My Nano Tank Journey

[salterclan]

After spending some time in South America my family and I are back in the states and finally back in our house (we rented it out). I figure it's time to get my nano up and running again. I honestly had mixed success with this setup last time so I am hoping to get help in what to change about my setup as well as chronicle my progress.

The stand I build last weekend. It's simple. Roughly the same width and depth as the aquarium without about and inch of overlap.

I wasn't planning on having any sort of sump of refugium when except for the in tank sump that's in the back but maybe this is a mistake.


I have a Coralife RO filter pictured here. I am sure I will need to new filters. Where is a cheap place to purchase these?

View of the tank. I honestly don't remember the brand of this and I couldn't see anything obvious. Can someone ID this one for me? Is it 24G, 29? Not sure.

I purchased the whole group from my LFS with a 150 W Metal Halide Pendant included here:

I have a Tunze In Sump Protein Skimmer. It's obviously pretty small because it fits in the in tank sump on the left side. I'll followup with more pics and issues and concerns I have as I begin again.

Salterclan

 

[salterclan]

I do have one question before I continue. As you can see I built a stand last weekend. It's going to site behind our leather couch. I am wondering if it makes sense now to plan for an in-stand sump or can I have good success with the sump that's built in?

 

[salterclan]

AquaPod... that's it

AquaPod... that's it

I just remembered the name of my aquarium and what size it is. It's an Aquapod and it's 24 gallons. Not sure if that includes the Insump area or just the tank area. Here is a pic of my exact setup.

Anyway, the stand question is still there. I am sure I could modify the sump in back to work with a sump below system if need be.

Thoughts?

 

[OctaviousMonk]

I have the same tank and I love it. What are you looking to accomplish with an external sump? My opinion is that the best way to get an external sump on any tank is to drill it, I know many people with overflow boxes will argue but whatever. Now if you are going to drill the back of the aqua pod (which can be done) then why bother keeping the back sump area; just cut it out and expand the usable display space.
All said I think an all in one tank works well as what it is, for cheap you can get a regular tank and drill it to have an external sump and sell the aqua pod to recoup the money spent plus some. The aqua pod has amazing potential as is, why not give it a shot, just my 2 cents

 

[salterclan]

One thing I remember from before is that I had to top off all the time because the sump is so small. How do you handle that? Just add some by hand every day?

Anyone else with thoughts?

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Get a high quality auto top off system. I love the tunze one because it is extremely precise, quiet and reliable.

 

[salterclan]

I have this Tunze Protein Skimmer to put on the tank.

If I remember correctly it worked reasonably well. It probably would have worked better with a top off system.

 

[salterclan]

Got some more work done today on the setup. Besides bringing it all down from the attic (where my stinking renters put it) I also, cleaned the tank, cleaned some of the components and also painted my aquarium stand so it's ready. Pictures below.

I know the below images looks like there are lots of little bits of sand and junk in the sump. While the sump isn't completely clean, what you are actually looking at is the glue left over from what used to be on the tank. The back and sides where the built in sump is, had a large plastic tape material to make it dark. Because my renters stuck the tank in the attic where it heated and cooled for a year, the backing was all wrinkled and ugly so I ripped it off and as of this time I have cleaned half of the glue off the glass. I am using windex and being very very careful to not let any get in the tank.

So, what should I do? Should I paint the outside in black spray paint or do you have a different idea? Does it really matter that much? I would assume having the black backing would cut down on the hair algae etc but I'm not sure.


Thoughts?

thanks
Salterclan

 

[Daimyo68]

get a razor blade and scrape off all that old glue. Once you've done that, clean it well/carefully with windex. Go to walmart and get some automotive window tint and and tint the sides and back. Being that the interior of the rear compartment is black, you shouldn't be able to tell that the tint is on there.

As far as a sump... As mentioned, these tank are meant to be "All in One". Search the forums here and also http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/ for ways to "mod" the tank and make it more efficient.

Keep it simple on this tank, the basic mods. You'll be very happy with it, and the fact that maintenance is so easy you will enjoy the tank.

 

[salterclan]

Funny you mention the razor blade. I actually found my algae scraper and I used that along with windex and after two annoying hours I finished cleaning it up. Great idea about the window tint. I'm going to look into that tomorrow because I really didn't feel like painting it. I'll try and do it tomorrow and post pics.

 

[Daimyo68]

Before you tint the entire back, look for posts on using one chamber as a refugium. being that the backing is already off, now would be the best time to make that decision.

You can hit wally mart and get some 5% tint for about $10

 

[fox2589]

is anyone else questioning if that stands gonna hold?yes the tunze is a good skimmer and would def work better with an ATO(if sumpless)..-Drew

 

[Daimyo68]

I think that the stand will hold it without a problem, but you might want to make it a bit more rigid.

 

[salterclan]

The Top is 3/4 inch plywood. The legs are 100 year old heart pine I had lying around from when we took down a very old barn. The small spindles I put to keep the legs spread are mortise and tendoned. I also glue and screwed everything else. So, I'm not really worried about it collapsing under pressure. However, I am concerned about the fact that I orginally designed it to be behind our couch in the corner. Now it's more exposed and able to be run into by the kids. If I had known that I would have spaced the legs more and I also would have built on walls to begin with. I am pretty sure I want to add walls, a door and a shelf so I can hide at a minimum a receptacle for my water top off system and possibly more, so I need to decide if I should mod this or just make a new one and use this is as something else. My wife already had her eyes on it for something else in the kitchen after I painted it black. Now, I need to go check the forum for the mods you guys were talking about.

Keep it coming with the suggestions.

 

[salterclan]

Ok so here is the aquarium on the stand. In retrospect I really don't like the way the stand looks. Now that it's going to be in an open area I am definitely going to have to redesign it enclosed. I decided to give this to my wife for a laptop stand for the kitchen.

I did some serious cleaning of the lighting fixture. It's shown here along with my family. My kids wanted in on the picture so I told my wife to get in there and surprisingly she did.

So, now I am trying to decide if I should setup the tank and have it cycling while I build the new stand. After all, I would just need to drain most of the water into 5 gallong jugs when I decide to move it to the new stand. I guess it comes down to how impatient I am am to have some water in it

 

[salterclan]

Question. I was about to add water when I noticed that the seal in the back that connects part of the Sump area to the wall has detached. This is the perpendicular part where the black inner wall between the two sections of the sump is. Anyway, the black silicone, (is it silicone?) isn't loose or anything. It's just disconnected from the sump wall. Should I reseal it or does it matter that much? I ask because there is already multiple holes in the middle and the bottom going from sump section 1 to sump section 2 if a small amount of water seeps through does it even matter? If it is worth it to repair how long should I wait after repairing? Can I use that DAP silicone or do I need to use something else?

thanks

 

[salterclan]

Ok well I didn't get any response, and I couldn't find the good DAP silicone that I read about so I just bought some GE Silicone, and made sure I got one that is 100% and does not include anything ant-mildew

 

[Daimyo68]

I have used the GE1 Windows before without issues, and I won't go into depth because it becomes a heated topic.

After sealing it, you should wait 48hrs and up to 7 days for a full cure.

What I would do with the stand, is fit a shelf in on the midsection there since you already have "supports" built in, and then "skin" the outside. Just build a shell (3 sided) with a door on the front that you can slide into place around the stand. You wouldn't even need to secure it to the stand if you didn't want to. I did this with my 135g stand, except that the shell is secured to the frame.

 

[salterclan]

I basically did as you said except I waited a full 72 hours just in case. Here are some pics about two days after I filled it up. I waited 24 hours and then put in some Tonga Branch Live Rock.

This is a picture from tonight so it has cleared up a lot. You can also see that the live rock probably should be balled barely alive rock because it cured for more than a few months with no one buying it at the local LFS.

I think I have 8 ibs of the Tonga in now and I am hoping to get about 20 ibs of something more Figi esque. I hope to use some of the Tonga along with it to make an interesting aquascape and then if there is any left I might just break it up to put at the bottom of my sump.

Then again, I am not sure there will be room since the Tunze Protein Skimmer might only fit on the right side. I will have to do some playing to see.

 

[salterclan]

By the way, I know that the Protein Skimmer isn't setup correctly. I just have it sitting on the edge of the tank while I wait for some sort of Nitrogen cycle to happen before I dunk it and turn it on. So does anyone have experience with the Tonga Branch? Good or bad? I am not sure I am a huge fan of it and frankly I don't see a lot of people doing aquascapes with it. Just wondering