15g acrylic sps cube
 

Might be a bit early to start a thread on this but why not. My goal is to keep things very simple and equipment to a minimum. Here are the specs so far:

Tank:
16x16x14 acrylic cube made by macilwu on ebay.
- 4x4 overflow
- 1 return drilled in the center of the tank.

Lighting:
150w viper MH, bulb is 14k. Since the tank might get kinda hot with that I purchased two solar powered fans off of ebay for $10, to be powered by the MH. Not sure if they'll work as well as I hope, but they were cheap enough to experiment with.



Filtration and Flow:
One Rena XP3 will provide flow and filtration for the tank. Its rated at 330gph, filled with media I was thinking it'd provide about 200gph? That should turn my tank over roughly once every 5 minutes. It will be plumbed from the overflow, and then return through the hole in the center of the tank. In the filter I will have carbon/phosphate remover / etc, to help keep the water really polished and clear.

Top Off:
Will have a reeffanatic auto top off hooked up to a 10g reservoir of kalk.

Controller:
RK2. I'm going to have the auto top off hooked up to a timer here, set to the bare minimum needed to top off the tank. This way if BOTH float switches fail, the tank wont overflow as the timer will cut off. It'll take some experimentation as to how long to keep it on.


Rock: Got all my rock from bulkreefsupply, will not have any live rock. Going for a minimalist approach, with a small island in the center (covering the return from the filter).

SPS: I'm going to use just frags, and keep it to a minimum (3 or 4) so they can grow out nice and big.

Fish: Zero idea at this point, but I want to keep the number low and to hardier types.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9...hgohdejlll.jpg
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6...ohemejlllw.jpg
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7836/tbm361c1.jpg

If that solar panel doesn't work out for you and you're up for trying something a little different you could power a small fan with the heat generated by the halide. It's called thermoelectric and all you need is a Peltier plate which you'll mount to a hot spot on your light fixture and it will generate a small amount of electricity, should be enough to power a small computer fan. The whole system will probably be smaller and less noticeable.

A Peltier plate looks like this:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:m...40-019/001.jpg

You may need a heat sink on the one side to increase the heat flow through the plate.

interesting... the viper MH does throw off a lot of heat, i wonder how well this would work? Could I wire it directly to a computer fan, or would I need something in-between, other than a heat sink?

Should be able to wire it right to the fan.

Some pics of the construction, pics aren't the greatest quality. Should be here end of next week.. so two weeks from final order to delivery, not bad. He included an overflow cover, no charge.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2692/photo1kz.jpg
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2487/photo2du.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9496/photo3d.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1633/phototgj.jpg

That's a pretty tank for sure. I also like your simple game plan and keeping it to a handful of corals. I have similar plans (frags mostly and keep my colony count down) only scaled up a few notches.

I just finished your build thread, wow that is one nice tank. Unbelievable finish.

Going to try and keep it to all captive bred/raised fish, not sure if this will work out though.
Tank got shipped off today! < 1 week from finalizing of the design, pretty sweet imo!

Just noticed your tank is made by an ebay guy. That's different I've never heard of such a thing. Do you use buy it now somehow to purchase his services or what? Thanks for the compliments. What sort of stand do you have planned?

I think he just recently started selling them on ebay. He's sold to a few people over at RC through his http://www.advanceacrylics.com/ site. The auction was a best offer. I offered him $30 less and he took it. Sweet part is that paid for all my upgrades.

The stand is a biocube28 I think. My furniture basically blocks the whole view so I just needed a stand of the right hight. Fits everything pretty well actually.

I tracked the guy down and his work looks really tight!

I also noticed if you look at his transaction history...the tanks are selling for much less than his buy it now price. The prices at a glance are amazing!

Yah, when I put my bid $30 under the price, I thought there was no way in hell he'd accept it. Then 20 minutes later I had won the auction. Definatley took me by surprise as I did it while I was bored at work. Excited to see how the quality turns out. I remember getting a quote for something similar from Envision Acylics and it was $300+ (although to be fair, the tank was a bit bigger)

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do for fish? I have zero idea the moment, and flip flop between every available fish out there.

Holy crap! There was a bit of a hold up on getting it out as he missed a document needed to ship to Canada, so it only got out yesterday. Checked the tracking number this AM, the original delivery date was next monday (pretty fast)... but now there is an updated date of TODAY. Thats 1 day shipping... not sure if it'll get here but we shall see. It left LA at 4:51am local time.

It left LA today? That seems awfully optimistic of their estimate. Unless that was 4:51am yesterday in which case it could well be cleared by customs already. Well, in any case, good luck, hope you get a tank soon!

I agree super agressive, but I wont complain if it shows up today, thats for sure!

Anyone have any fish suggestions? I have zero idea and can't make up my mind. Thought about going easy and doing some all damsels, perhaps a rose anemone + clownfish tank, etc.

this nano really had me thinking of a rose anemone garden...
http://artwithlight.com/fishtank/ane...0/DSCF0059.JPG
http://www.reeftools.com/live/imcosmokramer/blog/&p=2

Hmm, damsels you say... I have a thing for Talbot's Demoiselle (Chrysiptera talboti), one of the less agressive damsels. You could probably add a Sunrise Dottyback (Pseudochromis flavivertex) later, would be a nice compliment of color.

I think I like fishes that are less bold in their coloration. Maybe you'd be better off with a normal ocellaris clown and a Yellow tail Damsel or two :lol:

Ok, need some advice if you don't mind. I was thinking it'd be really cool to have just a flame angel in the tank, no other fish. I know the tank is on the smaller side, but it is going to be very open for swimming.. I guess he might bug the sps, however i've always had good luck with them in a reef

And to think I was a fan of this thread.

:twised:

was just throwing out an idea, not too attached to the idea, so if its a bad idea, i'll switch it up :D

I'm back as a fan then. Nobody can pull off one fish. The will is not strong enough. I think none is easier! We know flame angel is on the list though. It's a start.

Now where's that tank?

the delivery date keeps changing, but I think it'll be here on Monday! Thinking of taking the day off so I can set it up. I guess I should get some water brewing.

sweet, its on the truck for delivery now! Hopefully I get home before they arrive, or they can just leave it by my front door...

You sound a touch sick actually. I'd pack it in and head home man.

+1 on this. Do it :p

well, still out for delivery, only an hr or so before they are done for the night, hopefully it gets squeezed it, but im not holding my breath at this point!

I hate waiting for UPS. You stress, stress, stress and in the end they usually knock on your door and bolt after tossing your package at the door.

Well, the tank arrived just before 8!.............. but thats where the good news ends. The tank is cracked, and has scuffs on it. It was packaged, ok imo. Wrapped about 4 times or so in thick bubble wrap, then placed in a cardboard box. Time to see how good his customer service is.... arggggggggggggg. I'll post up some pics in a bit. Must go watch hockey I PVR'd for nothin now. Go flames!

Sorry to hear that man. That's a heartbreaker.

ouch... bad news. :sad:

well that just sucks! Ive been almost as excited as you waiting for it to come.. dang

Tank should be sent out sometime in the next few days... then a week for delivery, so i'm crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath!) that I get it by the end of next week.

In the meantime I've put my Eco Rock (from BRS) + a bit of sand in my 10gal topoff, added salt, and some probidio to help kickstart the cycle. I figure I might as well get that on the way, so the cycle for the tank is minimized.

My probidio (biodigest + bioOptim) is almost out... I dont like using it on smaller tanks, as once you crack the viles you have to throw the rest out, which seems like it wastes a lot of product. Was thinking of using zeobak, thing this is a suitable alternative?

I like the fact that it comes in a dropper, and you only put in 1 drop per week per 25gal. Should last my 15gal tank a loooooooong time.

Thoughts?

well the new tank came over xmas break and it looks great! Its actually thicker acrylic than the last one (which seemed thick enough for me) so I'm stoked to get it wet.

Should be working on it this week/weekend, so I'll try to get some pics up when its done.

I know pelt's cool on one side, and give off heat on the other when electricity APPLIED to them. never knew they could generate elec as well???? All those 12V Koolatron coolers use pelt's. I used to use them in hardcore computer overclocking. it's neat watching it get Ice cold as you apply electricity to it

Edit, used google AFTER I posted LOL. NEAT!!!



PS Awesome Tank

ok seriously...you're too old to be babysat.

what gives? :biggrin:

Ha! I'll see if I can get some pics tonight, although there isn't a lot to see. Got water/rocks and a couple of damsels in there (decided, for now, to go with cheap fish)

Having a terrible microbubble problem though, perhaps with some pics people will be able to give me some suggestions, cause its driving me nuts.

F@#$! No pics for a while now, because I'm an idiot. Was changing the filter and didn't have a backup valve on it, snapped the handle and dumped ALL the tank water onto my floor. Managed to get it absorbed without too much damange, but now every single banked is soaked, my rug is toast. I suppose it could have been worse, as it didn't leak to the downstairs condo (I dont think).

Lesson learnt. I wan't to grab an eheim pump today to replace it. I would assume Golds has the best prices?

usually a good assumption, if they have it.