Just thought I would share some pics of my current build. Last tank was a 44g corner tank and I just didnt like the look of it and the maintenance was a bear. So I decided to downsize a bit. I didnt want to run a sump/refugium so I was looking at AIO's. I couldnt find one that suited me until this one. This is an Advance Acrylic custom tank. Dimensions are 24x24x10 which not sure what empty volume is but with the live sand and rock work it comes in at 21g including the back chambers. Other than the hair algae I imported from an old tank everything looks sweet. Once I get that cleaned up I will finish moving the old stock into this tank so pardon if it looks empty at the moment. Enjoy!
24x24x10 Shallow Rimless AIO Build - 21g
- Thread starter one4gatr
- Start date
Ok... so I was in the market for a 4x24 t5ho fixture. After a BUNCH of research I concluded the Tek fixture was the BEST fixture within my budget. I purchased one from a fellow board member (thanks SO MUCH Chris!) who's tank I really admired. The fixture didnt come with tank mounts though I could by them so I decided I try suspending the fixture above the tank and see how I liked it. Well needless to say I LOVE the way it looks suspended above the tank. Dont know why in the heck I even considered mounting it on the tank in retrospect. Anyway some pics of it skinned and with the new light above the tank.
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cthedaytrader
Active member
Hey Mark,
It looks really good hung like that!! I think that is actually better than the hanging kit I had, much cleaner looking. It fits perfectly over the tank. How does it look with the lights on though?
that is a really cool tank too, I love the Mangroves I always wanted to try them too.
What kind of sand and rock do you have in there?
It looks really good hung like that!! I think that is actually better than the hanging kit I had, much cleaner looking. It fits perfectly over the tank. How does it look with the lights on though?
that is a really cool tank too, I love the Mangroves I always wanted to try them too.
What kind of sand and rock do you have in there?
Ask and you shall receive.. dang the HA looks worse at night... going to be scrubbing those rocks tomorrow..lol... Like most night pictures these dont do it justice. Was trying to get some shots of my Golden Eye Zoos but cant get a good angle on those. They look freeking sweet. The sand is Indo Pacific Black. Not sure what the rocks are. Bought them from LFS as dead rock. You really cant see in the pics but these things are very porous and have been seeded in my old tank for about 6 months. Had them on the bottom so they dont have a bunch of coralline growth on them yet.
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cameron91806
New member
nice
Thanks Cameron. Still a work in progress...
cthedaytrader
Active member
What did you sead the tank with? Be careful with that dead rock, did you cook it or clean it, sometimes that unknown dead rock can have a lot of trapped nutrients and phosphates etc in it, and leach it into your aquairum over time and cause major algae problems. I had that problem with some old dead rock I used.
Before I put that dead rock in my old tank it got a good thorough acid bath and then cooked & dried before being put in the tank. I seeded the old tank with LR bought from LFS as well as live sand (bagged) and a few scoops from fellow reefers. I dont think the rock is the issue. I let the old tank when I bought the new go a little too long. I believe the issue to be phosphates and silicates. Which I can fix. Problem was I had a bit of HA on a rock that I brought in the new tank that was lodged between some zoos and I thought my CUC would take care of it... but as you can see they didnt lol... easy enough to fix tho...
Thanks Eshook... yeah they REALLY grew on me after I looked at the shallow reef thread here on RC and saw a couple of local reefers with them setup. Chris who posted earlier is setting up a 75g shallow which I have no doubt will be BAD _SS. I think the real thing that swung me was being able to just reach in and not be in up to my armpits to move things, clean, scape, and whatnot. Dont get me wrong I still love deep tanks and sort of miss being able to make a 24" stack of rocks which looks cool in its own right. But having had this tank for a little over a month now I can tell you that I will likely never go back to a "deep" tank. Problem is next tank I will do I would like to do a 36x24 or so tank and the real estate they take up in your house kind of sucks but I will deal with them given all the positives.
Mark
cthedaytrader
Active member
Update? Hows the tank coming along?
Its good man. Trying to take it slow and easy you know the drill. Parameters are good... got the HA under control... havent added much but will attach a couple of pics none the less. My biggest issue seems to be water loss. I guess with a shallower tank I just might notice it more but I am losing about a gallon every two days. So I am looking at setting up some sort of ATO. This normally wouldnt be a huge problem but my return pump is flushing all of the back chambers if I dial it up but whenever I dial it down it only sucks out its chamber and blows a bunch of air in the tank when the water level drops.
I think I may have hung the fixture a bit too low. Some of my mushrooms on the bottom were shrinking and the SPS frags I had up high were bleaching out. I bought a BIG chunk of monti from a friend of mine and made a "shade zone" that is helping the shrooms. I moved the SPS frags to the bottom for now and they are doing well. I will let them acclimate to the lighting and see if I can move them back up. I havent been supplementing with anything as of yet but have been looking at a product called Oyster Feast some folks have been having success with and am thinking about giving it a whirl.
I have been treating the HA with Algefix and picked up a new 6 stage RO/DI which has pretty much killed it all off. There are a couple of spots I need to brush off the dead stuff that I will get to sometime this week. No diatom outbreaks or algae at this point so knock on wood.
So to update the tank here is the livestock list and additions:
Livestock
Pulsing Xenia (old)
2x small Kenya Trees (new - got from buddy)
Tricolor Ric (old) - moved and is doing great
Red Shroom (old) - needs to be moved
Golden Eye Zoos (old) moved once but now looking KILLER looks like I have sprouted a few new polyps since the move.
Green Zoos (old) - still doing good in their original placement
2x GSP (new-xfer) - cant kill this stuff
3x Purple Srooms (1 old 2 new xfers) - now have all in shaded areas and doing well
Red Monti - (new - got from buddy) - Seems to be doing well.
2x Astrea Snails
Chemical/Media
Chemipure Elite Bag (new)
Phosphate Pad (new)
1ml Iodine weekly (old)
1ml Algeafix weekly (new)
I think thats about it. I will attach pics in 2nd post.
Thanks,
Mark
Sinful Aquatics
Nano Reefer
Nice little set up you got there!
Sinful Aquatics
Nano Reefer
What do you plan on getting?
Nothing set in stone at the moment. I would like to have a layered effect tho...sps up top, lps in the middle, softies on the bottom and a couple rock "islands" here and there. I think a nice clam would be cool also.
Mark
