15 gallon nano (tall rectangle) project (NEW PICS 8/23)

[clearerphish]

so I am goig to look at a 15 gallon aquarium tomorrow, It;s tall. 13" by 13". I'd like to make a small reef out of it. I was thinking about using a 5 gallon aquarium as a sump and aerating/agitating in sump to solve the gas exchange issue. Is this a pipe dream or a serviceable idea? I would think this would work, a powerhead with a venturi air input to aerate and agitate the surface of the sump?

What do you all think?

edit: I bought it. We'll see how it goes. If I can't make it work, I'll sell it, but I think I can make it work. I'll post pics.

 

[lando]

I think it is doable. I like the idea of a sump for added volume. with good aerating in the sump and good water flow in the main you should be okay. Your next big decision will be lighting. Post some pics when you get a chance.

 

[clearerphish]

I think it is doable. I like the idea of a sump for added volume. with good aerating in the sump and good water flow in the main you should be okay. Your next big decision will be lighting. Post some pics when you get a chance.

Lighting is going to be an issue, had already considered many ways to make a reef work in this tank before going to see it.

I have already decided to go with a 70 watt HQI clamp and I am going to use two 11w clamp CFs with actinics and a small gooseneck LED light (probably zip-tied to the stem of the 70w HQI). The clamp light will go over the existing canopy and fire through a port I'm gonna cut through the top with my dremel. I plan on agitating the surface extensively with a couple small maxijest about 1/2 way down with the jets pointed at the surface. The trim band at the top of the tank is a good thickness, so I can really get that water rolling with no issues. I'm also going to have a small powerhead close to the bottom just to give flow from bottom to top. I'm looking forward to this, it will also give me a chance to experiment with plumbing before I dive into the 75 gallon reef.

Edited to add pics.

Full tank shot:

Looking in from the top:

Back of tank after a few coats of black paint (almost opaque!)

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

thats a really nice shape tank. your goin to have fun with it!

 

[roka64]

I can't wait to see it stocked.

 

[clearerphish]

The back is finally opaque black. That seems to be the most trying thing, painting tank glass. Of course, I use thick coats of acrylic paint so it's thick, rubbery and scratch resistant. It's done extremely well on my 10g nano, so I'm going to run with it again.

I have been staring at this empty tank and trying to dream of stocking it. I have definitely decided to go with a few gorgonians. At least a purple and a red, perhaps a yellow as well. I am envisioning an aquascape that looks like this:

____________
l
l
l
l
l
l_______________
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l

(the 2nd line on the bottom should be at the end of the platform, the messageboard's resizing the space.)

made out of live rock. Perhaps a lot more rock gathered around the base to support mushrooms/zoas. I'm starting to get excited. I have decided to order a dual 9w PC fixture, dissect it, and mount the bulbs on either side of the large port in the top, giving me 18w actinic in addition to the 70w halide. That brings me up to 88w - about 6wpg. Perfect.

I'm thinking even a simple bag of aragonite sand is gonna give me 3-4 inches of substrate in this tank. Should I not put it all in? I wonder how a sandbed that deep would fare in this tank. Does anyone have any experience with a DSB in a nano? With the height of this tank would it even be considered a DSB?

I'm also planning on JB welding the big rocks together when I put them in. No cave-ins in this tank

 

[Devilishturtles]

I think it's gonna rock.

3-4 inches should be perfect actually for your sandbed. Never run a DSB in a nano before, but I don't see any reason why it should be harmful.

Can't wait to see some more pics when you get it stocked, that's gonna be so unique!

 

[clearerphish]

Devilishturtles

posts: 6666

8O

 

[severum mama]

That's a cool tank! The only column tanks I've ever seen are the 56 or 58 gal column, never a 15. I agree it will really be unique when you get it stocked... and I'm really interested to see how you go about it since the shape of the tank presents a number of challenges.

Where are you getting a clamp hqi fixture, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Devilishturtles]

clearerphish, I took a screen cap of what you wrote, with my post count above it. That's classic. Thanks for the laugh!

severum, not to put words in clearer's mouth, but I've seen the Vipers sold at the drs website. They are relatively new.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=15489&N=2004+113352

 

[severum mama]

Cool! That's a lot cheaper than I thought it would be.

 

[clearerphish]

OK, this morning was day 2. I set the tank up yesterday with water and a bag of the caribsea arag-alive (the same substrate I've been using in my 10g nano with success. I placed two maxi-jet 400 powerheads on either side midway up directed upwards to give good bottom-to top flow. I also have a HOB filter that came with the tank. It's running to clear the water, but I like it and plan to modify it.

I have decided to place this tank on an end table between the sofas in my living room for now (not using the stand). This negates the sump idea unless I absolutely HAVE to do it. However, I plan to lengthen the siphon tube of the HOB filter to get it to within an inch of the bottom of the tank. I'm going to modify the chamber of the HOB to accept two airstones, and I'll fill the rest with LR rubble. I feel like the airstones will fix the gas exchange issue. The funny thing is, the limitations of this tank may also assist in alleviating them. Because of the shape and depth of the tank, I feel the bubbles from the airstone will not penetrate the water far enough to get near the corals. I also feel that returning the water from the bottom to be reaerated and dropped into the top will help with keeping parameters steady. Testing will tell the tale.

I may be getting some LR from a person locally who's breaking down a tank. I have had a few different ideas for the aquascape. We'll see how they pan out. I may have some pics up today.

 

[severum mama]

Updates?

C'mon dude, it's been almost a week! Let's see some pics!

 

[clearerphish]

LOL! OK, everything is still cycling and I am still in the process of modifying the existing hood.

Here's a shot of the tank with some LR in it (there is more now):

I have found this epoxy putty JB Weld makes called Waterweld. I plan to use it to my full advantage during aquascaping. I have two large and two small tonga branch pieces. I plan to smash the existing rock and make a large cave structure on the bottom, then the four branches will be jb welded to that (two small in front, two long in back), and I am going to weld "platforms" of rock staggered up each branch to maximize the coral space and utilize the vertical nature of the tank.

You see the original canopy top here:

I have removed the fluorescent fixture, and then spent three torturously long sessions with a dremel grinding and cutting the plastic trim away until I had either side flat. I then completely disassembled a mini-aqualight until I had this:

and this:

as you can see, I also mounted a double LED moonlight to the plastic canopy. The CF reflectors are secured with epoxy putty and a small screw/nut combo that goes through the reflector and plastic to the top. I plan to cut awat yeverything south of the moonlights that does not have reflector on it to facilitate gas exchange and the metal halide beam.

I'll post more on the rewiring of the ballasts from the fixture and the custom enclosure I made for the electrics soon. There's a big package coming from the good doctors on Monday so I'm thinking tuesday or so I'll have an update with all the parts to modify the filter. The rest of the weekend I am working on the aquascaping and going for a long mountain bike ride.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Awesome! Looks like it's going to be a really cool set up. Can't wait to see an update after the package comes.

 

[severum mama]

Good job, that's going to be a really unique setup once it gets going. Keep the pics coming!

 

[clearerphish]

OK. Got the package today, but before we get into that, I want to explain what I did with the electronics for the lights:

I purchased an electrical box with a watertight seal. I mounted the two ballasts inside the boc, then ran the cord through a hole I drilled special for it, and ran the light cords through another hole I drilled through the top. The end product looks like this:

I still need to run insulation for the 4 lamp cords, and seal both holes with silicon, but I think so far that it came out great. This gives me 18 watyts of actinic blue lights in addition to the 70w of MH light I'll be getting with the Viper fixture. Looking forward to a few SPS and clams in this tank!

OK, now onto the filter mod. I like the water circulation of the HOB filter, but I decided to modify it to increase oxygenation of the water/gas exchange. First, I drilled two holes in the floor of the filter, and mounted two Rena air stones in close proximity. Then I added a line splitter going from my whisper air pump to the two air stones. The end product looks like this:

two airstones:

better view:

air stones at work:

finished view of what the air stones add to the tank:

In the above "full tank shot", you can see the spinning powerhead nozzles I added to help water circulation. As stated before I intend to elongate the filter tube to pull poorly oxygenated water from the bottom, run through the filter/aerator, and dump into the top of the tank.

more updates soon........

 

[Devilishturtles]

Looks nice, but one question. Won't that pour mad microbubbles into your tank?

 

[clearerphish]

Looks nice, but one question. Won't that pour mad microbubbles into your tank?

Microbubbles are in fact entering the tank, but don't seem to penetrate any further than say an inch down (with the tank so tall, I don't think that will be a problem). I'm able to control the flow through the filter with a dial on the top, so I have the flow dropped to as low as it will go. I'm feeling good about it, but if it becomes an issue it will be easy enough to patch the small holes in the floor of the filter and return it to normal.

One thought though: In areas where reefs get hit with surf, are there not naturally microbubbles/foam on the surface of the water?

 

[clearerphish]

Yeah. The airstones were a good idea, but they're causing problems. Perhaps the HOB with the long tube and the two powerheads will keep everything cool, PH wise. If not I'll have to add a powerhead to roll th topwater aggressively. I'm pretty optimistic though.