The Office Reef

spartanman22 · Oct 18, 2016

Last year I found a long rectangular acrylic box in my parents basement, and I instantly thought how that'd make a neat desktop AIO. So, I grabbed the tank, added a filtration compartment and bam I had a Reef in my office.

I was using a cheap Marsaqua 12x3w led fixture. The tank was up and running for about 2.5 months when I realized this thing was a serious hazard! It was bowing like crazy and the seems were questionable at best.

A couple weeks ago I dug out the sheet of 1/2" acrylic I had laying around and began working up a newer, improved model. So, here we are with version 2.0. It was made a bit longer and is a true rimless setup. This go around I'll be using an Aquamaxx Nemo Light. At only 9" deep I should have no problems keeping anything going in this tank, but the design is to be a softie/LPS setup.

I plan on making the tank swap this week. So far all it has is a coral banded shrimp, some snails, and a few softies/LPS.

Now enough of the boring stuff and onto pictures!

Only picture I took of the assembly

Old vs. New

Leak test

spartanman22 · Oct 18, 2016

I'll be pulling the few LPS I have from my home setup and placing them in the office Reef

spartanman22 · Oct 19, 2016

Tonight I made the swap. Easiest tank transfer I've ever done!

Slide out the old tank...

Slide in the new one...

Cloudy FTS

One of my LFS had a small (3/4") Potters angel, which just so happens to be my favorite fish. If they still have him come tomorrow I think I'm going to grab him.

spartanman22 · Oct 19, 2016

Would a Jebao RW-4 be too much flow for this tank? I currently have a Sicce Voyager Nano in there, and its a nice little pump but the magnet is way underpowered. With the 1/2" thickness it barely holds, plus it doesn't provide adequate flow for the whole 33" of the display. It's decent flow for about half of the total length. I had three MP10's that I recently all sold. I knew I should have held onto one!

Tahoe61 · Oct 19, 2016

Sharp looking little tank.

rizorido · Oct 19, 2016

How do you cut the Acrylic and glue it? Do you have a workshop abd tools at home ? I want to start making Acrylic tanks but not sure I can..!

Anirban · Oct 19, 2016

Nice one.......from where did you get the overflow and filter components to make it AIO?

spartanman22 · Oct 19, 2016

I had a 4x4' sheet of 1/2" acrylic that I got for free. The shop was going to scrap it. It was leftover from a big job.

I raw cut the acrylic using a table saw, and then I polished the edges with a router bit.

For assembly I just used weldon #4 and a needle applicator using the pins method. Didn't come out perfect but not too bad.

I had some scrap black acrylic as well and made the filtration compartment out of that.

revhtree · Oct 19, 2016

Cool tank!

spartanman22 · Oct 19, 2016

revhtree said:
Cool tank!

Thanks! It'll be nicer won't I get some more coral and fish in there. Every time someone comes into my office they ask if there's any fish in there, and people who come in repeatedly ask if it's still just the shrimp or if I've finally gotten any fish. Non Reef enthusiasts appreciate fish way more than coral

spartanman22 · Oct 20, 2016

Last night I added a two different torch varieties and a Duncan Akon with a small lemonpeel. He was nipping a bit at the torches last night. So I'll have to keep a close eye on him.

I'm planning on making this a leather and euphyllia tank. After the transfer one of my frogspawn is looking real beat up. Not sure why it's not doing too well. Used all the same rock, new sand and the same water.

jsker · Oct 20, 2016

Nice work on the tank

tj w · Oct 20, 2016

Looking forward to seeing this filled up. Euphyllia and leathers are two of my favorites as I'm not a sps guy.

tj w · Oct 20, 2016

Also, definitely keep an eye out on the lemon peel. In my experience they will definitely take a liking to LPS. I had to take mine out because of it.

gfordQC · Oct 20, 2016

Well done! This makes me want to talk with my boss and get a tank setup lol

spartanman22 · Oct 20, 2016

tj w said:
Looking forward to seeing this filled up. Euphyllia and leathers are two of my favorites as I'm not a sps guy.

My tank at home is 100% SPS so this is a chance to delve into areas of coral that I wouldn't normally house.

This weekend I should be picking up a nice chunk of toxic Hammer and a finger leather. I'd like to get some colt coral and sinularia as well. I used to have a large colony of colt in a tank long ago and it was awesome!

spartanman22 · Oct 20, 2016

tj w said:
Also, definitely keep an eye out on the lemon peel. In my experience they will definitely take a liking to LPS. I had to take mine out because of it.

I have a feeling I may have too. I'm a huge dwarf angel fan and the lemonpeel is one I've never tried before. It's a gorgeous fish but due to the bad rap I've never given it a chance. If he doesn't work out I'll get rid of him and hold out for maybe a multibar or a Pygmy.

spartanman22 · Oct 20, 2016

gfordQC said:
Well done! This makes me want to talk with my boss and get a tank setup lol

I'm fortunate to have a boss who could care less! It's tucked away in my office. I also had an easy sell. I manage a laboratory at a wastewater treatment plant so I sold it as a demonstration of our facilities effluent quality. I'm using our process effluent as my water supply.