My nano

[dsb1829]

Been setup since September. Livestock and most of the live rock from my 4 year old reef that I sold in August.

Tank: 16g acrylic cube, 16" on a side
Sump: 10g glass
Temperature: Dual 50w ebo heaters on Ranco controller, Iceprobe cooling unit on proportional controller
Lighiting: currently dual 32w PC, future hood will also include 70w HQI
Filtration: Aqua C Remora skimmer


Tank intent: I designed this system primarilly to hold corals and anemones until we move to a larger tank. We are currently renting and have no intention of getting a bigger tank until we buy a house.

Livestock:
- pair of true percula clowns
- 4 rose bta
- 1 fire shrimp
- 1 scarlet hermit
- 2 emerald crabs
- 1-3 stomatella snails
- large colony of white nepthea
- small colony of green nepthea
- small colony of ricordia
- small colony of caulastrea
- about 20lb of LR
- and a bit of hair algae that is hangin in there (probably need some more snails to do it in)

a couple of pictures:
the tank-

the sump-

 

[Anonymous]

Ouch, that is beautiful! I really love rose BTAs.

Just curious, why do you have your pump making a Uturn like that? Is something going to be placed in the left side of the stand?

It looks like you have the flow coming up from the substrate, eh? I really like the look of that, hides all the plumbing. Can you show us more pics of everything, hood, other equipment, etc? Thanks!

Matt

 

[Anonymous]

Nice, clean install. I like it!

Louey

 

[dsb1829]

Just curious, why do you have your pump making a Uturn like that? Is something going to be placed in the left side of the stand?

It looks like you have the flow coming up from the substrate, eh? I really like the look of that, hides all the plumbing. Can you show us more pics of everything, hood, other equipment, etc? Thanks!

Matt

U-turn is strictly to save space. I wanted to leave the other side of the stand open for storage etc. It however makes priming and restart very hard on the pump. I still need to place a wye valve above the gate valve so that the return pipe doesn't flood the pump with bubbles when the main pump is shut off.

I implemented under gravel jets http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php . While not a new idea it is one that really hasn't been used much in reefs. I decided to give it a shot. Mine is 1/2" plumbing with the 2 outlets shown. It is powered by a maxijet 900. My web page has more pictures, but I still need to build a page that describes the entire project.

Thanks for the comments

 

[dsb1829]

Well, mentioned to Andy at myreefcreations.com that I had several inquiries on the cube nano. He is interested in making more of these and has added a page to his ever expanding list of items. Looks like full details won't be worked out until January as far as options and pricing though.

Here is a link:
http://www.myreefcreations.com/cubetank.html

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link... - Feel free to let him know it'll be watched for updates...

 

[bdelaney]

Interesting....Andy is the current president of the Atlanta reef club. We had our last meeting at his shop last week. Nice guy, and he does some nice acrylic work. He has a pretty amazing 400 gallon tank in his shop with something like 2400 watts of light over it. You need sunglasses to look at it.

 

[UnderGrad]

Doug,
Great setup. I really like the fact you used a pump for water flow instead of powerheads in the nano. Does your temp display really read 86.4? That can't be good...

Arlan

 

[dsb1829]

I still have 1 ph in the tank, but it is fairly well burried.

The temp is air inside of the stand. That LG pump is fan cooled and really puts off some heat. I have since installed a fan in the stand to drop air temp in there to about 70. BTW, Iceprobe coolers don't work well if air temp is high.

 

[Pisces1]

wow!! very nice. keep up the good work!

 

[brandon4291]

Yes I think you have a super-clean install! Is the top pick with all the colors from an established reef that you are removing items to keep in a nano or is that the actual nano shot? Whatever it is, it is very eye-catching. Let's set up your thread for this upcoming focus, maybe we can get some more Q & A feedback going to uncover all the details... have fun I think your nano is designed well.

Brandon M.

 

[Anonymous]

How long have the BTAs been under the PCs? Also, did they divide under the PCs or did you originally put several in their? I wouldn't have thought that BTAs would be happy under 64w of PC, but I do notice they like hanging out at the top......

 

[dsb1829]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The shot included here is from 12-12-03 and is of the tank itself. I designed the system to be low maintenance as well as comfortable for all of our inhabitants. This is the most recent tank that I have setup in a string of tanks ranging from 6g all the way up to a 290g dual tank system. I really enjoy the hardware aspect of the hobby just as much as the beauty contained within.

BTA's have been under flourescent lighting since August. I have kept them under PC before for about 6 months in a temporary holding tank. I do think that if the lighting is low that additional feeding is beneficial to good health of these anemones. I had one split in the new tank, but the others were already seperated. FWIW lighting is only one aspect of keeping anemones happy. This tank will recieve a 70w hqi setup in the next couple of months. I have it, but want to design a hood around it to deal with heat and uv associated with the hqi.

 

[brandon4291]

We also would love to see update pics when you get that HQI installed, I can't imagine it making your system look better than it already does but I would sure take one! Please post your sources for ballasts and bulbs as well, I really would like to use one on my next reefbowl attempt but from what I can see you have to get the ballasts from an electrical supply house and the bulbs (hard to find?) from online dealers... great tank and design DSB.

Brandon M.