forrest's 16gH work nano

[treesprite]

The tank is in my office at Family Services. My friend/co-worker brought her camera in so that I could take pictures of it, so I decided to start a tank thread for it.

 

History.. long history:

This was supposed to by a "quick, cheap, and easy nano" for a damsel that I had for many years, who basically ripped the whole tail off a dottyback within 3 hours of putting the new dotty in the tank. Ended up not being quick and not being easy, but cost has been relatively low (except I have PCs which eat bulbs up fast). I almost didn't use this 16 because it's so tall - too far for light to go - then it occured to me that I could eat up height with a DSB.

 

The "quick and easy" idea didn't last long. I took the tank home to clean it and upon seeing that the silcone was worn worse than I wanted for starting out with saltwater, I stripped off the old silcone and replaced it - you'll see the job I did in the pictures - not too bad. Then I sectioned off about 4" with a plexiglass panel siliconed in, and put overflow teeth into it to make a sump/refugium. The sump/fuge section would have macros in the front which would look pretty and green while hiding things behind it - there's a picture of it coming up.

 

When all that work was done, a day before I was going to put the damsel in his new home, the damsel carpet surfed out of the QT. I had him for many years, during which he killed a few tank mates. I had him for many years and am sad to have lost him :(

 

Here's the specs:

- 16 gallon High - 20Lx19Hx10... a square face.

- appx 5" DSB

- Current USA PC fixture, 1 actinic 40W and 1 daylight 40W.

- Seaclone skimmer rated for 100g... still trying to make it work (yeah I knew the rep but got it used for my "quick, cheap, and easy nano"). The skimmer hangs over the back in such a way as to have the intake pump on the sump/fuge section and the output flowing into the display side for some nice surface current.

- liverock - don't know how much in weight

- two 200gph powerheads unknown brand. Really there is way too much flow in the tank. The pwrhds totally blast the front wall which deflects madly all over the place - I like it that way but I don't think the xenia does.

- current occupants: 1 firefish, 1 baby tomato clownfish that will eventually need a bigger home, 2 peppermint shrimps, 1 xenia that is the product of my first attempt of fragging, 1 toadstool coral, 2 green-stripped mushrooms, a few snails and hermits... definately need more snails in here.

 

So here's some pictures courtesy of Tracy's camera. Tracy is a blast - hard to get any work done with her around when our offices are right next to each other.

 

The first one is how it looks from my chair a couple feet away.

 

 

 

The very next pic it looking in the right e from my doorway

 

Next pic is from the sump/fuge end

 

Fuge - this is from the FRONT of the tank not the end - you can see the divider easily (the skimmer is behind the tank not in it)

 

 

Ignore the frag plug - Holly gave me a mushroom that was attatched to a dead sps frag

 

 

Edited March 27, 2008 by treesprite

[gmubeach]

Pretty nano:) lots of red

[treesprite]

wow that was a fast post. Thanks

[tbittner]

WOW! I'm really impressed with your handy work! It looks great! Good idea for sectioning off a bit of the tank to create a fuge section. I would imagine that that is enough to really help with keeping the nitrates down.

 

GREAT WORK!!!

[Guest webshout]

Nice work, Forrest. Is your Tomato trying to host in your xenia? I think the exenia can tolerat the high flow. A worry might be pieces breaking off and lodginging elsewhere. Then a xenia forest for Forrest! :-0

 

Happy Reefing.

 

W.

[gsedlack]

Very nice tank. Keep up the grat work. Thanks for posting

[treesprite]

Thanks.

 

The clown is hosting in that red macroalgae not the xenia. That xenia was keeping it's polyp things opened instead of pulsing so after I put that big (relatively speaking) flat rock in there I put the xenia on it to get more light - now it pulses beautifully. Actually the xenia is the main reason I brought that rock in. I hate the rockwork though - it was very late when I was doing it and I was tired - the next day I went to work and looked at it - definately not what I thought it looked like the night before.

[treesprite]

Nano is now a non-system frag tank at home.

 

I brought the nano home to turn into a non-system frag tank. Was VERY CAREFUL to not mess up the DSB, and kept 50% of the water, plus have the LR, so it's fine to put living things back in it once the "dust" settles out. I guess I'll put some of the rock in my system fuge. Actually, I did have to remove the sand from the fuge section but since it's a separate area, taking it out doesn't affect anything.... that sand will get added to the system's DSB once I rinse it in saltwater. Now I need a T-5 fixture 'cause the PC isn't going to do the job for me with SPS.