My 20g nano (New build by a newb)

[SK360]

Got my GFCI outlet installed this morning (safety first, right? lol)

Built the PVC stand tonight... Came out well. Bottom of the bulbs are roughly 10" off of the top of the tank and 25.5 from the floor of the tank... I have 60 and 90* optics, going to experiment with both but 60 looks best so far from my testing holding them over with a lamp will see once they're stationary.Painting it satin black with krylon fusion in the morning them finishing the wiring which will be run through the PVC

From the bedroom

Have 2 of these marineland bubble wand LED things laying around, thinking of zip tying one in the middle and use it as a temp moon light for a few hours.

 

[revhtree]

Good job bro!

 

[SK360]

Thanks. I think I'm going to go with a 50/50 mix of live and dry rock with agramax substrate.

 

[SK360]

Sprayed satin black with krylon fusion this morning... Some spots to touch up tomorrow but looks good so far

 

[SK360]

Don't think it looks half bad for DIY and under $15

 

[revsgirl]

Great start!

 

[LukeG]

What are you going to stock the tank with?

 

[11f150]

Looks really good nice job

 

[SK360]

Thanks guys. Going to walmart to pickup 20 or so gallons of water tonight, going to finish up the wiring on the lights tomorrow and get the tank half full and mixing then hopefully get down to Daves Aquastock for rock and substrate on Friday.

As far as stock, of course the wife wants clowns so thinking about a pair of Ocellaris clowns and maybe a royal gramma. Plan on staying fish only for the near future until I get settled in and then start looking at some of the noob friendly softies and LPS

 

[SK360]

Of course I pick to go to Walmart 5 hours before snow hits. Looked like one of the prepper crazies.

 

[SK360]

Finishing up the wiring

Done

Cheap moonlight test

Getting 10g of water mixing in the tank tomorrow (after cleaning the glass of course). Then going to get live and base rock on Friday.

 

[ClownFan]

Very nice! Really like the way you suspended the lights. Might want to brace the "feet" to that desk so they don't get accidently knocked off/tipped over.

 

[SK360]

Thanks... For ~$20 total in material I'm happy with how it turned out.

Yeah that's our concern is the cat pushing them off... We are thinking of some kind of rubber strips on the feet to stop it from sliding.

 

[SK360]

I was going to run the cord down and out one of the "feet" buy decided to have it come out of the elbow on top and then zip tie it down the side so that I could raise/lower the lights without having to redo wiring.

 

[SK360]

12g of water in the tank and mixing with a powerhead and heater... Dumped 6 cups of salt in for now, will check salinity when I get home from bar trivia tonight and adjust as needed. Going for rock tomorrow

 

[SK360]

Seems our office gets colder then I thought with the door closed. Came home last night and after 4 or 5 hours the water was only 68*... Granted all I had in it was my eheim jager 75w. I tossed the Hydor Theo 100w in as well last night and when I woke up this morning water was sitting at 79-80*.

Problem is it's a small room with a door and 4 windows, as soon as the heat turns off that room cools down. I am going to cat proof the room as much as possible so that we can leave the door open at all times, that should help to balance out the temp in that room. Might have to run both heaters until spring.

Checked salinity last night and it is sitting right at 1.025. Calibrated with distilled water, going to take the refractometer with us tonight to the LFS and see if they have the fluid to calibrate it more accurately, if not I will order some.

 

[SK360]

Got 13lbs of dry rock and 4lbs of live rock from the LFS.

Got 20 lbs of agramax as well.

Got the rock in, just rinsed the sand going to start putting that in then fill the tank the rest of the way.

 

[SK360]

Put sand in last night... Waiting game begins

 

[SK360]

Everything has settled for the most part.... (Don't mind the heater wire stretched across... I quickly learned the 100w heater I had is not going to work due to how cold this room gets... Have my 75w in as well until I can order a 150 or 200w for winter)

I think this means I have ammonia? . I know API kits suck and are hard to read.

I am riding right around 1.024 sg

 

[islander84]

Actually most freshly mixed batches of SW have a false reading of. 25 ammonia....
Your ammonia will spike within the next couple of weeks depending on what you add to the tank.