Oh, noooooo....
I got bit by the Nano Bug! For some reason, I've become compelled to put together a Nano Reef tank. Okay, so here are some made up reasons: (1) To grow extra corals apart from my main tank. (2) to set it up in case someone wants to display it at a certain class during a certain time of the year. So, it'll be set up for a mobile application.
It feels like reef tanks replicate on you by the process of budding: the main tank will eventually bud a quarantine tank, which buds a hospital tank, which buds a Nano reef tank. And, mixed in there is a budding of sump, refugium and frag tanks in the complex life cycle of the hobbyists' reef tanks.
I first started out with a 15 gallon glass tank. I stripped off the top, black bracing to give it that Euro "rimless" look only to discover the shoddy workmanship of the glass underneath. And then I found that the old tank had too many cracks in it to risk having it leak some day in the future like it happened here at this almost-inspiring thread at Nano-reefs.com. So, I tossed that idea and hid the tank in the garage.
Next, I selected a rarely used 10 gallon glass aquarium without removing the top black bracing. Here I am scraping away at the glass with a razor blade. This would satisfy anyone's hidden, inner OCD requirements. I kept wondering if I could use the same method on my car! It would be extremely clean!
I got bit by the Nano Bug! For some reason, I've become compelled to put together a Nano Reef tank. Okay, so here are some made up reasons: (1) To grow extra corals apart from my main tank. (2) to set it up in case someone wants to display it at a certain class during a certain time of the year. So, it'll be set up for a mobile application.
It feels like reef tanks replicate on you by the process of budding: the main tank will eventually bud a quarantine tank, which buds a hospital tank, which buds a Nano reef tank. And, mixed in there is a budding of sump, refugium and frag tanks in the complex life cycle of the hobbyists' reef tanks.
I first started out with a 15 gallon glass tank. I stripped off the top, black bracing to give it that Euro "rimless" look only to discover the shoddy workmanship of the glass underneath. And then I found that the old tank had too many cracks in it to risk having it leak some day in the future like it happened here at this almost-inspiring thread at Nano-reefs.com. So, I tossed that idea and hid the tank in the garage.
Next, I selected a rarely used 10 gallon glass aquarium without removing the top black bracing. Here I am scraping away at the glass with a razor blade. This would satisfy anyone's hidden, inner OCD requirements. I kept wondering if I could use the same method on my car! It would be extremely clean!
Here it is during a test run with tap water filled to the rim. It's a two-in-one device: a (1) mechanical/biological filter connected to a power head which (2) agitates the water column. The two loc-lines allow you to control the direction of the outflow. There was plenty of flow action within the constraints of this tank. I know where a frag of my torch coral is going to end up.
Fortunately (or unfortunately---depending on how you will now predict my future expenses), I came across an offer on SDReefs for an 18 gallon tank for a mere $10. I had been shopping around to see what tanks were available at the stores. They were all too pricey. It's the "brand new car?" or "used car?" situation; they both get you to your destination but one's more stylish than the other. I just couldn't pass up this offer as this was going to be a DIY project. Read "used car".
It turns out that the 18 gallon tank was formerly used as a "hospital tank" which involved copper treatment. So, I decided to send it through a sterilization step with some chlorine bleach for any disease causing microbes. I'll assume that the copper levels weren't too high to become associated with the seam materials in the tank. A few good rinses would help. But, it wasn't done before I scraped away at the glass with a razor! It was in pristine condition!
Nano tank build: to be continued...
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