Stefalopod's 4g Biorb Reef

[stefalopod]

My tank has come a pretty long way since I first came up with this kookie idea. I’ve learned a lot from you guys, and I’m continuing to learn more ways being a better caretaker to my Reef. There have been some serious complications (who would have guessed what a problem it is to light a sphere!), but finally, this build is mostly figured out (I can tell because new systems keep popping up in my imagination).

So I thought I’d post a little pictorial history of the orb, from concept to actuality, and move it over to a Journal with a more appropriate name to begin to document my foray into keeping corals.

Thanks Everyone, Enjoy!

[stefalopod]

Ok, I've had a new idea, it involves modifying the biorb pretty extensively so I'm eager to get your opinions.

I want to create the most sustainable habitat possible, and I would like to keep a fish, so I got to thinking about ways to increase the water volume available for the biorb. I can't really get a bigger tank because I don't have a big enough foot print to put it on, what I can do is build vertically. So I'm thinking about modifying the biorb with an overflow and a return to attach a fuge to it. Max fuge size would be about ten gallons.

Here's the design: let me know if you see any serious flaws. my dad's an engineer, so I can get him to help me with the acrylic cement for the overflow and with securing the bulkheads for the tubing.

This is the original drawing of my Biorb concept. Thanks to advice from PhotoJohn,

an idea:
I dont know that you need to modify your tank as much as you think. I would suggest using the existing pipe as the drain and running a smaller flexible return line back up inside/through the drain. You could then run the return down the outside of the drain to the bottom of the cube. Space is limited, less pipes is better.

I ended up avoiding drilling any new holes into the orb. The sump managed to end up looking a lot like how I envisioned it, while the orb has some definite material differences.

[stefalopod]

So I've made some serious inroads on the biorb project. I've modified a cabinet that matches my bookshelves to house the orb/fuge. I'm hoping that with enough crossbracing, the cabinet will hold the wight of 4 gallons of water, but I've modified ikea to do my bidding, so I'm totally prepared to reinforce it if necessary. The quick-clamp is on to make sure that I don't have any nasty spills. Probably once the fuge is in, it'll anchor the cabinet well enough that I won't have to worry about it tipping, if not, I can attach the cabinet either to the floor or to the bookshelves.

These were the first few pictures as work got under way. I was excited to get to bring out my beloved makita power tools (they're out more than they're put away, but they never fail to be exciting).
The guy at Home Depot looked worried when I told him that I needed a circular saw for my power drill. Eventually I managed to explain that by 'circular' I meant 'circle cutting.' -- He ended up giving me his number. LOL

[stefalopod]

I'm pretty sure this is the earliest photo of the sump/fuge... I'm still not sure what to call it.



The way that the overflow is set up in the orb, I had to put all of the little bits of LR in before installing the overflow because the overflow cuts off the amount of working space there is in the tank... It was now or never -- fit this size rock into the Orb.

[stefalopod]

This is a pretty good shot from before I figured out the DT lighting, and got the cabinet door on. That rat's nest on the right of the tank has actually gotten worse despite a serious onslaught of zipties.

[marinefishtank]

I would call it awsome!!! What a great idea hooking it up that way, I will have to set something like this up I have a whole bunckh of smaller tanks and this would be a great winter project, I am currently starting to piece together my 65 gal system. I will be looking for more pictures as your biorb matures..............GREAT JOB!!!!!!

[stefalopod]

I would call it awsome!!! What a great idea hooking it up that way, I will have to set something like this up I have a whole bunckh of smaller tanks and this would be a great winter project, I am currently starting to piece together my 65 gal system. I will be looking for more pictures as your biorb matures..............GREAT JOB!!!!!!

Thanks! It comes with it's own set of challenges... but after all, challenges are part of why we're reefers =)
Be sure to post pics as you start to set things up!

[stefalopod]

So, here, in a nutshell, is why it's hard to light a sphere:


The upper slope of the sphere bounces a certain amount of light off the tank, while the upper projections of the rock shade the lower part of the rock, except for the small area at the bottom where the light is reflecting off the inner slope of the sphere. -- Welcome to my personal hell. I couldn't have predicted this problem if I'd spent a year thinking about this project. Any lamp would have to be wide enough and strong enough for enough light to get through the acrylic to light at least some of the outer edges of the rock.

[stefalopod]

So I bought into the turf scrubber clan. I couldn't build the recommended surface area though, so I went ahead and kept my little oceanic protein skimmer installed.

This was a fairly complicated procedure since I had to run the return lines (four strands of black airline hose) through the T bar in the turf scrubber. I ended up drilling four holes in the T and threading the return line through the holes.

ah, ahaha, ahaHA HAHAHAHAHAAH!!!
*steeples fingers maniacally*

I got my turf scrubber built, and lamps built into the cabinet for the fuge. There's one on either side of the scrubber screen.

I went ahead and increased flow to the orb by %50 while I was at it too.

I used aluminum flashing tape to make the inside of the cabinet reflective, to bounce as much light onto the turf scrubber as possible.

All that's left is to build a cabinet door that will hide the scrubber and light, and frame out the tank... maybe this weekend. And then my build will be basically done =)

You can tell I was excited...

[stefalopod]

Here's my first shot with the cabinet door on. This was before the first heatwave of the year, so I ended up having to poke holes in the cabinet to install vent fans. I liked the way it looked here better, but I can't let my tank overheat can I? =)

I wanted to show you guys how my system fits into my house.

I like to call this area my "library" =)

[stefalopod]

The next big step was to figure out permanent lighting for the orb.

I was looking at the CFs and MH built for the Current Solana. I was affraid that the MH would make the tank look like a snowman, while the CF would make it look like a mushroom.



I ended up erring on the side of the less expensive mushroom, figuring that I could always dismantle the lamp for it's balast and bulb and install them in a more attractive fixture.

The bulb on the lamp is a 55W circular 50/50 with the actinic on the inside ring and the 14,000K on the outside ring

[stefalopod]

So the lamp arrived, I promptly dismantled it while I looked for a more attractive solution. A month went by, and still no new lamp shade.... I eventually just ended up putting the lamp back together and hanging it up.

And now I've got this:


I think it only really looks like a mushroom if you're looking for it to look like a mushroom. Opinions?

[stefalopod]

Any minute now, I'll clean up those wires, I swear.

[stefalopod]

Please meet my corals:
A nice bright blue shroom that's gotten happy since adjusting to the new light. There's also some little unidentified creatire right to his left... do shrooms bud?

Encrusting Gorgonian, given to me by the LFS

SPS also given to me by the LFS

My GSP before it got unhappy

A Paly I picked up, looking greener than I thought it would.

[Iron E]

Wow Stefani! You have really created a unique and beautiful lil' world! I really like the combination of skimmer/scrubber. It will probably help a lot in keeping things balanced in such a small system. Are your GSP's getting any happier yet? Mine were pretty stubborn until I kept them in the shade for a few days. Now they are out and look ready to spread!

If you are half as handy in the law profession as you are with hand tools and your creative solutions to challenging situations, you are going to be a force to be reckoned with!

Looking forward to more! (Did you mention new configurations/ideas?)

Tom

[rayme07]

Great looking tank Stefani its starting to turn into a really nice tank. I hope your GSP gets happy soon.

[stefalopod]

Wow Stefani! You have really created a unique and beautiful lil' world! I really like the combination of skimmer/scrubber. It will probably help a lot in keeping things balanced in such a small system. Are your GSP's getting any happier yet? Mine were pretty stubborn until I kept them in the shade for a few days. Now they are out and look ready to spread!

Thanks Tom! I think the scrubber actually saved the day while I was out of town. My reefsitters let the ATO run dry, so when I got home, about 10-20% of my water volume had evaporated with no water changes for two weeks. The scrubber was completely grown over and everything in the tank was happy!

I'll try putting the GSP in the shade tomorrow. It keeps getting dusted with detritus in the DT, so I might move it back down to the sump and see if it does better with less light an a slightly stronger water flow to keep it clean. For now, I've had no polyp extension for two days. Poor thing. Everything else in the tank is happy though. I moved the gorgonian lower and it's polyps are actually extending further now.

If you are half as handy in the law profession as you are with hand tools and your creative solutions to challenging situations, you are going to be a force to be reckoned with!

Looking forward to more! (Did you mention new configurations/ideas?)

Tom

Thanks for the vote of confidence! Everyone tells you that law school's hard, but all of the warnings don't hold a candle to the reality of it. -- When I told my mom that I was thinking about getting back into reefing after the first semester of law school, I was expecting her to talk me out of it. Instead she said, "Good! It'll be cheaper than therapy!"

As for new ideas, the truth is that I'm constantly having to push them out of my head: 'You know, there's room for a cube, right there on the counter!' The problem is that I couldn't confine myself to getting a prefab one... I'd have to get one I could modify. Oh dear.

Great looking tank Stefani its starting to turn into a really nice tank. I hope your GSP gets happy soon.

Thanks! I'm going to try out Tom's suggestion of putting it somewhere shady if I don't get any polyp extension by noon tomorrow.

[stefalopod]

So I'm thinking about venturing into Duncans. I guess they don't need a lot of light or water flow, so there are some pretty ideal areas in the little orb where I could keep one.
Let me know if you have any experience with them!

Also, I had my first flatworm sighting a couple days ago. There were three of the red ones. I went ahead and siphoned them out. I'm going to keep an eye on things and order some flatworm exit so I'll have it on hand if they start popping up everywhere. In the meantime, I'm ramping up my water changes a little bit to 5-10% every two days.

Finally, I had a bit of an adventure a week or two ago. I got home to four gallons of water on the floor. I have two hypotheses. One is that there was something that started to divert water from the scrubber over the edge of the tank. If that's what happened, I was lucky because I'd forgotten to plug the ATO back in after maintenance the day before. The other (less likely) is that the water level got too low (since the ATO was unplugged) and water started splashing out.

In any event, I've put up a safeguard against having that happen again. I set up an alarm and an auto shut off in case the tank floods again. Basically a stripped a couple of sections of the wires from one of the switch inputs for my reefkeeper elite and affixed them at the base of the tank. It anything closes the circuit between the red and black wires (spilled water for example) the RKE will sound an alarm and shut off the return pump. As soon as the connection is broken, the return pump turns back on. I created little wells over the wire at the corners of the tank so that if there's a serious flood, the wells will fill with water and the return pump will stay shut off. The alarm stays on until I deactivate it though, so I can know that something's gone wrong immediately if I'm home, or as soon as I walk in if I'm not.

Aside from some kind of defect with the thermometer probe on the RKE, I am really happy with all that it does for my system.

[stefalopod]

I should add the the wires only carry .4 volts, so there's no risk of serious shock.

[CarmieJo]

Stef, you have certainly come a long way with your orb! I don't have a duncan although they are on my "I want" list. They will grow new heads so be sure to leave room for growth and/or a way to get them out for fragging.

[PhotoJohn]

I have a small colony of Duncanopsamia axifiga. I keep the colony on the sand but they grew faster in the higher light up top. Sps corals pushed the duncans south. If you believe your light can keep LPS corals happy I think a duncan would be a great addition. Keep in mind it will sting and kill other corals it comes in contact with, like your new sps. You may also want to look into a torch coral. I had a beautiful one in my nano years ago. The look of the anemone without all the hassle associated with a nem.

[stefalopod]

Stef, you have certainly come a long way with your orb! I don't have a duncan although they are on my "I want" list. They will grow new heads so be sure to leave room for growth and/or a way to get them out for fragging.

Thanks Carmie! I'll make sure to put them where I can get at them =)

I have a small colony of Duncanopsamia axifiga. I keep the colony on the sand but they grew faster in the higher light up top. Sps corals pushed the duncans south. If you believe your light can keep LPS corals happy I think a duncan would be a great addition. Keep in mind it will sting and kill other corals it comes in contact with, like your new sps. You may also want to look into a torch coral. I had a beautiful one in my nano years ago. The look of the anemone without all the hassle associated with a nem.

So I was looking at the Giant Green Polyp Duncan on LiveAquaria. It's the same scientific name as yours, is yours the same variety?

They've got it listed as wanting lower light and low water flow. The big downfall of the orb as it's set up at the moment is that the water movement is very gentile. -- actually it's been suggested that the low water movement is what made the GSP unhappy, possibly detritus settled on it and irritated the polyps. I think that would rule me out of the torch, since they seem to need strong water flow. Suggestions?

[Iron E]

I think if you "stir up" the water a bit every day or two you can prevent those pesky dead spots where detritus collects. I use a turkey baster with a short piece of 1/4" RO line attached to blow debris out of nooks and off of corals. Every few days I spend a little while with an extra powerhead w/hose to go around the tank and provide a little agitation and turbulence. Then I allow the intake of the powerhead to suck in some air. The bubbles create a "skimmer effect" and help carry all the debris to the surface where it is pulled into the overflow.

I'm really happy with my new Torch! I too would love a Duncan! My LFS has one but it's too $$$ for me right now

Tom

[PhotoJohn]

I dont have a recent picture but here is one from a few months back.



Even with low flow the coral will probably be just fine. mine was in a medium flow area and grew quickly. if you plan on expanding your coral collection you may want to look into adding a coral tank connected to a central fuge. It would allow you to build a tank with high flow, perfect for any sps coral, if you plan on getting into the sps side of the reef.

Garf is running a sale right now where you get their branching duncans free with another coral order.

[stefalopod]

I think if you "stir up" the water a bit every day or two you can prevent those pesky dead spots where detritus collects. I use a turkey baster with a short piece of 1/4" RO line attached to blow debris out of nooks and off of corals. Every few days I spend a little while with an extra powerhead w/hose to go around the tank and provide a little agitation and turbulence. Then I allow the intake of the powerhead to suck in some air. The bubbles create a "skimmer effect" and help carry all the debris to the surface where it is pulled into the overflow.

I'm really happy with my new Torch! I too would love a Duncan! My LFS has one but it's too $$$ for me right now

Tom

Ha! You know, I finally got my turkey baster yesterday. It was one of those things that was always somewhere at the back of my brain, but I never seemed to remember while I was at the grocery store. So I finally went on a special trip to pick up a turkey baster, gloves, and safety goggles.
Behold!


Now I'm just waiting on a DFS order to frag that paly!

Live aquaria has a double head duncan for $25 on special right now. I'm trying to see if there's anything else on there that'll make an order worth it =) Pretty soon here my fall financial aid will come in, and then I'll (sort of) be able to afford this stuff!

That powerhead and bubbles idea is a really good one, I'm going to look into that!