Shallow 21 Gal Reef Tank Build From A Beginner

[mh0ward]

Another update - I got the Osmolator 3 and absolutely love it!

The dry magnet on the Osmolator 3 has 4 open slots, so I 3D printed a bracket to snap in and hold the wire to keep things tidy. I also 3D printed some little brackets to manage the wiring and tubing for the pump coming out of the ATO reservoir.

I ended up not liking the placement of the Xenia because it was too much flow to see the pulsing, so I moved it to the end opposite of the pumps. After doing that and adjusting the flow a little by changing the direction of the filter outlet and changing the MP-10 to a slower but stronger pulse, it seems to be about right

Up to this point, I’ve been pretty luck with new inhabitants not carrying any kind of fish diseases or nuisance hitchhikers. However, I figure as I start adding more coral, the chances of this will go up, and the more I add, the more there is to lose. SO, I have set up a small tank that I’m going to keep as an invert tank with no fish. My plan is to mainly use it for observing new frags, give myself an opportunity to weed out any hitchhikers I don’t want in my main tank, and wait out any diseases that would rely on fish as a host.

For now, I’ve 3D printed a mount for the AI prime, but I’ll eventually mount a floating shelf above that tank and hang the light from underneath it.

I’ll get some full tank shots later when the lighting is more favorable!

 

[CCiPhantom]

I knew I wanted a "clean" look, so I thought I'd try to weld together a mount with square tubing that more closely matched the shape of the tank.

WELD ON WELDER!

 

[mh0ward]

Updated tank shots, it’s coming along!

 

[mh0ward]

Well, the flow keeps changing! - and I’m sure it probably will many more times as things are added Anyway, a few days ago, one of the turbo snails devoured most of the hair algae that was at the base of the rock near the wave maker. To my surprise, this made quite a difference to the flow where I’ve got GSP on the little island rock in the middle of the tank.

As you can see toward the bottom right, there is a pretty strong current pulling the GSP polyps toward the wave maker. In an effort to try and tame that, and to try and spread the outflow out a bit more (rather than a more focused stream), I 3D printed a replacement guard that blocks the top and bottom inflow areas off a bit, and the outflow has a 5 degree cone in the center, with a 10 degree taper on the outer ring.

For now, this seems to have worked pretty well as the GSP now moves back and forth a bit.

This was only a first shot at trying to optimize flow with the MP-10, so I may try a couple more iterations to see if things can be improved a bit more… but I’ll probably also wait until after I’ve added a bit more coral.

 

[NanoNana]

Awesome job!