My 6 gallon nano tank

[wombat1]

Here are pics of my eclipse 6, modified to keep SPS corals. I added a 65 W LOA 6500K bulb as well as a 13 W combo PC. The sump has two maxijets (295 and 160 gph) on a wavemaker. The evaporation topoff is controlled by a Kent float valve and pumped in by a little minijet. The hood is cooled by two Nexfan brand computer fans. The tank and sump are separated by 2 3/4" and one 1" bulkheads.

 

[wombat1]

More...

 

[shalegac]

Very cool. I can't wait to see it running.

 

[brandon4291]

Ouch ouch ouch that is a stinger setup with several outstanding features just like vulkum's. On your setup Wombat the LIGHTING upgrade is going to work wonders, its very very bright and keeping in that hood does wonders for the looks! Outstanding custom job on the topoff, its now become no hassle whatsoever with the way its tapped into the reef display.

Can you imagine putting $400 in coral specimens in there--all pink, green, purple acropora and montipora? Ill bet your sps take off right from the start with regular calcium /alk maintenance. What a design, the doors are wide open to whatever you want to keep in there.

Brandon

 

[liquid]

Make sure you keep the electronics of that LOA PC cool. That unit is made to be used outside so it runs hot. Since it cost only $30, the unit is made pretty cheaply. The light coming off of it is amazing tho, isn't it?

The longest I've ever been able to keep one of those units functioning is 1 year and then I have to trash the entire thing and buy a new one as the electronics fry.

hth

Shane

 

[UnderGrad]

Sweet setup Matt! Did you do all the drilling yourself? And when are you going to start stocking it?

-AM-

 

[UnderGrad]

One more quick question for you... what do you plan on dosing with? I'm considering the possibility of putting SPS in my new one.

-AM-

 

[wombat1]

Thanks for the feedback guys, and I'm glad to hear that about the LOA light so I can plan ahead. I have 2 fans blowing, one in and one out, and the tank is in a thermally controlled lab building (constant 75) so I think temp will be OK. I just set up the tank last night with sand and rock from Rob Toonen's old 55 gallon tank. There's an amazing amount of life already in there. I plan on topping off with DI water with maybe a little Kalk in there. I can easily do a 50% water change once a week with natural sea water so that should take care of all my params like Ca, Alk, etc. I'll hope to post some pictures soon of it and my friend Mike Mutalipassi's tank as well.

BTW, Arlan, I drilled those holes myself with hole saws and a little 3 in 1 oil. No cracks! I had to put 3 rubber washers on each bulkhead--one on each side and in between the tank and sump.

 

[brandon4291]

Umm, you mean to say you are within transportation distance to Rob Toonen? How do you know him good enough to bum sand and LR off him?!?! That is neat!

 

[UnderGrad]

Brandon,
Yeah Rob is a great guy! He donated a few frags to me and ReefRian's tank as well. He has always been more than willing to talk reefs whenever I needed some advice. Unfortunately, I think he is leaving Davis soon... I think Matt might know more about that though.

-AM-

 

[wombat1]

We work at the same university in the same building, so it's actually walking distance! Rob IS leaving soon, and he can't take his livestock with him so he was nice enough to give me and some other lucky folks all his reef stuff.

 

[wombat1]

Here's the tank the first day (the second picture ). I've found an abalone, five small asexual starfish (you can see one on the front glass), tons of feather dusters, bristleworms, and amphipods. The tank was set up Thursday, Feb 27. I've got the tank on 7 hours of light right now. The first pic is of a Stichodactyla mertensii with A. ocellaris clowns in our 120 gallon reef. The carpet has been in captivity for 15 years now.

 

[cmagallon1]

nice setup!

 

[brandon4291]

NICE SANDBED! I like that deep sand bed, with your regular feedings it will be chock full of worm tracks in the coming months. I can see nice pod biodiversity coming for this reef in the future.

 

[wombat1]

It's 4.5" deep. I just added a small frag of xenia and 3 tiny abalones today.

 

[wombat1]

I snapped this pic today. The xenia is visible in the foreground.

 

[wombat1]

This was taken today. I added some green sinularia, a gorgonian, and sarcophyton today. They look pretty ratty, but the xenia looks a lot better. The other pic is of Mike Mutalipassi's (bleeding blue) tank.

 

[wombat1]

Here's some smaller sized pics of the softies after a day, looking much better.

 

[UnderGrad]

That gorgonian looks great! Does it like alot of current? I'm jealous!

Arlan

 

[wombat1]

Arlan, it did really well in the main tank with high current in between two CA-2200 powerheads 3 feet away on either side. They were on a wavemaker to alternate flow. It was also in front of the spraybar from the return. It was fed a mixture of various sized golden pearls and tahitian blend, (a phytoplankton substitute).