Diy 20l

[Vegas.]

Current FTS: 5.4.10

Hi everyone, I would like to share my new tank. I transfered everything from my 20H 4.14.2010. The 20H was up for 22 months and was my first.

20L
15g sump
Mag 3 return
Eheim 100W heater
4x24 T5's

2 False Perc's
1 Firefish
1 Scarlet Skunk
1 Turbo lives in the sump now
1 Tongan Nassarius
2 Blue legged hermits
1 GBTA added 2.24.10
1 Brittle star 6" added 4.30.10
3 Astrea snails added 5.6.10

2 Umbrella/Mushroom/Toadstool Leathers: small one was fragged 4 months ago, the big one is 8-10" when happy
100+ purple shrooms: it all started with 2
galaxia
gsp
orange digitata added 5.4.10
green acorpora added 5.4.10
hydnophora added 5.4.10

Water Chemistry as of 5.6.10

TEMP-79.5-80.3
SG-1.025
PH-8.0-8.2
CAL-420
MAG-1260
ALK/dkh-10
Nitrate- undetectable
Phosphate- undetectable
Nitrite-I don't test
Ammonia-I don't test



The Beginning. Picture was taken on 7.11.2008.....Live rock was added on 6.21.2008 Fathers Day!

About 12 months 20H

Sometime in February 2010 20H

New tank and stand 20L

Just after transferring 10lbs of sand from 20H 4.13.10

The morning after everything was transfered 4.14.10

FTS 4.15.10

FTS 4.24.10

Sump/Fuge

 

[sunfishh]

Your tank rocks :thumbsup:
How often are you fragging the leathers?

 

[Vegas.]

Your tank rocks :thumbsup:
How often are you fragging the leathers?

Thanks, I have only fragged the leather 1 time. The little one you see is 4 month's old. I just simply cut the stalk, no plans to frag the crown.

 

[roneil]

awesome tank

 

[sprinj76]

Wow, nice tank. Thank you for sharing. I'm in the process of redoing my 20L build, I plan on drilling the tank and going with a sump, is there anyway you might be able to snap a few pics of your plumbing?

 

[Vegas.]

Wow, nice tank. Thank you for sharing. I'm in the process of redoing my 20L build, I plan on drilling the tank and going with a sump, is there anyway you might be able to snap a few pics of your plumbing?

If you are going to redo you plumbing I would highly suggest looking into the "Herbie" method, which is what I used:

Overflow is a 10 3/4" x 6 1/2" widow pane glass, and yes I do not use teeth.
I used 3/4" bulkheads for the drain and return. With the herbie you have 2 drains 1 acts as the primary and one as a emergency. The primary drain is not pictured but it is all the way at the bottom with a 3/4" strainer attached.
As you can see the secondary is just level with the overflow and is attached with a 3/4" street 90 and a short piece of pvc.

I do not recommend using braided vinyl. It's too stiff, but it was free so who am I to complain. The drain on the right is the emergency just above the waterline. The one on the left with the ball valve is the primary and is fully submerged.

This is the primary again and the system is running with absolutely no bubbles.

Link to the Herbie:

http://reefcentral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=344892


Happy Reefing :fun4:

 

[wlo]

very nice tank

 

[sprinj76]

Thank you for the link about the Herbie method, and the great pictures of plumbing! I couldnt find your thread on nano-reef, anyway you could shoot me the link in a PM?

Thanks again for the pictures, and sharing your setup. Its a gorgeous tank.

 

[Vegas.]

Last week one of my ballasts stopped working, culprit was a bad ground. The light's were mounted inside a crappy diy canopy and had rusted pretty bad. After taking everything apart I decided to go with a different look. I had originally intended to make a matching canopy, maybe someday I'll get around to it:

I cut the large reflector into 4 small ones:

Orange Digitata, picture was taken 1 hour after temperature acclimation:

Green Acropora, picture was taken 1 hour after temperature acclimation:

Hydnophora, picture was taken 1 hour after temperature acclimation:

Galaxia:

Purple Mushrooms:

GBTA:

Male clown and the large leather:

For my next project, a recirculating skimmer total cost under $75, performance comparable to a $200+ model:

 

[Syncere]

Can't wait to see that build.

Also just wondering, where did you get those arm hangers for your lights? Those are kind of neat. They almost look like boomerangs.

Anyways great job and always looking forward to seeing more.

 

[nmohara]

Looks like standard shelf brackets from Home Depot/Lowes

 

[BennyFrank]

Very nice! I'm in the planning stages of a standard 29gal and your tank is very close to what I have been envisioning as my "end" product (minimal rockwork w/ large colonies). I don't care what anyone says, a massive sarcophyton is as impressive (if not more so) as any SPS colony. Again, nicely done. I will be following along.

 

[Vegas.]

Thanks everyone!

The bulb combo I use are as follows Left=Back / Right=Front:

1. Hagen Power-Glo 18000K (Back)
2. Current Actinic 420nm
3. Current 10000K
4. Current Actinic 460nm (Front)

The bulbs are 7 months old and I feel they do not produce enough par, although they do produce a nice color.

This is a unaltered photo taken with a Nikon D50 and a Tamron macro lens:

I adjusted this photo to look the most accurate, the only editing done was move the slider to the right to right to adjust color temp and the shadows bar was moved to the right. Picture was taken with the D50:

This photo was taken with a 100 dollar point and shoot Sony DSC-W180 and was adjusted:

I am no photography expert, actually far from it. Editing of the Photos was done with Picasa 3.

-Notice the brown coral in the center of pic's 2 & 3 it's GSP. It has been closed up for 8 months due to hermit's climbing on it, I guess it was their personal playground. I have removed the red tips and re-located the blue legged to the fuge. The GSP is expected to make a full recovery.

Happy Reefing.

 

[Syncere]

That toadstool just always looks so awesome!

 

[Vegas.]

Thanks Syncere. We'll see how big it gets before I have to sell if off.

This should have been my first post but it is interesting none the less.

-I only have 15-16lbs of rock
-No dosing yet just 4g WC's Bi-weekly.
-No algae problems in the last year and a half.
-I feed 1 to 2 times everyday, approximately a cube of mysis, cube of Cyclop-eeze the freezer bar, and a pinch of Formula One Flakes every feeding.
-I don't shut off the return pump during feeding.
-Undetectable nitrate's, I contribute this to Spionid worms, Chaetomorpha and research.
-I have a low-flow system approximately 15x turn over.
-I intentionally let detritus accumulate on the substrate as to feed the Spionid's.
-The system I built is a free flowing system, meaning no filterpads, socks etc. The only time I use a filter pad is when I am pruning the Chaeto.
-If you want coralline to grow faster use a daylight bulb, either a 5000k or a 6500k bulb.

That's about it, if anyone has additional questions feel free to ask.

 

[sacalaitman]

great tank, but i love the design of the fuge. is that a 10 gal tank?

 

[Vegas.]

great tank, but i love the design of the fuge. is that a 10 gal tank?

It's a 15g: 24" x 12" x 12"

 

[gkaquatic]

this tank looks really nice and clean! in the middle of a 20L build myself and hope it one day looks like that but maybe with a few SPS.

 

[Vegas.]

I'm trying to help someone out with plumbing and could not figure out how to attach pics in a PM.

 

[karnivorous]

wow thats a ginormous toad stool. one of the prettier ones ive seen