Rhouse24's Modded 16g Nano

[rhouse24]

Originally Posted by iyachtuxivm

Looks good. Hows the main tank doing?

Thanks Jamie, The 110's doing good, just letting things grow. That birds nest you gave me is finally starting to take off I guess I'll have to post some pics over there too

[iyachtuxivm]

Now that sounds like a good idea! Glad to hear the birdsnest is doing good.

[rhouse24]

Sorry it took so long to get this update posted. I've had some other things going on lately

As I mentioned before I yanked out the foam wall over concerns it did not bond well to the acrylic backwall. In fact, there were areas where bubbles had pushed the foam wall away from the acrylic. After some research, I decided to try Amazing Goop. Which I found recommended on a couple boards as an adhesive that would bond to acrylic.


I'm not recommending Amazing Goop to anyone else yet, lets wait and see if it holds up.

So with the rock wall in place and the tank flushed again. I added live sand, rock, and sw. I used live sand, caribsea fiji pink. Exactly one 20lb bag seems to be perfect. I am worried about bristle worms (if I get seahorses) so I did not want to use too much live rock. only the rock on the left came from my sump, the rest were dry.


One thing I hated about the last system was that it had the power supply all the cords on the counter top next to the tank. So for this tank I drilled a 1-3/4" hole into the closet behind the tank. 1-3/4" is the same diameter as a paper towel roll so I wrapped a tube in tape and have that as conduit through the wall.


The tiny 16g tank likes to slide around the counter top (even when full) so I put some tape marks down while I'm doing major work on it.

The powersupply on the table is connected for the 10g which will remain up until the tank is ready for the corals/fish.


The tunze skimmer is breaking in. It's very quiet compared to the cpr bakpak


I have decided that if I do put chaeto in the system I'll put it in the baffled section (toward the bottom of this pic) and leave the lowest section open for a return pump, ATO, and heater. The tunze ATO (osmolator) is one of the best additions to the tank. Every couple of hours it turns on for 20 seconds, very cool. I can't beleive that for THREE YEARS I topped off the tank manually!.



In the past I've gone with more rock but with this system I'm going minimalist. Yes, there is less room for corals. However, the fish are easier to see. The glass will be easier to clean. It will be easier to pick out the individual corals as each rock will be like a bouquet.

[rhouse24]

When I bought the tank I also bought lighting. I got two 15w led strips, one 10k and one actinic. Admittedly I didn't try the lighting on the tank. The lights are awesomely bright but just too large for the little tank. One strip would look good but I specifically wanted the ability to control the whites and the blues independently


The other problem is that the lights create a weird color gradient on the rocks.
With the blue light strip in front:


With the white light strip in front:


I'm going to try to return these today as I can not make them work. Does anyone know of a good programmable (or color independent) led fixture for a tank this size?

[Jessemac]

The tank looks awesome so far. Hope you find some lighting that works and doesn't have that distinct line between colors.

[iyachtuxivm]

You might want to try a reefbrite strip. They are not programable but Andy has put a couple on tanks at ReefParadise they look great. They come in 50/50, Blue, and White. I would get a 50/50 and call it done!
ReefBrite XHO LED | ReefBrite.com
Theres a link for you

[tdb320reef]

This is very cool. Why goo with 320 gallon when you can go with that. Nice work.

[cmaxwell39]

That stinks about the light. Hope you can figure something out. Nice job on the rock wall, and I like the minimalist aquascaping. Makes the tank look bigger than it is for sure.

[fishnerd1]

Great looking tank so far Rob. Will be intersting to see what LED's you end up going with. Color variation in the DT is a concern with the LED products. The Kessell are intersting with the multiple colored LED's on the same head. The concept is good and should help with the banding caused my other approaches. Just not sure how many you would need to cover properly or if they would be strong enough to reach the bottom well. I'm sure other manufactures will start taking the same concept to better blend the light.

[rhouse24]

Thank you Ken, Jamie, Jesse, Tom, and Calvin for the good wishes and good ideas

I went to Pruess last night and decided to try the cheapest route first. I still returned the actinic fixture but kept the 10k light and attached a stunner strip to it. The stunner strip mounted to the housing far enough away that it doesn't block any of the 10k light at least not that anyone else would notice, lol.


With 10k and stunner strip:


Just the stunner strip mounted on the front side.


I think it looks good enough. So now I need to figure out what to do with the stunner strip wires running all over

[Jessemac]

Looking good. Did you just glue the stunner strip to the 10K?

[rhouse24]

Originally Posted by Jessemac

Looking good. Did you just glue the stunner strip to the 10K?

Thanks Jesse. No, the stunner strip comes with 3M double sided tape already on it. I did however, decide to glue the wires to the housing. I guess it was my best option. I didn't want to cut off the extra wires in case I ever want to use another strip. After it dries I take some pics.

[Sun357]

Nice looking tank. How is she doing? Anything live in there yet? =)

~Fred

[bluwc]

Yeah where are updated pics

[soverjas]

Great idea pulling the return water to keep flow in the dead spot. tank is looking awesome. once you start adding fish and food to the tank if you haven't already I would be interested in knowing how that skimmer preforms.