New Tank!

[NewSchool04]

This all started New Years day when I came home and my tank crashed. Something tripped my GFI when I was out for a couple of days and came home to an almost total loss. All SPS and all fish died. Most of the LPS and zoo's survived. I was so sick of the whole thing I wanted to scrap the whole hobby. Once the tank cleared, so did my head and I started thinking about bigger and better.
After contemplating a 180, wouldn't fit, a custom 36 x 36 x 25, way too expensive, I thought of upgrading my 12 gallon Nano and just getting a 24. Keep the 75 up and running, get it back to shape while I tinker with the 24. Then I thought how cool would it be to connect both tanks, drill the Nano Cube, do all the plumbing, plan it out, etc.

With a lot of help from both Menard (Reef Dweller) and Rod (Rod's Reef), it's done. I brought the cube out to Rod on Sat. and he drilled for a 1" bulkhead for the drain and a 3/4 for the return. It was a little nerve racking considering all the nightmare stories of peoples Nano Cubes cracking for no reason and I'm getting the thing drilled! The holes came out perfect, Rod really knows what he's doing. If you get a chance, go out to DeKalb and have a chat with him.

I've never plumbed a thing before so I had a ton of questions on what to use, how to use it, what to glue it with. Highlander really came through and answered about everything I had to ask.

Here's some pics of the durso and return.

Rod really came up with the way I was going to connect my locline to the return bulkhead. My plan was terrible, his worked great. Go figure!

 

[NewSchool04]

Because both tanks are connected to my sump for the 75, I decided to buy a Mag 18 and split between both tanks. I just used a wye and put in ball valves to regulate the flow.

I used the Mag 18 for about 2 minutes and found out there was no way my sump and overflows could handle it, I had to put the Mag 12 back on.

I decided to use some extra southdown I had laying around knowing the sand storm I was going to get. . .

 

[NewSchool04]

I have no idea why these pics are ginormous.

Well, here it is. Water was in it Sat., I transfered most stuff from the Nano on Sunday, went over to Menards and bought a nice 10 lb. rock and. . .

I bought the very nice Maxima at Rod's after the heart slowed down from the drilling.

And this is the tank being lit by my blue T5's. Another added bonus from having them together!

 

[Pufferpunk]

Congrats! Looks like quite a project. Glad it's done.

 

[NewSchool04]

Thank you Puffer!

 

[chocolateblnt]

Hey I'm sorry to hear about your loss ... and happy to hear your goin' Nano

 

[pk1]

Patrick, congrats...I like the 2 tanks joined. Let me know when your ready for frags of your original colonies....the Nana and a few others are ready to be cut and I have a few others for you as well.

PK

 

[NewSchool04]

Thank you Patrick. I can't remember which ones you got from me, did you get the A. austera? I miss that one the most. I'll be ready in a couple of weeks and give you a PM. I really appreciate it.

 

[pk1]

Is that the one with the olive tips, and blue-ish body? If so, yes...but that one is a slow brancher for me. It encrusts fast...but the branches are slow to take off. It was shaded for a while though...so that may be why.

PK

 

[NewSchool04]

PM'd you PK

 

[Ride Red]

Very Nice!

 

[johj26]

be careful with the nanocube there garbage i had mine just pop at 4 in the morning a few months back and it was up for about 8 months and perfectly level.i had a friend that it happened to to same area as mine the left side bend in the front glass.good luck but i would change it out to something safer

 

[NewSchool04]

that's comforting

 

[johj26]

i know sorry for telling you but just wanted to make sure your careful and have a way to isolate the nano if it pops.like i said i know first hand no fun trying to empty a tank at 4 in the morning before you go to work,why didnt you do a better tank then the nano i replaced my nano with a oceanic 37g that i got from randal b love it alot more and feel more secure.well hopefully it works for you

 

[NewSchool04]

I'm having some problems with my durso being loud. It's bubbling pretty bad getting into the sump and I think it's because I'm using spa flex and there is a dip in the drain before it hits the sump. It bubbles and gurgles, then quiet, then starts up again.

Problem is I can't really get a straight line from the durso to the sump 3 feet to the right without having a dip in the line. I think that dip is causing the burping, gurgling, etc. I probably should have not used spa flex on the drain and stuck to old school hard plumbing.

Either way, if anyone has any ideas on how to quiet this thing down a little, I'd appreciate it.

 

[FastUno]

Blast from the past!
Hey NewSchool, sorry to hear about your tank man, but at least it gives you something to look forward to.

I thought that we have already established that the dark side was strong, so what happened?

I am still with the same corals & have not bought anything new for months. All of existing corals have grown though.
If you recall this is how we started:

Now after venturing to the dark side:

 

[NewSchool04]

What happened? Do you mean why am I going with MH on the nano? Because it's different.

 

[FastUno]

"75 AGA with 30 gallon sump. 6 bulb Tek Light"
Still with those T5's? I though you were going to mix it up a bit MH & T5's on that one.

 

[NewSchool04]

I can't search so I can't find that thread. If I said I was going to mix it up, that all changed when the tank crashed. Not much left to spend the $$$$ on.

Now I'm T5 and MH on the same but different tank. Ebony and Ivory baby!

 

[FastUno]

Sounds like a great experiment in the making. You will be able to tell which corals prefer MH vs T5's easily now. Look forward to future updates from you.

You make me wanna setup a nano now!