Ratt's 10g Nano

[Rattzreef]

After a few year absence I finally have returned to the hobby I love... Water Keeper...
I recently started renting a small two bedroom house and decided its time to get my feet wet.. slowly.. I am working on a 40g breeder build but had a small 2g aqueon tank that I thought would be a nice desktop addition while I continue to crack away at the 40.. as you can already imagine maintaining a 2g box of water poses its own challenges.. Temperature, salinity, and other parameters can and usually do change rapidly.. needless to say I gave it a shot..

 

[Rattzreef]

after about a month I installed a reefkeeper Lite on the tank (overkill I know right) and the temperature has remained incredibly stable.. The salinity though is a bit harder to maintain.. a tank this small can change a point or more with as little as 2 ounces of water evaporation.. fortunately I have a 10g AIO tank I built a few years ago that would be a perfect upgrade..

I placed a piece of rock from my tank in the basement that's gonna be my QT tank when the 40g is finished. It is currently cycling my LR for the last two months.

 

[Hitmans reef]

Like where this is going I'm sure I'll check in I've always wanted to do a really small tank out at my shop on my tool box but have always been worried about all the issues with small amounts of water plus the two days I'm off and not around it would just kill me

 

[Rattzreef]

Thanks. Ill be starting up a build thread for my 40g soon enough.. I've been building the stand which has been a lot of fun. Ill keep this thread updated as often as I can. the 10g has been set up since Sunday.. I added a few drops of Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride solution this afternoon to give me an ammonia reading as I'm not really feeding the tank currently. I got a reading of 1.2 like expected so Ill continue daily tests to see how it progresses. The few corals and LR from the 2g will go in there after I'm confident the cycle (if any) is about over..

 

[Rattzreef]

So far my equipment list.

Tank: 10g Petco tank(modified to an All In One)
Pump: Rio 600 powerhead rated at 200gph(likely closer to 1-125)
Flow: Hydor Koralia Nano 240gph
Lights.. Kessil A80 Tuna Blue.
Reefkeeper Lite Controller
Aqueon 50w heater
small $8 clip on fan from Menards..
custom built 2x4 stand.. work in progress..

 

[Rattzreef]

still need to pick up an ATO for this tank and the spectral controller for the Kessil.. That should complete my equipment list for this build.. I have a clump of cheato in one of the chambers behind the overflow to hopefully populate the tank with pods.. The LR from the basement tank certainly had some tag along..
Ahhh Its good to be back in the reefing world.. Ive missed it..

 

[Hitmans reef]

I don't know what ur plans are for your auto top off but I used to use the 5 gallon bucket with the bulkhead in the bottom and placed it above my sump and attached it to a float. I even went as far as to cut a hole in the top of the bucket to lid and would take a 5 gallon jug of water and turn it upside down essentially giving me 10 gallons of auto top off. As I am definitely a DIY person you are inspiring me to make my own aio for my tool box

 

[Rattzreef]

That's not an bad idea actually.. I'm thinking of ordering Tunzes nano ATO.. and using one of my 4.5g containers. That should last me almost a week or more.. I had considered float switches and getting an SL1 module for my reefkeeper but the tunze is actually a bit cheaper in the long run.. and there fairly reliable I've yet to hear of one failing

 

[Hitmans reef]

I haven't actually ever owned an ato made by anyone but me sensors and pumps do eventually go bad. Not saying anyone makes a bad ato but my middle name should be murphy bcuz his law always applies to me. With the float valve being the only piece of equip to worry about and since it's mechanical I can always clean it and replace it for very minimal cost. The entire ato cost about $20 to build with everything new and since I don't have an lfs anywhere close replacing a pump or sensor means I have to order and wait the other option is go to the hardware store or farm store and buy a few simple plumbing items and.... magic. All in all u have a good idea on what u want and seems u r taking the right path just keep moving forward the way you are , and welcome back to the best hobby in the world

 

[SashimiTurtle]

AutoAqua smart ato micro is a great ATO if you're in the market. Welcome back to keeping water. Feels great to have a new tank, doesn't it?

 

[Rattzreef]

Indeed, it sure does thanks for the tip ..ill research Autoaqua.. I like how tunze had multiple failsafe measures installed like the pump shuts off automatically after five minutes.. in case something ever prevents the sensor from turning things off.. redundancy is a good thing..

 

[cpark645]

Cool stuff. How did you build the petco tank to be an AIO? I have the same 10g tank I've been thinking of using, and I like the way yours is turning out

 

[Rattzreef]

I made a false wall out of a piece of 1/4" Plexi-glass from Lowes. unfortunately I made this one to sit just under the black trim ( should have gone all the way to the top actually) for a peninsula style tank. Then with a coping saw I cut teeth into the plex about 3/8 and 5" wide.. Painted it black with some Krylon Fusion paint for plastics, and siliconed the crap out of it.. I also ran a shorter baffle behind it to separate the back into two chambers,, One has the return pump in it and heaters and the other is for GFO media, cheato, a bag of carbon , whatever.. I had this tank setup a few years ago and the one glitch I always noticed was that evaporation would effect both chambers until the water reached a certain level.. the pump is installed toward the bottom of the main wall and the separating baffle is about 3/4 the height so about 3-4 inches of water were shared.. this time I installed a second GLASS baffle on the overflow side about an inch off the bottom.. this makes a sort of bubble trap/separation baffle between the two meaning that my return section is isolated better.. only that section is effected by evaporation now so if I wanted I could install a Reef Glass skimmer.. I'm happier with this design change for sure..

 

[Rattzreef]

the mag float between the baffles is an old make shift frag rack I built but now its to hold down the filter pad I have in there.. I bought some of that carbon infused filter padding from Petco to catch as much detritus as possible and then I can rinse and replace it regularly.. glad I never threw anything away.. haha

 

[revhtree]

Cool nano!

 

[Rattzreef]

Cool nano!

Thank you sir..

 

[Rattzreef]

Ammonia tested at 2ppm... Ill admit I like this type of cycle more than a stinky ol shrimp rotting away in there..

 

[Hitmans reef]

Is the paint you used safe to be put into and aquarium tho I don't think I've heard of anyone doing this before. I hope it is because this is a nice little tank I would hate to do this to find out it Leechs out into the water maybe someone from the reef squad knows

 

[Rattzreef]

I've kept fish and coral in this tank for many months with no ill effects..once that krylon paint dried it becomes plastic.. It was recommended to me years ago in another forum site from many who had similar results.. I'll bet there's a thread somewhere one here regarding it..

 

[Rattzreef]

New gadgets coming this afternoon..