12g Nano tank build with sump

[flbrgz]

Hello all. So begins the build of our 12 gallon nano tank. We had a marine aquarium around 15 years ago but life got too busy and we had to give the hobby away for a while.

15 years and three children later the family wants to be back in the hobby.

My plan is to build pretty much everything to do with this setup. Being hands on is my thing and having built a few sumps in my day I have decided to do as much of it as I can.

The plan for the tank is to be around the 12g mark plus a sump. I want to build the tank based on the fluvel edge concept but with some ideas of my own thrown in. I want to include an algal scrubber as an addition to the sump. I would like to try to run the system without a protein skimmer if the scrubber does a good enough job. I will leave space for a small skimmer just in case. I will be adding a dosing system and ato as well as some type of electronic control, possibly arduino based or raspberry pi or commercial.

I will build, the sump, the tank stand, tank, lights, algal scrubber and diy rock an probably more.

The system will be set up in our home office and will be a primer for a larger tank in the future. It will allow us to purchase corals to grow and frag for our larger tank while we decide what to do for a larger tank.

If you are interested then feel free to follow, comment or offer suggestions or advise.

Cheers.

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to R2R and welcome back to the hobby - this sounds like quite the adventure! Please remember that nano tanks can be more of a challenge to maintain stability. I encourage you to at least consider starting in the 30-40 gallon range. I like your ideas for an ATO and a scrubber. Good luck with whatever direction you decide to go!

#WelcometoR2R

 

[flbrgz]

Hello all. Thanks for the feedback. My last tank was 37 gallons and I think it was about as big as I would go. The idea behind this smaller tank is pretty much a frag tank with one or two fish in it. From there I will set up a larger display tank that I will transfer corals to from the smaller tank. It will also be a quarantine tank for new purchases. I will try to make the smaller tank look cool as it will be in my office where I spend much of my time. It will be awhile before I build a larger tank. Just trying to get started so I can start collecting corals.

Here are a few photos of the cabinet I am building for the tank. Unfortunately I started making the stand and the sump before I started looking at the forums so I didn't think to take photos until I signed up.

Showing the construction of the cabinet. All glued and screwed.

Screw holes filled and sanded

First coat of black epoxy enamel. The next few coats will be sprayed on. The first coat was brushed on to spread it out and push it into the end grain of the MDF board to make sure the edges are totally sealed. The inside will be painted in silver or white epoxy enamel.

The front door will actually be a panel that sits or clips in place without hinges so that I can take it off and get it out of the way.

 

[monkeymanolo]

Looks like a nice clean build. I dont know too much about paint but curious, why the epoxy enamel? does it do better with chips or salt creep?

 

[motortrendz]

Stand looks good. Following along

 

[Malifry97]

Nice

 

[CavalierReef]

If your nano turns out looking as nice and clean as your stand, it will be beautiful. Good luck with the build. I look forward to following your progress.

 

[flbrgz]

Looks like a nice clean build. I dont know too much about paint but curious, why the epoxy enamel? does it do better with chips or salt creep?

Hi, just had the paint lying around. I tend to use this type of paint as it seems to resist chipping and scratching fairly well on other projects I have done.

 

[flbrgz]

Hi. I have been working on the sump for the nano system. Originally the glass for the sump was going to be a pico tank but I decided that it was too small to be practical. I already had the glass cut to size for the pico so I had to recut some pieces to make it into a sump. I still need a few more pieces of glass cut to finish it off. I had already put the tank part together before documenting the build. Here are a few pics with the glass taped up for the silicone work and then completed to the current point. I can't stand silicone joints that have wide bevels spreading out onto the sides of the glass so I do my joins on the edges only. I will be using some kind of ceramic noodles for media in the bio filter portion of the sump that you can see on the inside of the sump. This will be topped with filter foam. I plan on constructing an acrylic algal scrubber that will sit and lock into place on top of the bio chamber. This will feed through to the filter foam and then on through the bio chamber and return back to the display tank.

Cheers.

 

[flbrgz]

Hello,

Its been a while since my last post and things are moving slowly on the build. I have had all the glass cut for the tank and I picked it up last week. I spent quite a few hours sanding the edges to get a nice clean look from the outside. I have done a drawing on fusion 360 to get an idea of what I am building. The drawing doesn't include everything the tank will be at the moment. I will add to it as I work things out. I am waiting on some new diamond hole saws as the one I have is a little to large for some of the bulkheads I want to use.

Anyway here is the drawing.

The top will be enclosed like a fluval edge but I will have plumbed overflow, emergency overflow and water return lines.

Here is the top. I had to drill out the corners for the top opening and then cut out the square. Worst diamond cutting wheel ever. Luckily I managed not to break the glass with it. I then scored and snapped out the rest of the glass and sanded the edges smooth.

From here I cleaned all the glass and masked it up for silicone work. I have found its much easier to clean up in the end if I mask it up prior to sticking it all together. Here are the picks of it going together.

Just finished the silicon job. Wiped off all the external globs and used a pencil to clean out internal joins back to the tape line.

Here it is after tape removal.

All put together. Needs a final cleanup when the silicon has fully cured.

I need to make the pieces for the top overflow and return now, Just waiting on the diamond hole saws.

The other part I have been designing is the media support plate for the bio filter in the sump.

I will be cutting this with my DIY CNC machine. I will post picks of it when I have cut it.

Cheers.

 

[Andrew9909]

Looks great, good job.

 

[Andrew9909]

Looks great, good job.

 

[Simon Reefing]

Nice tank any updates?

 

[flbrgz]

Nano tank build update.

I have made the top parts for the glass overflow and drilled out the 3 holes. I made them for a particular bulkhead but as I was trialing the tank with water I learnt that I would need to change them for a different type. This meant the the holes were a tad too close together. I had to trim down the diameter of the bulkheads to get them to fit in. Here are some a pics with the original bulkhead fittings

The picture below shows the new type. Looks a bit messy but it allows for more options with pipe sizing. Still need to trim the return fitting length.

I had a little trouble with me cnc machine blowing a driver whilst cutting the biomedia support plate. Managed to save it and it is still usable so here it is in all its imperfection.

And here it is in the sump.

I am am using these bio noodles above the support plate.

Here they are in the sump

And here they are topped off with some black filter foam that I had. I will probably add another 1kg of noodles so that some time down the track I can split some off and put them into a larger system to seed it.

And finally here it is all together. About to test it out.

I will be adding the pump, heater and water soon.

Happy Reefing All.

 

[Hemmdog]

Wild. Hopefully all goes well with water!

 

[Ranjib]

Great build thread. Following along

 

[Malifry97]

Cool beans!

 

[flbrgz]

Hello everyone, the system has been slowly but steadily making progress. I have now made the front panel for the stand which is attached using magnetic cupboard devices. I have decided to move the sump up in the stand as I was having a few problems with noise from all the pumps I tested as return pumps. I thought that maybe the lower head pressure may help reduce the noise which it did successfully. I tried 4 different pumps before settling on the one I am using now. 2 of these pumps I already had at my disposal. I also thought that when I add a dosing system it would work better in the lower position. I added the salt water the day after my last post and have been feeding it 1/2 of a brine shrimp food cube every day up until the day I stocked the tank. I have been tuning the salinity, temp and lighting timing during this process. The lid and light are a work in progress and are still in testing.

I have added dry rock and then after a few weeks I added 2 small black and white clown fish. All water parameters are spot on. I have been adding a small amount of seachem stability just too make sure I have some bacteria working for the criters. Anyway here are a few pics of how it looks at the moment.

aww

Inside the lid I have 4x blue 6w cob led strips and 2x white 6w cob led strips. The lighting is currently controlled by a arduino nano and a circuit I have made. I have also done the programing for the system so that I can connect it to a laptop and set the schedule for the lights and pump speeds. I will post more info on this as I develop it. I will be getting circuit boards built as I complete me design.

Anyway. More on that later. Cheers.

 

[kutcha]

so what are your plans for corals for this tank?

 

[WiscoFishNut]

This is a really cool build!