Planning my office nano

[down&dirty]

So after some time I have finally realized that I spend more time in my office than at home. This has prompted me to begin planning and design of a nano for the office. I want to build something around one of the 7.5 gallon bowfront tanks. I know these are popular for nanos and they just look cool. Does anyone know if this can be drilled? I noticed they are made of a much thicker glass than 10 gallon tanks and my LFS said that they won't drill anything smaller than a 20 because the glass is just to thin and brittle. I am waiting to hear from the guy who drills their tanks to see if he will drill the 7.5. I also want my system to be mostly hands-free. While I so spend a lot of time in the office I am gone 2 days a week for the weekend and I am not making the 45 minute commute to feed fish and corals. I have a simple design that will use a custom build bowfront cabinet that mimics the bowfront of the display tank. Could you check it out and give me some suggestions? My plan is to design a tank that can be left for 7 days without human intervention and still be in good shape. This isn't too far away since I already have a 75 gallon that I can leave for 7 days without any care other than occasional feeding.

 

[down&dirty]

So for some reason my design didn't post even though it is in the same jpg as the above display. Here is the actual design. After some thought the 5.5 gallon sump/refugium will need to be increased. The two surge generators can hold up to 4 gallons so if they are both empty at the same time I would only have 1.5 gallons of water left in the sump and then if they both empty I would overflow since the tank water level would also drop. I am thinking about just custom building everything but the display tank with a plywood/epoxy method like many homebuilt tanks are built. This will let me have a 10+ gallon sump which would hold everything if worse case conditions are meet. We do have a backup generator to keep the office moving when the power goes out so worse case should only last 30-45 seconds. Man it pays to work for a distributed generation company.

 

[Ducman996]

I would be excited to see the final project. It looks great from the design stand point. Keep us updated.

 

[Anonymous]

Hiya, I don't have a lot of minibow experience, so I'll not comment on that, but I have kept nanos at the office before and have a few tips that might be useful

- low bioload. reduces cleaning hassle
- keep it clean. your cow orkers might be grossed out if it's grody
- don't keep frozen fish food in the employee food fridge. doh.
- do your cleaning after hours, out of sight
- resist the urge to mess with it during the workday. boss crabby.

 

[ricky1414]

whats a "distributed generation" company?

 

[Anonymous]

dont stare at it all day either..that=less production outta you.. :lol:

 

[down&dirty]

Distributed generation is basically utilizing diesel and turbine generators to allow you to produce your own electricity while the utilities are experienceing a higher load. There are normally some good savings that can be had by reducing the load on the utility. It also helps that not only will the generator produce savings from load shedding but it also doubles as a backup unit that allows you to run standalone from the utility during storms.

But back to reefing.

This nano is in the works. I am waiting on wood glue to set and my epoxie decision to be made. Any input on what is a good epoxie to use would be appriciated. The system is being prototyped and I think that I am going to have to add a metal halide for the fun of it.