M&T's Shallow Rimless Nano Reef

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

gorally said:
Wow..great finish. Does your LED has any Magenta? That looks pretty red on the left.

Hahah, we were wondering if anyone would comment on the colors... Two of the LED strips are Panorama Pro RGB's. In honor of Independence Day, we set the one on the left to red and the one on the right to royal blue. :bigsmile:

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

bobf216 said:
Looks awesome!

Thank you Bob!

uall8up said:
I just went through this entire thread, and I must say, STUNNING!!! Love the stand, tank, rock work, and the black sand. This is the kind of thread that is an inspiration to the newbies like myself. Thank you for all the updates of your progress.

Thanks so much Missy for that awesome compliment!

-M&T

revhtree · Jul 6, 2012

Wow it looks great! I love it!

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

revhtree said:
Wow it looks great! I love it!

Thanks Rev!

Here's a normal pic:

gorally · Jul 6, 2012

Mike&Terry said:
Hahah, we were wondering if anyone would comment on the colors... Two of the LED strips are Panorama Pro RGB's. In honor of Independence Day, we set the one on the left to red and the one on the right to royal blue. :bigsmile:

I would have guess if you leave some white space in between :wink:. BTW, is the rock naturally reddish brown?

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

gorally said:
I would have guess if you leave some white space in between :wink:. BTW, is the rock naturally reddish brown?

The ceramic VidaRock is a reddish brown w/a little bit of grey mixed in. The LED's are making the rock look redder than it is. Once coralline grows in, they will look like normal live rock.

-M&T

BarbH · Jul 6, 2012

Tank is looking awesome Mike and Terry, definitly love it

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

BarbH said:
Tank is looking awesome Mike and Terry, definitly love it

Thank you Barb!

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

Now we're cookin!

We still have a couple of projects to complete this weekend (setup ATO, AquaClear 110 mod). We'll post an update once they are done.

Happy Friday Everyone!

-M&T

dtpollard · Jul 7, 2012

Wow. Can't wait to see this in person. That is looking great. You already had a hard time keeping me out of the kitchen now you are in real trouble.

Jaygalindo · Jul 7, 2012

What's your plan for the ac 110? Fuge? I thought you were running a sump...

Mike&Terry · Jul 7, 2012

dtpollard said:
Wow. Can't wait to see this in person. That is looking great. You already had a hard time keeping me out of the kitchen now you are in real trouble.

Thanks Dave! You are welcome here anytime!

Jaygalindo said:
What's your plan for the ac 110? Fuge? I thought you were running a sump...

We do have a 20 long sump inside the stand and we plan to use the AquaClear as a refugium. :bigsmile:

-M&T

Mike&Terry · Jul 8, 2012

Quick update... The AquaClear 110 has been modified and the ATO is now in operation. Now we need to order some chaeto, lol.

We're re-purposing the old TM bucket to hold our top-off water. We're using an aqua-lifter pump which is hanging from a clip on the left side of the bucket.

Holy cable-management Batman!

The ATO controller and float switches from Reef Fanatics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/7530700942/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/7531429700/

We're not happy with the old mag-drive 3 that is serving as our return pump (having to "spank" it to get it to start, LOL!) so we've ordered a nice little Tunze 1073.020 that should be here by the middle of next week.

-M&T

Jaygalindo · Jul 8, 2012

Dang just bringing constant heat. You guys definitely win the prize for biggest budget nano in 90

Mike&Terry · Jul 10, 2012

Jaygalindo said:
Dang just bringing constant heat. You guys definitely win the prize for biggest budget nano in 90

It's a good thing we are not in the competition as we're already over budget on the corals. We probably won't keep the birds nest's in there permanently (they grow like weeds anyway) it just looks better with some life in there, lol.

Terry has wanted this nano setup for quite some time and did a great job of shopping around for good deals, not only on the tank, stand and counter top (the granite was a remnant), but also on most of the new equipment. We were also able to re-purpose some things like the Neptune AquaController Jr (amazed it still works, lol) and the used 20g sump. Heheh, we tried to save some money on the return pump, but unfortunately, it has seen better days. I don't mind having to "spank it" to get it to start, but my wife is not gonna put up with that, LOL!

We do have a small update. The chaeto and a small cleanup crew arrived today. The cleanup crew consists of a few nassarius snails, a couple of small fighting conchs (approx 1") and a couple of red leg hermits. We placed the chaeto in the modded AquaClear and mounted an LED light, so the refugium is now operational!

-Mike

Jaygalindo · Jul 10, 2012

I love it guys this tank has huge potential when it matures. Keep up the good work.

Jaygalindo · Jul 11, 2012

Are you guys having any issues with black sand being magnetic and sticking to anything like pumps or mag float cleaners? I'm really tempted on tring that black substrate I found but have read about the potential issues.

seth&angelle · Jul 11, 2012

That is a cool idea with the AquaClear

Mike&Terry · Jul 12, 2012

Jaygalindo said:
Are you guys having any issues with black sand being magnetic and sticking to anything like pumps or mag float cleaners? I'm really tempted on tring that black substrate I found but have read about the potential issues.

We read a couple of those posts after we purchased the sand, but have not had any issues with ours - we checked it w/an old mag float before adding the sand to the tank.

seth&angelle said:
That is a cool idea with the AquaClear

We can't take credit for the idea - stumbled upon a diy video on Youtube. We decided to try it since our sump is too small to have a refugium area inside of it and so far it is working great. We added some Reef Pods along with the chaeto, so hopefully we'll have a nice little pod factory in there as well.

-M&T