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autoponicz's drilled 10g/rear sump

hi all.....heres the short story.....i recently found a small leak at one of the seams on my 10aga......i used to use hang on back fuges and skimmers......and i was thinking of replacing it with a nanocube or something like that.......but thought....hey ill make my own.! great idea that was......

well....basically i had a 10g with mostly softies and a clown.....sand bed , ...LR and a Aquaclear for a fuge and a rio nano skimmer......i found that the all-in-ones's filtrations were too cramped and could barely do anything with it......so i built a sump out of some 1/4" acrylic...with a skimmer section...fuge...return section....i bought a new 10g and drilled a 3/4" drain and a 1/2" return..put it together with bulkheads and "Bam"....instant nanocube......i painted the back black and painted underneath the bottom glass white.....(yep...went barebottom on this one)......i find that sand my nano collected too much detritus and started having a hair algae problem....even if i did 3g water changes evry weekend....im going to keep this one simple....but full functioned....i picked up a used tunze 9002 and used a rio 600+ for the return.....i currently have a satellite 40w pc fixture with some diy moonlights......clip on lamp for the fuge.....small pc fan for cooling and a 50w heater in the fuge section......
with the tank and sump together the dimensions are 20"x16"x12"....i sold most of my livestock to kinda start over.....i did pick up a black and white clown from a local reefer.....but anyways... heres some pics....


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i might add a few more pounds of LR,but i am feeling the open look.

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still trying to dial in the skimmer,this thing is fussy about water level

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thats all for now.....any suggestions would be cool....
i would like to upgrade my lighting...but not sure what yet.....maybe a 80w current orbit......but this satellite is not too bad....
i also need to build a ATO....i have a battery powered air pump and just ordered a float switch so hope to get that done soon.
 
That is a real beut! I love the clarity.. I would have just gone a bit farther since I was drilling and created a small closed loop system on it and had one external pump, so there was nothing in the tank. Otherwise I love it! Gonna be awesome..

PS.. How come you nano guys never build UP... seems like a lot of wasted space above the first 4 inches of the tank.. GO HIGHER!!! :) LOL.. you enjoy your tank the WAY YOU WANT IT.. just playing..

Awesome!!!
 
thanks mynd......i did think about a closed loop but dont got the space for it.....if the pump is external...it would be on the side of the tank because this tank plus sump has taken up the whole left side of my dresser.....

i wanted to add more rock.....ill be searching for some flat pieces to make a few shelves....those were the rocks that i had already....and my old 10g had a sand bed ....now i went BB...

this was the old 10g
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Hey even that is a nice looking tank.. nice work.. What kind of light do you have over that tank? Just curious? The new one. I actually bought a nice submersible 10w light for my fuge ( going to ) rather then lose the light out the top. I don't have to worry about temperature as much since I have a chiller on my nano, so the extra heat provided by the light in the fuge should be fine and since winter is coming it is even better. :D

Good luck with it all, you did a nice job on the first one so I ( not that I expect anything, but you get what I mean :) ) expect even more out of this one from you. Really nice job!

PS.. check out this link for a closed loop on a nano and it is actually quite small.. just for your viewing pleasure. :D

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=85115
 
Great job! When i first got into this hobby I thought the all in ones were great but the more i think about it i realize that you need to do some modding to get them to be "perfect" and a you have much more options with a tank like yours. Keep us updated!
 
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