BarSnackz
Active Member
Hey R2R community!
Upon many hours of looking at this posts - I got the itch to start a small acrylic frag tank! Shallow tanks have always really appealed to me and is the main factor why I had a Deep Blue 60gal frag tank prior to this. For this build I wanted to keep it simple: return pump, ATO, heater, Kessil A360WE, and water changes. So here we go.
I acquired the tank from eBay on 1/14. Tank dimensions are 16"x20"x6". @Mical for the tank suggestion!
My original plans were to make it a desk tank, but after some measuring - I realized that it would take up a bit too much space and would be putting saltwater a bit too close to my computer and paperwork. So I built a stand! Big shout out to @Coastie Reefer for the design idea for it. Dimensions for it are 48"x24"36" - not including the leveling feet. I wanted a stand that had plenty of room around the tank for supplies, testing kits, and fragging supplies.
Building it wasn't so bad but painting it was - I can't tell you how much I hate painting things. So here we go!
(please excuse my messy garage - it's tough to keep my stuff organized with 3 kids bikes, scooter, skates, etc!) Painting was finally done. Put two coats on the stand and top ply. I wanted to make a dual color stand but I got way too lazy to open the new can of paint and get it all set up with new brushes and what not. So flat black here we go!
Leveling legs came in from amazon -$10 for 4 heavy duty ones that can withstand 800#'s - good enough for me! Got those drilled into the legs and brought the stand indoors.
An hour of sweating and cussing. I finally got it leveled and was ready to put the tank on it and get it wet.
Getting there! While it was being filled with RODI water I made a frag rack out of egg crate. I cannot express how much I don't enjoy working with this stuff either! Yeah, painting and egg crate are not my favorites - I probably should just pay someone to do this stuff for me next time how much I complain about it - but I saved a few bucks!
Eggcrate in! Still have to make an eggcrate media holder for the intake chamber, but I will save that for another day. I have had enough of that stuff for one day! Time to put in the heater, ATO, and some live rock. I have about 90# of dry rock sitting in my garage but was not trying to wait for a few pounds of it to cure so I did what any other giddy reefer does - I went to my LFS and picked up 2#'s and scattered some in the 2nd and 3rd chamber in the back and threw the rest by the overflow.
It is hard to find a heater that will fit in a tank this short so I went with an Aqueon 100W compact "exact temp 78F" heater. It fit perfectly but was putting my water at 80.2F. I didn't want to have to return it and try to find a 50W so I hooked the tank up to my APEX - kind of overkill putting one on an 8gal tank but it was sitting dormant - so why not?
Here is the tank so far. I still need to do a lot of cable management and do a little more tweaking but it is coming along nicely!
Hoping to check my Ammonia and Nitrates tomorrow and then start thinking more about what kind of fish I would like to put in it. At this point I am leaning heavily on a Pink Streaked Wrasse, but the wife wants a clown fish - of course.
More updates to come
Upon many hours of looking at this posts - I got the itch to start a small acrylic frag tank! Shallow tanks have always really appealed to me and is the main factor why I had a Deep Blue 60gal frag tank prior to this. For this build I wanted to keep it simple: return pump, ATO, heater, Kessil A360WE, and water changes. So here we go.
I acquired the tank from eBay on 1/14. Tank dimensions are 16"x20"x6". @Mical for the tank suggestion!
My original plans were to make it a desk tank, but after some measuring - I realized that it would take up a bit too much space and would be putting saltwater a bit too close to my computer and paperwork. So I built a stand! Big shout out to @Coastie Reefer for the design idea for it. Dimensions for it are 48"x24"36" - not including the leveling feet. I wanted a stand that had plenty of room around the tank for supplies, testing kits, and fragging supplies.
Building it wasn't so bad but painting it was - I can't tell you how much I hate painting things. So here we go!
(please excuse my messy garage - it's tough to keep my stuff organized with 3 kids bikes, scooter, skates, etc!) Painting was finally done. Put two coats on the stand and top ply. I wanted to make a dual color stand but I got way too lazy to open the new can of paint and get it all set up with new brushes and what not. So flat black here we go!
Leveling legs came in from amazon -$10 for 4 heavy duty ones that can withstand 800#'s - good enough for me! Got those drilled into the legs and brought the stand indoors.
An hour of sweating and cussing. I finally got it leveled and was ready to put the tank on it and get it wet.
Getting there! While it was being filled with RODI water I made a frag rack out of egg crate. I cannot express how much I don't enjoy working with this stuff either! Yeah, painting and egg crate are not my favorites - I probably should just pay someone to do this stuff for me next time how much I complain about it - but I saved a few bucks!
Eggcrate in! Still have to make an eggcrate media holder for the intake chamber, but I will save that for another day. I have had enough of that stuff for one day! Time to put in the heater, ATO, and some live rock. I have about 90# of dry rock sitting in my garage but was not trying to wait for a few pounds of it to cure so I did what any other giddy reefer does - I went to my LFS and picked up 2#'s and scattered some in the 2nd and 3rd chamber in the back and threw the rest by the overflow.
It is hard to find a heater that will fit in a tank this short so I went with an Aqueon 100W compact "exact temp 78F" heater. It fit perfectly but was putting my water at 80.2F. I didn't want to have to return it and try to find a 50W so I hooked the tank up to my APEX - kind of overkill putting one on an 8gal tank but it was sitting dormant - so why not?
Here is the tank so far. I still need to do a lot of cable management and do a little more tweaking but it is coming along nicely!
Hoping to check my Ammonia and Nitrates tomorrow and then start thinking more about what kind of fish I would like to put in it. At this point I am leaning heavily on a Pink Streaked Wrasse, but the wife wants a clown fish - of course.
More updates to come
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