Left:
Right:
This is my 'portable college student reef' that I must move 700 miles twice a year. I have been keeping smaller 2.5 and 5.5 gallon reefs with me at school but they haven't met my expectations, so the goal of this project is to mimic a full sized reef aquarium on a much smaller scale in order to remain portable.
The display tank is 17x17x10.5 and the sump is 16.5x16.5x10, with a total system volume of just under 20 gallons.
The guts of The Square consist of a 175W Hamilton 14K metal halide on an ARO e-ballast. The reflector fits in the canopy with about 2" clearance on all corners, and is hung about 6-8" from the surface of the water, so lighting is sufficient.
For cooling I am using a 1/10hp Pacific Coast chiller. So far it has been working wonderfully and keeps my tank within about a 2 degree tolerance.
For my calcium and alkalinity demands of a small SPS reef I am running a custom Kalk reactor on a Reefanatic top-off unit, using reagent grade kalk. Any other calcium and alkalinity demands are met with some Ocean's Blend 2-part additives.
Circulation is achieved with a Mag 9.5 for the return pump and 2 Maxi-jet 900's behind the overflow wall and plumbed into modular tubing.
Filtration consists of an EuroReef CS5-2 protein skimmer and anything that is left in the water (ahem) is pulled out by some Chateomorpha macro algae.
Moving on to the DIY stuff!
The first step was to make the display tank. The tank is made out of 1/4" glass for the sides and 3/8" glass for the bottom. The bottom is drilled for a 1" drain and two 3/4" returns all to be hidden behind an overflow wall.
The tank just after applying the last silicone bead:
Sample seam, not bad for my first DIY glass tank:
Next up was fabricating the overflow. I did not have a router or router table at the time so I had to get a little 'creative' with the overflow slots:
And finally the display tank completed and curing:
Next up was the acrylic sump. I used all 1/4" acrylic for the tank:
And 1/8" for the baffles:
Next up was the stand and canopy. The pictures are before the parts were filled, sanded, and protected. The stand will hold the display tank on top and the sump inside, with doors on 3 sides of the stand:
The canopy lid opens and the front door opens for as much access as possible:
Next up was plumbing. I tried to keep it as simple as possible and use many unions so I could easily take it apart for maintenance but more importantly moving the tank:
A plumbing shot from the top before I added the Maxi-Jets behind the overflow. Instead of using 4 outlets from the return pump I am only using the back two and using the Maxi-Jets instead, for a total of 4 returns.
And after it was all set up. The top-off controller and PH monitor are on the table, and the top-off reservoir and Kalk reactor are on the right:
And last but certainly not least, the front and center full tank shot as of 6-20-2005:
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