Jimm's 24 Gallon Nano

[Reefbaby]

I found that my old stand was too short and I had to bend over to enjoy looking at my critters. So I started to build a new stand that was taller. I didn't finish it because when I tested it out for height by putting the Aquapod on top of it I realized that the halide light would be shining in my eyes all of the time. So now I'm thinking about making this a very short stand. One that could be viewed from a seated position on the couch.

Hey Jim - you could always build a small "frame" to go around the top of the tank to block out the light. We had the same problem, but we built a wooden frame to just go around the three edges in order to block out the light and it works perfect!

[Jimm]

Yeah but I don't want to hide the Sunpod. I kinda like the way it looks.

It's May 1st, I am officially RETIRED from the Navy now. Woo Hoo!

[Reefbaby]

It's May 1st, I am officially RETIRED from the Navy now. Woo Hoo!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! What are you going to do now?? :-)

[CarmieJo]

Originally Posted by Jimm

It's May 1st, I am officially RETIRED from the Navy now. Woo Hoo!

Yippee! And, big patriot that I am, THANKS for your service.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Jimm

It's May 1st, I am officially RETIRED from the Navy now. Woo Hoo!

Congratulations Jim! Welcome back to the civilian life.

[gwen_o_lyn]

[Jimm]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

What am I going to do now? I'll take a little while off and relax. Then I have to find a new job/career. I have an interview tomorrow morning. I may actually finish this tank. I had to order another bulkhead because I put the one that I was going to use on the rubbermaid tub. Which I may end up keeping. It's a good place to store extra live rock, bad hitchhikers, etc. I know that I have some livestock that I don't want in my display because they don't go well with tridacnid clams and I don't want them in the fuge because they'll eat the stuff I'm trying to grow in there. So I may keep them in the tub.

BTW when I plumbed the tub in with the fuge I had an exposion of chaetomorpha growth. I'm going to have to harvest it soon before it overflows the sump.

My blue/green zoanthids did a strange thing the other day, they just closed up and stayed shut for 3 days. Now they are open again. Weird.

[Scott]

Good luck with the interview!

Great to hear the update on the tank/sump/tub.

yeah, I had my chaeto take off a while back too....I still have a little room left. But I'll have to trim it probably by the end of the month.

[Jimm]

We have WATER!

Finished drilling the glass today. FINALLY! What a PITA that was with a Dremel tool. I broke down and bought the stand from Current USA that is made for the Aquapod 24. It matches my other furniture almost perfectly. (My place is decorated in early Darth Vader) It's surprisingly sturdy and was easy to drill for my modified tank and it's just the right height for watching the tank from the sofa.

So it's full of tap water right now. I have the overflow running into a 5 gallon Ale Pale that I use for brewing. A Mag 7 pump feeds the water back into the tank so I can see how warm the water gets and check for leaks over the next few days.

I just ordered 15lbs of CaribSea Seaflor Flamingo Reef Sand for the substrate. I'm going shallow sand-bed in the display since I have 6 inch DSB in the refugium.

OK here are some pictures. Sorry about the quality, it was dark in the room and I forgot to turn on the flash.

The standpipe and return.


The "Sump"


Both tanks. See the difference in brightness between a Normal Output fluorescent and a 70 W HQI?

[Jimm]

WOO HOO! It's plumbed into the sump now.

Right now I'm making up enough RO/DI to make enough saltwater to fill the thing. I have my PVC standoffs ready for the live rock (thanks for the idea Dick) and now I just have to wait for my fine pink aragonite sand to arrive. I'll probably put the LR in tomorrow and then brave the sandstorm when the substrate gets here. It's on back order right now.

All the critters stay in QT until any cycling issues pass.

[Jimm]

I had a little setback today. Evidently there's not enough vertical separation between the sump and the display tank for gravity to overcome the head loss in 15 feet of hose. Yeah I had a little overflow action. Luckily I was nearby and caught it with a bucket and towels before it got too bad.

So my options are to:

1. Build a small platform to raise the tank and stand enough to overcome the head loss.
2. Move the display closer to the sump, eliminating some of the head loss by shortening the piping required.
3. Install a booster pump (I really don't want to do this).

I will probably do a combination of #1 and #2. I should have stuck with my original stand and I wouldn't have had this problem.

[Scott]

Looks great Jim! good job!

[CarmieJo]

That is frustrating. I'm so glad you were there to catch it and advert a disaster!

[Jimm]

Well 4 feet closer and 4 inches higher (width of a 2 X 4) did the trick. Although I actually cut about 10 feet of hose off. I had some extra in there. I'm going to watch it for a few hours, then transfer the live rock in there. There's good news too. I had enough room left in the back (filter section of the aquapod) to put the power head that came with the unit back in. So now I don't have to worry about flow. I'll have pictures when the LR is in.

[Jimm]

Here's the manifold I did to collect the overflow from both tanks. The bucket in front with the clear tubing is part of my auto top off. You can barely see the 55 gallon tank under that frame. But you can see the light from my heater.


And here's the nano. I'm not done aquascaping yet. But you get the point. There's a Stealth heater in the back of that tank but you can't see it against the black background of the tank. Now that's Stealth!