15 gallons of awesome.

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MGDMIRAGE

Shoulda been a fish!
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
1,042
Location
Spokane Valley, Washington
I'm thinking LPS/Softies and some BTA [;)]

Standard 15 AGA 24"x12"x12", But I cleaned up the silicone in front and removed the top but not for long as the top will be fitted with mesh for jumper deterrent system.

Tank will be T5 driven for now 4x 24" ATI bulbs, perhaps some LED actinic strips too.

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Things to do:

Paint back, add awesome contents.

Fish will be my two black and white ocellaris and perhaps a wrasse, or blennie, and maybe some gobies, I will certainly keep up on filtration to accommodate any load.
 
Take it you like the word awesome? Your tank is going to be awesome when it hets going! Its a pretty awesome overflow you have there. Is it custom?
 
Can't wait to see this filled up! If I had to pick a favorite fish it would have to be a helfrichi firefish. There so dang colorful!
 
I sure like it when I see something different in this hobby.
How about a little history on this cool little tank?
 
I have grown to love the word awesome. I have several corals from my other tanks that will go in here. I built all of the overflow myself with the exception of the clip on overflow teeth which were made on a 3d printer via Estanoche.

I do love firefish and have yet to have one so that will also be on my list soon as I finish the netting on the top lol.
 
I sure like it when I see something different in this hobby.
How about a little history on this cool little tank?

Well in the beginning! I walked into petco and they had the 15 gallon sitting in their $1 per gallon sale tank pile so I figured I would see if they would honor it since 15 gallon tanks usually aren't included in the sale probably due to them being overbuilt for their size compared to the rest of the AGA line. Luckily for me they did infact honor it and I got the tank for $15. So from then I was hoping to do something awesome since the dimensions are pretty great in my opinion and the glass is fairly thick. I decided I'd cut into it and make an external overflow as I have always wanted a tank with one. The overflow itself has slightly thicker glass at 1/4" thick and I was generous with the silicone application because well I sure don't want it leaking! I will be painting the inside back panel with Krylon fusion black so hopefully nothing will be visible. I hope to have the tank up and running in about 2 days.
 
I can't wait to see it up and running. That looks to be a very cool little system. I'm looking forward to watching it progress!
 
Thanks for the low down on the tank.
Now what do you have in mind for filtration? Separate sump? Tie into and established sump?
 
I can't wait to see it up and running. That looks to be a very cool little system. I'm looking forward to watching it progress!

Thanks for following along :)

Thanks for the low down on the tank.
Now what do you have in mind for filtration? Separate sump? Tie into and established sump?

I have a 10 gallon sump that has been running on a 10 gallon setup for about 8 months I'm going to steal that and connect it to this so no cycle again. The sump has had about 10+lbs of rock sitting in it all those months too so most of that will go into the display. It has been in the dark the whole time though so it is white rock. I also have a piece with nice coralline growing on it that will go into the display too. I'm still pondering ordering a Starphire sheet for the front of this.
 
very cool, did you derim it? and you built the overflow yourself out of thicker glass you say?
very cool idea. for a small tank :D
with a black back itll look slick.
hurry up and get some water in it :D
 
Yeah I took the rim off since I had to cut the glass anyway but I kept the rim in good shape because I'm epoxying some clear netting into it.

I put the top on so you can see. This was no where near as easy as I had imagined it would be in my head. I had hoped to use some super glue gel to hold spots while I epoxyed but the superglue gel takes forever to set up on this surface and only proved to make things more ugly. I am not finished with it yet I had to get more epoxy. Next time if there is one I'm going to make sure I have some regular superglue lol. The gel only left me with some ugly spots of hard white chunks.

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That is so cool what you did with the rim and the netting.

Agree with thread title name, I love nano's.
 
What is the netting made from that it won't corrode? I love the idea that its tight enough to keep the jumpers in the tank but not so tight that it diminishes your lighting. I have the plastic 'egg crate' stuff along my back wall and the front panel of the glass top for my bow front but what you have done will be both cleaner and more effective. I still have open spaces on both sides of my tank, although none of the fish have ever jumped out...yet!
 
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You can get the screen from bulkreefsupply.com.

This is the 1/4" size it also comes in 1/2". Yeah I hope it works out fine. I just got more epoxy so I can finish it. I wanted something I could take off easy for pictures but stays on nice and snug and this should do both great.
 
Very nice Shawn, really diggin' your creativity on all your builds.

Cheers, Todd

Thank you! I've been watching and experimenting for a few years now and I'm always looking for some new way of doing things.

That's pretty sick! Looking forward to seeing it up and running! :)


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Thank you Krish I hope to not disappoint :)
 

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