L8 2 RISE May 27, 2011 Share May 27, 2011 (edited) Well, my 160 gallon tank is going to have to come down soon because I'll be leaving for college this year, however my mom wanted/was ok with a nano tank set up in an alcove of our house. This build is going to move fast and I'm going high end on everything equipment-wise. This is what I had to start with (note the lego's to estimate tank size): I wanted to use at least 2 par38's so picked up a fixture and with a weekend worth of Macgyvering, ended up with this: The bulb I am using is the dimmable LEDwholesalers par38. It's a relatively new bulb with not much in the way of info out there yet, and it only uses 1 watt LED's, so I'm waiting on a PAR meter to check how well it works. Until then, I LOVE the functionality of these bulbs, they are controlled by a remote and I can dim the whole fixture, dim or turn off just the blue lights, or just the white lights, etc. Here are some pics: both blue and white on full (note, crappy cell phone pics, no where near this blue): Just blue: Just white: The tank is a Mr. Aqua, glass, rimless 11.4 gallon. I like the dimensions a lot, though wish it were taller for the application that we're using it in. Circulation will be provided by a vortech mp10. New toys: I got the rock and sand into the tank yesterday, and will hopefully get around to posting about that soon. Edited May 27, 2011 by L8 2 RISE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak May 27, 2011 Share May 27, 2011 I love it so far, hows the growth expected to be with the lighting so high? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE May 27, 2011 Author Share May 27, 2011 Thats what I'm waiting on the par meter for. If it turns out that its not enough light then I can put in smaller angle optics, or just try different par38's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE June 10, 2011 Author Share June 10, 2011 Live Rock and sand has been in for about two weeks, I scrubbed the rock off before putting it in as it was very fresh, however my tests show it has already finished cycling. First piece of coral went in on Wednesday. Here's pics as of today. Note: I have plans to bring the wires through the back so you can't see them and I think I may put black backing on the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE June 10, 2011 Author Share June 10, 2011 Currently I have the following fish/inverts in my big system waiting to go into the nano: Barnacle Blenny (I might get 1-2 more) Tail Spot Blenny 2 female and 1 male sexy shrimp I like the lights, however the quick par testing that I did earlier this week showed only about 150-200par at the top of the tank, which means that the par goes from 2000 right in front of the light to about 200 in 4 ft. So it has good par, but it dies off quick. I LOVE the functionality of these things though so I will definitely keep them, but maybe lower them down or something if need be. I'm going to go do some more thorough testing right after I post this and will put results in a new thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshnarw June 10, 2011 Share June 10, 2011 Nice use of space. Tank'll look really nice there with the wiring cleaned up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak June 10, 2011 Share June 10, 2011 the rocks look awesome, how about a close up pic, also are you going to do a black background? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE June 11, 2011 Author Share June 11, 2011 Close up pic of anything in particular? If I do put a background on it, it will be black, yes. I want to see what it looks like with the wires cleaned up first though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 11, 2011 Author Share July 11, 2011 (edited) Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've added a bunch of coral, as well as fish. You'll also see that I've added extensions to the lights, I found those yesterday while wandering around home depot and thought they'd be perfect. So far I think I like the results, it gets a lot of light off of the glass and onto the rock. I'm battleing briopsis right now, so excuse the algae in the pics. I also haven't finished breaking down my tank downstairs, so haven't moved the dj strip up to organize the wires, but that will happen pretty soon. Other than that though, everything's going well. PLEASE let me know what you think! I threw corals in randomly from my big tank downstairs and picked up a few from LFS's. I'm only adding small frags, even though I have large colonies of most of them downstairs because I'd like everything to grow with/onto the rockwork for a much more natural look. Here's fish/inverts added so far: The barnacle blenny was the first one into the tank, however perished- I think it starved, however it could have been something else, it lasted about a week. I think I may try another one in the future as they are very cool fish. The next fish in was an ORA yellow assessor that I got for about half of what I expected to pay from an LFS, so I bought and added it earlier than I would have liked. I didn't see a sign of it for three days and thought it died, but after that it appeared in the cave on the left side of the tank and has been hanging out there since. I then picked up two green banded gobies and they're now in the tank, I couldn't get pictures of them as they're always hiding in the rock. Most recently I added my tailspot blenny, my three sexy shrimp, my orange knobby star, and my serpent star. The next addition will by a african flameback pygmy angel, followed by my ORA domino clown and probably another clown to pair with it. Now for pictures: FTS: Tailspot blenny, sorry for the bad pic, it was the only one I could get as he's pretty shy still: Yellow Assessor, again, sorry for the bad pics- he lives in the cave so there's not enough light to shoot and he moves a lot: Sexy shrimp, first is the large female, then a pic of the smaller female and the male: My new plate: Awesome Wellso that my gf got me a while back (well, she provided the gift certificate ): War coral frag (this is one of the ones that I had a large colony of downstairs- one of my favorites actually, but want a natural look) Duncan, and yes, that's a pink discomusa mushroom! I still have most of my cool shrooms downstairs, but got this one from an LFS recently. Blue Ochtodes macro algae. This will probably end up in the HOB filter when I convert it to a HOB refugium, however it's still a cool, pretty rare macro algae. I have more of this downstairs too. Finally, shots with only the Blue LED's on. I couldn't figure out how to get very good shots with only the blue's on, but here's my best: Again, PLEASE let me know what you think and any ideas/ suggestions!!!!! Edited July 11, 2011 by L8 2 RISE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrholiday July 11, 2011 Share July 11, 2011 super nice sam... no skimmer just a hang on filter will work??? Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 11, 2011 Author Share July 11, 2011 Yep, I actually will probably either take the HOB filter off or will make turn it into a HOB refugium. The only reason I put it on there was to filter out the sand particles when I first put the tank up, and now I find it usefull for sucking up the briopsis when I scrub it off, apart from that it has no purpose. I may put a HOB skimmer on in the future, I've heard that rio makes a good one, however for now the tank is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak July 12, 2011 Share July 12, 2011 Get a back ground Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnievaz July 13, 2011 Share July 13, 2011 That blue algae is gorgeous, never even knew it existed. I want to find some of that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanglandJoshua July 13, 2011 Share July 13, 2011 That blue algae is gorgeous, never even knew it existed. I want to find some of that! Agreed, and get a backing on they tank! It would look awesome! I'm kinda wishing I had seen this tank topic sooner, and looking forward to seeing it Thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefoholic July 13, 2011 Share July 13, 2011 (edited) "Agreed, and get a backing on they tank! It would look awesome ..." I almost memorized it by now. lol! BTW great setup Sam! Edited July 13, 2011 by Reefoholic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 13, 2011 Author Share July 13, 2011 Get a back ground Go Away! We'll see how it looks without the wires behind it. I think it will still look good without the background if it's cleaned up. The problem is, with a black background is that the tank looks a lot more boxed in and smaller, and a blue background just looks too industrial IMO. One of the things I'm trying to do is make the tank look bigger than it is, which based on others comments elsewhere, I think I've done a pretty good job, a background would take away from that. That blue algae is gorgeous, never even knew it existed. I want to find some of that! And now you can: http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/44347-auction-blue-ochtodes-macro-algae-pretty-rare/#entry371823 ! Agreed, and get a backing on they tank! It would look awesome! I'm kinda wishing I had seen this tank topic sooner, and looking forward to seeing it Thursday. Yep, I'll happily show it off "Agreed, and get a backing on they tank! It would look awesome ..." I almost memorized it by now. lol! BTW great setup Sam! haha, thanks a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marinescene July 13, 2011 Share July 13, 2011 The tank is looking great Sam! Sorry to hear about the Barnacle Blenny, we did get in more this week. And so happy to hear the Yellow Assessor is doing well, they are really cool fish. Those Green Banded Gobies are a bit secretive at first but with time, they'll be "scooting" all over the tank, we had one in our 260 display that we would see on occasion then had to rescue it from the overflow box. Decided to keep it in a smaller tank so it would be seen more often Keep up the nice work and continue posting pictures! ~Melissa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 14, 2011 Author Share July 14, 2011 Thanks! I don't want to overstock on fish, especially not too soon, so I think I'm going to add the flameback and let the tank run for a while before adding anything else. I managed to get some pics of the green banded gobies, as well as a few better ones of the assessor. Also, check out my knobby star eating an asterina star! Finally, some pics of a developing ricordea garden, not sure where it's going to go, but it's in the corner for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 22, 2011 Author Share July 22, 2011 Short update, I broke my tank downstairs down this past Thursday, and between moving a bunch of corals upstairs, etc., I had a sort of mini crash. I was doing a lot of epoxying and since I have no skimmer, carbon, etc., I think too much of it got into the water and coated the fishes gills as well as the corals. I only lost one coral- my PM frag unfortunately- and at least one fish- my green banded goby (found the body), but my tailspot blenny is MIA so may or may not be dead. Through doing a bunch of 50% water changes the next day when I noticed, and moving my almost dead yellow assessor to a tank I have set up downstairs, I managed to save everything else. This weekend at the fragfest I picked up a bunch of new corals, mainly high end zoa's, but also a few sps. It looks kind of messy right now because there's plugs every where, but I wanted to let the corals settle in before I broke them off and glued them to the rock. I have decided to go with a skimmer, so I'll be buying one of those soon. I'm thinking either an octopus skimmer- http://www.aquacave.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=632- or an aquaC remora nano skimmer. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luan67 July 22, 2011 Share July 22, 2011 Might be pricey but the Tunze 9002 skimmer is a beast for its small size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 23, 2011 Author Share July 23, 2011 Isn't it in tank though? Do you have experience with it? How much space does it take up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
collegeman July 24, 2011 Share July 24, 2011 Nice looking nano, keep up with the great work. Let me know if that pink mushroom have babies, i will be interested in one. I lost a few mushrooms during a tank swap which also included a pink one like yours. How do you like the ledwholesalers par38 bulb so far? I had one on a nano and it gave great color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE July 24, 2011 Author Share July 24, 2011 I'll let you know, but I'd like to have a good number of them, so probably won't be selling any time soon. I like the color, and LOVE the functionality, but I hate that they use 1W LED's and compensate for that with tight optics, There are only a few spots in the tank that get very high PAR, the rest is about mid-range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLazar July 24, 2011 Share July 24, 2011 Sam, I think the tank is looking great, you've inspired me to get serious about setting up my own nano at home. We're on the lookout for a used one. I have a pretty darn good coach/teacher right here at home (and he's going to let me go frag shopping in the big tank!)so I feel confident it will amazing. Maureen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE September 16, 2011 Author Share September 16, 2011 (edited) Alright, here's an updated video of the tank, the quality is pretty bad since it's from a cell phone, but my mom took it and posted it on facebook so I figured I would share with you. (click on the image to play the video) Before I left, after a suggestion from Maureen Lazar (MLazar), I got a mirror custom cut to the back of the tank and put it back there to hide the wires yet keep the open feel of the tank. It looks really good and it was an awesome idea! Also way easier than painting and pretty cheap. The tank is a little unorganized right now just because I'm not there to glue stuff back, etc, however it's doing very well. Also before I left, I moved the ricordia garden to the front of the tank and put a bunch of crushed live rock down for them to attach to. I'm not too happy with how it looks right now, but I'll play with it next time I'm home. Also, I don't think I've mentioned this, but I put my domino clownfish in the tank and it's an ongoing battle with my mom to convince her that it would be better with a flameback angel, however she is very attached to the clown. I'm not going to add both at the same time because I think two big fish would be too much bioload. The clown is hosting in the Wellso though, which is kind of cool. Current inhabitants include: Domino Clownfish Yellow Assessor 2X green banded gobies Pistol Shrimp Randall's Goby (MIA, I think it's dead, however I have no way to be certain) 3x Sexy Shrimp (one male, two females) Knobby Starfish A few serpent stars various snails Fighting Conch (which I love! SO fun to watch!) various corals. As always, let me know what you think!!! Edited September 16, 2011 by L8 2 RISE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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