Snazzy 12g Nano
 

Some background on my solitary tank. I have had this little Aquapod 12 since August 2008 which as of today is almost four years. I have customized the tank including:

- Cheato refugium in one rear compartment.
- Upgraded return pump.
- Overflow lifted 1 cm.
- Replaced stock light with DIY 16 x 3W Bridgelux LED (50/50 blue and white) with dimmers.
- DIY ATO.

I have a busy household with kids and their hobbies so while front and center in the family room this tank cannot look messy. The All in One (AIO) achieves this look with hose and wires tucked away neatly so attention is focused on the contents of the glass and nothing else.

So some big reefers will no doubt chide me for a measly 12 gallons as some skimmers hold more than my display but I think big things can be done with little tanks. Nano tanks are not harder to maintain as many will falsely advise and are quite suitable for beginners.

Now my tank was in a holding pattern for over a year with minimal maintenance while I looked after my newborn daughter and I lost a lot of my favourite corals including all my beloved zoas. Now that my youngest is running around and a badly needed lighting upgrade(LED) six weeks ago in April 2012 I have a renewed interest in this tank. I am collecting again what I lost and trying some more difficult corals. The tank is a little bare right now but it will soon look full again.
Keith.

Pics May 2012
 

Here are a few pictures I took today with my little Canon PowerShot.

http://snaz.com/marine/013.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/018.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/020.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/029.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/028.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/030.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/031.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/034.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/035.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/039.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/042.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/870.jpg

beautiful! That closed zoa polyp in the first picture has a nudie on it.. Grab It:mrgreen:

Great looking nano Keith! Love the collections of zoas. Need a FTS!

Great eyes!

Lol, as soon as I made this post I saw the nudie too! Its lights off now and I can't find it! I have a few pest issues to deal with as the pictures illustrate. My two large plates of Echinopora are being stung by an Aiptasia, I bought a peppermint shrimp last week but he went over the false wall and is somewhere in the maze of compartments doing me no good.

The nudies are new and worrisome, this is the fourth I have seen in two weeks, the other three I was able to catch. I have nothing that eats them so I could be in big trouble. No zoas purchases until I get that sorted out.

Hi Keith

The nano is looking great.

Tom R

Thank you. The last shot is essentially a FTS.

http://snaz.com/marine/870.jpg

Thanks Tom. If you are still in Cloverdale I would love to bring my six year old over to see what a big reef looks like sometime. Bribe you with a beverage?

thats a great looking wee tank!:biggrin:......no coral goes into my tank without being dipped first.....while dipping may not get everything every time, its cheap insurance that definitely helps lessen the chance of introducing something nasty like nudis....

I'm a big dipper. I don't usually acclimate my corals. Everything gets a fresh water/iodine wash before it goes into the display. Everything jumps off but i guess some eggs sneaked through.

No, an IPad that makes it easy to enlarge images!

That nudie has been feeding on that particular zoa for a while, that's why he's an exact color match. I bet if you pop that frag off the rock he's living underneath it.

I took the frag off as you suggested and inspected the base of all three pieces and they appear to be solid glue with no obvious hiding places. I gave it a good going over but did not see the little bugger.

I did find one on another colony which I was able to suck up with a pipette... I think I may use the Salifert FWE on all my zoas colonies but I need to come up with some magnification as my eyes are not what they once were.

Hi Keith

Your welcome to come over for a visit.

Just send me a PM and I will return it to you with my address and phone number.

Tom R

So it has been almost a week since I picked off the last visible nudibranch and I have not seen any eggs so I am hoping this problem is behind me.

I am having issues with my dKH falling to 5.7 from 6.7 within 24 hours. I did a water change today which brought it up to 6.9 but it is dropping again. I can bring it up with some Arm&Hammer but I guess I need to sort out a dosing routine. Time to buy a calcium test kit. Can I cheap out with Ca test kit or buy Salifert?

My large orange/green Echino is getting too big for this little tank, time to list it for sale I think.

Any chance you could post or pm me some pics/instructions on the DIY ato?

By far the best DIY I did for this tank was the ATO, even better than the LED lights. A constant nonfluctuating salinity makes everything so much happier.

This is the guide I followed when I built mine:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...howtopic=29093

- Replaced the battery operated air pump with a proper Aqualifter.
- Use a 1g green glass olive bottle as a reservoir, it lasts weeks unless it is the summer then it lasts 2-3 days before needing to be refilled with fresh water. Evaporative cooling ftw.
- Because the float switch is not suitable to directly switch the Aqualifter on/off I built a 9v relay in a project box that accomplishes the task nicely. The reason the above build thread uses a battery operated air pump is because a float switch should not be directly connected to a 110v appliance. I ran like this for more than a year but the awful sound of the battery operated air pump and swapping batteries pushed me towards building the relay box.

I can take pictures if you are interested.
Keith

I don't know why but I just couln't spend any money on the Cal and Mag test kit. I would cheap out with those test kits, but I have to use the cheap API to test my dKH because mine is falling about 2 dKH just in a day. I have to keep an eye on it. I see you have some of the sps coral frags in your little cute tank, so the more they grow the more you might have trouble to keep up your dKH, unless you plan to dose your tank in the future. I am using Kent kalwasser to drip at night, but I still have a hard time to maintain my dKH at 7.5 right now. Maybe too many sps corals in my tank, time to think of getting rid of some of them later, that is my plan.

Good advice Thank you. I was thinking of adding some sodium bicarbonate to my ATO water but with summer coming the ATO really gets a workout so that will probably result in a overdose.

I could also just have a squeeze bottle of solution near the tank and every day just give it a squirt. I need some more history before I do either, right now I drop 0.9 - 1.1 point every day. Ill pick up some cheap Mg and Ca kits this week.

FYI the Salifert dKH kit seems very accurate if you don't mind titration and you can get 100 - 200 tests from each. I paid $20 at Ocean Aquatics.

Compartment Customization
 

I shot a three minute video of how I have customized the four chambers in the rear of this AIO. Only the protein skimmer is my own design, the rest I used completely or partially other reefers ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hH9...e_gdata_player

Love your little nano tank :love:
It looks much cuter on the video than just looking at the picture. With such a small tank like that but you were able to build lots of nice hiding places for your fish, and I really like your tiny refugium too.

Thanks Casey. Yes the refugium is nice, nutrient expert and a safe place for the pods to hang out.

I really like your tank it has an extra sump with a few chambers at the back. Did you build it yourself or was it designed like that when you bought it ? What brand name is your tank, Keith ?

The chambers in the back were there when I bought it. These types of tanks are called All in One(AIO) where the components are built into "One" unit. These specialty tanks are desired for the clean look with tubes, wires and other components hidden from view so that the eye is drawn to the contents of the tank and not the tank itself.

There are a few manufacturers of AIO aquariums, the most popular being Biocube, JBJ and mine is an Aquapod 12. The best resource for these tanks are the AIO forums on nano-reef.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showforum=35

Thank you very much for your information. I didn't know the nano tank can be made fancy like that today :razz: It looks so cool, it is just like you said it can hide lots of the ugly things inside there just like a sump. I will get one like yours on my birthday this year :mrgreen:

Couple of Pics
 

Pics today of my orchid dotty and chalice.

http://snaz.com/marine/dotty4.jpg


http://snaz.com/marine/chalice1.jpg

nice pics, i love the chalice!

Thank you. The chalice is getting pretty big but I can't bring myself to selling it.

Here is a picture of a random frag I picked up at last month's frag swap, I really like it.

http://snaz.com/marine/coral2.jpg

The framing on this next shot is horrible but I still like it.

http://snaz.com/marine/coral3.jpg

http://snaz.com/marine/coral4.jpg

Love your meany face dottyback, I hope she will keep this beautiful purple color for a long time. I have heard their color can become faded because our food doesn't have enough nutrition for them like in the nature ocean. I had one before and it was faded after a few months, might be I just don't have luck with them.

Hmm. I have not heard of this fish losing it's colour. I have always had one of these great fish since I started reefing as I love their personality and colour, I would certainly recommend this fish to anyone who has the right habitat.

New Photo
 

I used a new photography technique that was posted in another thread and produced this shot of my large chalice. I like it.

http://snaz.com/marine/ap12005.jpg