Enigma's 2012 Nano Contest Entry
 

I'm having a difficult time, in my display system, of balancing the needs of a mixed reef. LPS do very well, while SPS survive but don't thrive. My goal for this nano is to provide an optimal and sustainable environment for my SPS corals (higher light and higher flow).

For this build, I've chosen an all-in-one 24 Gallon Nano Cube DX, which will be filled with 19.5 gallons of saltwater. The remaining volume will be filled with rock, sand, and equipment. The only external component to the system will be the automatic top-up.

Another part of the challenge, for me, is in trying to use as much equipment that I have laying around as possible. The costs of this build are approximately a 50/50 split between what has been purchased new and what is salvage, and the costs work out to around $100 per gallon (before livestock). I have only purchased what I felt was absolutely required to ensure that my goals are successfully met.

You're at $2000.00 without livestock for a nano??Is that a typo?

holy shelley $100/per gallon, is there sleep in my eyes still :p


i love where tis is going though so far and ill be watching to see what you come up with:)


good luck:)

:lol: Not a typo. This baby is getting a full Apex and custom DIY LEDs. Those add up! As do all of the other bits and pieces. In looking at this tank, it isn't going to look any different from any other NC24 on the outside except for one tiny little thing.

What 19.5 gallons of water looks like in an NC24.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0909-00113.jpg

It could be tough to fill up the void. :eek:

sandbed??

VDSB... :lol:

I just figured out a little trick. :)

If I use the little surface skimmer that comes with the Nano Cubes, it keeps the display full and enables me to reduce the volume of water in the back chambers.

This is actually really handy. Not only can it reduce the water volume needed by a gallon (if absolutely required), it is going to give me the ability to fine tune the water level in the back chambers for the skimmer and float switches.

I honestly don't like the way the little surface skimmer looks, but it is going to prove very useful.

I really don't want to have to purchase more sand for this system if I can help it. I've got 15 pounds of 1-2mm aragonite laying around that I'm planning on using in this. I've got that cooking downstairs in a tub with the rock for this system.

I think I've got my Dremel hacks for the tank itself done (hood isn't done yet), and I think I've figured out how everything is going to fit into the back chambers. Progress is being made . . . And hubby isn't complaining about the way the kitchen table looks . . . Yet. ;)

If I do have to go VDSB . . . I'm totally going to get a blue spot jawfish! :D

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0915-00127.jpg

The centre compartment in the rear has had the trim removed with a Dremel: So that the Hydor Slim Skim Nano can be squeezed in. It is a very tight fit. While it doesn't need to be forced in, getting it in requires a bit of finesse.

I've got two of the "Reef Fanatic" float sensors in the back chambers. I chose those ones as they have a suction cup mount. The suction cups don't stick very well, so once I get this thing filled and have their positions figured out I'll be attaching the mounts with silicone.

An Eheim Jäger 100W heater is back there right now, but I may swap it out. I'd prefer two 50W, as neither one of them would be able to cook the tank on its own. The cords on the Eheim Jäger heaters are really thick, and that is going to complicate things a little.

A media rack is going in the first chamber. A "Sea Side Aquatics" magnetic probe holder is in the return chamber. The temperature probe and grounding probe are in that. The tubing for the ato is also stuck in that for now.

It is a bit squishy in there! And, you get my super comfy slippers in the shot, too. ;)

I like the way you have everything shoe horned in !

Nice trick lol:mrgreen:..everything stuffed in back looks great open tank no equipment showing

Hmm. Apparently "Notme" and/or "Idunno" struck again last night.

I finished modding the hood this morning for all of the cables. Yea! It will work nicely. :) I went to grab the zip tie holders that will keep everything nicely aligned (the same ones supplied with Vortech pumps) . . . And they're gone. Gone!

#1 son says "Notme." #2 son says "Idunno." Hubby said something unintelligible and pulled the covers back over his head.

*sigh*

No one likes it when mom is unhappy. ;) Notme was the culprit.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0916-00129.jpg

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0916-00130.jpg

One of the annoyances about Nano Cubes, is that the aquariums just aren't designed for a lot of equipment. I had to hack out the hood in a few places so the cords from the devices inside the back chambers could be run out of the aquarium.

The cords then need to be aligned and held in place. In the event one doesn't do this, the cords will shift and get pinched in the hood when it is closed. I had this happen with my NC12 a couple of times, and the hood cut through the protective coating on the cables leaving exposed wire. There is still a little positioning work still required inside the aquarium to ensure that everything lines up perfectly. I think zip ties should take care of that.

The cable holder on the far right of the top photo is just there to keep that cable shifted over a little: so that it doesn't creep out from behind the tank and become noticeable to viewers.

The fans in the hood have been replaced, with ones that are more powerful (though just as noisy):

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0915-00121.jpg

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0915-00122.jpg

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0915-00123.jpg

The fans I chose are a bit thicker then the original fans. The screw holes line up perfectly, but the original screws are too short for the mounts towards the front of the hood.

The fans (in the third photo) are being run by Modular LED's fan power supply and adapter. They worked perfectly, and there was no indication of overheating. I let them run for 12 hours.

This is going to be a HUGE improvement over the original components, as the fans can be left running when the lights are off. What I consider a major design flaw with the Nano Cubes is that the fans shut off when the CF bulbs shut off. It is true that the fans will be underneath the splash guard (when I finally have the hood all put back together), and they don't do much for air exchange. But, with these closed systems, and the challenges in maintaining pH, I do feel the fans should run 24/7: no potential source of O2 should be left off.

The fans came from Memory Express. Unfortunatly, Modular LED doesn't offer a 60mm fan.

ooooo quite the "enigma" ya got there :P

And happy wife = happy life lol... :biggrin:..this tank is looking great

This is looking pretty cool so far.

FYI (I found out the hard way) blue spot jawfish generally survive better in colder water tanks, 72-73. They are very prone to disease in warmer tanks.

I just made the cutouts in the hood a bit bigger: in the event more equipment is squeezed in, and for the airline for the skimmer to poke out.

With the pH issues in these little tanks, I decided it was definately worth running the airline for the skimmer outside the tank. This could be risky, but as long as the airline stays above the waterline it shouldn't siphon any water out. I'll zip tie the airline to the power cord for the skimmer, so it doesn't fall.

Bummer. :( I'll be running this system at 79F.

I'm very glad that you chimed in about the temperature issue, as that was something I was totally unaware of. I did know that they require a VDSB, as they build their borrows four inches deep in the wild.

Now I really don't want a VDSB . . . The only consolation in it for me was the potential to house a blue spot jawfish.:(

If I have a hard time filling the void, I may slip in some pieces of dense base rock underneath the dry rock. I have given myself a half gallon of wiggle room, but I don't want to use any of that.

I love your work on this tank build up!



Sent Via Pirate Ship.......

I was totally unaware as well until the one I bought started fading in colour then stared getting blotchy patches then stopped eating then died :sad: After asking around about what on earth could of caused it, I found out about their issues with higher temps. Totally made sense to me as when I 1st got my BSJ it was early spring and was cool outside and my tank sat around 76. Unfortunately as summer hit and the house heated up so did my tank but it was sitting around 79-80 so I didn't think to much of it. Until I noticed my BSJ going downhill fast and found out they do better in colder tanks, sadly by then it was to late to reverse the effects :sad: Now I try to let others know so they don't have to go through what I did.

It's a shaved down pill bottle cap with a hole in it . . .

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0916-00132.jpg

An itty bitty switch . . .

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0916-00133.jpg

And a bit of #24 wire . . .

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0916-00134.jpg

This may be the part of the build that I think is the most clever.

No. I'm not telling you what it is, yet. ;)

One of the "salvage" parts of this build is the stand.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00068.jpg

It is one of those old cabinet end tables, that my parents purchased from Sears in 1976. We lived on CFS Holberg (now closed down) at the time, on the north-western tip of Vancouver Island (by Coal Harbour).

Here's the date from the bottom of the table.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00070.jpg

Now, I know the table is ugly. I don't want to discard it, and I think it will make a very functional stand for this build.

Here's the back before I started hacking it up.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00069.jpg

The first hole . . . and the rest of the holes laid out in black china marker.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00075.jpg

The top holes are for the cables running into the stand. The bottom holes are for the cables running out of the stand.

I learned how to use a jigsaw (it made my hand numb) . . .

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00077.jpg

A little crooked . . .

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00078.jpg

The rectangular cut out is for a vent.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...0831-00080.jpg

The stain isn't a perfect match . . . but the vent was "salvage" too. It should perform its job.

These fans from Modular LED are being mounted on the inside of the vent (to disapate humidity from the topup reservoir and the heat from the Apex and powerbars:
http://www.modularled.ca/antec-truequiet-120mm/
I'm short a fan power adapter and power supply, but those are now on route from Martin. I should have them tomorrow of the next day. Then I'll get the fans installed.

Cheap black schedule 40 bulkheads are going into the holes, to pretty them up a bit and to protect the wires. I ordered those cheap off of eBay. I'm sure they'll get here eventually. :o

The tank is a nice fit on this table. I'm kind of thinking that the table needs to be painted black . . . but I'm on the fence about actually doing it.

Oh . . . kinda messed this part up. Reboot!

Everything in this build is soo well thought out keep up the great work:biggrin:

i must say you are a very handy gal, my gf doesn't even know how to use a screw driver lol, but i guess thats where i come in :lol:

Cool I like the table stand, I think it would look more modern painted black, but that's a lot of work and looks ok as is.

That's because I learn from my mistakes, and I've made a LOT of them on pervious builds. :o

I'm an old broad on husband #3. I've had to figure out how to take care of some things myself. :lol:

I've picked up black paint and nickel hardware for it, based on feedback from a thread I posted in the DIY forum. It is a big task, and there are actually two of these tables (the other is hexagonal, and will become a stand for a hex tank in the future), so the task is more then just this one table. It will look much better, I think. The tank and stand will certainly match more closely then before.

Ya the work it takes to paint will pay off in the end.

a post has been made in all the contest forumns regarding contest rules via the timeline, everyone should read this post as there seems to be some confusion.

I'm thinking about flow.

A very common practice when dealing with these cubes is to replace the stock return pump with a Maxi Jet (a 900 or even a 1200).

If the water volume is 19.5 gallons, and optimal flow rate through a "sump" (filtration chambers, in this case) is 6.1x display volume, the optimal flow rate for the return pump in this system is ~120 gallons per hour. The stock pump has a flow rate of 290 gph. Replacing the stock pump with a higher flow pump seems foolish, based on those numbers. Ergo, I'll be using the stock return pump and relying on powerheads to supply the flow that the corals require.

I've presently got a Tunze 6015 as the powerhead for this tank. While it is a little large as far as how much room it requires in the display, it is 476 gph. I need at least 20x the water volume per hour for system flow: 400 gph. Combined with the return, I'll have 766 gph, which should be suitable.

I've been testing an "Innovative Marine Spin Stream Return Nozzle" for this system. I think it is a huge improvement over the stock return nozzle: which blasts the water out and has very limited positional range.

great job so far shelley, looks like your putting alot of thought into this:)


cheers

Yeah I agree with reefwars very well thought out...i cant wait too see if tank with live stock more and more

The more I think about it, this system might just be stocked with coral and inverts. The reason being that fish are pretty messy for the most part (at least all of the gluttons I've got, anyway). If I find a fish or two that aren't messy pigs I'll consider putting them in here.

Well never thought about that..fish are messy...:wink:thanks for the thoughts..Humm now do I want fish lol coral are easy through fish in whole new ball game

Have I mentioned that I hate painting?

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1cdface9.jpg

It would look better, but I got stoned on the fumes.

It looks better than it did, and it will match the tank better. It certainly isn't perfect, however. I think I'm going to have to sand a couple of spots and touch it up.

Edit: I need to pick up some of the black melamine furniture edging strips, as four of them were in terrible shape and I pulled them off.

I spoil my fish (food=love ;)) so my main display system is very high nutrients. LPS and softies do well in it. When I had an overstocked 10 gallon LPS and softies did well in there, too. I need this system to be lower nutrients, especially as I won't be running fluid reactors.

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4263f36e.jpg

The tank's brain.

Admittedly, this is a huge cash sink. And, I could probably get very similar results without it. But, as I'm looking at this being a long-term setup, I decided it was worth it.

This tank was going to get the full Apex, but when I considered all of the logistics involved in swapping the full Apex from my main display system, I decided to suck it up and add a VDM module to the Lite and use the Lite on this tank.

I've screwed everything to the piece of plywood that was originally the shelf in the stand. There are some issues with the placement of the bars and modules, but I think it will suffice. The display will be mounted on the front or side of the stand. When looking at that photo I can see that the VDM cable is shifted at the EB8. I need to fix that.

Due to the low wattage of so many of the devices in this build, I had to add an EB4 to the set up. Even still, I may have not have enough relay outlets. I can probably combine the return pump and skimmer on one outlet.

Oh, the stand looks quite good this morning. I don't think any touch ups are required. It is going in our poorly lit rec room, anyway. ;)

The stand is done. :)

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...psdbb19343.jpg


http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...ps806dcfd4.jpg

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...psd254a35a.jpg

The handles on the doors look like they're at very different heights in the photo. They don't look like that when I'm standing in front of it. If they are really that out, I'm not worried about it: as the table has been in my life since 1976 and I've never noticed before.