Snake's 20g Nano Build thread - Page 2

Hey! Glad to see you following my thread! Yay!

Yes, I think my scrubber is plenty big. I just got the pump in for it today and I will probably be cementing everything in place and getting it flowing tomorrow. The lights are 4" or less from the screen. I made sure that they were very close. If they don't work at that distance, I am going to increase the bulbs wattage. But, I am sure that I will get it right if I keep experimenting with it.

This is everything that I needed to make the phytoplankton culture box/center. See materials list earlier in the thread.

I got home from Wal-Mart this evening with a few bags full of goodies. Pretty much everything here, including the cardboard box, will be used as part of the phyto culture center. The only thing that I don't have is a live culture. Then again, My tank isn't even up and running yet, so I'm not worried about getting one for a few weeks. I am probably going to end up ordering from Carolina Biological Supply, however I might settle for propagating Nannocloropsis algae from a DT's Phytoplankton bottle. I know people do it, but I'm not sure if they have patented their algae or not. (Since Congress has given permission to patent life, I am not sure if this particular algae is patented yet or not.) 

I have limited space for places that I can do things for my aquarium, so the easiest thing I could think of was to build it into a shelf in my computer desk. HAHAHA Ghetto, I know.

Here are a few build pics:

Of course, I haven't drank 3, 2 liter bottles of rootbeer in a few hours, so I tested it out with the rootbeer still in the bottle for spacing. The air pump also fits in really well on the right.

Once I finish up the rootbeer - which will probably take a while since I'm in no rush... haven't even gotten the bioculture in yet... I'm going to drill the caps and fit the airline tubing into em'. The gang valve is placed high. I'm also going to put a check valve on it to be sure that if the air pump stops, that it won't siphon water back into the unit.

Don't worry, those cords under the desk will all be arranged and zip tied to look better. The bottom shelf may become artemia/rotifer hatching space. I'm still undecided. The air pump that I got is an awesome one - so if I wanted to expand to the bottom shelf, it would be easy as pie. I'm really considering enriching artemia/brine/rotifers before putting them in my tank. I really believe in feeding live cultures as much as possible.

I'm thinking about hot gluing or taping black construction paper to it to hide it a little better. What do ya'll think? lol.

I just wanted to post the link to this thread: "Some of my old tanks" http://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/387762/some-of-my-old-tanks on this thread if anyone is interested in seeing some of my old tanks after running across this thread. I would love some comments, and welcome questions!

So we can say ass on these forums but not Mortg@ge or P!lls? That's crazy.

Anyways, i think I'm going to go with either Dr. G's or something from Florida Aqua Farms that has a specific algae. I bought Miracle Grow 10-10-10, but I think I'm going to opt for a micro algae grow fertilizer for this. Since you only use a little at a time, it should last quite a while.

Haha, welcome to the thread! You may learn something new and fun!

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of culturing rotifers and artemia and copepods on the bottom shelf. But that, of course, will come much later.

I'm just having to think of new ways to make my stuff child proof for now. ... Hmm...

My rock will ship Monday! So, I'm really excited to get that in and in my tank. I'm probably going to mix up 10g of saltwater or so on Thursday and try to catch the ammonia spike and head it off with a water change. Hopefully I will also get my algae scrubber up and running over the weekend and ready for when I do get my rock.

Maybe i need to rename this thread: Snake's 75L Nano tank ? It seems like the bigger the tank you have the more hits and posts you get. LOL! Maybe I could post it in the "Reef Tanks" forum and get more views.

This thread has been moved to the "Reef Tanks" section of the forum! Between my wife and I and a friend, we managed to polish off one bottle of rootbeer so far. lol!

It looks like I am going to have to wait for my rock to come in before I can do anything else to the tank. I may post pics of me cementing my scrubber together and it running sometime today. That sounds fun. :D

Hah, thanks Traveler. Yeah, I really like to do all of the little extras and keep it interesting. I'm going to be experimenting with this tank as well. That algae scrubber is going to get a good test! I'm also starting to read a lot of books on the science, equipment and art of reefkeeping, and I am learning a lot more then I thought I would have. I'll be experimenting with some of these techniques I'm learning with my tank and maybe someone can learn something from the thread. I dunno.

So, update on the equipment so far:

Standard 20g high AGA

Standard 10g sump, baffled

Rio 1100 return pump

Eshopps Nano Overflow (200gph MAX)

4xT5HO Nova Extreme with individual reflectors for DT

Small clip on moonlights (will buy soon)

DIY verticle Turf Algae Scrubber with a 6x8" screen

Rio 1100 pump for the algae scrubber

2x clip on lamps with 42w CFLs for algae scrubber

Koralia Nano 240g powerhead

Koralia Nano 400g powerhead (going to buy soon)

Coralife dual analog timer powerstrip Going to buy soon)

Equipment Wishlist:

ATO unit on a 3g container of kalkwasser.

Neptune systems controller (hehehe) yeah, about $400 well spent, and can be used on another system in the future

DIY phytoplankton doser (wine bottle chiller + dosing pump.

Live goods:

40 pounds Live rock (arriving next week!)

30 pounds dry aragonite sand (oolite, I think)

Fish:

2 clownfish

2 firefish gobies

1 yellow watchman goby OR green banded goby

1 neon blue goby

Inverts:

20 blue leg hermits

20 nassarius snails

10 astrina snails

1 brittle star

1 green emerald crab

1 skunk cleaner shrimp

Then whatever comes on the live rock.

Corals:

Mainly SPS dominated. The back wall of the aquarium I am going to superglue monti caps.

So, I did a little work today on my ATS! Woot Woot! Here are some pics:

Putting it all together:

Assembled:

Running in the bathtub... leak test and what-not

Here is a pic of the ATS running on my system:

Here is an updated pic of my aquarium from tonight. The water is a little cloudy because I stirred up some sand particles that had settled on the bottom of the sump.

I have on clients tanks. I haven't had a personal aquarium in the last 3 years.

I just wanted to also post a pic of my old 90g aquarium for kicks: