fishy's first nano build

[Fishy 1]

OK so some of you guys may have seen that i have a 67 gallon reef build going atm as well but there's only so much you can do with a tank in a day, so i decided that a nano build would be perfect to keep me occupied when there's nothing to do on the 67. The tank in question is a 11 gallon 18.2"+12.2"+12.8" that was a planted tank with a Siamese fighter in it, the fighter which was called Charley sadly passed away a few months ago from old age. That fish broke my heart when he moved on, As I taught him to swim though a circle for food and he would listen to all my talking while i did maintenance on his tank. I've never been that attached to a fish before but Charley was special. Now i wanted a new challenge and the one thing i wanted was a nano reef, I find it so interesting that such a small tank can be so beautiful and the extra challenge of maintaining a tiny tank really appeals to me. The tank has grown wild over the past few months, so after much research on RC i decided to strip the tank down and convert it to a nano reef. This journey should be very interesting and I'm sure it will have some thrills and spills:lolspin:. I look forward to this mini reef journey

So lets begin
Yesterday the tank got emptied and cleaned. The tanks back panel had a plastic sheet covering the whole panel and that was a overflow filter system. So with the tank now empty i pulled the plastic panel out and scraped the silicon off the tank (what a job that was :headwally: ). today I looked at the silicon joins around the glass and noticed that the silicon seal was very thin and the panes of glass had started to separate from each other!!!. So I think it's going to be worth pulling the panes apart and redoing the silicon on them (just to be safe). I haven't got any silicon so the joins will have to wait till tomorrow when i can get some.
Here's some pictures of the progress so far



the tank all cleaned up

you can see the glass panes parting from each other

the filter box is removed and its just the silicon left

a close up of all the silicon

all the silicon from the filter box is off

 

[Fishy 1]

heres some more pics


The tank got a crack in one of the corners so i braced it with a glass strip, work good.


the tank with the silicon joins removed



another pic of the tank without joins

 

[terrypercula]

Could be a very interesting build!

 

[Fishy 1]

Could be a very interesting build!

And i'm sure it will be one way or another!!:lol:

 

[Fishy 1]

the tanks is reborn

the tanks is reborn

the tank being reborn with new joins


I used fishing line to cut through the old silicon between the glass.


the tank being taken apart


this is how much silicon was holding it together!!! less than half a millimeter


I used a chisel to get all the silicon off the glass, I made sure to hold it flat to the glass so it didn't scratch the glass.


being put back together again

 

[Fishy 1]

more pics

more pics






since my over flow is small and i couldn't put a permenant floss rack in it. i made a drop in one to sit on the overflow

 

[Fishy 1]

tank is done

tank is done

The tank is all done now and i'm very happy with the result. The tank is alot stronger with the new silicon now so it's ready for life as a awesome nano reef:dance:









i'm pleased with the overflow (unfortunately its white but i had the material so i used it) and i think it will work well.

 

[terrypercula]

Very nice!!

 

[Fishy 1]

Very nice!!

thanks Do you like my overflow setup?

 

[terrypercula]

It's pretty darn slick!

 

[Fishy 1]

It's pretty darn slick!

Thanks Dave . I'm quite pleased with the drop in floss rack and the tank looks awesome . Can't wait to fill it

 

[Fishy 1]

Dave what do you think I should do with my overflow, should I stick a bunch of small rocks to it so it looks like a rock pillar or should I leave it as is?

 

[terrypercula]

I think it looks fine as it is. Soon enough it'll be covered with nice purple coraline :thumbsup:

 

[Fishy 1]

OK I'll leave as is. It was just a thought as a white overflow isn't very pretty but your right it will be covered in algae so it won't matter.

 

[venomcc]

I would leave the overflow as is, as someone else said it will be anything but white in a very short time.

 

[Fishy 1]

I would leave the overflow as is, as someone else said it will be anything but white in a very short time.

OK so with you saying leave as is too I'll do that

 

[Fishy 1]

today I painted the back of the tank so it now drying. I put some dead rock i had lying around in some bleach to make sure that nothing nasty can get into the tank (i don't want any bad things in this tank). I'll see if I can get to the LFS tomorrow to see what sand they have. Things are slowly coming together.

 

[G_Sanab922]

today I painted the back of the tank so it now drying. I put some dead rock i had lying around in some bleach to make sure that nothing nasty can get into the tank (i don't want any bad things in this tank). I'll see if I can get to the LFS tomorrow to see what sand they have. Things are slowly coming together.

Like your setup, its nice.
I also pulled apart the panes of one of my tanks.... Very time consuming. But kept me busy while I slowly started gathering things lol

Plan to put any fish? Or just corals?

 

[Fishy 1]

Like your setup, its nice.
I also pulled apart the panes of one of my tanks.... Very time consuming. But kept me busy while I slowly started gathering things lol

Plan to put any fish? Or just corals?

I'm not sure on the live stock yet. Are there any fish that would thrive in this size tank? I'll definitely have a shrimp in there. And your right about pulling the tank apart being time consuming as it took me probably took me two or three hours, but I feel alot better for doing it as I know there is a decent amount of silicone in the joins and there not going to come apart. The paint should be dry now so I'll do a leak test later today and maybe play around with some aquascape ideas.

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey guys I was at the lfs and they had these led lights that are the perfect size for my tank. They were aquazonic Sirius leds and the unit was 11.5 watts, it had day like LED's and moonlight or antic (I can't remember which it was) it looked pretty good but what do you guys think. Is 11.5 watts enough for my tank?