12G Mr Aqua Build

[bosworth]

Starting a 12g Mr Aqua build and I thought I would share it with everyone.
I'm actually pretty far in so I'll just give you an equipment list and a bunch of pictures.

I had a 70G mixed reef a few years ago and now I'm starting this for my office. The goal is to keep a clean minimalist tank that I can manage from anywhere.

Tank - 12G Mr Aqua 35.4" X 8.3" X 9.4"
Lights - Ecoxotic 36" Panorama Marine LED with One Touch Controller
Filtration - AquaClear 50 with InTank Media Basket
Heater - Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm 75w
Water Movement - Vortech MP10w
Top Off - Tunze Nano Ozmolator 3152
Control - Neptune Aquatics Apex with DC8, WXM, PM2, PH, Temp, Conductivity

Salt - IO Reef Crystals
Water - 5 Stage RO/DI
Rock - 5.3 lb fully cured dead rock
Sand - 12lb Fiji Pink Argi-Alive
Bacteria - Dr. Tims
Test Kits - Salifert & Red Sea Pro

I've also custom built a drawer/cabinet to hold all of the electrical and controllers.

 

[Fish are friend]

cant wait to see how this turns out

 

[Spirofucci]

Nice! Lol, I have never seen an ugly 12L tank.

 

[tommer725]

I have been debating getting one of these tanks. I too have never seen an ugly 12L.

 

[Epicreefer]

Definitely nice tanks, wish I still had my 12g long.

 

[bdevillier]

that has to be one of the best setups of the Mr. aqua 12 i've seen. they all look good but i love the stand/drawer that you made for it. and with the new longer ecoxotic lights it doesnt get any cleaner. you're tank looks awesome, cant wait to see it get better.

 

[corals4life]

Looks great so far! I'm thinking about setting up a similar tank. Keep us posted, I'm excited for you and to see the progress.

 

[tmantaylor18]

following this build. looks great already!

 

[popebosephus]

subscribed. I love these tanks.

 

[socalireefdood]

looks great! i saw this tank my lfs and it inspired me to get one built by LeeMar 36 x 13 x 13 cant wait to see your update

 

[bosworth]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! So here is where things stand right now. The tank has been up for almost 4 weeks and I'm finally starting to see a green algae bloom. I have another QT tank that has 2 Fancy Bar Percs and a Scooter Blenny in it. I had a purple fire fish and a different scooter blenny which did after the first 24 hours due to a faulty Hydor heater. It cooked that tank to 83.2 degrees. Amazingly the clowns made it. So a few days later and a new Cobalt Neotherm heater, I added a Helfrichi Firefish and the new scooter blenny, and 24 hours later the Helfrichi Firefish is dead but everyone else is fine. I don't understand what is happening to the firefish. Each of the fish was float acclimated for temp for 30 mins before salinity acclimation and the entire process only took about an hour. They were only in the bag a little over an hour since the LFS is 5 mins. from my house. QT tank temp is 78 salinity 1.026 and no trace of NO2 or NH3.

Any thoughts?

I have also been trying to find the perfect ATO system. I tried the Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 and the float is just not sensitive enough, it may work fine in a sump environment but not in this tank. It was requiring a .5" plus drop in water level before it was turning on. That equates to about .64g of water or 7% of total water volume. Not acceptable! That was swinging my salinity from 35ppm to 38ppm. So i'm going to try the BRS dosing pump controlled by my Apex. The tank evaporates 24oz every 12 hours.

Here are a few more shots since everyone loves pictures.

 

[bosworth]

I got the cover from picoaquariums.com

 

[bazr57]

I would love to set up my Mr.Aqua 12L like that, do you mind me asking around how much everything cost?

 

[El Camaron]

Very nice build. I just purchased the Tunze nano 3152, how do you like yours?

 

[bosworth]

Well I have like 2700 in everything right now but that also includes all the misc. things that go into the hobby like test kits, food, tongs, mag floats etc. The major costs are the lights, controls, Apex, RO/DI, etc.

I tried the Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 and the float is just not sensitive enough, it may work fine in a sump environment but not in this tank. It was requiring a .5" plus drop in water level before it was turning on. That equates to about .64g of water or 7% of total water volume. Not acceptable! That was swinging my salinity from 35ppm to 38ppm. So i'm going to try the BRS dosing pump controlled by my Apex. The tank evaporates 24oz every 12 hours.

 

[bosworth]

Update

Update

Ok, so things have been pretty boring for the last few weeks while the tank cycled, but now that its over here is a big update.

I have moved the tank from its temporary home in the basement upstairs to my dining room. This may be temporary as well since its supposed to be moved to my office eventually.

Here is a crappy picture.

More importantly this past weekend was the LEAR (Lake Erie Advanced Reefers) annual frag swap. This swap was HUGE! I got there right at noon and had to wait in line behind 250 people just to get in. The venue was really big but could have easily been twice the size and there were some really amazing vendors there. For me this was the stocking event I was waiting for!

I picked up 24 pieces! A mix of LPS, SPS, and Zoas. I'm stoked. :dance:
Here are some of the bags getting ready for the Bayer Dip. I prepared the Bayer Solution 5ml / cup and let each coral soak for 10 mins and then did a 10 min soak in clean tank water followed by a swish in another container of fresh salt water before they went into the tank.

For those who don't dip here is what came off of those 24 clean looking frags.

Here is the temporary holding location for all of the frags. I'll let them sit overnight before I start aquascaping.
The Bounty!

 

[bosworth]

Aquascaping

Aquascaping

The goal of this tank is to be a clean, organized, zen like mixed reef. I want to have a few islands with a truly mixed feel. I will have acan and zoa gardens at the base of the rocks followed by SPS on the middle and upper portions of the rock. I'm really trying to gather very select colorful pieces. I'm also going to try and maintain a small hammer garden in the center of the tank.

Let me know if you have any recommendations or changes. Just a note on lighting and flow. My MP10 is on the right side of the tank running via the Apex and I have an Aquaclear 50 filter on the left side of the tank. The right side obviously gets more flow but the filter can create quite a nice flow itself. The Ecoxotic LED light only sits 4" off the water and the whole tank is only 9" deep and it puts out 35 watts.

Here are some of the acans I picked up including my favorite the Cherry Corals Skittles Acan.

Here is the hammer garden including a gold hammer.

Left Side

Middle

Right Side

Left side top down

Middle top down

Right side top down

Side view from the right

Side view from the left

Here is the full list of the bounty:
Tricolor Acro
Ora Bird of Paradise
Red Dragon
Teal Blue Stag
Pink Lemonade - Jason Fox
Aqua Vista - Jason Fox
Pink Birdsnest with neon green tips
Copepods
Shamrock Green Zoa
Shamrock and Orange Zoa
Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoa
Neon Yellow brown Zoa
Orange Green with green skirt Zoa
Bam Bam- Orange Zoa
Orange/Yellow Hammer
Neon Green Hammer
Purple / Green Hammer
Candy Apple - Pink Zoa
Skittles acan - Cheery Corals
Orange Green Rim Micromussa
Pink Blue Red Acan
Pink Teal Acan
Light Blue Pink Red Acan
Neon Green blue Acan
Duncan

 

[Fish are friend]

your corals colors are so vibrant

 

[Fish_Hobby]

Very nicely done,

 

[flightjunkie]

I'm really like the approach you took here. I'm looking to upgrade soon and I think I'm going to follow your lead. Nice tank!!