This will be sort of a retro & re-build thread of an old tank that I built years ago. This has never been posted here, but was on our local forum years ago. I will be digging it out of storage and starting it over, with some modifications. First the old stuff...
About 8 years ago I built rather unique (if not a little weird) 7 gallon nano tank. I called it Pirate's Reef. It was not your ordinary, run of the mill nano tank and was definitely not an all in one. It featured a small display with a large support system. Yeah, I know it was over the top and definitely not for everybody, but I really enjoyed building something out of mostly left over aquarium stuff that I had laying around. I didn't spend a lot of money on it and had fun putting it together.
I just thought I would share the old tank and start off the rebuild with this post. If there is any interest in it, I will continue the updates.
This whole idea of building an over the top nano tank was inspired by a contributing writer to FAMA Magazine, named John Burleson. I remember sometime back in the 80s, he wrote a story about a tank he had. I want to say that it was a 29 gallon, in wall display. Behind the tank, in his tank room, was an entire wall of support equipment of just about anything you could imagine. I thought, "That guy's nuts! I have to do that someday."
The tank would have a lot of plumbing on it, so I wanted to conceal it within an enclosure, with only the front as a viewing pane. I thought for a while about what the enclosure would look like, before coming up with an idea of having it inside of a treasure chest. Like an old pirate's chest that would look to be full of colorful jewels. So, I built the tank from scratch and built the chest.
The water movement in the tank was from a closed loop system, utilizing a SCWD. It provided a nice gentle side to side alternating wave motion in the tank.
I built a small, custom sump for it also.
Even had an old skimmer in a tub and a refugium.
I ran the tank for a couple of years and eventually robbed the booty inside for my 140 gallon tank that I had set up. I took the tank down, but never sold it or discarded it. It just sat in the attic for the past 5-6 years. Here is a FTS and some pics of the tank and the inhabitants.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided to re-build the tank, but make it a little different this time around. I went up into the attic to see what was left of it. The glass 7 gallon tank was found to be cracked, so I will have to rebuild that part. The chest was in pretty good shape, but the interior needed a fresh coat of paint.
So, this is just the first part of the story. I will continue the build thread of the upgrade from here. Thanks for looking!
About 8 years ago I built rather unique (if not a little weird) 7 gallon nano tank. I called it Pirate's Reef. It was not your ordinary, run of the mill nano tank and was definitely not an all in one. It featured a small display with a large support system. Yeah, I know it was over the top and definitely not for everybody, but I really enjoyed building something out of mostly left over aquarium stuff that I had laying around. I didn't spend a lot of money on it and had fun putting it together.
I just thought I would share the old tank and start off the rebuild with this post. If there is any interest in it, I will continue the updates.
This whole idea of building an over the top nano tank was inspired by a contributing writer to FAMA Magazine, named John Burleson. I remember sometime back in the 80s, he wrote a story about a tank he had. I want to say that it was a 29 gallon, in wall display. Behind the tank, in his tank room, was an entire wall of support equipment of just about anything you could imagine. I thought, "That guy's nuts! I have to do that someday."
The tank would have a lot of plumbing on it, so I wanted to conceal it within an enclosure, with only the front as a viewing pane. I thought for a while about what the enclosure would look like, before coming up with an idea of having it inside of a treasure chest. Like an old pirate's chest that would look to be full of colorful jewels. So, I built the tank from scratch and built the chest.
The water movement in the tank was from a closed loop system, utilizing a SCWD. It provided a nice gentle side to side alternating wave motion in the tank.
I built a small, custom sump for it also.
Even had an old skimmer in a tub and a refugium.
I ran the tank for a couple of years and eventually robbed the booty inside for my 140 gallon tank that I had set up. I took the tank down, but never sold it or discarded it. It just sat in the attic for the past 5-6 years. Here is a FTS and some pics of the tank and the inhabitants.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided to re-build the tank, but make it a little different this time around. I went up into the attic to see what was left of it. The glass 7 gallon tank was found to be cracked, so I will have to rebuild that part. The chest was in pretty good shape, but the interior needed a fresh coat of paint.
So, this is just the first part of the story. I will continue the build thread of the upgrade from here. Thanks for looking!
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