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Neto's 20 gallon Shallow Reef


Neto

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This tank is truly stunning.  Quite a testament to your DIY skills as well as your aquascaping/husbandry skills.  Have you thought about posting it on the nano forum on RC?  I think this is definitely nicer then some of the TOTM I've seen on there.

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This tank is truly stunning.  Quite a testament to your DIY skills as well as your aquascaping/husbandry skills.  Have you thought about posting it on the nano forum on RC?  I think this is definitely nicer then some of the TOTM I've seen on there.

 

Thanks for such comments, I havent really posted my tank on RC but maybe in the future I will, there is a lot of great advice there (as well as here) in case of problems...

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  • 2 months later...

Beautiful tank.  I'm considering not leaving the hobby entirely and setting up a small nano like this.

 

Could you tell me a little about how you have your herbie set up?  What size bulkhead do you have on your siphon drain and emergency drain?  How do you operate it without an overflow?  I'm assuming you keep the water level in the tank level by having a trickle down the emergency?  How do you prevent anything partially clogging the siphon (which would then presumably cause the water level to drop)?  Sorry for so many questions.  Thanks.

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Thanks!

 

My herbie setup consists of two pvc pipes, siphon is 3/4" and emergency is 1/2". My return pump is a mag 2 so if for some reason the siphon gets blocked, all flow can still go through the 1/2" but it will create noise. The 1/2" tube is at the surface of the water and the other is like 1" below surface. If power goes out then 1" of water will drain to the sump. I am using a small 1/4" net around the tube to prevent any clogging from dead fish or snails or any other thing. I do have to clean it up every month or so..

Edited by Neto
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Also, no vortex is created by this... The only flaw I see with this design is that you cant have any corals in that 1" of water, like SPS or they will die in case of a power outage... 

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Actually, I think you may possibly have a big flaw in the design of your herbie. The emergency should be the 3/4" and the siphon the 1/2". If the 3/4" is already at full siphon, how is it that the 1/2" will handle all the flow in case there is complete blockage of the 3/4"? The only way that might be possible is if the ball/gate valve on your 3/4" drain is significantly closed. You may have all this figured out, just wanted to point that out cause I would hate to see a flood. ;)

Edited by PK3
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Thanks for the info and pics. I'm considering trying to set up the herbie by drilling the back of the tank (bottom is likely tempered) and using 90deg elbows and no overflow box. Another downfall with no overflow box is that you lose surface skimming, but you do get more space within the tank. I'm so torn as to what to do.

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Actually, I think you may possibly have a big flaw in the design of your herbie. The emergency should be the 3/4" and the siphon the 1/2". If the 3/4" is already at full siphon, how is it that the 1/2" will handle all the flow in case there is complete blockage of the 3/4"? The only way that might be possible is if the ball/gate valve on your 3/4" drain is significantly closed. You may have all this figured out, just wanted to point that out cause I would hate to see a flood. ;)

It depends on your return pump, even if my 3/4" pipe gets blocked, all the flow can go through the 1/2" pipe with no problem

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Only if the valve on your 3/4" pipe is significantly closed, which I suspect how yours is. A 3/4" pipe wide open at full siphon flows a significantly more amount of water than a 1/2" pipe wide open at full siphon. Depending on the pump, there can very easily be a situation where you're running 1000gph through a 3/4" main siphon (valve 90% open). If that pipe were completely clogged, the 1/2" would definitely not handle all the flow. Now, if you had a pump only flowing 200gph and you had the valve on the 3/4" siphon only 20% open to achieve the siphon, then yes, the 1/2" might work. Just be careful if you ever decide to increase the flow by getting a bigger pump. Also remember, you already have a trickle flowing down the emergency that further lessens your emergency capacity. Just curious, have you tested it by completely plugging the siphon?

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Yep, 3/4" is significantly closed and yes i havecompletely closed it and water does go over the 1/2" pipe. I can always switch them out but i am happy with what i have now, the sump gets good flow. Since you are building a 40 gallon. Then you can do like 2 3/4" or bigger

Edited by Neto
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  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

Here is whats next for my tank:

 

huhypa3y.jpg

 

Will be building the reactor soon!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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It looks like a ponape birdsnest.  I got frags from three of Neto's birdsnests about 6 months ago, but not the ponape and then forgot who I was going to be getting it from.  Just picked up a ponape frag yesterday and am excited to see it look like Neto's.  He's the birdsnest whisperer. 

 

Neto, I hope the zeo treats your tank well.

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Yep, you guys are right, its a ponape and I got it from a Wamas member a while ago. I have a bunch of birdsnests in my tank because thats the only thing I could keep before I upgrated my lights lul.. Now I will be looking into getting more SPS soon. 

 

 

It looks like a ponape birdsnest.  I got frags from three of Neto's birdsnests about 6 months ago, but not the ponape and then forgot who I was going to be getting it from.  Just picked up a ponape frag yesterday and am excited to see it look like Neto's.  He's the birdsnest whisperer. 

 

Neto, I hope the zeo treats your tank well.

 

Thanks, I hope so too. I want to take my tank to the next level and hopefully Zeo does that for me. I will be building an small but automated Zeo reactor soon. My biggest challenge with this tank is stability, I have to monitor it constantly because I only have around 35 total gallons. I want to plumb this tank to a 30 gallon I got from Gary (gwweber), I have to run some pipes through drywall and stuff and also I have to convince my wife first (which I think is the most challenging task lul..)

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How many types of birdsnests do you have?

 

5 kinds

 

- Pink

- Green

- Ponape

- Rainbow (its like an orange base, green tips & purple polyps)

- Birds of Paradise

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Love the set up. Any recent FTS to share?

 

And how are your early returns on the ZeoVit? How did you change your setup to accommodate it?

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