mseepman's 16" starfire nano

[mseepman]

Well, I've been planning a nano tank for my office ever since I picked up a 16" cube tank from another Canreefer. I've posted the building of the stand and light canopy in the DIY forum (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41662) already and finally I'm starting to get the rest of the tank together.

I plan it to be mostly dominated with SPS corals...a brave venture but hopefully something I"m ready for. I've got a variety of SPS frags in my 70G tank from other Canreefers and from Coral Master. I've also picked up about 20lbs of EcoRox from Bulk Reefsupply and they look just awesome. I have Fijipink livesand for a shallow sand bottom as well.

Here's my equipment list so far:

RK2 (just bought it online today)
Two Little Fishies reactor for GFO powered by a MJ400 pump
QuietOne 3000 return pump
SCWD (bought used from OKGUY)
5 gallon Eclipse Acrylic sump
4-Liter DIY ATO
Hydor Koralia Nano Powerhead
Triple Fan DIY chiller

I will up-loading photos of the tank tomorrow. Let me know your thoughts on my plans.

[mseepman]

Okay, so here are the beginning pics of the tank build. I work from home and this is going in my office...hopefully something that will relax me during the work day.



This cube was previously running using a cannister filter by a Canreefer in Calgary. I didn't want to use a cannister closed loop and so I needed to deal with the dual bulkheads in the bottom of the tank. I built a 4 x 6 glass overflow for it using egg-crate for the skimming...but since this was my first time doing this...I made the egg-crate too low for where I wanted the water level to be in the tank. To fix this, I attached a 1/4" pane of acrylic over the bottom two rows of the egg crate...very ghetto but I'm hoping it will work.

I painted the back of the tank black since I will be running a SCWD in the back and I didn't want to see it all the time.



In the bottom you can see the beginnings of my planning for what will fit down there. The sump will be a 5 gallon Eclipse tank that I previously ran for FW. I picked up a thin container from BRS to be used for my FW ATO. I plan to do a low-cost ATO using a TOM air pump and a timer. I also plan on using GFO right from the beginning...hopefully to prevent any of the algae outbreaks that so often plague a new tank.

The last thing you see down below is my extremely ghetto chilling fan set-up. I cut a piece of acrylic, carved 3 holes in it and screwed on 3 pc fans from Princess Auto. I hardwired them to a Variable voltage adapter and I plan to bolt it to the wall inside the stand aiming at the sump. My hope is that this will cool the entire tank enough that I don't need to worry about a chiller.

Tonight I plan to dry-fit some of the plumbing and hopefully give you some more pics.

[LeeR]

That looks really good i really like the stand and tank. Will you be covering the overflow with black acrylic or a thin layer of tinted glass? Also i would maybe sugest changing your sump to a normal 5 gallon or make yourself a custom sump.. that little think might be hard to fit bafles and what not in to.


are you going BB?

[mseepman]

Originally Posted by MacheteAvenue

Also i would maybe sugest changing your sump to a normal 5 gallon or make yourself a custom sump.. that little think might be hard to fit bafles and what not in to.


are you going BB?

I agree with you on the potential problems of fixing baffles into the hex tank. I'm looking into options today.

As for the bottom, no, I'm going with a shallow sand bed as I already have a Pistol/Goby pair for the tank sitting at the LFS.

[mseepman]

Well, after some suggestions on my choice of a sump tank, I've purchased a 5 gallon glass tank and will be using that for my sump. I've already put in two glass baffles to help reduce micro-bubbles and will try to take some pics tonight.

For some reason, the 5 gallon rectangular tank seems smaller than the Eclipse 5 gallon hex tank...

[mseepman]

Well, I did some dry fitting of my Herbie plumbing today and was hoping for some input to make sure that I haven't screwed anything up.



The rear pipe would be my emergency overflow pipe. I left it high so that I will hear it if water starts needing to use this pipe. The front pipe has a gate valve for adjustment and a union so that I can take it apart if I need to.

Please give me your opinion.

[LeeR]

hey, i would suggest a true union above the gate valve and one for the back up retern to... just incase you need to move the tank or fix a problem with the gate... good call on a gate and not using 90 elbows. Will your return be run up over the back?

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by mseepman

Well, I did some dry fitting of my Herbie plumbing today and was hoping for some input to make sure that I haven't screwed anything up.



The rear pipe would be my emergency overflow pipe. I left it high so that I will hear it if water starts needing to use this pipe. The front pipe has a gate valve for adjustment and a union so that I can take it apart if I need to.

Please give me your opinion.

I would actually have the emergency drain go all the way down into the sump water. A Herbie seems to work best when there's is just a trickle of water going down the emergency drain. As well, barometric pressure can cause the water level in the overflow to vary over the course of a day which will sometimes cause a trickle to go down the emergency drain. Having the emergency drain that high would cause a lot of unnecessary splashing and salt creep. If your main drain is clogged, the massive flushing sound from the emergency drain going full bore will be more than than enough to alert you to an issue.

[mseepman]

Machete, the return will be going up over the back...I have an SCWD and two u-tubes which will hopefully give me some alternating currents in the tank. I also have a union for the emergency but wasn't sure whether to use it or not. If I lower the emergency pipe into the tank as well, I will for sure need to use it.

Fkshiu, thanks for the advice...I don't have any Herbies to readily look at so all advice is appreciated. I will lower the emergency as you suggested.

Anyone else with some thoughts?

[JDigital]

The herbies I have seen, all the emergency pipes are left out of the sump water level, including my tank. If it is submerged, it will be just as quiet as the main drain if you get a clog. The whole point of a herbie is silence, having a trickle in the emergency would kind of defeat the purpose, IMO.

I'd leave it where it is... and I would scrap the union on the emergency to, The emergency pipe is usually tall enough in the overflow that it only drains the for and inch or so (again, on the herbie systems i have seen).