Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board  

Go Back   Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board > General > Tank Journal

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old 03-29-2021, 09:22 PM
rustybee rustybee is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Location: West Vancouver
Posts: 8
rustybee is on a distinguished road
Default New Nano Tank Log

Hey folks. New to the forum, but not new to reef keeping.

Started more than 35 years ago as a teenager, keeping a 12G salt water tank (air stone and live rock) with a pair of percula clowns. Moved to Canada, took some time away from this hobby and eventually started a 60G in our first home. Eventually bought a 175G bowfront from upstarts JNL (Big Al was the incumbent along with King Ed’s and a shop on Kingsway... think Laurie was the shop owners name). Had the 175G set up as a reef tank, deep sand bed, 400W MH, Neptune Aqua controller, EuroReef skimmer, Calcium Reactor, no expense spared. Fast forward 15 years and 3 kids later, a much delayed home reno meant that the 175G had to be torn down (tank given away for pennies on the dollar as a terrarium) and liverock/equipment stored. Never really got the opportunity to setup another, as there just wasn’t another space in the house to setup a big tank like I wanted.

Fast forward 2021 and the itch for a reef tank beckons still. Saw a for sale ad for a nice nano tank setup that the wife approves, bought it an the journey begins again. Here is a thread to serve as a blog for this nano tank build with my 14 year old son (how life comes full circle lol).

Feb 1 2021

Fluval M40 tank and stand. Got a great deal from a local CanReefer. Came with a Tunze Silence 1073.008 recirculating pump, a 75W Eheim heater and a cheap set of no name LED lights. Upon first impression this is a well made rimless tank. Frosted edges is a nice touch. Stand is well built with enough space and shelving to do the trick. Built in sump looks good, although I think that the middle overflow box is not designed as well as it could be (all sections have top overflow). Not wanting to open a can of worms to redo the middle compartment, we decided against doing the required mod.

Off we go! Found a quiet corner in a cool part of the house (not wanting to deal with a chiller or natural sunlight from the skylights/windows). Had a new bucket of Instant Ocean leftover from the 175G days. Mixed batch of saltwater to 1.026 using an old Aquarium Pharmaceutical Inc Ion-Exchange Resin filter (mistake 1). Filled the tank to check for leaks. All clear. Fired up the re-circ pump (works!). Have a trash bin of super fine Caribbean sugar sand (wow that’s a lot a sand from the 175G lol). Did a few wash to clean up the sand. Decided against a deep sand bed on the build since it is only a 16G and space is at a premium. Just a thin 2cm sprinkle of cleaned sand for the nice “ look” (mistake 2).


Feb 2 2021

Cloudy water from adding the sand has mostly cleared out after 12hrs. Have all of my old live rocks still stored in Rona 77L garbage bins. Call me a sentiment old fool, but these were at one point premium Fiji/Tonga liverock full encrusted with coralline algae. Have 4 of these Rona bins stored in heated in the house with only air pump running, hopefully that one day I will start another tank. Picked out 2 larger pieces as the base. Aquascaping has always been one of my favourite elements in tank setup. Decided against one single structure, and went with 2 separate structures for more room to display corals. Picked a few more smaller pieces from the bucket to finish off the structure. Looks good so far even though all the coralline has died off from no light... happy but I am sure not the final layout.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg F7086C5B-257B-4459-8BB7-5B588D3267A6.jpg (17.3 KB, 39 views)

Last edited by rustybee; 03-29-2021 at 09:37 PM.
Reply With Quote
 

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 07:52 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.