My DIY AiO Nano First tank

[Wisperin]

So here goes my story in building my first tank

The story started more than a year ago when I got interested in reefing by watching one build video on youtube and decided to start my own tank. I started with doing a lot of research as more than a few videos I watched recommended doing so. Also whatever I was watching I ran into so many terms and abbreviations that I had to dig deeper to understand it at all. I also got a book on the topic from Amazon to rest my eyes from all that youtube. Book is The Nano-Reef Handbook by Chris Brightwell and it is a nice read to get a general understanding on what and what not to do.

I like DIY projects so I decided to make my own AiO tank. I also decided to buy gear on Amazon but all consumables/stock I will get from the LFS to support the business.

I ordered a rimless 30 x 30 x 60cm 50L (cca 13 gal) aquarium and a couple of acrylic 30 x 30 sheets. I got some plastic egg crate, 90° plastic nozzle and reef safe silicone.
After some brainstorming and cutting here is what I came up with

Next part included testing the water flow and how my temperature will act with some basic equipment. I got a Sicce 1.0 pump and Fluval 50W heater. To hold the tank I just went with an Ikea stand and some foam mat to put under the tank. It should be enough to hold it but I will see and upgrade down the line if salt water starts to damage it.
I decided to put it next to my PC since that is where I spend most of my time at home and can enjoy it the most

To test the water, flow and temp I got RO system and TDS meter. I also got two extra temperature measures so I can average the numbers and not rely on one reading from the heater only.
My tap water was reading 250-300 on TDS meter and after RO filter it got down to 10. Not perfect but it will have to do for now. I will get a proper RODI system later on.

I filled the tank with RO water and let it run for 10 days to get a feel on how much it will evaporate. I had to add around 0.5L of RO water per day which would be less than 2% salinity swing with rock inside. Still I will get a small ATO in future just to make the daily work less painful and parameters more stable
Bigger concern was that the temperature was reading between 24.5°C (76F) and 25.5°C (78F) on all readers with the heater turned off and it was not full summer yet. So I went and ordered a mounting fan to have something to deal with it when needed.

For my filtration I will use filter floss for mechanical filtration. It's super cheap and I just know I would not change and wash the socks on time. For Biofiltration I plan to have sand and rock in the tank but just to add to it I will use Bioballs in the mid area below floss. Bottom part will be to put Carbon and GFO if and when needed. I will have to see how water changes will keep nutrients in check and if I need to upgrade I will go with a DIY algae reactor with LED during night when the tank lights will be off.

My last purchase was AI Nero 3 and DIY jump guard and then life happened and I had to pause the whole project
I emptied the tank water and left it standing there where it was just to remind me every day what the plan is.

Finally now came the time when I can continue my project so I decided to start my Build thread here to share it with the community and have it documented for myself

So what's next?
I will divide this build into phases
1. Aquascape
2. Cycle and first fish
3. Update while maturing the tank and prob dealing with new ugly phase
4. First Corals
5. Continue the DIY vibe with Reef Pi

If you made it all the way here thank you for your time. Looking forward to updating you some more in the near future

 

[blaxsun]

Best of luck with the build!

 

[MrGisonni]

Professional looking craftsmanship. Kudos!

 

[Wisperin]

So here comes part 2 of the update on my first tank.

To get the thing I need for the next steps I went to my local fish store and got some rocks and sand. I also got 7kg of Red Sea salt, Sera all in one test kit box and some Eheim Bio Balls.
To mix salt in the bucket and have some redundancy I took the smallest pump and 25W heater.

Things that they didn't have in the store was starting bacteria and 2 part epoxy glue. I ordered those online and it took 2 weeks for the bacteria to arrive. I went with Dr. Tim’s One and Only since that seemed like the most recommended thing.

While waiting for the package I decided to take time and see which aquascape layout I liked best. Every day I took some rocks and stacked them differently to see what I like the best.
Here are some iterations I took pictures of.

In the end I decided to make the bottom part open on both sides so I have less waste stuck in and that flow can pass better to clean it. Rocks needed some chiseling to sit nicely on top of each other and purple epoxy was covered by some smaller pieces to make it less purple

End Result:

I also got a tank jump guard to prevent fish jumping out but most importantly to prevent my cat jumping in
In order to keep the guard firmly in place I took some adhesive hooks and placed one on every side. Now hopefully top can only be removed by Humans

I washed sand and rock in RO water and filled the tank full. In total I counted 40L (just over 10gal). I also made 30L of spare water and placed them in 2 food safe buckets.

I added salt to 19ppt and set my heater to 27C as seen on Dr. Tim tips and trick. Tank was running for 2 days without adding anything and after 2 days I measured my ammonia and it was at 0. I dosed 40 drops of Ammonium Chloride and added a full 2oz bottle of bacteria to the tank.

Here is how the whole thing looked in the end.

Let the Cycle begin!!!