mseepman's 16" starfire nano
 

Well, I've been planning a nano tank for my office ever since I picked up a 16" cube tank from another Canreefer. I've posted the building of the stand and light canopy in the DIY forum (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41662) already and finally I'm starting to get the rest of the tank together.

I plan it to be mostly dominated with SPS corals...a brave venture but hopefully something I"m ready for. I've got a variety of SPS frags in my 70G tank from other Canreefers and from Coral Master. I've also picked up about 20lbs of EcoRox from Bulk Reefsupply and they look just awesome. I have Fijipink livesand for a shallow sand bottom as well.

Here's my equipment list so far:

RK2 (just bought it online today)
Two Little Fishies reactor for GFO powered by a MJ400 pump
QuietOne 3000 return pump
SCWD (bought used from OKGUY)
5 gallon Eclipse Acrylic sump
4-Liter DIY ATO
Hydor Koralia Nano Powerhead
Triple Fan DIY chiller

I will up-loading photos of the tank tomorrow. Let me know your thoughts on my plans.

Okay, so here are the beginning pics of the tank build. I work from home and this is going in my office...hopefully something that will relax me during the work day.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...mpty_Tank1.JPG

This cube was previously running using a cannister filter by a Canreefer in Calgary. I didn't want to use a cannister closed loop and so I needed to deal with the dual bulkheads in the bottom of the tank. I built a 4 x 6 glass overflow for it using egg-crate for the skimming...but since this was my first time doing this...I made the egg-crate too low for where I wanted the water level to be in the tank. To fix this, I attached a 1/4" pane of acrylic over the bottom two rows of the egg crate...very ghetto but I'm hoping it will work.

I painted the back of the tank black since I will be running a SCWD in the back and I didn't want to see it all the time.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...ank_Stand1.JPG

In the bottom you can see the beginnings of my planning for what will fit down there. The sump will be a 5 gallon Eclipse tank that I previously ran for FW. I picked up a thin container from BRS to be used for my FW ATO. I plan to do a low-cost ATO using a TOM air pump and a timer. I also plan on using GFO right from the beginning...hopefully to prevent any of the algae outbreaks that so often plague a new tank.

The last thing you see down below is my extremely ghetto chilling fan set-up. I cut a piece of acrylic, carved 3 holes in it and screwed on 3 pc fans from Princess Auto. I hardwired them to a Variable voltage adapter and I plan to bolt it to the wall inside the stand aiming at the sump. My hope is that this will cool the entire tank enough that I don't need to worry about a chiller.

Tonight I plan to dry-fit some of the plumbing and hopefully give you some more pics.

That looks really good i really like the stand and tank. Will you be covering the overflow with black acrylic or a thin layer of tinted glass? Also i would maybe sugest changing your sump to a normal 5 gallon or make yourself a custom sump.. that little think might be hard to fit bafles and what not in to.


are you going BB?

I agree with you on the potential problems of fixing baffles into the hex tank. I'm looking into options today.

As for the bottom, no, I'm going with a shallow sand bed as I already have a Pistol/Goby pair for the tank sitting at the LFS.

Well, after some suggestions on my choice of a sump tank, I've purchased a 5 gallon glass tank and will be using that for my sump. I've already put in two glass baffles to help reduce micro-bubbles and will try to take some pics tonight.

For some reason, the 5 gallon rectangular tank seems smaller than the Eclipse 5 gallon hex tank...

Well, I did some dry fitting of my Herbie plumbing today and was hoping for some input to make sure that I haven't screwed anything up.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat.../plumbing1.JPG

The rear pipe would be my emergency overflow pipe. I left it high so that I will hear it if water starts needing to use this pipe. The front pipe has a gate valve for adjustment and a union so that I can take it apart if I need to.

Please give me your opinion.

hey, i would suggest a true union above the gate valve and one for the back up retern to... just incase you need to move the tank or fix a problem with the gate... good call on a gate and not using 90 elbows. Will your return be run up over the back?

I would actually have the emergency drain go all the way down into the sump water. A Herbie seems to work best when there's is just a trickle of water going down the emergency drain. As well, barometric pressure can cause the water level in the overflow to vary over the course of a day which will sometimes cause a trickle to go down the emergency drain. Having the emergency drain that high would cause a lot of unnecessary splashing and salt creep. If your main drain is clogged, the massive flushing sound from the emergency drain going full bore will be more than than enough to alert you to an issue.

Machete, the return will be going up over the back...I have an SCWD and two u-tubes which will hopefully give me some alternating currents in the tank. I also have a union for the emergency but wasn't sure whether to use it or not. If I lower the emergency pipe into the tank as well, I will for sure need to use it.

Fkshiu, thanks for the advice...I don't have any Herbies to readily look at so all advice is appreciated. I will lower the emergency as you suggested.

Anyone else with some thoughts?

The herbies I have seen, all the emergency pipes are left out of the sump water level, including my tank. If it is submerged, it will be just as quiet as the main drain if you get a clog. The whole point of a herbie is silence, having a trickle in the emergency would kind of defeat the purpose, IMO.

I'd leave it where it is... and I would scrap the union on the emergency to, The emergency pipe is usually tall enough in the overflow that it only drains the for and inch or so (again, on the herbie systems i have seen).

Thanks for the info JDigital.

I have a question on bulkheads...mine are slip on the bottom and thread on top. The 3/4" adapter I have to thread into the bulkheads doesn't seem to thread very easily. Do people use silicon to make it go easier or lubricants? Shouldn't the PVC threaded adapter screw all the way into the bulkhead?

It should... unless the adapter has been cross-threaded somehow. :question:

You don't hear anything if there's just a trickle of water going down. Surface tension makes the salt water adhere to the sides of the pipe as it goes downward. It's only above a certain volume of water that the you start hearing anything. In fact, Herbie himself concluded (somewhere in the original RC thread) that adjusting it so that you get a slight trickle down the emergency drain appears to most easily stabilize water levels.

If you get a clog in the main drain you will get a very noticeable flushing sound because there's no valve to slow the water down.

I've check both my bulkheads...no cross threading. It's just a really tight fit that I've never tried to push past the first 5 threads or so just in case I couldn't get them apart again.

Well I continue to try and move this nano project forward. Tonight I started plumbing the SCWD that will provide flow from my return pump. I will be using a Quietone 3000 which I hope will have enough juice considering it's only about 4 feet of head. I ran into some trouble with keeping the piping to conform how I wanted it to behind the small 16" tank, as such I was forced to consider using 90's. I know they cut down on the flow but I'm hoping that this will still work. I found some new fittings at Home Depot so I thought I would try them...works like a compression fitting.
Here it is so far:

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...SCWD_setup.JPG


Once I get everything plumbed, I decided that I would use EcoRox from BRS. I saw them in Gools new tank (which is looking great) and really liked the look.

I plan to seed it with another 5lbs of Live rock I have already.

Looks awesome Mark!!! Having never done the Herbie myself, but reading a lot, I would keep the emergency drain where you have it as well. :)

Thanks Myka...this seems like the never ending project because I just can't get everything done. The more I read, the more I think I have to do before I start the tank.

I've been reading a lot on the Herbies...I do know that quite a few people have said that they have a slow trickle down their emergency pipe because things seemed more stable when they did this. I think it will be a bit of trial and error.
I've ordered new bulkheads because I just wasn't really happy with the ones that came with the tank. For some reason, my plumbing just wouldn't thread properly and I'm hoping new Bulkheads will fix this problem.

Why don't you just not glue the end of the overflow pipe, and then you can shorten and lengthen it without redoing the whole thing to find out what works best for you?

Can't wait to see the tank up and running. But when you do get that far I'll feel pretty bad about not having my cube setup!!! I have to change the design plans now though as I can't get the slate for it anymore... :(

I still feel that you'll regret not setting that up as a SW tank. Just put everything that's going into the 40 into the cube and work slowly up from there. I don't see where you have to spend a whole bunch more money other than maybe a little more lighting.:biggrin:

Honestly, I am thisclose to purging all my corals. I just want to set up a productive Bangaii breeding system. I've done it all...now I'm interested in making money off it. ;) Seriously, what would be better than to make a living off breeding fish? Pipe dreams really, but not entirely unobtainable. :D

To setup the 75 cube as a reef tank I would need to upgrade skimmer...or go skimmerless. And lighting would be a big factor. I would need more rock too. Basically $1000 easy...and Central America is calling my name soooooooo badly!!! :p

Well, the urge to travel sometimes over-rides everything. Do it while you can...

Ya...one of these days!!! So...new updates??

None to report...waiting on bulkheads and RK2 to arrive. I could hang the light but I've been working on the new house plans and finally started to get somewhere so I have focused on it.

Ah, gotcha! I'd be neck deep in house plans too. I of course, like that sort of schtuff. :D

Myka, tried to hang the light, ran into some issues...pm'd you about them.

Well, I got a little farther in my efforts to get this tank running today. Thanks to my brother (the extra set of hands were a must) we got the light hood on tonight. What a pain in the... No studs lined up with where my hangers needed to go, so after some ghetto modifications, we got around that...don't ask how.:lol:

Anyways...here are some pics:

This is the hood just after we got it hanging. The tank and stand will go back around 2 more inches still which will center things a little more.
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...ow_hanging.JPG

Here is the tank with just the dual T5HO lights on.
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...th_T5_only.JPG

Here it is with both the T5HO and the 70W 14k MH.
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat..._T5_and_MH.JPG

My RK2 arrived in Vernon today, but I was not home to get the delivery...so tomorrow I will pick it up and get to working on that.

That's alot of light... lol... Looks great though, I like the hanging hood.

Thanks, I think that the light looks a little overwhelming there because there is nothing in the tank and it's reflecting off the bottom. We'll have to see what water, rock and some sand do to it.

Glad you managed to get it hung! Looks great!!!! Almost time to get it wet.... :D :D :D

Wow Mark looks great! You're gonna have to wear sunglasses while you work. :mrgreen:

Thank guys...it's been a real struggle to get it this far with the limited amount of time I get to work on it. Today I need to do some maintenance on the main tank so probably not much of an update for tomorrow.

As for getting it wet, I need my RK2 in place first and then the whole stand and tank have to go back about 2 inches. Once that's done, plumbing can be completed and then we will add some water.

RK2? Koralia 2?

Reefkeeper 2. I decided with the DIY equipment on this, the best way to control it was with an actual controller. So I bought a ReefKeeper 2.

*wolf whistle* Really...? That's gonna be quite the pimped out uber nano! :D

That's the plan...:lol:

That looks like a slick unit! I may have to do a bit more research on it. :biggrin:

:mrgreen: pimped out nanos are the way to go!

Okay...so opened my new Reefkeeper2 today...Wow, how does any tank run without one of these? This makes life sooooo much easier...and this is the cheapest one out there...I can only imagine what the pricier ones do for you.

Awesome!! Pretty handy lil puters eh? :D

Besides not get the pH probe standard... what comes with the package?