Jimm's 24 Gallon Nano

[gwen_o_lyn]

Those pics with the tank on the TV tray are scaring me!!

Make sure it's not tempered if you drill it. Good luck with that.

[Jimm]

Don't worry it's a very sturdy TV tray.

I just called Drs F&S and it's not tempered glass. So here I go. My porites should ship today. There's a snowstorm in WI though so it may have to wait a day. We wont know for sure until later today.

[Jimm]

OK drilling glass is hard work. I got one hole done today. But I still need to make it bigger so the bulkhead will fit. At this rate I'll have a working aquarium by May. LOL

[gwen_o_lyn]

awww well at least you are learning cool stuff!

[Jimm]

Two holes drilled. Both are still too small to fit the bulkheads through. I need to learn to mark the glass better. Although grinding more out is easier than putting glass back a suppose.

The porites arrived today safe and sound. The color isn't as bright as that on the web page and the frag is kind of small. We'll see how it goes.

[gwen_o_lyn]

I'd like to see a pic of your new frag when you get a chance.

Good thing you are taking ur time with the glass- that'd be one thing you don't wanna mess up

[DJGonzo69]

Wow Jim..what bit did you use to drill the holes? Are you wet drilling it? Keep us updated.

[Jimm]

Well I had to go back to work this week so it's going a little slower than before. Also the corals are doing so well in the QT. I almost want to leave them in there. The zoanthids that had almost died off are doing really well. LOL I'm using a dremel to drill the tank. Gwen here's a picture of the porites. That's 1/2 inch PVC in the background to give you an idea of size.

[gwen_o_lyn]

Very pretty Jim

[Scott]

Wow, trying to catch up on all the posts I've missed over the past couple weeks.

Jim, the progress looks great! I'm getting many ideas for future projects.

btw, i have the same type of tv tray....at first seeing your use of it, I think neat....but looking at mine...I don't think I'll attempt it (was thinking 5 gal qt).

[jeepjon]

Wow...drilling the 'Pod...you're a brave man! I would have never thought to do that...especially with how expensive those are! I hope everything continues to go well for you.
-Jon

[DJGonzo69]

Jim- How's the tank doing? Any new stuff? Hey I found another Navy Squid in the forums. He's an engineer on a P3 Orion based in Fl. Screen name is 8251Reefer.

-John

[Jimm]

Coolness. I think I know him from another board.

No I haven't accomplished much of anything on the tank lately. Looking for a job has been taking up most of my time, that and I'm getting very lazy on my terminal leave. Everything is thriving in the QT so I'm not too worried about that right now. I have the two holes drilled but they are not big enough for the bulkheads to fit in so I need to grind them some more. (Note to self: Never drill a tank with dremels again. It's too much work. Get the diamond tiped hole cutting bits instead.) In fact the Pocillipora is encrusting the pvc stand that I made for it. The Acropora Millepora is still making a great recovery. It's a baby blue color now under the 14K lights. The Zoanthids that I almost killed are coming back really good now but they are a brighter orange with less green under these new lights. And so are the pink ones that I posted about a while back. I had a couple of snail spawning events in the QT and one of the keyhole limpet babies actually survived and is growing. It's about 1/8 inch long now. I'm not worried about the limpets eating all of my coraline algae, I have plenty of that to go around now. I had originally pulled them out of the 55 gallon and put them in the QT to let the coraline in the big tank grow without being eaten.

I'm thinking about plumbing the rubbermaid tub that the fish are in to the sump though to give them a little better water quality. The cheato will enjoy the nutrients too. I can replace it with a propagation tank when I get things finished.

I need to start thinking about hurricane season coming up too. I have a battery powered air pump that works well for short term outages. But nothing for 3-5 days worth of post-hurricane power outage. If it goes longer than that I'll have all of my stuff packed in a big rubbermaid tub in the back of my car heading inland. Somewhere where I can plug in. That's another good thing about having a nano-tank. Everything will fit in a rubbermaid tub if you have to evacuate.

[Jimm]

I just read Dick's thread.

The only thing that happens quickly in reefkeeping is disaster!

I guess that applies to my drilling tanks too. LOL So far so good.

[Jimm]

I went ahead and did it. The rubbermaid tub is plumbed into the refugium now. Here's a picture of the setup.



Yes that's what I was going to use for the main tank stand. I came to the conclusion that it was too tall. So I'll make another one that is about 6 inches shorter. Seems to be working fine. No leaks. I had to throttle back the Mag 5 a little so the overflow could keep up with it. The white bucket is top off water from my RO/DI. I should have done a Durso overflow now that I can hear how noisy this is. This is only temporary though.

Now here's the zoanthids on the mend after I almost killed them. They love 14K MH.

[Scott]

Thanks for the update Jim!

Love that aquarium....err, I mean rubbermaid tub.

[Jimm]

It works. And is much easier to make a hole in it for a bulkhead.