20 gal Desktop (1 Viewer)

[gospeed81]

Howdy,

My buddy Josh and I both decided we were going to set up some desktop aquariums at work. His is a 5gal with a simple carbon filter, mine a 20gal, and a try at an algae turf scrubber. My background is all freshwater, a 10&20gal previously for my daughter, and now "our" big 100gal cichlid tank.

I had a spare 20 gallon long tank that was going to be a sump for a double 40 gallon breeder tank I have yet to build. We're moving at home so that project stalled, and I figured I spend 10hrs a day at my desk, and it would serve as a good "incubator" tank to pick up cheap frags that will eventually go into the big home tank once built after the move.

After a lot of reading on algal scrubbers and a few plumbing schematics Josh and I were off to Home Depot, and I got my little screen apparatus built.

Water was pretty cloudy on the first day. I plan on building a fully enclosed canopy that will support the piping, and then the lights from above.

Cleaned up a little using a hang-on-back, added some rock, mangrove and cheato (and ate lunch):

As it sits today:

A lot more diatoms growing, and the screen is lightly covered in red algae. First screen clean coming up in the next day or two, and a water test next week.

The hang on back will stay for the first few months, then be removed as long as water quality remains high.

 

[BILLYO382]

Great start, dont clean that screen just yet, let it establish until you get that green growth. Look forward to all the frags you will put in this puppy, we will see which tank looks the best as time goes on. I need to make a build thread for my little nano reef, lol.

 

[gospeed81]

Some good friendly competition is never bad, and even though you got a week head start on me I've already caught up...


TANK IS CYCLED!!!


Took only a week and a half. I attribute most of this to Josh's help, I know experience allowed things to go well. I never would have managed to cycled my first SW tank this fast alone. We started with some Bio-Activ live argonite, and he added some cycle booster.

The screen is going right along. I'm happy I'll now be able to add a fish and hope that its bio-load will promote some GHA.

So far so good then. McLovin' my first saltwater tank. Heading out to City Pets for first fish and frag at lunch.

EXCITED!!!

 

[gospeed81]

Added some life today:

"Loo-Wer"




Corals, all $5 frags from City Pets:

The snail I paid for, the starfish I didn't (first tag-along):

Overall progress shot:

 

[BILLYO382]

Reefing Progress sweet.

 

[gospeed81]

Added another chromis so Loo-wer wouldn't be so shy, as well as augmenting the clean-up crew with a turbo snell and two hermits.

 

[gospeed81]

Before the weekend I slapped on an auto timer that would shut off the pump for a half hour window around the auto-feeder schedule to allow the fish to eat.

The program apparently only kicked the pump back on automatically the first day (while I watched), but never turned back on after shutting off the next day. Lack of flow and close proximity lighting completely cooked the screen, and it was pure white when I came back in Monday. I had scraped it Friday, but didn't intend for the first screen clean to start me back at nothing.

Thank goodness I was not yet relying on the algae screen alone and had the hang-in still on the back. Beware the RadioShack digital timers. I even read the instructions and tried again these past few days to no avail...it always drops the kick-on the second day into a week-long program.

 

[Tnconcept]

Looking good so far. :encouragement:

 

[kyletc]

how did you make it rimless?

 

[rparker2112]

how did you make it rimless?

Its not that hard, i did it to my sump that was going to be a planted tank. Looks good if done right.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=diy+rimless+aquarium

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[gospeed81]

The trim was already damaged, so I just finished taking it off. It originally served as a freshwater rimless for a while, then was going to be a sump.

The main difference I've seen that affects pulling off trim and accidents is the glass thickness. This tank did have thicker glass than another 20gal I have, and both my 5 and 10 gallon tanks. I wouldn't try it myself on anything below 3/8ths.

 

[gospeed81]

Canopy framed and skinned, ready for brackets and painting.

Kilz on the inside:

Black on the outside:

Actinic lights I ordered (supposedly 20") were a bit too short, so I ended up cutting down the fixture. Was simple, sorry no pics of finished product.

Canopy installed. Note that his is with just a single "20"" T5 and the algae screen CFLs.

Top view. The T5 is under the front lip. The red rubber rings are garden hose washers doubled up as drip stops at each end of the slotted screen pipe. 8' reflectors house 10W 50/50s.

Another view. Screen growth is low due to an auto-timer mishap with the maxi-jet last weekend. Screen was starch white by the time I came in last Monday, so it started over.

With the added 50/50s:

Added anemone:

And a peppermint shrimp:

So far so good. Trying to keep the plants buttoned down, but they keep floating. I like it clean, so may develop some eggcrate hold-downs for roots.



Absolutely loving my first SW tank. Nice break from staring at the monitors every few minutes. General stress level down, productivity up, happier.

 

[BILLYO382]

i like what i see thus far. good job man

 

[dayton]

The zenia will take over quickly, make sure its on a rock that you can remove and try to keep it away from the other rocks..........trust me

 

[ReeferMike]

Def. looks good man

 

[gospeed81]

update - now with more corals

Update on the tank progress. I let it sit and grow for a few months, and today added my first big round of SPS, a 15pcs starter frag pack from David, Reeftopia.

Since the last update I've removed the algae scrubber. It was working pretty well, but one night started spraying and completely soaked a drawing packet I'd spent considerable time working on. Definitely couldn't afford another incident like that. I pulled it planning to make an acrylic enclosure, and adding LEDs in order to utilize those two reflectors for 50/50 reef lights.

Once nitrates started coming up a little from the scrubber's absence Josh and I elected instead to install a hang-on skimmer. Josh (BillyO) had modified this skimmer extensively, and it's a little monster. In a few short days it's getting some nicely colored wet skim. Still a few break-in microbubbles, but all is well.

So on to the pics. Will update every month or so for growth.

All of the close-ups except for the bird's nest are pieces that came from David. I highly recommend the starter pack he's selling, but recommend even more paying him a visit to see his amazing tanks and set-up. Definitely a nice guy, and happy to share his hobby. Always blown away by the coral and fish he keeps.

 

[gospeed81]

Josh and I modified the canopy to accept more lights today.

It will eventually have:

(2) 55W 10K PCs
(4) 10W 50/50 Reef Suns
(3) 14W T5 actinics
(4) blue LED moon lights

Two of the 50/50s had large reflectors, and we only had one smaller reflector to swap in, so I need to pick up another while waiting on the other two actinic T5s to come in.

Pics to come of the lighting once done and wiring cleaned up and painted.

Construction progress:

 

[rparker2112]

Looking good, but why all the differnt bulb types? Replacing those will make me cry.

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[gospeed81]

Looking good, but why all the differnt bulb types? Replacing those will make me cry.

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Because free...LOL.

Let's just say this tank was built on a budget. It's kind of come together with whatever we had lying around, or whatever was minimal investment. All the 50/50s were done because I had all these extra light fixtures in my garage from when I used to restore motorcycles. The first T5 fixture was a below cabinet light I'd installed in the kitchen so we could make bottles at 3am without blinding ourselves. The PCs came from an old old fixture Josh and I cannibalized.

Anything that costs money makes me cry.

 

[rparker2112]

Oh, i see, hey it works!!! Thats what i dont understand about this hobby, you dont need the best to make your tank happy.

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