3 Foot Office Nano

[Aaron4890]

I absolutely love your tank.

 

[Nicholas Scelzi]

Beautiful tank! @eschulis What kind of angel is that in there ? A venutus? She is my favorite! Also it’s only 12 gallons yet 36 inches long? It looks so much bigger than it really is ! That’s amazing !!

 

[eschulist]

I absolutely love your tank.

Thank you!!

Beautiful tank! @eschulis What kind of angel is that in there ? A venutus? She is my favorite! Also it’s only 12 gallons yet 36 inches long? It looks so much bigger than it really is ! That’s amazing !!

Thanks. Yes it is a Venustus Angelfish. I bit hard to find in the hobby due to their difficult transition to Aquarium life and getting them to eat. Luckily Kevin Kohen @LiveAquaria took care of that and I asked if I could buy it from him during an Open House at the Divers Den facility. A few weeks later he said he caught the fish and would sell it to me.

Yep it’s only 12 gallons and 36” long. It is approx 8” deep and 9” tall. It’s a tricky tank to filter, light, and aquascape but like you said the main wow factor is that the tank looks way bigger than it actually is.

 

[Nicholas Scelzi]

@eschulis wait you took a took of the divers den facility ? That’s amazing! That’s another story I need to hear all about. How was the facility? How did you arrange that tour? Was it fish heaven? And so you literally arranged to buy the angel when you were on the tour? Tell me everything lol!

 

[eschulist]

@eschulis wait you took a took of the divers den facility ? That’s amazing! That’s another story I need to hear all about. How was the facility? How did you arrange that tour? Was it fish heaven? And so you literally arranged to buy the angel when you were on the tour? Tell me everything lol!

OK Gather round... Story time.

This was a few years ago. They usually do 2 Open Houses a year if you are willing to travel to Rhinelander Wi. I grew up in Wi and currently live in Minneapolis MN so the drive wasn't terrible. I think this might have been the third time I've been there but it was my first Open House. Usually you can only go to a small store thats attached to the facility. All of the good stuff is kept in the warehouse for the online Divers Den so all the rare fish and corals never were available in this little store on my previous trips.

This Open House was Aug 8th 2015. I traveled with a few local TCMAS (Twin Cities Marine Aquarium Society) members up to Rhinelander and made a day of it. At first you are allowed to browse through the little store front but when they are finally ready they call you back in groups to tour the Divers Den facility. You are shown all of the behind the scenes filtration, grow out tanks, fish acclimation, corals flats, bagging and shipping, etc. The entire tour takes about an hour and then after the tour you are free to browse all of the fish and corals and purchase almost anything thats ready to be listed online or thats currently online but not yet claimed. They have a few sections of saltwater fish and a new expanded area for freshwater fish. Then the main attraction is row after row after row of coral raceways. They have so many varieties of wild harvested, maricultured, and aquacultured corals to look through. Its slightly overwhelming trying to narrow down want you want to take home.

Random photos of the facility

One of their main display aquariums

I appologize that I don't have a large photo showing the tanks in @KevinKohen 's office. There are 3 of them. A 30ish gallon nano with softies, gonipora, and clownfish. I believe a 180 divided into 3 sections. Each with different rarer fish that he was acclimating and adjusting to reef tanks. And another 120ish tank that was all SPS dominated.

Picture of the Venustus in his office aquarium. Later that afternoon I inquired if I could buy that exact fish. He said he wanted to let the fish grow and adjust a little more. Once he was ready he said he would catch him and list him for sale.

And a few weeks later (Nov 3) I got one of the largest bags of water I've ever been shipped. For a 2" fish. The catalog for that season was also the Venustus Angelfish. The photo was most likely from a bigger one that was in a different tank.

First photo of him after acclimating to my tank. (Same photo I use for my profile Icon)

 

[Tjakes680]

Amazing

 

[Nicholas Scelzi]

That is awesome! Thanks for taking the time to tell us the story about the tour! And great pictures! Helped us feel like we were re-living the experience with you! And that is amazing that he let you buy a fish directly from his office aquarium

 

[Daniel@R2R]

OK Gather round... Story time.

This was a few years ago. They usually do 2 Open Houses a year if you are willing to travel to Rhinelander Wi. I grew up in Wi and currently live in Minneapolis MN so the drive wasn't terrible. I think this might have been the third time I've been there but it was my first Open House. Usually you can only go to a small store thats attached to the facility. All of the good stuff is kept in the warehouse for the online Divers Den so all the rare fish and corals never were available in this little store on my previous trips.

This Open House was Aug 8th 2015. I traveled with a few local TCMAS (Twin Cities Marine Aquarium Society) members up to Rhinelander and made a day of it. At first you are allowed to browse through the little store front but when they are finally ready they call you back in groups to tour the Divers Den facility. You are shown all of the behind the scenes filtration, grow out tanks, fish acclimation, corals flats, bagging and shipping, etc. The entire tour takes about an hour and then after the tour you are free to browse all of the fish and corals and purchase almost anything thats ready to be listed online or thats currently online but not yet claimed. They have a few sections of saltwater fish and a new expanded area for freshwater fish. Then the main attraction is row after row after row of coral raceways. They have so many varieties of wild harvested, maricultured, and aquacultured corals to look through. Its slightly overwhelming trying to narrow down want you want to take home.

Random photos of the facility

One of their main display aquariums

I appologize that I don't have a large photo showing the tanks in @KevinKohen 's office. There are 3 of them. A 30ish gallon nano with softies, gonipora, and clownfish. I believe a 180 divided into 3 sections. Each with different rarer fish that he was acclimating and adjusting to reef tanks. And another 120ish tank that was all SPS dominated.

Picture of the Venustus in his office aquarium. Later that afternoon I inquired if I could buy that exact fish. He said he wanted to let the fish grow and adjust a little more. Once he was ready he said he would catch him and list him for sale.

And a few weeks later (Nov 3) I got one of the largest bags of water I've ever been shipped. For a 2" fish. The catalog for that season was also the Venustus Angelfish. The photo was most likely from a bigger one that was in a different tank.

First photo of him after acclimating to my tank. (Same photo I use for my profile Icon)

Wow! Great story! Those displays are INSANE!!

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Amazing build , truly Tank Inspiration for me and the ideas I have for my IM30L EXT! I tried searching through your build , but I couldn't find it. What skimmer are you running on this amazing system of your's? Once again Beautiful and Amazing tank @eschulist !!!

 

[eschulist]

Amazing build , truly Tank Inspiration for me and the ideas I have for my IM30L EXT! I tried searching through your build , but I couldn't find it. What skimmer are you running on this amazing system of your's? Once again Beautiful and Amazing tank @eschulist !!!

Thank you!

I am using the Aquaristik 80 skimmer.

https://sraquaristik.com/collections/protein-skimmers/products/pro-skim-80-in-sump-protein-skimmer

It’s the perfect size that fits in my tiny sump and allows clearance to change my reactors without removing the skimmer or even the cup. For the longest time, 5-6 years I never used a skimmer. My first version of my 3 foot nano didn’t have any room in the stand and sump to even run a tiny nano skimmer. The new setup was built with one in mind but still didn’t seem necessary since I had success for so long without one. Then during almost the entire year of 2018 my tank was declining and crashing and by Oct or Nov I lost almost everything. Then sometime around Dec or Jan I got my butt in gear and was going to try to turn everything around. The skimmer, Trident and persistent work turned things around and it’s been great since. Now I just gotta keep it going.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Thank you!

I am using the Aquaristik 80 skimmer.

Thank you so much @eschulist !! I am going to look into the Skimmer , I am trying to find one for my IM 30L which is a 3ft tank that I am excited for! hopefully I can make it some what close to a TANK inspiration like yours !

 

[eschulist]

Made a slight upgrade to the ATK

I've tested this new PMUP for about a month and its been running well without any issues. Quieter than v1 which is a nice bonus

 

[Janci]

Nice orange upgrade

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Made a slight upgrade to the ATK

I've tested this new PMUP for about a month and its been running well without any issues. Quieter than v1 which is a nice bonus

Cool! I didn't realize they'd upgraded it.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Love the updates and would love to see more @eschulist ! I wanted to ask what media reactors are you using, and where did you get the orange vinyl tubing in them?

 

[eschulist]

Love the updates and would love to see more @eschulist ! I wanted to ask what media reactors are you using, and where did you get the orange vinyl tubing in them?

The media reactors are short RODI cainsters. You can find them on BRS but I sourced mine from a water filtration company as I was able to get a better deal buying all the components separately. 2 Stumps, Black Brackets and a Double Male connector. The internal shell that holds the media was from BRS. The tubing I believe I bought off Amazon. I made it flexible so I could control what chamber it exits into as well as bend it out of the sump to use it during water changes.

 

[eschulist]

Its been a long time so how about some updates.

First of all I never posted this image and it gives some context as there was a large gap about a year back.

This is Oct 2018

After the tank transfer but before the Trident I had a bunch of issues that all converged together. My nutrients were all over the place. Extremely high PO4 and NO3, my Alk was unstable and some tissue reccession on a few of the corals caused a chain reaction that spread through the whole tank. A couple corals survived but 90% of them died on me. During this time I was not running biopellets and was trying NoPox. It didn't work for me so I gave up on that.

I rebought a few corals at the local frag swap after the crash in around Oct / Nov

I purchased the Aquaristik Skimmer around Christmas 2018 to help with the nutrients and went back to using biopellets as I had success with them on my previous tank that was at work.

Fast forward about 5 months. I'm on the NSI for Trident and the tank is now really doing well. I posted a few images from this period but I'll repost a few to show the progress.

Feb 2019

April 2019

And now pictures from a year later.
Pictures taken late May 2020. I'm still running the biopellets with the skimmer. Lots of ReefRoids and Animo Acid feedings. I'm dosing a bit of Lanthanum here and there to keep knocking down the PO4. Covid has kept me working from home and I'm really glad the tank was moved from the office. There is no way I was going to be able to stop into work every few days to feed and do maintenance.

New Frag of TNT Anacropora

New Frag of unnamed yellow acro

 

[revhtree]

So beautiful and well done! This will be the Reef Of The Day tomorrow!

 

[tjclapp]

wow... such a gorgeous tank. I love the dimension... really unique

 

[melev]

Eric, things look pretty great. Your video has been on my hit list of ones I want to edit and release! Glad you're staying safe and are able to keep enjoying your reef.