Soapy's 2012 Nano Contest Entry
 

For this contest I am going to be working with my son. He is eleven and has his own ideas of what should go into a reef tank so it could get messy. We are going to do a multi-tank Rube Goldberg type set up. Lots of pipes and DIY gizmos. At the same time we will be trying to keep it clean and classy looking.

This should be fun, we are definitely looking forward to it.

Awesome with great son that's cool:biggrin:...sounds like an ambitious build lol

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.

What is a "multi-tank Rube Goldberg type set up"?

Its fun working with kids and reef tanks. Mine always ask if we can get "dory" the blue powder tang in a nano tank lol NO haha.

sweeeeeeet i cant wait to see this , i love theme tanks:)

theme tanks
 

Well speaking of themes I thought I would post some inspirational photos.

http://www.mauialmanac.com/img/algae.jpg

http://www.saveourpeninsula.org/clim...%20Graham).jpg

http://www.sciencephoto.com/image/18...lution-SPL.jpg

Nice!

Worlds Within Worlds
 

Ok so we have come up with a theme for our contest entry, it will be 'Worlds
within Worlds'. Also tanks within tanks and organisms within organisms. A metaphorical journey down the nano-tank rabbit hole. Er, Mantis hole?

Well, I happened to look and see that today is empty tank shot day, so here is a shot for that. Unfortunately this is about where we are at with this project, although we have been working steadily at it. We still need to find some kind of stand to mount all the gear into. Speaking of which here is a list of everything we have so far for this build:

NEW:
Aqueon nano tanks
Ehiem 3000 return pump
Kessil 150 LED lighting
Tunze Osmolator top off unit
gate valves, bulkheads etc.

USED:
15 gallon tank for sump (will only be partially filled)
small heater

possible DIY projects:
Mame style air driven skimmer
kalk reactor

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf18226ba.jpg