Nano Reef in the Office

jostafew · #1 11-05-2012, 04:00 AM

Had a productive day at the dollar store; found a 2L hermetically sealed canning jar that should work nicely as my gravity fed FW resevoir (we'll see how long 2L lasts). Jar was $4.00 and the 1/4" glass hole saw was $20 hahaha. Oh well, never a bad excuse to buy tools!

Here's the jar

With two 1/4" holes drilled to supply the tank

Now it's just a matter of measuring and installing the hoses (will simply use silicone as a bulkhead in the jar).

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Royal Aquariums · #2 11-05-2012, 04:22 AM

Great job on the DIY tank!

jostafew · #3 11-05-2012, 05:43 AM

Thanks for the compliment! This was my first build using clear silicone, which I've discovered is a lot less forgiving than black in terms of creating a tidy looking seam. Being transparent it reveals any included bubbles and changes in silicone thickness. I have a newfound respect for tank builders doing much larger tanks in clear silicone and producing nearly flawless seams. That being said I'm happy with the result on this one. I was lazy with a couple seams at the back and the bottom and didn't bother to mask them off when assembling, but I won't see those once the tank is installed ;-)

jostafew · #4 11-13-2012, 05:12 AM

Quick update: picked up a used RKL so that will be in place from day one

, finished the FW resevoir plumbing, and tinted the side panels. Everything is packed up and ready to go to the office for installation. Hopefully one night this week I'll be able to stay late and blast a couple holes in the desk to run cords and plumbing. Pretty stoked!

subman · #5 11-13-2012, 05:18 AM

Very nice and clean setup!
Can't wait to see more

ScubaSteve · #6 11-13-2012, 07:07 PM

Very cool build. I love the clean look.

I'm actually building a tank for my desk at work right now too, though mine's just an old biocube my friend had kicking around

I'll be converting it to LEDs though, which brings up a point you mentioned above...

The disco ball effect. You can minimize the disco ball effect by keeping the surface calm OR you can pack the LEDs closer together to minimize the separation of the light sources. I've been tossing around the idea of using Steve's LEDs 3-up stars (link) to get 3 LEDs tightly packed onto a single star, and then packing the stars tight together. Basically, this is the tightest configuration possible without doing a custom PCB (Which I am considering...). My thinking is to get the sources tight enough together that they basically behave (more or less) like a single large point source of light like a metal halide and you won't see as much disco-ing. In theory this shouldn't be a whole lot different than a HQI upgrade for the biocube, especially if I run the LEDs without optics. This is the direction a lot of the high end systems are going with, however, those are pendant systems and with the extra height you can get decent spread from a tight packing. I'm unsure how it would work out inside a biocube where the LEDs are close to the water surface.

Have you thought about this at all for your LEDs? And how do you think this would work in the biocube? I'm basically using the same color mix as you and have been debating using the 3-ups to create 1 or 2 tightly packed arrays of LEDs.

arash53 · #7 11-13-2012, 07:51 PM

Good job, really nice and neat DIY setup. I cant wait to see it up and running.

I have a nano FW tank in the office, I was thinking about setting up a SW ,but I thought it will be too much hassle preparing water in the office. I really like to see how you do it.