Monocot's Micro Mangrove Build

[monocot]

Hi all!

I'm a relatively experience reef keeper, but new to r2r. After a while of bouncing around without a reef tank, I've finally gotten restless enough to start a new build, and I figured this time I might as well document it and seek input from fellow enthusiasts.

All in all, I'm shooting for a dirt simple tank for my desk. I'm a PhD student in marine science, which is excellent in that I have endless access to NSW, RODI water, etc, though I do a fair bit of traveling and have been moving around from one ****** apartment to the next -- Luckily, I'm also in a lab full of marine scientists, so there will always be folks to check in on things if I'm in the field for an extended period.

Although diminutive in size, this project is, admittedly, a bit ambitious. I've gazed longingly at mangrove communities while doing fieldwork enough and I finally bit the bullet and decided to shoot for my own mini setup - after all, if people can grow them in soggy buckets in their backyards, why can't I keep a couple on my desk...

The setup: For the aquarium, I really wanted to shoot for something long and skinny - I've always like the look of lopsided/uneven tanks. I also think it's well suited for a mangrove tank as it gives a (tiny) "edge of the lagoon" feeling, if you know what I mean? My desk is pretty small, so I decided to pull the trigger on a 3 gallon 18" x 5.5" x 7.1" glass rimless tank from Amazon (50$; Tank).

Heating - for this, I just picked out the cheapest, most basic heater I could find (8$; Heater). The temp is preset to 78 F, which is easy enough. To be fair, our office is kept pretty much constantly at 70 F, so as long as it doesn't completely fry my tank, mangroves/macroalgae shouldn't care too much if my heater goes out. This is mainly if I decide to throw a few inverts in there somewhere down the line.

Lighting - with a tank this small and mostly mangroves, I'm not too worried about lighting. I also don't want a lamp that will burn my eyeballs out when I'm on my laptop. To that end, I might just start with of those "full spectrum grow" LED bulbs and a desk lamp fixture. Anyone have thoughts on the best way to light this baby for under 50$? Any advice appreciated! I also have some experience with DIY LED fixtures, but I'd like to stick with the KISS method here, and I can't imagine it would be cost effective on such a small scale.

Filtration - this is where things get fun! I considered just a small HOB filter, but I've been tempted to go all DIY and create my down AIO tank as I think it would be more aesthetic (and fun). To that end, I whipped up some designs for an acrylic insert that fits in one end of my tank. With the little heater and return pump I've picked up, it should occupy less than 3.5" of internal space (design below). We have a laser cutter in the basement, so I should be able to bust this out in however long it takes the epoxy/acrylic weld to dry. Initially, I wanted to just epoxy a wall into the tank, but I think I'll go for a fully removable insert that fits "flush" with the tank. The reason for this is that I'm a tinkerer through and through and I'm sure in a few months I'd be mad that I stuck the thing in there. I might add a few globs of epoxy on the edges just to keep it in place that I can slice off later to pull it, but I'm trying to be modular here. The design has a slot for a filter sock (DIY) and some media below, along with a return chamber. Note* theres a second baffle in left (return) chamber that isn't included in this render.

Ofc, with a tank this teeny and this kind of setup, consistent water level is essential. I'm thinking about just getting one of those lil optical ATOs from Amazon (50$; ATO). Ironic that the ATO is the most expensive part of this setup so far (tied with the tank), but I suppose that's how these things go. With the second baffle in the AIO insert, I can tuck everything in that section of the tank, which hides the cords and tubes a bit.

And here's a pic of the tank on the corner of my desk:

As you can see, pretty teeny!

Finally, here's a rough drawing of the scape I'm going for (as you can see, I'm better with CAD...):

So that's about where I'm up to on this! I'll probably start fabricating and messing with the AIO insert in the next few days, unless I made some stupid glaring error that I hope somebody points out

Should be a fun little build, and I'm hoping I can pull everything off for under 250$ - we'll see, though.

edit: Fixed the links (I hope)!

 

[tzabor10]

Can’t wait to see this one

 

[monocot]

Got rained out of a morning fishing trip (still managed some nice fish!), so I decided to play around in the shop a bit and test out my "AIO box" designs with some scrap 1/8" acrylic I had left over from another project.

As these things usually go, I measured twice, cut once, realized I botched the kerf compensation, measured again, and cut again (trimmed). I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out! I modified the original design and shortened the overflow width to compensate for a second baffle. This way I have a third compartment for my little heater so it doesn't get stuck in the same compartment as my return, which would not be good if the ATO screws up or there's some other water level issue. For now, I'm pulling the DIY mini filter sock and swapping it with media. I'm lucky enough to have access to constant 0.2 um filtered seawater, so I'm not hugely worried about physical filtering. I do want to make sure I have a way of running carbon, GFO, etc., if needed, though.

^^ First cuts are looking pretty snazzy!

^^ The inevitable trimming - this I'll fix in the "pro" version...

Now the pieces fit fairly well in the corner (before sealing)!

I manually drilled the return hole with a drill press because I was too lazy to measure my tubing - this I may also fix in the "pro" version, but we'll see...

^^ Still fits in well with the return pump and heater - I'll have to double check when I cut the baffles - might need to make them out of 1/16" acrylic as it's getting tight...

Currently, I'm letting some silicone seams set overnight. I did a slightly embarrassing job with them, but it's just a prototype, so who cares. I'm pleased with how the project is coming so far. Since the seams don't have to hold any serious pressure and the box is flush against the tank glass, I have some room for "good enough", which I appreciate!

My sheets of black cast acrylic come in on Wednesday, so I should have the "pro" AIO box finished by the end of the week.

And here's an unsolicited fishing pic to prove I didn't completely skunk before the sky opened up!

 

[monocot]

Alright so I got some materials in and made some progress!

Here are my final dims for the edited cuts - r2r won't let me upload .svg or .dxf files, but if anyone buys the exact same tank and wants to do a similar DIY project, shoot me a PM and I can send you all the proper files for laser cutting.

^ Here's some sleek, sexy 1/8 inch black acrylic - 10$ shipped for the two pieces

And the cuts look really clean!

And here's what it looks like before I do the seams and drill the return. I think it's going to be really cool! The angle here is a tad tricky - for context, the whole AIO insert assembly is 3.5 inches long (thick?) and the tank is 18 inches, so theres still 14.5" of water space (14.5"x5.5x7.1" LWH occupied space). That comes out to roughly 2 1/4 gallons of usable water - a true pico tank for sure!

Meanwhile, I also ordered a bunch of dry rock, which should come in over the weekend. I'm not going to add any live rock here because I don't have any on hand and it would be such a small quantity anyways. I am going to add in a bit of sediment from one of the seagrass tanks I've had running in the lab for a few years which will be chock full of bacteria with virtually every nitrogen metabolism imaginable. Plus, I use NSW so that should be good too. I'm not particularly worried about bacteria here.

The only major decision I have to make at this point is lighting. I'm thinking about just getting this one because it's cheap and has halfway decent reviews (Hygger 30W), but I'm not totally convinced. This is such a teeny (and shallow) tank, so I don't need much coverage, but I do want something that works. Anybody have thoughts/advice on this?

The first silicone seams for the AIO box are setting as I write, and I should be able to test it out with water this weekend. Fun stuff!

 

[monocot]

Couple of moves this week! I got my ATO system and reservoir in. I opted for a 1.5 L reservoir because the tank volume is pretty small and all of his has to fit on my desk. The one I bought is intended for dosing, or at least use with one of those "lifting pumps" so it just has a straw. I made a few adjustments to the system and now it's all set.

I also finished the last baffle for the AIO insert and the silicone is drying at the moment. I'll do a flow test tomorrow and if it works, I'll add the last bit of silicone to slot the thing in. So far, I'm pretty stoked on how it's turning out!

I also got a shipment of dry rock in - way more than I need for this tank, but good to have on hand. I have my scape pretty much figured out, and I'll post a pic with the next update.

 

[monocot]

Big moment! The silicone dried, I rinsed and leak tested, and got the tank wet (and salty) this morning!

Not fully wedded to this exact scape, but these are the bits of rock I have, so it'll probably be something close to this. I did also move the larger rock a bit further from the front glass since this photo.

The flow is pretty strong with just the return. It's very laminar, but since I'm shooting mostly for mangroves and macro, I dont think it should be a big issue. Worse case, I'll cut or print a little attachment to the return tube that'll break things up a bit.

At this point, the only serious hardware I still need to figure out is a light! Still figuring out how much I want to spend and whether I want to go mostly plant centric, or keep options open for some corals. We'll see, and I have time.

I also want to cut a lid for it with a cutaway for the mangroves. I really want to do the rim with neon green/yellow acrylic (like this) that matches the lid of the ATO as I think that would look super cool. Like a 1 or 1/2 cm ring around the outside in that color and then 1/16" clear acrylic in the middle for the light to get through. Either way, I'll def need a lid at some point to slow down evap.

All in all, I'm pleased! It turned out pretty much exactly how I intended, and depending on the light, right on the budget. As you can imagine, I'm already wishing I could have gone for a substantially larger tank, but this is all that reasonably fits on my desk and I'm pretty pumped! I ordered some mangrove propagules from Etsy, so things are moving. Not too worries about tossing them in during a cycle as they're probably not going to care much about a little extra fertilizer in there.