scolley's Big Little Nano – yet another build thread

:bounce3::bounce3::bounce3:
See that?

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THAT is the sweet, sweet sight of three holes drilled. No chip-outs, no cracks!

It's a small milestone, but I've only drilled one overflow before. So while I never doubted I could do it, I have to admit there's a great deal of relief at having this behind me. :)

Looking backwards logically, having drilled the overflow and returns means I knew where to put them. And knowing where to put them means I finished my rockscape design. THAT TOO is a major milestone that I got behind me today.

In the background I've been sweating over rockwork for weeks. I even started this thread to get pointers. It was very helpful. And finally today I finished my basic rockscape.

Wow! After months (I mean many months!) of planning, it finally feels like I'm getting somewhere. :thumbsup:
 
I had used the Glass-holes overflow kits before, and love the cutting template they come with. When I was finished with the overflow hole, I opened up my the box all my Glass-holes stuff shipped in to pull out the return kit. And to my surprise, there was no template for cutting those holes. Saw, yes. Template, no.

So I tried free handing it, and the blade skipped all over the place. I was afraid I would mar the tank before it got a purchase. And luckily I found that I had a small wood hole saw just a shade larger than the diameter of the my Glass-holes return saw. So I used that to cut an additional, smaller hole in the overflow template. And I used that as a template to cut the return holes. But if I had not done that, I'm not sure what I could have done.

Do people cut return holes without templates? And if so, how?
 
Well done! That looks very clean. If I remember correctly my overflow kit came with a template, but not the return. I had to do it by hand. I think I had one little scratch - but when it caught, it was pretty easy to keep in place.
 
If I remember correctly my overflow kit came with a template, but not the return. I had to do it by hand. I think I had one little scratch - but when it caught, it was pretty easy to keep in place.
Well you're a better man than me dude! My drill was DANCING on the glass ! You're clearly better with a hand held drill. ;)

My two Noctua fans came in today. I'm psyched! Those fans cost a couple dollars more, but they are SILENT! Every time I buy a piece of reef equipment with a fan, I swap it out with a Noctua. But this is the first time I've put active ventilation in a stand, and I'm sure they will be stellar. Here's a link for the interested.
 
Nice stand Kevin! Looks really solid. I'm jealous. ;)

Is the back open? Or will you too be soon agonizing over the requiremrnt to cut holes in your lovely handiwork?

Oh yeah... I agree on the tank dimensions. 18" front to gives just enough room to get something done, while 25" side to side allows a bit of a nice panorama to a small tank.
 
Progress!

Progress!

After cutting holes in the tank, I painted the back black. And then added a Glass-Holes "Super Nano con Dientes" overflow kit. Plus a couple of returns.

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Also, you may note in the bottom of this picture, is marble under the tank. I'm not too keen on the possibility of stand warping under an all glass tank, so I had a piece cut to size for the tank to rest on.

BTW - In the pic above the return bulkheads look gray, and some of the acrylic looks "smudgy". That's some funky artifact of the flash on my camera and my poor photography skills. In person that stuff looks pitch black. :)
 
I wanted the airflow through the tank to be very controlled, plus I'm a big fan of solid connections for everything. So I bought bulkheads for for all the places that fluids will move in and out of the stand. Most at FTP on both sides - I strongly prefer NOT to hard glue PVC and connections. I find two good wraps of Teflon tape, plus not over tightening does the trick for leak-free threaded connections. BTW - you know you've overtighened if while turning it skips. That's a connection that you have to redo.

Below are:


  • One 1" bulkhead coming from the tank overflow.
  • Three 3/4" bulkheads: one to the chiller, on back from it, and one to the household drain to drain water from the sump.
  • Two 1/2" for returns to the tank
  • Six 1/4" John Guest RO/DI type fitting for RO/DI top off, new salt water, Cal, Alk, Mg, and one spare. The white threaded nut is because I lost one of the silver ones. Luckily had a spare. :) Will make me nuts them not being all the same though.
  • Two 3" round desk grommets from Cable Organizer. Those will be to visually clean up the two holes for the dual purpose of air discharge and cable holes. The one for the electronics shelf will use the snap-in cover with a hole in it. I'll explain why later...
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And here are the fans. Two; one for the electronics shelf, one for the wet section of the stand. They are 80mm (roughly 3") computer case fans from Noctua. They come with interchangeable in-line resistors that slow the fan down to silent, or dead-freaking-you-cannot-hear-anything-silent. I'll be using just the plain old silent resistor, since it has more airflow.

To power them I bought a fan power supply and adapter at Rapidled.com. But I neglected to by a "Y" cable so that it could power two fans, so I wired it myself from the spare parts that came with the two Noctua fans.

I also bought a couple CG Fan Bracket kits from CoolerGuys.com, to visually dress up the fan holes I'll cut in the stand. Plus it provide a nice way to mount the fan. The fan mounts to the bracket, and the brackets screw onto the stand.

I also got some vent duct tubing from CoolerGuys, to attach to one of the fans, as shown. That's for the fan in the wet, sump section of the stand. If I use it, it will help bring air to a front corner of the section, creating a cross-sump flow before the air is forces out the opposite rear corner.

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Oh, and the reason for using the snap in cover for one of the desk grommets? I'll use that on the electronics shelf. It will restrict the egress of air from that shelf, effectively pressurizing it. The airflow on the wet sump section below will not have the air egress so restricted, so air pressure will be less down there. I plan to seal off the electronics shelf from the sump section. But having the pressure higher in that section means that any place where there are small leaks (like by the stand door) that air will always leak from the electronics shelf to the sump - and not the other way around. That should keep all the humid sump air away from the electronics.
 
Knowing precisely where to cut all the holes in the back of the stand proved a challenge. The cauls in the stand, the small area over the sump, but under the electronics shelf, plus all the reinforcing angle brackets I put in the sump to reinforce it made getting all those holes a tight fit.

I used Microsoft Visio to create a life-sized template to make the cuts. If you look close, you will see quite a few differences between the template shown and the diagram of stand holes I posted earlier. I would think I had it right, print the template, tape the separate pieces of paper together (template much bigger than (8.5" x 11"), then cut it out, tape it into the stand, and see how it looked. It did not quite work twice. I guess - like the Goldilocks and the Three Bears - the third and last modification was "just right". :)

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With holes drilled, and bulkheads installed...

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Having so many different sized hole saws would have been a problem, but Terahz, a fellow ARKSC club member and friend, lent me a multi-size hole saw kit he got off E-bay - for apparently dirt cheap. It's called "Drill Master". I'd definitely recommend it if it is as cheap as he said. It's not high quality stuff, but it was good enough for this application. I'm lucky that Terahz lent it to me. :thumbsup:
 
And the whole thing from behind.

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I'm happy with how "clean" it looks. Not that anyone sees behind the stand. But it matters to me. ;)
 
Thanks! But looking at the pics, I see that after all that work, I mounted the fans crooked. Rats! Oh well...

I'm anxious to get plumbing hooked up and test water. But I had to take all the bulkheads out because now those holes need a few coats of polyurethane. Have I mentioned that I hate painting poly? ;)

Even when that's done, it will only be a partial test because I'm scavenging so much from my current tank; return, SCWD, drain pump, ATO... you name it. So all I can really do is hook up a smaller return and check for leaks. But that in itself will be a nice milestone. Maybe in a few days.
 
Lookin awesome! I really dig the use of the bulkheads, cleans up the look tremendously. I also really like those fan mounting brackets from coolerguys. You must also be a computer modder/builder eh?

I did notice in the pic that the fans aren't perfectly aligned, but don't worry, it still looks great and its just the back of the stand anyway!
 
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