reefwars 2012 nano contest entry

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by sphelps

It's a good thing I'm not a judge cause you'd be loosing major points for having three pages with no pictures.

+1.

In fact, I remember the contest organizer indicated that photos were incredibly important, and that crummy phone photos would certainly suffice.

It would sure be nice to have some photos of the powerhead test. I think it needs redone.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Enigma

+1.

In fact, I remember the contest organizer indicated that photos were incredibly important, and that crummy phone photos would certainly suffice.

It would sure be nice to have some photos of the powerhead test. I think it needs redone.

i have pictures of everything just putting it all together and organized.


basically my tank is built, pedastal for rock is done, flow test done, feeder hooked up.


i just have to prep the sump, add my equipment to it and do the plumbing.


ill have pics of everything for everyone here very shortly, just wanted to get a few ideas on some things.



oh and i got my livestock order made for dec 1rst hehehe, i ordered some cool nps corals will see how they arrive


oh and with note....man are nice dendros hard to find in colonie size

[Enigma]

I'm sure everything will be documented most excellently.

But, "smack talk" is still encouraged . . . yes?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Enigma

But, "smack talk" is still encouraged . . . yes?

oh you better believe it lol , thats why i havnt really posted anything im waiting for some good ideas to steal

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by reefwars

oh you better believe it lol , thats why i havnt really posted anything im waiting for some good ideas to steal

That's why I am waiting until the deadline to post anything

[Nano]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

That's why I am waiting until the deadline to post anything

What are you using for a tank? any chance its that one I gave you? It needs some glory :P

[reefwars]

this is the tank i am using it was origionally built as a freshwater resevoir for my ato but i am neverous of ato's so its never been set up , just collected dust untill now.


the tank is 6.5g and the dimensions are 8.5 " long x 8.5" wide x 20" high


i had filled the tank before drilling to even make sure it still held water and im glad to say it does


heres a pic of the fill:






i then decided to drill the tank in the back right corner for a 3/4" bulkhead










the tank sits dry now waiting for the plumbing to be assembled to the sump, all the plumbing will be clear vinyl tubing , and a small bit of pvc.






next post: stand choice

[reefwars]

nexxt i had to choose a stand and lucky me i have this lamp that is juusssssssst shy of the tanks dimensions, the stand is a square lamp almost the exact same size as the tank . it has a shade and is built out of wood but needed to be painted so i painted it black.


basically this is the lamp i had taken off the shade so i can paint it.




the shade has an asia type design on it and is white it slips down into the wooden frame.







and yes the light does actually work:










next i painted the stand black and added some egg crate which is what the tank will sit on, the egg crate still needs to be painted black before the saltwater fill and plumbing happens:


not the best pic in the world but trust me 100% improvement lol







now with the stand painted and the tank drilled i got to making the pedastel for inside the tank



next postedestal build

[reefwars]

so with a tank so tall i didnt really want to be dealing with the hassels of liverock so i decided to do a pedestal tank basically a tank inside a tank seperate from all the corals.



here is what i came up with:


first the empty tanks, i decided to just use the one pedestal and not the small one added on top for now:P




my tall diy pestal made from scrap glass at my house:








the idea is to center this tank filled with rock inside the display tank


next came to filling this with rock, i had to use my grinder and diamond wheel to cut the rock in shapes i wanted and so everything fit together....no chance of toppling and plus this "pillar" is going to be removable at any time for cleaning etc.


i chose 3 pieces of rock from my liverock tank:






these piece were akward and weirdly shaped.......so i played god and made them how i wanted them:










i then stacked them inside the "pillar" and siliconed them into place so they could not fall back or out of place, the silicone is in places you cannot see from the front of the tank:





















now with the insides of the tank done for rock i got to thinking how im going to feed some of these corals so i got to building a diy feeder using a media reactor and a modified majijet.



next post: diy auto feeder

[sphelps]