3 Foot Nano Tank (1 Viewer)

[eschulist]

Its been awhile since I posted. Not much new on the new tank.

Still testing Neptunes ATK. Were already on firmware version 10, 4 above the ones currently being shipped out. So we've found lots of little quirks and made improvements to the alarms and various safety delays.

My daughter and I attended SWEs Kids Day events a few weekends ago. She got herself a nice squirt toy and Dory tattoo. I won the last prize remaining and it was a Peppermint Angelfish print done by Nori. Even over the tank and coral cash I honestly wanted the painting the most as I didn't have a need for more corals or tank. I ordered a picture frame off Amazon as I had some credit and even after searching through probably 100s of frames I thought I found a good one. When it arrived it was a cheapo dense cardboard frame with a wooden looking sticker wrap that was also darker than the product photo. Frustrated I sent it back and got a full refund.

I had some extra wood from my tank stand and have a few woodworking tools so I decided to just build my own frame and have it match the tank.

Lots of sanding and poly coats later and Im really happy how it turned out. Its nothing compared to the stand but I'm pretty proud of it.

 

[jlanger]

Your frame turned out great, Eric!

I think your next woodworking project should be a work bench. I see too many of your projects being done on the floor!

 

[eschulist]

The decision has been made. The tank is staying in the house! Corals are being transferred home and something more simple will be at work.

Dave hooked me up with a sweet Quad Nanobox fixture. I'm waiting on walnut lids to match the stand but until then I wanted to get the light hung and get things going with the Apex.
Dave does 2 hoops on the lights for wire suspension hanging.

In the end I decided to do 1 point suspension and buy my own wire hanging kit. This meant cutting Daves wiring and doing my own mount. When I get the Walnut lids they will be blank so I wont have the 2 empty holes.

The new gripper is attached to the center of the light so the fixture stays level. A nut at the bottom keeps it secure but is an issue with attaching it to the light fixture.

I need a small gap between the lid and the fixture itself to make room for that nut. Next came drilling into the beautiful light. I was a little nervous as the wiring is right below the spot I need to drill.

A little more ragged than I would have liked but I didn't hit the wires and the rough edge will be covered by the lid.

Carefully measure out the location on the ceiling and Success!

True FTS before the corals go in this weekend or next (Its our anniversary this weekend so doing a lot of fishy things may be best held off for another week)

 

[eschulist]

Took the doors off and took some shots as well. Here is the final placement and layout of the Apex, EnergyBar, DOS, and misc "stuff" located below the stand. Dang there is a lot of excess power bricks, wires, and controllers. Not shown is the ball of wires located behind the dosing containers located underneath that little board I made.

​

 

[jlanger]

Everything looks amazing, Eric!
That's a nifty method to hide all of those cords underneath the walnut "shelf".
Seeing how the white panels of your sump would make inspection/maintenance easier, I may have to find a way to colorize my sump; vinyl, perhaps?

Now... if there was just a way to eliminate that power cord to the lighting.

And I assume you're now looking for a pair of Peppermints to have in that tank, right?!

 

[Fishfoo]

Now... if there was just a way to eliminate that power cord to the lighting.

Time to incorporate the ceiling outlet

Everything looks like it's coming together perfectly. Now get some corals in there already!

 

[eschulist]

Everything looks amazing, Eric!
That's a nifty method to hide all of those cords underneath the walnut "shelf".
Seeing how the white panels of your sump would make inspection/maintenance easier, I may have to find a way to colorize my sump; vinyl, perhaps?

Now... if there was just a way to eliminate that power cord to the lighting.

And I assume you're now looking for a pair of Peppermints to have in that tank, right?!

Ya why can't we have wireless power yet. Then the light could truly levitate. Dave makes all of his lights with the cords coming out the back. In order to keep it from obstructing the back pane I had to bribe him to make a special unit with the wiring out the end. I figured this was the next best thing.

And 2 living peppermints in the tank would be quite the sight. Most expensive nano tank on the planet.

 

[eschulist]

Some misc build photos. The Sump's depth and ATO container are actually sized smaller than the stand. This is for a good reason. They are the exact maximum size to still allow my hand to get in an release the doors.

The width of the sump and dosing containers where actually sized to perfectly fit the width of the stand, a happy accident that they were 1/8" too small allows 2 cords to fit in between them.

The dosing containers were purposely designed to be smaller than the space allowed to hide excess cords. And allow a space for the ATK magnetic mount.

Excess power bricks, FMM module, and Jebao controller are tucked underneath the stand.

When the doors close on the stand the shelves were perfectly positioned as high as they could and just barely cleared the ball and check valves.

 

[jlanger]

Ahh... isn't OCD great!
When I designed my sump I also factored for the door removal and power cords going out the back. And the bottom of the new opening matches the height of the sump so it provides full protection and full access.
Hopefully bending pipe this weekend! Thanks for your tutorial.

 

[eschulist]

Ahh... isn't OCD great!
When I designed my sump I also factored for the door removal and power cords going out the back. And the bottom of the new opening matches the height of the sump so it provides full protection and full access.
Hopefully bending pipe this weekend! Thanks for your tutorial.

Its a blessing and a curse. I love when everything fits to such precision and everything is aligned in the world, but if one thing seems off I sometimes become too fixated on it even if it works perfectly fine. Everyone else says "Its so amazing" but I look past it and immediately look at the mistake or miscalculation I made.

Glad to hear you thought of the same things and took them into account!! Good luck on the pipe bending.

 

[eschulist]

ITS HAPPENING!!

 

[eschulist]

So far 2 fish casualties and 1 coral.

Royal Gramma wedged itself into a rock and couldnt back itself back out. Clownfish jumped out in the middle of the night as I forgot the screen cover.

That nice Red Dragon in the middle of the cooler photo RTNed overnight

On Father's Day my daughter and I made the trip to SWE to pick out a new Nemo for her. The Gramma may be replaced with the same or a few of the other fish I've been wanting for awhile, Peppermint Candy Hogfish, Deepwater Candy, or some sort of fairy wrasse.

 

[jlanger]

Sorry to hear about the losses.
That's my biggest fear whenever I move a tank. I'm constantly taking roll call until things are settled down for a while.
How's the Venustus taking the move?

BTW... My gramma isn't happy with its move either as it also stays tucked into a hole; although one that it can come out from.

 

[eschulist]

Well the transfer didn't go too well. Total losses so far.

Royal Gramma - Died from wedging himself in a rock right after being put in the new tank.
Clownfish - Jumped out the 2nd night as I forgot the screen cover
Red Dragon - RTNed after 2 nights
Oregon Tort - RNTed after 3 nights
Green Monti Cap - MediumTN? It had an almost leopard pattern necrosis where all the bumps tissue peeled off but the valleys stayed green for a few more days.
Turquoise Tort or Acro of somesort - RTNed after 5 nights.
2 Birdnest frags including my fist size Ponape - STN, they've been on a slow decline before the transfer. The move has left them barely hanging on with just some healthy tips remaining.

Alk is at 8.8
Cal is 490
I don't have tests for Nitrate or Phos those are either very elevated, which I doubt, or they are very close to zero. My previous tank was more nutrient rich so its possible they were shocked being in too clean of water.
LED Light change. Intensity or spectrum is too different

 

[eschulist]

The clown was replaced with a new "Nemo" picked out by my daughter. She was really excited about that.

And like I mentioned above I wanted to get a new gramma or peppermint so with LiveAquarias 20% deal and free shipping it was too good to pass up. They'll be here tomorrow.

Once the tank hopefully restabilizes corals will be the next things to reacquire.

 

[Fishfoo]

Alk is at 8.8
Cal is 490
I don't have tests for Nitrate or Phos those are either very elevated, which I doubt, or they are very close to zero. My previous tank was more nutrient rich so its possible they were shocked being in too clean of water.
LED Light change. Intensity or spectrum is too different

The different lights may have added to the loss, but I'm doubting they were the main culprit. Based on the info provided I would agree and lean towards too clean of water shocking them after being in such nutrient rich water. Did you use any of the previous tanks water in the new tank? For my small tanks I like to use at least half old water if possible, just to get things as close to the old environment as possible. Just my thoughts. Either way really sorry to hear about the casualties :/

 

[acharpenter]

We had some people come look at the town home to rent and the first thing they said was "oooh - you have a Nemo!!!"

Amazing how a couple damsel fish in a movie made everyone nuts and it still goes on.

Sorry for your losses Eric - glad your keeping with it dude, as long as your documenting it - I am always following along for tips, help, inspiration, your builds always teach me something if not a million somethings : )

Thank you

 

[eschulist]

First nice FTS since the move.

I posted it to Reddit a few days ago as well. I shared this with Chad Vossen as he liked Noris painting above the tank. When I did I noticed our forum has reddit integration... pretty cool.

1,300+ upvotes, 60k views and approx 41gb of bandwidth


And... look what showed up today!

If you've followed my build thread for a long time you'll know I've actually been waiting for this pump for almost 2 years. It was one of the reasons to upgrade my tank in the first place. When it was delayed and delayed time and time again I couldn't wait any longer and just did the full upgrade using the DCP-5000. That pump has been great so far but I'm totally ready to try this out.

I'm just waiting on the latest Apex firmware before I can turn it on.

 

[Fishfoo]

Wow. Looks like whatever did survive the move absolutely thriving! The picture and tank itself look nothing short of stunning. Happy to see you finally received your COR pump as well.

 

[eschulist]

Couple images from the Apex Fusion Dashboard on how I have mine setup and how it could be setup for others.

You can adjust the intensity of the pump throughout the day. At the bottom you can calibrate the min and max speed to match your aquarium. This means the minimum keeps the return line full of water when you hit feed mode or do other maintenance. The max changes the 100% value to match the full amount of water that your overflow can handle. For example my overflow is currently dialed in at 67%. I could run it at its full potential but for now I like it dialed back with the ability to add more if needed later.

You can also add Profiles to the SET, FALLBACK, and FEED commands. This means my pump runs a ramp profile I've called RESTART when the pump resumes operation. It takes my pump 5 minutes to ramp from 1% speed to my calibrated 100%.

The module itself can be used to enable feed mode A as well as turn off the pump completely. This is nice for when you are doing major water changes or removing the pump for cleaning and you don't want it to accidentally resume before you are ready.

The modules Neptune Logo changes color based on what mode or setting you are currently in.

• Orange - Normal Operation (Lights on top show the current speed relative to its calibration)
• Green - FeedA is active
• Pink - The COR is set to OFF
• Red - Error Reporting (The 8 lights on the top can tell you which error occurred)
• Yellow - Firmware Updating
• Blue - Calibration Mode