Please vote for the February nTOTM!!!!!

[junkitu]

Who has the best nano or pico under 15 gallons?

I've asked the finalists to each submit their final entries as soon as possible. Each initial post will contain a brief description of their tank with at least 1 FTS and no more than 5 total pictures. Contestants can continue to reply to the thread but cannot post additional pictures until the voting is over.

Pleae try to refrain from voting until all finalists have submitted their initial post. Good luck to all of the contestants and may the best nano or pico under 15 gallons win!!!:thumbsup:

 

[lgoins]

I think it would be helpful for the contestants to once again post their tank in this thread.

 

[Reefpeace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9247094#post9247094 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lgoins
I think it would be helpful for the contestants to once again post their tank in this thread.

FYI junkitu has PM'd the finalists and asked them to post the final entries in this thread ASAP. My entry is coming later today when I get home from work.

 

[Reefpeace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9247094#post9247094 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lgoins
I think it would be helpful for the contestants to once again post their tank in this thread.

FYI junkitu has PM'd the finalists and asked them to post the final entries in this thread ASAP. My entry is coming later today when I get home from work .

 

[Mephix]

Man was that tough! I'm sure Calvin, Alifer, and Golden are going to get a lot of votes, but in the end I voted for Reefpeace. All of those tanks make mine look like crap so cudos to all involved in the contest. You guys/gals(?) make the hobby look easy!

 

[goldenmean]

I too will post my tank details and pics this evening after work.
I am just thrilled to be nominated! :wavehand: :wavehand: :wavehand:

 

[Reefpeace]

Thanks, Mephix!

 

[junkitu]

FYI, I've also PM'd Carlos asking him to make this poll a sticky thread to maximize views.

 

[rockindacheeks]

Thanks junkitu for nominating me.
My tank was set up a little over a year ago in my office at work.
It’s a very simple setup.

Equipment
10 gallon AGA tank
Aquaclear 70 converted into a refugium with some LRR and Chaeto.
One of my co-workers built me a very nice canopy with to house my 150w XM 20k.
The canopy also has 2 3” fans to keep the temps down so I don’t need a chiller.
For circulation I use 1 minijet 404 powerhead.

Livestock
Softies: Variety of Zoanthids, Yumas, Shrooms and too much Xenia
LPS: Candy Canes, Hammer, Blastos
Inverts: Crocea Clam, Scarlet Hermits, and some snails
Fish: Yellow Watchman Goby and Black Saddle Clownfish.

FTS

the inside of my canopy.

thank you to whoever voted for me!

 

[calvin415]

Thank you very much for selecting me as a finalist here are the specifics...

Tank
Custom built by myself, outside dimensions are 48x11.75x7.875 and containing just a hair over 10 gallons of display room and a few more gallons in the sump. The entire tank rests on a shelf mounted to a wall, don't worry it won't fall. It's supported by 3 steel brackets capable of holding 500lbs each and each is bolted (3 times) into a 2x6 stud. That's under 180lbs of weight for a shelf capable of holding 1500lbs.

Lighting
Lighting is provided by 3 54w H.O. T-5's retro fit into an acrylic canopy I also made. The spectrums are 11k, Actinic, 11k with the back 11k lighting the refugium. They are about 2 inches off the water, so everything get's blasted with light pretty well.

Filtration
The built in sump is actually two in one. The water overflows from each end, passes through a HOB filter pad to remove any large particles not to mention a place for carbon, it then passes through a macro algae filled refugium and into a ViaAqua 1300 where it's pumped to the opposite side of the tank. The returns are drilled through the back wall and place near the bottom to allow them to be hidden with the rock work. It works like a charm!

Livestock
While I'm sure I'm missing somethings, here is a current list of everything I can think of while looking at a picture of the tank. Last time I counted I had 61 frags/clams so I'm missing a few...

Fish
• Target Mandarin

Inverts
• Asst. Snails and Crabs
• Emerald Crab
• 2 Harlequin Shrimp
• 2 Peppermint Shrimp
• 1 Pistol Shrimp
• 5 Crocea Clams
• 1 Derasa Clam
• Asst Stars for Harlequins to eat

Corals
• Emerald Zoanthids
• Green w/ brown skirt Zoanthids
• Red Ring Zoanthids
• Fire & Ice Zoanthids
• Pink Mouth Red Skirt Zoanthids
• Orange Mouth Green Skirt Zoanthids
• Green Mouth Green Skirt Zoanthids
• Yellow w/ purple mouth Zoanthids
• Yellow Mouth Green Skirt Zoanthids
• All Green Zoanthids
• Red w/ Purple Mouth Zoanthids
• Bubble Gun Zoanthids
• Green w/ Yellow Skirt Zoanthids
• Orange w. Yellow Mouth Zoanthids
• Green Polyp Toadstool Leather
• Orange w. Blue center Candy Cane
• Purple w/ Blue center Candy Cane
• Neon Yellow Candy Cane
• Green/Purple Hammer
• Yellow Tip Torch
• Green/Purple Frogspawn
• Puple/Blue Acan
• Neon Green Acan
• Green/Red Acan Lord
• Peppermint Acan Lord
• Oranage Enchinada
• Rainbow Enchinada
• Alien Eye Enchinada
• Puple Blue Micromusa
• Tri Color Acan
• Blue Mushrooms
• Green Stripe Mushrooms
• Tri Color Ricordia Yuma
• Green Florida Ricordia
• Orance Florida Ricordia
• Teal Florida Ricordia
• Blue/Orange Florida Ricordia
• Blue Florida Ricordia
• Rainbow Florida Ricordia
• Pink Green Blasto Merletti
• Red Blue Blasto Merletti
• Red Purple Blasto Merletti
• Pink Yellow Blasto Merletti
• Light Pink Neon Green Blasto Merletti
• Purple Green Blasto Merletti
• Pink Green Blasto Welsi
• Purple Blasto Welsi
• Purple Blue Chalice

Here's a FTS, sorry for the size, but it's the only way to attempt to capture the length of the tank.

And a couple of my favorite shots...

Thank you very much for your votes!

 

[edwing206]

go calvin 415. your tank is my fav nano of all time. by far

 

[edwing206]

calvin are you sure that your tank is 20 gallons not 10? that's what the reefcentral volume calc says. well actually it says 19.9 but yeah.

 

[Reefpeace]

Thanks for the finalist nod Junkitu. I am honored to participate!

Equipment:
2005 12G NanoCube DX, Maxi-Jet 600 Pump upgrade, JBJ Surface Skimmer 48W Stock PC lights, 14lbs 'Jakarta' Live Rock, 15lbs Aragonite Sand (1.5")

Livestock:
1 Red Banded Trochus Snail, 2 Cerith Snails,2 Margarita Snails,2 Astrea Snails
2 True Percula Clownfish, 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Red Mushrooms,,Green Mushroom, 2 Large Hairy Green Mushroom, Zoanthids - Pale green and blue, Zoanthids - Orange, Purple and Green, Zoanthids - Bright green, Zoanthids - Pale green, Zoanthids - Pink, Zoanthids - Red Skirt Purple/Blue, Yellow Polyps
Ricordia - Pale green and pink, Ricordia - Orange, Ricordia - Green Neon Center
Large Branching Frogspawn
Brown Button Polyp
Anthelia (Waving Hand Coral)
Green Star Polyps (GSP) Colony
Xenia
Clove Polyp
Acropora (experimental free frag - seeing how it grows under PC's)

Maintenance:
1Gal Water change every 7-10 days or 14 days if I get lazy and clean all the filter sponges at the same time. I use carbon and change it every week as well.

 

[edwing206]

very nice tank reefpeace.

 

[ALIFER]

ALIFER's Nano-Cube 6G

ALIFER's Nano-Cube 6G

This is terrific being nominated for TOTM
All this pics were taken on 2/15/07 just for this post

Office, just for some prospective on my world for 8 or 10 hours a day

The NC6 guts (what's behind that in basket & lights on)

Front view

Front close-up view

Left veiw

Nano-Cube 6 info
Setup 6/05 as office display tank

Lighting:
2.27, (1) 50/50 ACT/10K, (1) 50/50 blue/10K + 1.18 (1) 50/50 blue/10K = 72 watts
1.18 on 10 hour daylight cycle & 2.27 on 9 hour daylight cycle for dawn dusk affect.

Coral List:
Thin branch Staghorn, Brown w/ white tip
Red Monti Cap
Yellow rim Turbinaria
Neon green tip Hammer (Euphyllia)
White pulsing Xenia
Red Mushrooms
Green star polyps
Red/green Acans
Blue ricordias

Livestock List:
(1) Skunk Clown (had him for 5 years)
(1) Blue leg hermit crab
(1) Astrea snail

Live rock:
5 or 6 pounds of Fuji rock & Tonga rock

Back Chamber Setup:
Chamber 1 â€"œ 50 watt heater (set @ 80) & live rock rubble
Chamber 2 â€"œ live rock rubble & small mesh bag with (1) tablespoon of Seachem PhosGuard (changed with water changes)
Chamber 3 â€"œ (2) Rio 180 pumps, small mesh bag with ¼ cup virgin activated carbon (changed with water changes)

Saltwater:
Natural seawater from Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA. (sand filtered water supply to Steven Birch Aquarium)
Approx one gallon changed out every couple of weeks.
RO freshwater for evaporation makeup water (approximately one gallon used every 6 months)
No additives used.
Water temps are 80 at night & max out at about 82 during the daylight hours.
Test kits: None used

Notes:
Using NSW & no dosing I am purposely trying to slow the growth of coralline algae, especially on the back plastic & LR. I like the look of the black background better than a coralline covered background, the black background adds the illusion of depth & size. I also feel live rock probably does a better job of biological filtration with minimum coralline. I know it goes against conventional reef tank maintenance principles to run a low calcium setup, but nano-reefs don’t need the fast growth of large reef tanks. My hard corals are all healthy and growing, but growing at a slower rate than they would if I dosed with calcium. The xenia, mushrooms & GSP are still growing at very fast rate and are removed as needed (and for the most part given to local reefers) to keep them from adversely affecting other corals (this is also a great nutrient export).

Thanks for looking (& voting)

 

[edwing206]

sweet little tank alifer.
that paper holder supprots your tank?

 

[edwing206]

sweet little tank alifer.
that paper holder supprots your tank? isi t reinforced?

 

[goldenmean]

1 YEAR OLD 12 gal nano
1st livestock added Jan. 22 `06


Equipment
Custom 12g nano built by my LFS 14x14x16
sunpack retrofit 32W lights 10000k & 460nm actinic side by side
pair of blue moonlights
small fan mounted by lights in canopy
custom skimmer powered by Rio 600 powerhead
Rio 160 return pump
Rio 160 PH in display
auto top off (custom)

Inverts
3 blue leg, 6 triColor, & 3 Scarlet hermit crabs
5 Astrea & 6 nassaris snails
1 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp

Fish
2 tank raised Amphiprion Ocellaris
1 Acanthemblemaria sp. (barnacle blenny)

Softies
Orange Zoanthids, Green Yellow Zoanthids
HH teal with brown skirt Zoanthids (1 polyp now well over 100 and growing)
Multi color Zoanthid rock.
Small red Zoanthid frag
Dark green Zoanthid rock
small frag pulsing Xenia (Xeniidae sp.)
1 green star polyp colony (Pachyclavularia sp.)
1 purple mushroom colony
Blue Mushrooms
5 Ricordia Florida
1 orange ricordia yuma

LPS
Red Open Brain (Trachyphyllia geoffroyi)
1 magenta mouth fungia sp.
1 pagoda cup- light green polyps (Turbinaria sp)

 

[calvin415]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9252613#post9252613 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edwing206
calvin are you sure that your tank is 20 gallons not 10? that's what the reefcentral volume calc says. well actually it says 19.9 but yeah.

The interior dimensions are 47.25x11x7.125
The sump/refugium (outside) dimensions are 36x5.25x7.125

Which makes the display 10.2017 gallons and the sump (which is 1/2 filled) is another 2.5 gallons.

 

[ALIFER]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9253186#post9253186 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edwing206
sweet little tank alifer.
that paper holder supprots your tank? isi t reinforced?

Thanks,

The “paper holder” supports the tank with no problem. A cabinetmaker friend of mine made it out of ¾” plywood & covered it with black plastic laminate. It will hold a couple hundred pounds with no problem.