My 1st DIY Cube

finless

New member
This is my 1st nano if it considered a nano(mini) tank.
DSparks inspired me. Reading his thread I got the spark to start a tank up(its been 2 yrs.) I took alot of his ideas and other ones from reading on here.(Thanks)
Its a 1/2"thick acylic cube(20x20x20) it came from my mother-in-laws flower shop. (????)
I built the stand and top and sump in the basement in a month(mid NOV.)then I read a few threads on DIY skimmers. Ihad some acylic 4.5" tube and a Mag7 laying around.:rolleyes: I loved my euro reef that was in my 120g. So I copyed it. Mesh wheel on the pump. Got it all together and BAM! It worked!
The sump is made of some lexan I had laying around it is 24x20x16. theres a 10x10 spot for the skimmer. A 10x14 for the return. and a10x24x12 for the refugium.
I had ebo jager 250w heaters, a little giant1100gph,mag7, and mag3 laying around.
I got lucky and have almost no money in this thing.

The little giant is on the return. Mag7 on the skimmer, and the mag3 behind the rock and exits under the sand to the front and faces back toward the rock for a closed loop.

I have T5 lighting and a Lowes under cabinet led light(night light)
on the sump is a Homedepot 65K 65w.

Its been 7days since setup. so far so good.
Clown fish
emarald crab
pepermint shrimp
2 nudibranch





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Very nice and clean looking set up. Once it matures a bit and you get coraline over your overflow/plumbing, you can start glueing frags and rockwork on top - then only the loc-line will be noticeable.

two thumbs up, dawgg!
 
I added a DIY chiller. I took apart a portable fridge and it's the same concept as the micro chiller probe. It as lowered my temp3 degrees! It works.

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I don't have any more pics. I'll take some tomarrow.
I copied the Euro-Reef or ASM. I had a peice of 4" acrylic tube laying around left over from making a couple of calcium reactors.
Got all the parts from Lowes and the Uniseals online. Got some great tips on www.randystacye.com. I didnt make this one a recirc. maybe later. I even got the silencer plans from randy and stacye.
I'm using a mag7 with a mesh wheel.
It works great so far.
Heres a pic of it action. the mesh wheel realy puts some fine bubbles. I used a compresion coupling cut in half so I could adjust the exit tube up/down.
I'll get the whole thing tomarrow
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Thanks for the comments
 
Here are some pics of skimmer
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sprinkler nozzels for auto spray to clean cup
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The bottom is a rubber cap and is removable for easy cleaning
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Muffler for super quiet operation
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Hi

Nice setup just wondering how is you chiller mounted needing to do something the same got any more pics of it thanks ash
 
Thanks Tank looks good. Do you think it would be possible to do this with a glass tank drlling may be a pain would it be enough just mounting the plate to the glass and absorb heat through the glass.

Ash
 
finless would you mind posting some details on building the hood? Perhaps some more pics of the inside etc... I am going to be building a hood, and yours looks good, and fairly simple since Im not overly handy :) Thanks
 
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