Kayla's Nano! (complete with illustrations!)

[pballafreak]

oooooo, i saw a video of that once, it makes the tank look amazing, the only thing that would bother me would be the constant sound of the water driping, but i love that idea on a tank, it look GREAT!

[alaskaknucklehead]

ok, so the water is flowing over the top of the tank, down the sides, into the catch pan, draining to the sump????

[dobejazz]

One of the LFS near Chicago has a cube set up with the water running down the sides
I wondered how they did that ! Your nano looks really cool, Great job Kayla & Mike

[yardboy]

Very clever Kayla!

I've seen a setup like that, with a cube. Advertised as a clam tank, since the surface would be smoother and better for viewing clams. If your "basin" came up to the bottom of the tank, there would be no sound of water flowing at all. And if the tank is perfectly level, the water will sheet off all sides and be practically invisible. Of course, now you'll have to clean BOTH sides of the glass (or acrylic in this case).

I hope you can get it working the way you want, it'll be very cool!

[dobejazz]

what do you know lol at the lfs that is exactly where they kept the clams! it is a really cool set up I hope you can make it work

[VWD]

That is nice and if the flow is just right the salt creep will not build up on the tank, only if the water flow is to slow or missing in parts. One other thing You can do is if you want , I am going to keep that idea to me. You have a good idea.

[lukegegory]

Looks great, I've seen this done before, but with the water flowing over sides into a shallow laggon surrounding the nano tank, it had a sand beach as weel. In a nutshell it was a tank inside a shallow tank, reef in the nano with mudskippers in the bottom lagoon. Just an idea, u might want to make the pool at the bottom into something, u know make it practical rather than just for looks, Only a thought.

[GeekGirlUnveiled]

too cool!

[Geoff]

that is a very nice idea for a nano!

hope you do not plan on putting a blenny in there?!

G~

[skeety]

Originally Posted by alaskaknucklehead

ok, so the water is flowing over the top of the tank, down the sides, into the catch pan, draining to the sump????

yep!

You GOT IT! See...I was thinking too hard about how we were gonna do the overflow...then it hit us. Hey...let's just make the WHOLE tank an overflow!

More about the issues we're having....

getting the tank perfectly level (thus the odd array of shims in the pic). Gonna go out to IKEA today and see if we can pick up an decent stand I can drill. This should aleviate SOME of the leveling problems. but this thing really has to be PERFECTLY level for it to work right.

Also we want a contstant flow down each side, not the trickle we currently have... so I need a bigger pump to get more water moving....but not too big that water comes SHOOTING out the top. REALLY having a hard time trying to find the right speed in the middle.

and the biggest issue is....back syphoning.

If I make the water input pipe come all the way up the tank...well...there's a good chance that water will shoot right out and over the sides...and the rest of the water already in the tank will get stale. So to fix that, I want the input to be really short...almost right at the bottom.

Problem with that is...when the pump shuts off...water flows down into the sump. So, we need to look into check valves. Hope they come in 1/2"!

[skeety]

Originally Posted by reef_noob

Interesting idea! Have you thought of how you will deal with salt creep?

not really salt creep I'm worried about. I think the only places we'll have salt creep are maybe in the corners of the collecting tray. If we can get the flow right, there will be a constant flow of water down the sides of the tank...so I don't think salt creep will be an issue.

It's more ALGAE that I'm concerned about. As it will now be allowed to grow on BOTH sides of the glass....as well as the collecting tray. So some extra maintainance will have to be applied...but seeing as we only plan on having one fish and one shrimp in the tank...I'm hoping for a really low nutrient tank. But if we have to clean both sides of the glass a lot...I guess that'll just be the price we pay for the extra ...."neatness" of the tank.

[tims]

very cool mike/ kayla !

[MaylaKae]

Some LR for the tank!

It'll take awhile to cycle... it isn't cured or anything.
Beautiful pieces though! Some of the rock is for other tanks- I believe the second biggest one is going into the nano.

[JimmyK]

Very cool! Eagerly awaiting some more pics! It sounds like you are trying to divert the flow onto the bottom of the tank. Could you use one of the adapters from a pond fountain that creates the "mushroom fountain" look? This might be able to direct flow to the bottom and not shoot water out of the tank. If i misunderstood what you are trying to do just ignore me. Great tank!

Jim

[skeety]

well...while the rock is curing...we decided to go ahead, and fancy things up a bit! hehehe

I think it's great...we just entered for fun...and then the wife-to-be was like..."If you're gonna do this, why not do it RIGHT. Why not get a good stand, make it look really nice, so we can keep it around."

I LOVE when she WANTS me to buy nicer reef-related stuff than what I'd had in mind.

Anyways...Thanks to IKEA for this nice stand. ... What?!? I had to build it? hahahah




and since some of my issues were becoming difficult to resolve with the temporary base/water-tray...I got some acrylic, and began building a new one:



I am TRULY amazed at how EASY it is to work with Acrylic! And cheap!! $20 for this all 5 pieces! and $5 for the weld-on!! 25 minutes later...and .. VIOLA:



now...to drill the hole in the top of the stand, so that the tray sits plush on it!

REALLY impressed with how this is coming along!