Not sure how to start this out. I've been in the freshwater planted tank world for many years, have had a wide range of tanks and set ups. Reefing has always been the "ultimate" result of the hobby for me. So despite my better judgement, I've decided to go with a nano reef as my first attempt, not only that but I'm going to DIY as much as possible. I'll document my progress here for anyone interested in following along.
This will be a "peninsula" tank placed between our kitchen and living room. Side note, at some point I'd love to put a custom built 6ft acrylic tank across this entire area and have a true show piece...one step at a time.
Started out with a 20g long from Petco ($1/gallon). Derimmed it very carefully, cleaned up the silicone, wet sanded the edges from 800 to 1500 grit. To hopefully put the uncertainty of derimming standard tanks to rest I did a very simple 2" euro brace setup with 1/8" glass from a local stained glass shop. Only geing a 20g long, I think it'll have plenty of strength.
Since it'll be a peninsula tank, the back end will be a fully enclosed "AIO" style compartment with 1/4" black acrylic. Have an Aquatic Life 115 skimmer and Aqueon Pro heater in the first chamber, will overflow (set the display water height) into the middle chamber where the mechanical and chemical filtration will reside. The middle will only be about 2" wide, but it's 12" deep which should allow for pretty good contact time with the media. I could really use some suggestions on chemical media, way too many choices. This will then have a 1" gap at the bottom to feed into the bottom of the 3rd chamber which has a cheapo 400gph (ha, yeah right...) return pump and DIY ATO sensors and temp probe. Pump will output to a duckbill screwed into the acrylic. Depending on the actual flow of this pump, I'll likely add a powerhead to the display to fine tune the flow.
I'll be using live rock and aragonite for the substrate. For lighting I'm contemplating going with the full DIY LED route, but I may just go with a chinese 165w black box for now and then spend some time fine tuning the diodes, etc as time permits.
Haven't nailed down the stocking yet, but I have plenty of time to decide.
This will be a "peninsula" tank placed between our kitchen and living room. Side note, at some point I'd love to put a custom built 6ft acrylic tank across this entire area and have a true show piece...one step at a time.
Started out with a 20g long from Petco ($1/gallon). Derimmed it very carefully, cleaned up the silicone, wet sanded the edges from 800 to 1500 grit. To hopefully put the uncertainty of derimming standard tanks to rest I did a very simple 2" euro brace setup with 1/8" glass from a local stained glass shop. Only geing a 20g long, I think it'll have plenty of strength.
Since it'll be a peninsula tank, the back end will be a fully enclosed "AIO" style compartment with 1/4" black acrylic. Have an Aquatic Life 115 skimmer and Aqueon Pro heater in the first chamber, will overflow (set the display water height) into the middle chamber where the mechanical and chemical filtration will reside. The middle will only be about 2" wide, but it's 12" deep which should allow for pretty good contact time with the media. I could really use some suggestions on chemical media, way too many choices. This will then have a 1" gap at the bottom to feed into the bottom of the 3rd chamber which has a cheapo 400gph (ha, yeah right...) return pump and DIY ATO sensors and temp probe. Pump will output to a duckbill screwed into the acrylic. Depending on the actual flow of this pump, I'll likely add a powerhead to the display to fine tune the flow.
I'll be using live rock and aragonite for the substrate. For lighting I'm contemplating going with the full DIY LED route, but I may just go with a chinese 165w black box for now and then spend some time fine tuning the diodes, etc as time permits.
Haven't nailed down the stocking yet, but I have plenty of time to decide.