Nealio's 15G Nano-Reef Build

Still haven't gotten much done, but I did pick up a number of important parts from my apartment (I've been staying an hour away at my GFs, and working on the tank at my parents who live 3 blocks away from her).

• 9w Penn Plax Clamp on Fuge Light
• 2 return pumps
• A bunch of PVC fittings
• Loc-Line Return Nozzle
• A Maxi-Jet 600

In addition to all the tools I need, the stain and paint for the canopy/stand, some spare 10g tanks, and my entire 29g buffer system. A friend of mine is loaning me his finish air-nailer so I can work on the canopy which I hope to have on the 12g by Thursday.

The only thing that's really holding me up from putting water in the tank at this moment is that I haven't sourced any 1/4" glass to build the overflow box with.

 

I have cut almost all of my material and I finally got my nail gun to start putting it all together. Should have the canopy and supports put together by tomorrow.

I also starting setting up my equipment in the sump to see how well it's going to fit. It's a very very tight fit. My submersible UV Filter will have to sit crooked, and my skimmer will be a pain in the ass to clean, but everything fits.

 

sounds interesting im subscribed ;-)

 

Got most of the framing taken care of today, as well as most of the plumbing. The only major steps I have left to accomplish are painting and assembly.

Most importantly though, I recieved my Reef Angel controller! I can't wait to play with this thing some more.

 

Can't wait to see it up and running! Keep at it!

 

I finally got around to borrowing a camera again. I should be getting a Nikon for my birthday within the next couple days, and this won't happen again.

The Canopy is most of the way put together.



The back support is up.





Setup the drain system. Hoffer Gurgle buster drains into a manifold with valves to control the flow of the into the equipment and refugium.







Mock up picture with the sides of the canopy on.



The pile of junk that is currently clogging the garage. PVC fittings, pumps and equipment a long with tools.



Finally, I got a shot of the RO/DI filter I got a couple weeks back.

 

Looking good so far. i will be following this one. Good work.

 

Good news! I got a Nikon D500 for my birthday/college graduation, so I will have decent pics for the rest of my updates. Also, I got a lot done today, and hope to be possibly done tomorrow!


Got the hinge installed.








Mounted the metal halide fixture to the canopy.






Coated the inside of the stand with Zinzer Sealer.








Stained the outside ebony.






Built the return plumbing.






As it sits now.





Tomorrow I hope to install the baffles and overflow box and coat the stand with a satin polyurethane. If all goes well, I'll be bringing it inside and filling it up!

 

A little bit of shopping this morning, and some decent work this afternoon. I'm fairly certain that I have all the parts, so all I need now is a little time to finish this build.

First thing first, I needed to setup an internal overflow box. I did this with a piece of 4" PVC. I first cut it to length using a miter saw.



Then I started drawing the lines. This would've been the most difficult part, and was scaring me away from doing this project, but then I came up with a genius solution to use a piece of angle aluminum.





I then cut along those lines using a cutoff wheel with a typical metal cutting abrasive blade.



I then cleaned up the cuts, and put the correct angle on the back portion of the overflow with a large diameter disk sander. A belt sander would've worked a lot nicer, but I got the job done.







In this shot, you can see I was prepping for paint, but you can see where I cleaned up the inside edge of the cut with a whiz-wheel so that it would fit around the bulkhead.



3 coats of Kryon Fusion Satin Black to help hide the overflow box.



At this point, I was killing time between coats when I realized that you could see the return plumbing through the small gaps on the side of the stand.



So I yanked out the return plumbing and painted it black too.



I plan on installing the overflow box tomorrow, and painting the back of the tank black as well. I also plan on finalizing the metal halide wiring and strapping down all the plumbing. With any luck, I will also get the glass baffles installed and the polyurethane on, and I can start adding water by Friday!

 

Wow! This is a really cool build.