Nick's 2Ft Nano Tank

[nicholas_yeo]

Hi all, still new to the forum.

I restarted a new nano tank. Plan to keep some general corals (LPS, mushies and leathers). Here are some pics and stats to share. All comments are welcome.

I design & DIY the tank and an Iron wrought stand from a guy in Sungei road. Pretty cheap - those interested in the guy can PM me. He makes alot of tanks.

Tank Spec

size: 2 x 2 x 1.5 (H)

Build in IOS system with 3 compartments

1) Mechanical / Bio filtration

2) Refugium wtih 6" DSB

3) Return PH and Skimmer Compartment.

Equipment & Material

1) Return PH: Rio Pump (~1300 L/hr)

2) SKimmer PH: Rio pump (~2400 L/hr)

3) Circulation pump: Seio 620

4) Lighting (Daylight) : Atman PL x36 W (1x 720k and 1 x100k)

5) Lighting (Actinic) : Atman T8 x 15W x 2 (2nd hand from fellow reefer Danny Lee)

6) Lighting (Refugium) : PL x 11W x 1

6) Skimmer: Macro ASF 500 (75 gallon)

7) Grade 0 & 1 sand: 5 bags from reborn

8) Salt: Marine Environment

Research: I spent many mths reviewing products and specs on the web b4 concluding the list and budget that I can afford. One challenge on the nano tank is it is always too small to fit everything in (of coz a 3ft tank will be just nice but I like it small)

Rio pumps: Found them moderated pricing with very low power to high flow rate ratio. Got them off from Reborn. fit nicely into my compartment. Estimate 10-15% drop in flow rate after lpumping 1ft in height with all the bends. Will maintain 10-12 times overturn in vol.

Skimmer: I wanted a Macro needlewheel originally but can't find ASP100. Always sold out. Got ASF100 - venturi style instead. I cramp this baby into the tank with much diffficulty. Have to saw part of the piping shorter in order to fit the sump. I choosen a larger capacity on purpose so that I dun have to worry about organic overload. Pple tell me there is no such thing as over skimming so get the biggest one u can fit in there and there is what I did.

Salt: Check numerous websites and all seem to indicate marine environment is one of the best. Dissolve very quickly and my water was straight at 8.2 pH after settle down (Fresh water source measured 9.7ph). I luv this salt. Much better than red sea salt that I previously bought.

Temp: I couldn't afford to run a chiller so no MH is consider. I run my tank in my office as the room temp is always 24degC except on the wkend which can spike to 28degC. I guess I am the only one here who has to use a heater to keep the tank at 26degC. Otherwise, it will dip as low as 22.5degC on rainy days in the office.

Lighting: I uses 2 x PL (36W) with 2 x T8 (15W). Run the PL on 8.5 hrs and T8 on 12 hrs. I wanted to plan for T5 lighting but back last yr, DIY T5 still quite ex. Verysad when Janet from AquaMarine bought in the new low cost T5 after I bought mine. Miss the opportunity.

Refugium: 1st time I tried a refugium. Plan to keep Caulerpa and some critters in there to help on the nutrient export. Use a 6" DSB with grade 0 sand.

Filter Media: Use quite an extensive of variety here.

a) Wool / poly filter on the top layer

2nd layer use a larger density size of foam

c) Use PurII from aquapharm (recommended by Janet at aquamarin, so give it a try)

d) Use Aquaz Activated Carbon and Rowaphos at 3rd layer

d) Use as much coral chips that I can cramped in. Place it from large to small from bottoms up.

[nicholas_yeo]

here is the tank in general

[nicholas_yeo]

side view of the tank

[nicholas_yeo]

Skimmer Trial - looking good on its performance.

[nicholas_yeo]

cramp the skimmer into the last compartment... nearly no space... whew....

[nicholas_yeo]

one big problem I ran into: Micro bubbles from the skimmer outlet was all pushing thru the return pump..... sigh....

[nicholas_yeo]

After spending the wkend reading thru the web, I design a baffling 'system' to allow air bubbles to break to the surface while water return to the sump compartment. 1st trial was pretty good, about 90% of bubbles are breaking to surface. Need to tweak and improve alittle more.

[nicholas_yeo]

2nd problem I encountered is I forgot to cater 'features' to hold the damm light hood. So end up buying acrylic rod from dama in ubi to build up a bar to hold the light. Not very nicely done coz acrylic buffering is very ex.... best from my current budget.

[nicholas_yeo]

Initial Rock work (total 15kg) during ANN cycle. Got them from Sealife (all cured) according to the boss.

[nicholas_yeo]

A seperate view into the 1st column of Bio / Mechanical filter

[nicholas_yeo]

full view after everything is installed. I use black cloth from market to cover the iron wrought stand. Hee.. cheapo but looks okay to me.

[nicholas_yeo]

isometric view of the tank

[nicholas_yeo]

refugium snapshot - I put in a caulerpa (bought from sealife). Growing pretty well under 12 hrs of light.

[nicholas_yeo]

Tank stats as of 28 Jan

- 5th wk into ANN Cycle

- Nitrite : <0.3mg/l

- Ammonia : undetectable

- KH : 10

- Phosphate : 0.3 mg/l (still trying to go down)

- ph : 8.2

- Temp : 26degC

I believe tank is ready as of next wk.

The 1st fish will be a Percula Clown

1st set of corals will be a mushy and a toadstool leather.

[nicholas_yeo]

This is my coral layout. I arrange it based onweb data of its requirement (lighting, flow rate, level of placement).

Pls comment if any questions.

[kokhui]

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for sharing, I read read your tank posts with very much interest because I have a similar IOS tank myself but it is 4 ft.

1) Can you let me know the dimemsion of your IOS compartment?

2) I am very impressed that you can put in a refugum in the IOS. How do you light it up?

3) I am currentlying Weipro 2012 and it fits quite ok in one of the compartment. Care to share the dimension of your skimmer and the results you have got?

Wow, I think I can learn a lot from your experience in your tank. I am constantly trying to think how I can improve mine and very glad that I can find someone who share similar kind of tank design!

Hope to hear from you soon!

[35Cents]

Nice tank nick... I can see you did your research very well and is knows what you want. You are lucky you can put the tank in the office....can save lots of electricity bills....unless you boss of course!

My 18G Nano also employed similar design as yours but I'm using MM system (without skimmer). I would suggest keeping the lights for the refugium on for 24/7 as it will work hard to get rid of nitrates and create a more stable ph, especially in the mornings.

What's your reason for using the coral chips? It may be a nitrate factory in time to come unless you are hardworking enough to clean or change it frequently.

Overall, you are in good tracks dude. As for corals and fishes stock, I suggest you add in very slowly...about 1 to 3 pieces per month.

[nicholas_yeo]

Hi guys

My IOS measured 2ft (L) by 6" width. Use a PL Light (11W) at 6500k to light it. Alot of pple ask me to change it to 24hrs lighting for it. Looks like that will be the final setting.

I debated alot about putting it in there. But I decided to give it a try after much review on the web about refugium. The only thing I prefer is to have the refugium after the skimmer instead of putting it b4. Coz the skimmer PH will suck the copepods into it like a black hole. Not very good in terms of precedence. But thats all I can fit in there so no choice.

My Macro skimmer is about 45cm tall x 10cm dia (I think). My tank call hold up to 40Gallons, so I didn't wanna believe that with only live rocks and refugium, I can do w/o the skimmer. The only thing that the skimmer design is bad is the return outlet is 90deg from the inlet - fixed position. making it very hard to position.

Hee... my HR Manager complains about my tank coz she said affect fengshui. Yah, saves alot of electricity for sure.

I uses coral chips after much advise from Sealife. I saw their tank performance, darn good - no algaes and the corals are very healthy. All use coral chips and they are a strong believer that this is much superior to bioballs in trickle system.

definitely going slow on the intro of fishes... my target is still zero casualties like the construction firm. Dun plan to kill anything.....

will update this thread when the tank get more stable.

[kokhui]

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for the reply. Can't wait to see your tank with the corals and LS!

Cheers!

[nicholas_yeo]

here is a pic with the refugium lighting for fellow reefer - Kokhui.

Pretty easy to get from LFS.

[malcolm]

Very beautiful setup. Can you PM me where you bought the tank from? I think a 3 foot version would be perfect for my needs. Good luck for your tank, Im sure it will go fine since you thought things out so well. The fun is in the planning and then again when ur plans take shape. Really really like the tank!!!!!

[borinz]

very nice n need setup. nice one.

[flamey]

well planned out tank...

well done!

[nicholas_yeo]

hi all

More update this wk. Plant & algae growth was significant during the ANN Cycle. I believe this is due to higher bio load as I spike the tank. U can see from the pic below the plant growth from wk 1 to wk 4.

[nicholas_yeo]

Copepods are starting to grow from the refugium and can seen swimming everywhere in the main tank :

free food for my upcoming fish.... nice