Grahamathon
New member
Hello and thanks for the interest. I must warn you this is a decent read, and any done is greatly appreciated although an entire read through would give you the best idea of what I want for a setup would allow for you to provide the most valuble of input, should you be so inclined, thus inspiring the greatest of appreciation.
Alright, so here's the deal. I have a hexagonal old acrylic AGA(?) aquarium from, I think, '94 that I got from work. It's in my room with a Marineland Biowheel HOB filter that stopped working after about a week and a half or two weeks. It was originally a Stomatopod tank that housed a tiny G. falcatus that I found in my reef tank. The filter broke a day or two before I left for a week, and so upon returning the tank was well "dead" and there's very little living in there now but it's not nasty and rotting at least and does not smell thankfully.
I was originally planning on creating a separate ~12 gallon square tank with an old tank I got from my friend and cleaning it up, redoing the silicone etc and making it look clean and proper. I've also been planning to move across the country to the West coast sometime during the second half of the year, and while on my week vacation I had the revelation that I don't need to be taking care of so many aquariums to begin with (in my house we have two up already, was planning on adding another on top of the stomatopod tank, and then this one as well not to mention a super low maintenance 10gallon fresh pseudo-planted, so would have been a total of 5 SW and 1 FW tank), not to mention what the heck I'd do with all of them when it is time to move or at least when the lease runs out.
So after that I happily finalized my plans as keeping the 55 and 20 reefs, the latter actually being my roommate's so I don't have to tend it/worry about what to do with it down the line, and making this dead mantis tank into my super intense picoesque reef system experiment. Now onto the tank and my plans for it.
An angle shot
Shot of the front (or potential back?)
Shot of the side
The top ... clearly, and that... filter
Overview of what I'm planning
I want a high lumen per square inch, moderate to high flow, clean, coral only, 3-4 gallon display tank with approximately a 10 gallon sump. This is also largely an experimental tank as I plan on using 10mm LEDs to light it (don't worry, I'll explain the non-high powered LED choice down the road).
The tank
Is old and is lightly scratched, though with water in it is clear enough. I am considering polishing it down to maximum attainable transparency again if that's easy as this will be the best viewing obviously but is especially true for a high light tank such as I'm planning.
I will drill the tank, likely with 3 holes for 1 output and 2 inputs going to and coming from the sump.
For the look of the tank, I'm going to try to remove the black end caps as they do not seem to contribute much to its structural strength.
The volume of the system
The dimensions I'm too lazy to get right now to find the theoretical volume, but I know that with that amount of sand in there and one piece of rock it took three gallons of water to fill it to almost the black line. That's why I figure that with less sand and filled to the line or just above it could be around a four gallon tank in theoretical volume.
I plan to remove most of the sand if not all of it, although I'm actually not a bare bottom fan. The sand and the overloaded liverock in those pictures were for, obviously, the mantis and to combat that sand being blown around too significantly by that... filter, respectively. The problem with my plan is that I'm worried about the high flow of the tank having the same or potentially a greater effect on that decreased sand amount due to the decreased rock volume and increased flow, so a bare bottom might be the only choice (if so I'll learn to like it, at least in this case
).
I would like to use roughly a 10 gallon sump for many reasons including dilution, space, and other volume related qualities.
The filtration
Will either be a sump sitting directly behind the rear of the tank or below it. If placed behind, I would likely use some kind of plastic/Rubbermaid container which would be easy to drill or cut to fit bulkheads to and I'll try to find something sturdy and around 10 gallons. I would likely just buy a 10 gallon glass tank to place underneath, should I choose that arrangement.
I will do the plumbing properly and would like the return to be a connected or almost connected PVC run along the upper edge of the tank with holes drilled along it, and potentially with tubes glued onto the holes, kind of like those Loc-line setups that I want but don't want to pay for. If the returns were connected, this PVC would form essentially a U along the hexagonal shape of the tank with the two ends connected to the two input bulkheads. Otherwise, unconnected, it would look essentially the same, but the bottom of the U would be split with each end capped. I am thinking of doing this for the ability to remove the PVC much, much more easily, should I ever need to, than if the tube was connected. I'd like to use black or at least gray PVC for this for the look as well.
A submersible powerhead will power the return, and it will be a little larger than necessary as I will place a ball valve to constrict its flow and split it to eventually add a DIY phosban and/or carbon reactor. Obviously this will have to be like a "one louder" type situation with the powerhead if I place the sump below to compensate for the head.
In the sump there will be a skimmer, and I might try to add some kind of mechanical filtration media for the output of the overflow.
The overflow will just be some simple hole-side down PVC elbow with something surrounding it to allow for surface skimming.
I really don't want to put any powerheads in the actual tank and I'm hoping the variously-angled high flow from the return will be enough to not require one.
There will be probably at most 6-7 pounds of live rock in there, as I'm hoping the skimmer will make it nearly obsolete beyond getting the tank cycled (blasphemer!).
The skimmer
I bought a new Odyssea PS-75 for cheap on eBay fully realizing it was more like a PoS-75. I plan on meshwheeling it and potentially recirculating it, and at the very least I figure it being normally "rated ti 75 gallons" :lol: will mean that for 13 gallons it'll be fine. The recirculation mod will help greatly as well in that respect.
The stand
Will again differ with the filtration setup I go with. Obviously a door if below, and I'm thinking just a drawer if behind. I'll probably stain it/seal it then paint it flat jet black, or potentially really dark wood. I'm also toying with the idea of a really light wood stain, we'll see.
The lighting
Now, for that explanation. 10mm LEDs can be pretty powerful in terms of luminous flux if you have many of them. I will have 100 of them. I've read a 3:1 white to blue ratio is good, but I will be going with an even ratio of 50 each.
This number of the LEDs I will purchase will result in a total output calculated to be 7767.5 lumens, with 68% of that coming from the white or "cool white" diodes. At their maximum efficiency halide bulbs can produce 115 lumens per watt, meaning the theoretical best a 70 watt bulb could output is 8050 lumens. The range, however, is 65 to 115 lumens per watt, so the likely observed luminous output is lower than this.
So, in terms of lumens, these LEDs will produce the same power of light as a 70 watt halide while only using 34 watts. I realize the spectrum may not be as broad as a halide, but as mentioned above this is an experimental tank in its lighting sense so I'm going to give it a shot regardless.
Plus they will run cooler than a halide, I won't have to change the "bulbs" for years, I figure at least some ric's will grow under there, and lastly, but arguably most importantly, I've always had a thing for LED powered tanks.
I'll be creating some kind of array for them and will build a small, clean, black (regardless of the stand color) wooden frame out of very thin wood, so it will be more to just hide the LEDs than support them, and hang it. This is for aesthetics as well as ease of access into the tank.
Heat and evaporation management
I am thinking about placing a lid on the tank, the sump, or both to help prevent evaporation. The sump would obviously be cut specifically to incorporate the plumbing and the skimmer. If the tank ever gets too cold I will put a small heater in the sump.
I am also thinking of adding an auto top-off of some kind, maybe even with the lids on the system. If that were the case I would definitely buy a lifter pump and a switch to make sure, otherwise I would just estimate the evaporation rate and use a microvalve to adjust the flow.
Livestock
I am hoping that I'll be able to keep Acro's in there with the lighting, flow, and filtration, but if any of those are the weakest link it'll be the lighting. I will be content with a nice lps/ricordea tank though, and I bet some Monti's will do quite nicely in there.
Other than that there'll be a cool, small hermit, and likely 3-4 snails.
Well I think that's it. Thanks for taking the time to read, especially if you read everything. I'm desperately seeking all comments, thoughts, advice, support, opinions, hate, etc. to help make this small, fun, cheapish, semi-experimental tank as successful as possible, so anything you leave will be considered fully and appreciated greatly.
Hope you've enjoyed it and weren't too bored with my love for attention to detail, and also that my formatting of the post help facilitate the entire-coffee-length long read.
Cheers.
Alright, so here's the deal. I have a hexagonal old acrylic AGA(?) aquarium from, I think, '94 that I got from work. It's in my room with a Marineland Biowheel HOB filter that stopped working after about a week and a half or two weeks. It was originally a Stomatopod tank that housed a tiny G. falcatus that I found in my reef tank. The filter broke a day or two before I left for a week, and so upon returning the tank was well "dead" and there's very little living in there now but it's not nasty and rotting at least and does not smell thankfully.
I was originally planning on creating a separate ~12 gallon square tank with an old tank I got from my friend and cleaning it up, redoing the silicone etc and making it look clean and proper. I've also been planning to move across the country to the West coast sometime during the second half of the year, and while on my week vacation I had the revelation that I don't need to be taking care of so many aquariums to begin with (in my house we have two up already, was planning on adding another on top of the stomatopod tank, and then this one as well not to mention a super low maintenance 10gallon fresh pseudo-planted, so would have been a total of 5 SW and 1 FW tank), not to mention what the heck I'd do with all of them when it is time to move or at least when the lease runs out.
So after that I happily finalized my plans as keeping the 55 and 20 reefs, the latter actually being my roommate's so I don't have to tend it/worry about what to do with it down the line, and making this dead mantis tank into my super intense picoesque reef system experiment. Now onto the tank and my plans for it.
An angle shot
Shot of the front (or potential back?)
Shot of the side
The top ... clearly, and that... filter
Overview of what I'm planning
I want a high lumen per square inch, moderate to high flow, clean, coral only, 3-4 gallon display tank with approximately a 10 gallon sump. This is also largely an experimental tank as I plan on using 10mm LEDs to light it (don't worry, I'll explain the non-high powered LED choice down the road).
The tank
Is old and is lightly scratched, though with water in it is clear enough. I am considering polishing it down to maximum attainable transparency again if that's easy as this will be the best viewing obviously but is especially true for a high light tank such as I'm planning.
I will drill the tank, likely with 3 holes for 1 output and 2 inputs going to and coming from the sump.
For the look of the tank, I'm going to try to remove the black end caps as they do not seem to contribute much to its structural strength.
The volume of the system
The dimensions I'm too lazy to get right now to find the theoretical volume, but I know that with that amount of sand in there and one piece of rock it took three gallons of water to fill it to almost the black line. That's why I figure that with less sand and filled to the line or just above it could be around a four gallon tank in theoretical volume.
I plan to remove most of the sand if not all of it, although I'm actually not a bare bottom fan. The sand and the overloaded liverock in those pictures were for, obviously, the mantis and to combat that sand being blown around too significantly by that... filter, respectively. The problem with my plan is that I'm worried about the high flow of the tank having the same or potentially a greater effect on that decreased sand amount due to the decreased rock volume and increased flow, so a bare bottom might be the only choice (if so I'll learn to like it, at least in this case
).I would like to use roughly a 10 gallon sump for many reasons including dilution, space, and other volume related qualities.
The filtration
Will either be a sump sitting directly behind the rear of the tank or below it. If placed behind, I would likely use some kind of plastic/Rubbermaid container which would be easy to drill or cut to fit bulkheads to and I'll try to find something sturdy and around 10 gallons. I would likely just buy a 10 gallon glass tank to place underneath, should I choose that arrangement.
I will do the plumbing properly and would like the return to be a connected or almost connected PVC run along the upper edge of the tank with holes drilled along it, and potentially with tubes glued onto the holes, kind of like those Loc-line setups that I want but don't want to pay for. If the returns were connected, this PVC would form essentially a U along the hexagonal shape of the tank with the two ends connected to the two input bulkheads. Otherwise, unconnected, it would look essentially the same, but the bottom of the U would be split with each end capped. I am thinking of doing this for the ability to remove the PVC much, much more easily, should I ever need to, than if the tube was connected. I'd like to use black or at least gray PVC for this for the look as well.
A submersible powerhead will power the return, and it will be a little larger than necessary as I will place a ball valve to constrict its flow and split it to eventually add a DIY phosban and/or carbon reactor. Obviously this will have to be like a "one louder" type situation with the powerhead if I place the sump below to compensate for the head.
In the sump there will be a skimmer, and I might try to add some kind of mechanical filtration media for the output of the overflow.
The overflow will just be some simple hole-side down PVC elbow with something surrounding it to allow for surface skimming.
I really don't want to put any powerheads in the actual tank and I'm hoping the variously-angled high flow from the return will be enough to not require one.
There will be probably at most 6-7 pounds of live rock in there, as I'm hoping the skimmer will make it nearly obsolete beyond getting the tank cycled (blasphemer!).
The skimmer
I bought a new Odyssea PS-75 for cheap on eBay fully realizing it was more like a PoS-75. I plan on meshwheeling it and potentially recirculating it, and at the very least I figure it being normally "rated ti 75 gallons" :lol: will mean that for 13 gallons it'll be fine. The recirculation mod will help greatly as well in that respect.
The stand
Will again differ with the filtration setup I go with. Obviously a door if below, and I'm thinking just a drawer if behind. I'll probably stain it/seal it then paint it flat jet black, or potentially really dark wood. I'm also toying with the idea of a really light wood stain, we'll see.
The lighting
Now, for that explanation. 10mm LEDs can be pretty powerful in terms of luminous flux if you have many of them. I will have 100 of them. I've read a 3:1 white to blue ratio is good, but I will be going with an even ratio of 50 each.
This number of the LEDs I will purchase will result in a total output calculated to be 7767.5 lumens, with 68% of that coming from the white or "cool white" diodes. At their maximum efficiency halide bulbs can produce 115 lumens per watt, meaning the theoretical best a 70 watt bulb could output is 8050 lumens. The range, however, is 65 to 115 lumens per watt, so the likely observed luminous output is lower than this.
So, in terms of lumens, these LEDs will produce the same power of light as a 70 watt halide while only using 34 watts. I realize the spectrum may not be as broad as a halide, but as mentioned above this is an experimental tank in its lighting sense so I'm going to give it a shot regardless.
Plus they will run cooler than a halide, I won't have to change the "bulbs" for years, I figure at least some ric's will grow under there, and lastly, but arguably most importantly, I've always had a thing for LED powered tanks.
I'll be creating some kind of array for them and will build a small, clean, black (regardless of the stand color) wooden frame out of very thin wood, so it will be more to just hide the LEDs than support them, and hang it. This is for aesthetics as well as ease of access into the tank.
Heat and evaporation management
I am thinking about placing a lid on the tank, the sump, or both to help prevent evaporation. The sump would obviously be cut specifically to incorporate the plumbing and the skimmer. If the tank ever gets too cold I will put a small heater in the sump.
I am also thinking of adding an auto top-off of some kind, maybe even with the lids on the system. If that were the case I would definitely buy a lifter pump and a switch to make sure, otherwise I would just estimate the evaporation rate and use a microvalve to adjust the flow.
Livestock
I am hoping that I'll be able to keep Acro's in there with the lighting, flow, and filtration, but if any of those are the weakest link it'll be the lighting. I will be content with a nice lps/ricordea tank though, and I bet some Monti's will do quite nicely in there.
Other than that there'll be a cool, small hermit, and likely 3-4 snails.
Well I think that's it. Thanks for taking the time to read, especially if you read everything. I'm desperately seeking all comments, thoughts, advice, support, opinions, hate, etc. to help make this small, fun, cheapish, semi-experimental tank as successful as possible, so anything you leave will be considered fully and appreciated greatly.
Hope you've enjoyed it and weren't too bored with my love for attention to detail, and also that my formatting of the post help facilitate the entire-coffee-length long read.
Cheers.
hopefully my second nano will turn out a little better lol
.
