture but the lights are off so I'm not holding my breath.

15687

15688

[hobogato]

that will definitely cut down on maintenance.

[allan]

Yeah,

I only did a couple of water changes and already I was getting bored with the process. Ten gallons out from the small one, ten from the big one into the small one, ten more from the small one, ten from the big one, twenty into the big one... Too much.

I need to buy a bunch of material and invite RRASCO out to the house to "drink coffee" while I build my RODI/Water Changing station set up. :)

[Sherita]

Allan, isn't it about time for some more pics?

Hint, hint.

[allan]

Okay, sherita :)

I don't like all the brown algae, I didn't expect it since its tied to the other system, but there it is.

Also think that pump may be a bit much for the tank. What do you think?

15745

A little red algae...

15746

The clown usually hangs with the Xenia frags.

15748

15747

15749

[reefreak]

hey allan how are you hanging the pendant?

[allan]

:) I'm using zip ties now until I find the right height for the lamp, then I will use a chain.

I'm still not sure I've got it at the right height, and I got a 15k... Should've put a 20k. Too yellow now.