Nano Reef Aqua Sculpturing

Today, I collected about 10.9 lbs of "shelf" and 8.2 lbs of "rubble" live rock at AquaSD. I was able to go through a vat containing various sizes and shapes. At home, the rock was drilled with a 1/2" drill bit and acrylic rods were inserted to help construct the aqua sculpture. I was confined to making the structure fit into a 20 X 10" footprint. Most pieces of the live rock were easy to drill through while only a few were impossible to drill.

Here's a look at how the acrylic rods go through the shelf rocks. To hide the acrylic rods, I'll drill more small pieces and insert them between the shelf rocks. I'm aiming to get the bottom shelf drilled at an angle so that the shelf slants. In this way, I can position the sculpture to display more surface area when the tank is viewed from the front.

I was able to carry the entire structure by grabbing the bottom "legs". Of course, the rocks rearranged a bit when I placed it into the tank and it took me some time to figure out how to adjust it. I found that the shelf rocks had to be chipped away further because I wanted to leave enough room for front glass maintenance.

I originally wanted to fit the filtration device on the back glass, but there wasn't enough room. So, I mounted it on the left.

Next, I performed a 10 gallon water change on my main tank and used the discarded water to fill up the Nano tank. The biologically active water from my main tank should help speed up the process of cycling the Nano tank.

I used a filter bag with an MJ1200 pump and tubing to speed up the filtration of particulates coming off of the newly drilled live rock. Note: using the clip on the top was a bad idea because the seawater wicks up the sides and drips out. I caught it just in time, though. I then placed the temporary filter bag in the middle of the tank.

After it cleared up a bit, I turned on the Subcurrent filter device and installed a 50V heater. Left over rock was placed on the bottom left side for future use.

Sweet.

Nano Bug

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!

During my research for internal overflows, I came across Current USA's "Subcurrent" model for Nano tanks while I was shopping online at MarineDepot. It sold for $30!

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...