CalmSeasQuest
Active member
Thank you very much
This tank has really been an adventure and a series of pleasant surprises. I say surprises because I had no idea what to expect having had no experience working with acrylic, or much of any DIY background. What I found is that if you allow your self to "screw up" enough times without quitting, odds are that in the end, you'll come up with something good
. Here are my observations thus far...Foam Fractionation
The skimmer turned out to be a real surprise - I hadn't initially planned on including a skimmer on this build, especially when I realized I would only have about 2" available in the overflow area. A quick look at all the commercially available nano-sized skimmers returned little of interest. I had seen very small skimmers made by Mame and a very talented DIY'r named Glazier, but decided they didn't fit the needs of this tank so... I ordered acrylic - lots of different sizes and shapes to start testing with. I'll be the first to admit that I'm surprised at how well this little skimmer performs. I think the key was using the largest possible diameter drain line thereby minimizing back pressure, allowing it to "breath" properly.
Bio-Filtration
As I thought about this build, the greatest initial challenge was how to handle bio-filtration without any live rock. The location where this tank resides doesn't allow for a sump, and I wanted the display area to be free of traditional aquascaping....hence the problem. I had used bio balls and other variants years ago during the inescapable plenum and wet/dry days and swore never to return, yet I had to find a way to make this work in a very tiny overflow area. As I researched bio-media, I came across the MarinePure ceramic spheres and was impressed by the porosity and surface area claims. I reasoned that if I could create an area that pre-filtered water passed through extremely slowly (I'm banning the word trickle), I could create an aerobic environment for processing Nitrites, and just perhaps an adjacent anaerobic area (center of the spheres) that might provide some level of denitrification. So I built a vertical tower using acrylic that holds staggered columns of MarinePure ceramics that is constantly fed a very small volume of skimmed and filtered water. It's still far too early to draw any conclusions, but so far so good. The filtration plan appears to be working with no measurable Nitrates or nuisance algaes.
Acylics
I used to think I spent a lot of time when aquascaping a tank, spending hours on end arranging and re-arranging rocks. That time sink pales in comparison to how much time can be spent working with acrylic. Between the various skimmer and bubble plate designs to the 20+ coral mounting pieces that were created (not including those that ended up being destroyed by dropping, being stepped on, sat on, melted or exploding under a saw, drill bit or Dremel.) And then there were those that failed stress tests, or succumbed to my OJT flame polishing methods....the do-overs were plentiful. Out of sheer embarrassment, I will never admit how many hours I spent on this project.
With all that said, I've had a blast with this built. I love the fact that I can tinker endlessly with it (although I've found it a major distraction at work.) Because each coral build is modular, it's easy to move things around, replace entire pieces or swap out individual corals with ease. While I'll never give up my "traditional" tanks, from a reefing perspective, It's forced me to think in the most non-traditional, "Abbynormal" terms. What I discovered was - It can be fun coloring outside the lines.
Thank you to everyone that has spent their time tagging along and for all the kind comments.
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