M109R Nano Blog (1 Viewer)

[m109r]

First, I wanted to say hello and I am really happy that I ran across this reef forum dedicated to Houston and the surrounding area. My first saltwater aquarium experience took place 20 years ago when the Jaubert plenum method was all the rage and internet resources like this were were limited. I ended my saltwater hobby 10 years ago and decided to jump back in by starting small.

Here are some pictures of my progress so far.


Tank:20" x 16" rimless AIO with dual 1/2" returns

This tank has been running since Saturday 1/9/2010.

 

[fstar25]

looks like a good start. Best of luck to you!

 

[RR-MAN]

Very clean acrylic work...who made the tank?

 

[m109r]

Thanks for the comments!


Advance Acrylics out of CA made the tank.

 

[i_am_poor]

Nice tank.

 

[RR-MAN]

Thanks for the comments!


Advance Acrylics out of CA made the tank.

Did you order the tank directly from them or some local pet store? I'm thinking about a planted tank and I'm thinking about an acrylic tank.

 

[aleaksthegreat]

Thats a bad ********* tank, looks like a new project to start for me.... any other info on a way to get one?

 

[m109r]

Thanks for the comments.

John (Advance Acrylics Owner) has a website http://www.advanceacrylics.com/ or you can check out some of the tanks he has ready to go on E-bay @ http://shop.ebay.com/macilwu/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

His "Buy It Now" prices are high and from my experience make your offers 25-30% lower than the buy it now listing.

The tank really is well made and the layout is exactly what I was looking for.

Update: My Odyssea Metal Halide Pendant 150W with double T5's came in last night. (I will post pics tonight) Heat is definitely going to be a problem, are the clamp on fans worth trying or should I jump right into purchasing a chiller?

Starting temp was 77.6 and it rose by two full degrees within an hour, although I wanted to see just how hot it would go I shut it down before turning in for the night.

 

[cichlidtx]

That's a really nice tank. I like the dual outputs. What are your plans for the rear chambers? The fans will help with the heat. What are your intial feelings about the light, I was considering buying it for my tank.

 

[m109r]

That's a really nice tank. I like the dual outputs. What are your plans for the rear chambers? The fans will help with the heat. What are your intial feelings about the light, I was considering buying it for my tank.

Thanks, the dual returns and the overflow area is what I found to be most attractive in my Nano tank search.

The center overflow chamber will be used for Chaeto once the tank cycles. Currently I am not planning to run a skimmer but it looks like I should have enough room for a Tunze 9002 in the right chamber.

The jury is out on the light, the 150MH washes out the Actinic and it is my feeling is that it is too white for being 15K; I will more than likely change it out with a 14K Phoenix soon.

The legs are little awkward to setup and I need to play with it tonight to get it to sit on the tank right. The fan is absolutely useless, what ever R&D cost went into it was a waste of money.

I almost purchased the 24" Aquaticlife T5 HO with lunar LED system and kinda wish I would have gone that route now.

 

[mike13oy]

looks good.
I think you should move the HOB filter to the back of the tank.

 

[m109r]

looks good.
I think you should move the HOB filter to the back of the tank.

Thanks! Actually, the HOB filter has been removed and I do not plan on using it all the time. It will be my polishing/media filter when needed only.

But I agree, if I were to leave one on the tank it would have to be centered on the tank.

 

[m109r]

Pictures of new light:

 

[cichlidtx]

That looks nice. I may have to take another look at that light, can't beat the price.

 

[fstar25]

Tagging along, looks good, keep us updated

 

[m109r]

Tagging along, looks good, keep us updated

Thanks!

That looks nice. I may have to take another look at that light, can't beat the price.

After more time with the light it has grown on me. The fan is still a POC, I pulled it apart, pulled the diffusers from the housing and have it sitting to the side blowing air across the water. Totally useless in it's intended design.

Update: Still no cycling activity, so, I decided to add more live rock to get the party started. It was labeled as Marshal Island live rock and man, what a difference.

I did find a Stomatopod that made it's home in one of the rocks, the jury is out as to whether I will keep him. A night excursion with flash light in hand turned up several brittle stars and tiny bugs all over the place.

As I figured I am going to have to do something about the heat generated by the Odyssey 150MH, the tank got to 81.5 yesterday at mid day and was able to bring it back down to 78.5 with a standing type oscillating fan. Ambient temp was 72ish around the time that the tank temp reached 81.5 and was able to cool it back down to 78.5 in roughly two hours. I think a fan setup will work fine now but I fear that temp control will be a problem come summer where the indoor ambient will be in the upper 70's. So, I think I am going to cut to the chase and get a chiller and think I have settled on the JBJ Arctica Titanium Chiller DBA-075 1/10HP, anyone have any experience with this particular unit?

 

[Guest]

Pimp looking custom tank!

First time I read over the whole thread.

 

[m109r]

Update:

Close to my one month anniversary and after testing almost every other day I never did see any evidence of a chemical cycle. I did run into some algae growth in the usual areas so I added a CUC last weekend. One huge turbo snail and ten hermits cleaned things up nicely.

I went a different direction on fish and picked up a pair of fire fish and started my coral collection with a mushroom rock.

So far I have been pretty happy with this setup but already planning/looking for a larger tank.

I still have a long way to go with adding more rock but here are some current pics.

 

[galvezsurfer33]

looks awesome very clean!
those fire's from what i hear are jumpers so keep an eye out

 

[m109r]

Thanks!

I understood that these were jumpers before I got them but really did not understand just how jumpy they really are. In the process of wiping down the tank one made the leap for freedom, hit the light fixture and made it back in the display. I have been kicking around the idea of building a canopy for this setup in my effort to buffer runaway light and think I will move this plan ahead.