Uh, hey...hey from Round Rock, sort of...

[MrZ2u]

Long time lurker, former freshwater geek. We recently sold our house in Pflugerville/Travis to get up to Round Rock/Wilco. Figuring that there would be no way I would time the sale and new building/closing right to avoid moving two times I decided to sell my 13yr old 200 gal (African Rift) and all the gear associated.

I had planned on getting into the marine reef gig about 8 years ago and collected all the tanks and gear I needed minus a skimmer and chiller and we got pregnant with twins. Having a 2yr old and two more on the way nixed that plan and in fact, it pretty much killed the upkeep regimen my 200 was used to and suddenly it was lucky to get top off much less decent water changes for a while. If it weren’t for accidentally getting a female yellow lab the tank would have just died off long ago really. Just no money and/or time to keep it up the way I did single and without kids.

Well fast forward to today. Moved but still unpacking and settling in really. Itchin for a tank again. Thinking a small one in my office for now and maybe something larger down the road when everything we own has found its place. I’ll have tons of questions and will come off argumentative at times cause in text it seems that way…its not. I am impatient but know it so that’s a start. I prefer to build it myself whenever I can and that is frequently in many cases. I think the DIY aspect of things is what draws me to certain hobbies. Others include brewing my own beer and building my own guitars…and lately quite a bit of cabinetry that the builder either wouldn’t do or wanted obscene premiums to do.

About the tank that is the pebble in my shoe all of a sudden. Kiddos were given one of those “seen on TV” “self cleaning tanks” for Christmas so we went to Petco for some gravel, betas and a bottle of prime. I saw this little 6.25 “Arc” AIO tank they have there and its dimensions are just about perfect for the place I have in mind. Foot print for the bow front tank is 17.5x9.5 and its 10.5 deep. Has a three chamber weir/sump/what ever you want to call it. Its plenty big heater and some biomass of some sort. May opt for a larger pump but the one it sell with is a 40gph which might be sufficient. I figure it will be somewhere between 4-5 gallons of water after displacement…maybe a little less. Evap is my main real concern but I plan to implement an top off system of some sort. Doubt anyone will talk me out of this unit…not that anyone necessarily will. The rest is somewhat subjective.

One of those subjective but maybe not so much things is the lighting. I definitely will replace the included LED fixture. Looking at the 16watt Blue/Daylight Wavepoint LED. This seems to be a pretty decent light and from the reviews I have been reading on it there seems to be a few folks getting stoneys growing with some success…not in my plans but that bodes well for this one I think. I wonder if any of you have any experience with this fixture?
http://www.wave-point.com/Lighting_folder/LEDHOClampLight.html

Plenty of environmental unknowns right now. Don’t know what summer temps in the new house look like but I suspect they will be pretty stable. Heater gets bedrooms hotter than common areas, suspect the cooling will be more stable…don’t know why. Anyway, for now just thinking a simple fixed 78 degree heater.

Shooting for something like this eventually. This fella has the smaller version of the same “line” tank, 3.7 gal. The filter space is actually about if not the same size… http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/349851-el-chupacabras-37g-petco-pico-reef/

…so someone direct me to the section of the forum to pester the crap out of you guys in the know and lets feed the sickness

JZ

[Sascha D.]

Welcome

I came from freshwater as well. I converted in 2000 after 11 years in FW and haven't looked back since. You could start firing away questions here or make a thread in the "Reefkeeping" section.

Nano reefkeeping is harder to do than building a large tank. A slight fluctuation has a greater impact on a smaller water volume. They require more frequent water changes, but the volume is so little that it's of no consequence. I would recommend a sump if you can get it. IMO auto top-off and a heater are absolutely necessary in a nano. The best part about having a nano is the fish selection! You could buy fish that I could never get into my tank. Very interesting and colorful fish like Green Clown Gobies or Catalina or Chalk Bass. If you can get a Pearly Jawfish, do it! They are fantastic.

[+KimP]

Welcome to the club! I kept a 3gal pico for over a year and loved it. Eventually had to shut it down because of a new build. If you can keep up with weekly water changes I didn't find it difficult to keep at all, especially if you solve the frequent top off needs. Water changes take about 30 seconds in a tank that small, so it's easy. Is this for a home office? You may run into heat issues if it's in an office building where they shut off the climate control on weekends. As far as the light, I've heard good things about it and almost got one myself but ended up with a little BML fixture instead. Keep us updated on your tank!

[MrZ2u]

Presently I work from home so we have control there I have round two of interviews for a one of two possible new gigs tomorrow and hopefully that (both) goes well. If tomorrow does then I will be back in an office mostly, at home some and on the road some. Presents an interesting dilemma. If I can and do have it at the corp office then I sort of have to go in every day or have someone there care for it in my absence. If I do that then a auto top-off will be mandatory. If I have it at home (where I will be on occasion, not regularly) then I get a lot less enjoyment from it being in the study and will be more likely to forget to check on it daily. Couple possible solutions...at corp, rather than it being my tank and my expense it becomes the company tank, much larger and cared for by others as a team. This is a new office for this company and the HQ office has several office dogs that wander the building...why not a reef in the Austin office

I am scheduling round two at another company as well. That one will be home based like my present one and then we are talking my study and when I am on the road the family will just look in on it daily while I am out. Again, auto top-off but not as sophisticated a version

In either case, heat is the only concern I think. A fixed 78 degree makes sense to me. I think mostly I will worry about it being colder in the rooms it may inhabit so I dont think I will have to worry about it getting too hot in any particular setting and as such, a chiller is not on the radar at the moment.

In both the ATO and chiller subjects we enter the DIY phase Keen to devise my own devices if and as necessary.

So many elements to the equation at the moment and as they resolve this plan will develop more specifically...at this point, I am thinking about it too much to think that its not going to eventually happen. Only likely a question of when

[Sascha D.]

I'm fairly certain that you don't need a chiller. I would go as far as saying that 90% of the tanks out there don't need a chiller. For the most part, chillers became necessary for many people that incorporate metal halides into a closed canopy. MH is still a popular form of lighting, but I think people have become more DYI oriented and/or have found cheaper cooling options.

[nvrEnuf]

The biggest thing that stands out to me about this plan is the thermo.

One of the most common things I hear kills a tank; it's something I am particular about.

I run two heaters, both a little too small to heat my tank on thier own, set at 78F, and killed by my controller at = 78.7. More often than not my controller has them killed and tank is ~ {77.3-78.5}. I've turned the thermo's down to 76 and seen little to no change in the fact that they are most often turned off by the controller. I've also taken back up temp readings to confirm the controller which have proven it to be accurate.

SOOOO IMO you can buy the most expensive heater you want, and it still won't keep your temp as consistant as we'd like. It's also my opinion than in Softie and LPS tanks temp swings have at least if not greater impact than TYPICAL daily PH and KH swings; therfor it becomes something I am very concerned with.

I'm not very experienced in freshwater, but we all know that in a tank < 10 gal even the smallest of heaters is going to change the temp pretty rapidly.

If you like DIY, I'd be considering something controling your heater, and I would probably have it controlling a second heater in the ATO. I don't personally heat my ATO water, but my return pump chamer (which is where my ATO sensor is) is mall enough that I never put more than 1/2 gallon into 90, so it's a non-issue.

Sounds like a fun build!

[MrZ2u]

Well it has been almost a year and until yesterday absolutely no progress had been made. I kinda gave up on the idea for a multitude of reasons but now some gear has been purchased. Its kinda serendipity really. Wife made mention she might sign off on a chameleon for the oldest so we were in Petco again and I spied an open box of the 3.7 gal version of the tank that started this and for $25. I snuck back in and picked it up yesterday. Its missing the pump but thats like a $10 problem and one I was probably going to replace anyway. Today I picked up a new Wavepoint blade HD 18 watt for $30 even because it had a broken bracket. I was looking at this light without intending to use the bracket anyway so score. Pump is on the way and thats the only missing piece to actually get the thing turned on.

The wheels are finally in motion...now if I can just find that $60 store credit for RiverCity we will be in business!!!

[Isaac]

perfect for aquarium use... http://www.boostbysmith.com/stc1000.html

http://screencast.com/t/sFxXxneZWI have a couple heaters on the heat side, and a water/glycol chiller on the cool side.

[Jynxgirl]

Good scores, and hope your nano goes well. I havent dealt with a nano in a long time, but kept a 2.5 gallon at one point. It was ALOT easier though as I just went and grabbed a few gallons out of one of my 180's, and did a quick half or gallon water change a few days a week. I have a rather new to me 34 gallon solana with a total of about 55 gallons of water with my sump and frag tank and this 'nano' is kicking my butt.

I had a 'sump' on my 2.5 tank so it really was two 2.5 gallon tanks. The ato was a drip system I could hide easily. It would be easy enough to set up a drip system on a shelf above yours if need be but just be very careful.

Good luck.