3 Foot Nano Tank (1 Viewer)

[eschulist]

Almost 2 years since I've posted a video how about a new one.


[youtube]fluPDzFLKP4[/youtube]

 

[eschulist]

R2R put me at #1 on the featured threads for their email blast tonight.

It reached over 500 simutanous views a few times that I checked in to reply to questions.

 

[Bschowa]

Just saw that melevs reef shared your video as well on Facebook.

 

[Leicester56]

Absolutely stunning!

 

[eschulist]

Just saw that melevs reef shared your video as well on Facebook.

That's cool. Followed him as he posts lots of cool pictures and videos.

 

[eschulist]

Absolutely stunning!

Thanks Will!

 

[BEAV9900]

Got to swing by and see this today. As others have said im not sure how he gets any work done. Corals and fish are amazing. One of the cleanest tanks ive seen, hard to compensate that it's only 12 gallons. Nice work Eric


:beerchug: for the beer

 

[eschulist]

Got to swing by and see this today. As others have said im not sure how he gets any work done. Corals and fish are amazing. One of the cleanest tanks ive seen, hard to compensate that it's only 12 gallons. Nice work Eric


:beerchug: for the beer

Thanks for stopping by Mark. You or anyone else is welcome to stop by anytime. Work is really flexible with having people over. If anyone wants to chat longer and have a free beer on the house, like Beav, stop by closer to 5.

 

[eschulist]

I want to upgrade my stand and plumbing eventually. Im thinking new stand in a dark walnut, maybe black accents with a black quartz or laminate top (Something that is hard and doesn't absorb anything or leave stains). New hard plumbing with easy to turn ball valves. My two little fishes valve is still original, while still turnable, is not easy. I'd also like to add a checkvalve to the system. When I turn off the pump I drain a lot of water due to my 2 low return lines. There isn't a barb checkvalve thats easy to clean so if Im going rigid I thought Id get the Georg Fisher Wye version so its easy to clean. Last but not least would be a DC return pump. Something to control the flow in my tank without relying on the valves positioning. This should also make feeding corals and fish easier if I can enable a feed mode and have it slow way down without turning completely off.

Here is something I showed to Mark (Beav9900) when he stopped by. I also posted it in Jonty's search for a CAD designer. However I am not a CAD guy, I run maya which is mainly used for commercials, movies, and other digital artwork. So this was created mostly just as a visual for myself to see how I could lay out the plumbing.

Same setup just fancier lookin'

After checking out the BRS Mini reactor that I was going to use for my media I noticed they can only be plumbed from Left to Right so both of these examples need to be flipped. In order to do either setup the drains would have to be on the far right. Sump on the right with and the reactors on the right side of the pump. The media reactors are located over the sump in both examples so when they are unscrewed any tiny bit of water that leaks out drips straight down. I don't lose a lot of water with my current setup. But it bugs me when there is a tiny pool of water I have to clean up when I put the reactor back together.

Let me know what others think and if there is ways to configure this in an even better way. I liked the idea of having the pump be external but I lose a lot of space for top off containers and other space for electronics and shelving for tools and food. Maybe small shelves and racks could be mounted to the doors on the inside?

 

[ChristopherKriens]

These look awesome. It looks like after the return splits, there will be some asymmetry with regards to length of PVC and bends. Do you think that you'll end up with different flow rates coming out of each side? If that's an important factor, you could add a valve on the stronger side to simulate head pressure and keep them balanced.

Good color choice

 

[jlanger]

Nice drawings! Much more involved that what I'm used to working with.

I like the idea of keeping the return pump inside of the sump.
It does leave you with more outside room for other items and if you worry over dripped water, an internal pump solves that issue here also.
Any thoughts as to what else you'd be placing inside the sump for filtration?

Of course, Chris would like that color choice.
It's too bad the purple pvc pipe didn't match the color of the Venustus!

 

[eschulist]

These look awesome. It looks like after the return splits, there will be some asymmetry with regards to length of PVC and bends. Do you think that you'll end up with different flow rates coming out of each side? If that's an important factor, you could add a valve on the stronger side to simulate head pressure and keep them balanced.

Good color choice

The second option was more even on the return lines so I liked it for that reason as well. The right side has about 4-5" more horizontal pipe but it shouldn't be that big of a difference. Orange or all black were the only colors I was liking.

Nice drawings! Much more involved that what I'm used to working with.

I like the idea of keeping the return pump inside of the sump.
It does leave you with more outside room for other items and if you worry over dripped water, an internal pump solves that issue here also.
Any thoughts as to what else you'd be placing inside the sump for filtration?

Of course, Chris would like that color choice.
It's too bad the purple pvc pipe didn't match the color of the Venustus!

Its still mostly for placement of plumbing and to count the number and type of fittings I would need. I'll chat with you more about the stand if I end up going through with the upgrade. You'd probably have to redo it to be precise with the measurements of each piece of wood. I wasn't factoring in how its constructed to be most rigid or provide the best corner posts or least amount of expensive wood. That said its still made to scale and has most of what I'm looking for worked out.

I haven't been using a skimmer and might not use one with this configuration but at least now its possible to add one. I need to work out the filter sock placement as I do like the crud that they remove. Right now both of my vinyl drain tubes go into a single sock. In order to do that with rigid I would need unions above the sock to remove and replace the pipe each time I change it. Seems more of a hassle. I'd probably try the style I see in a lot of larger sumps where the sock is off to the side. The water is forced up, falls into the sock, and then exits out the bottom into the next chamber.

Someone on nano-reef also triggered me to investigate the BRS Mini Reactors more. I created the mockup thinking water could flow in through either side. I then saw an image of the top of the reactor and it had an arrow pointing left to right for water flow. I thought I would have to flip the entire plumbing in order for my reactors to be over the sump. It turns out the Minis, and standard reactors have mounting brackets that are removable and reversible if you remove the 4 tiny plastic bolts. So this design orientation would still work.

 

[eschulist]

Took some photography tips/settings from Chris and blasted the tank with my camera. Probably only 5% were good but if you end up with one good one thats all that matters.

Closing the aperture on my 1.4 lens to f4 and setting the speed to 1/100-400 really helped get fish and eyeballs in focus. This meant I had to really increase my ISO to 1600+ which isn't very good for a crop sensor but a little noise removal made them decent.

First shots of just coral were using an extension tube to mimic a macro lens. The fish were just using my standard 35mm

I tried really hard to get a nice shot of my Helfriche but he always hangs out in the back corner

 

[Kyle T.]

Thanks for letting me stop by tonight, Eric. The tank looks amazing, not to mention your work place! Wish I had realized how close it was to where I lived sooner.

 

[eschulist]

Thanks for letting me stop by tonight, Eric. The tank looks amazing, not to mention your work place! Wish I had realized how close it was to where I lived sooner.

No problem. Thanks for stopping by. If I didn't answer any questions you might have and want to apply to your tank let me know.

 

[dougers31]

So I just got an email from R2R with a link to your tank pic thread in it.... thanks for the spam Looks fantastic!

 

[.Marshall]

Tank has come a long way! Looks amazing Eric, hope all is well.

 

[eschulist]

Tank has come a long way! Looks amazing Eric, hope all is well.

Thanks Marshall. It has been a long time. Everything has been doing great both in and out of the tank.
I unfortunately lost both corals I bought from you close to 3 years ago though

 

[RSnodgrass]

I always had an internal pump but got a little gun shy when my mag pump cracked and nearly killed everything with the chemical leak it caused. Probably pretty rare and probably plenty of people with stories about plumbing going bad too.

R. Snodgrass

 

[eschulist]

So its been a long time since I posted those 3D rendering of my updated build.

Well its finally starting.


Black walnut custom built stand by our resident woodworker jlanger. Very similar dimensions to my current "tv stand" but with lots of little improvements to make it easier to plumb, access, maintain, and disassemble/reassemble.

• Doors have a nice soft close and are easily removable.
• Power holes out the bottom on either side. Only one will probably be used as the other will get covered by the sump. Not sure on which side it will end up on yet.
• Full solid back and sides for mounting equipment.
• The back is finished to look like the front so a full walk around/peninsula style tank could be possible.
• All 4 posts are multiple board combined together to look like large solid posts. The back posts do not have an inner core to allow for more room inside the stand. The bottoms are fully filled in to give the illusion that they are solid.
• The plumbing cutouts on either side have an open top to allow the tank and plumbing assembly to be dropped in and removed in one piece.
• Doors will eventually have small shelves for storage of foods, tools, and test equipment.

Now just to acquire 40+ plumbing parts and maybe even a new 12 gallon long.
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