# Nano wifey tank build



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

So I have an ADA 18 gallon SPS dominant tank 



and my fiance fancies the look of the wavy softies and some lps NOT sps. so instead of transforming my tank I decided to get her one lol. So I was looking and looking for a tank and I finally came across on a local thread post for a 16 gallon ADA tank with the stand, skimmer, return, metal halide, aqua medic 3 way doser, sump and already plumed for $140!!!

And when I went to go pick it up about 70 miles from my house in my little 2 door civic I couldn't get the stand in the car. So I had to take my passenger seat out and put it in the trunk so that the stand could barely make it in lol


And here it is in my house as an extension of the wall that separates my living room from the kitchen. Nice little peninsula!


So far I did a little mod to the metal halide and incorporated an ai nano to it lol


got some BRS pukani rock and did a lil aquascapin'





dry rock cureing


made a faux sand bed with famowood epoxy and caribsea agronite sand so I can have the asthetics of a sand bed with the ease of a BB



I used extra polcarbonate sheeting I had laying around to make the molds and covered them in wax paper so that epoxy wont attach to the polycarbonate and I can remove it after it cures






Next on the list is to put fake brick on the stand!


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Definitely subscribed here. I still have that sunset monti.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

cool yea I still have all the ones you gave me! The frag of sunset came from the colony in the tank at the beginning of the post.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

If you need some assistance in snagging me zoas or favias drop me a line, I have a whole lotta other good stuff just hanging around here and it looks like your tank is doing rather well, filling up nicely.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

lol which ones did u have in mind?


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

What kinds of corals do I have in mind to trade to you? Or what do I want out of your tank? Hmmm, What do you have that ypu would feel comfortable cutting? 
And do you think you will have any trouble with coraline covering your "sand bed"? Cool trick by the wayl I no longer use sand in several of my tanks due to flow restrictions.


----------



## Roccus (Nov 1, 2013)

that's a good way to solve the problem....like what you did with the epoxy...


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

badxgillen said:


> What kinds of corals do I have in mind to trade to you? Or what do I want out of your tank? Hmmm, What do you have that ypu would feel comfortable cutting?
> And do you think you will have any trouble with coraline covering your "sand bed"? Cool trick by the wayl I no longer use sand in several of my tanks due to flow restrictions.


Well as far as zoas I have a watermelon zoas colony and as the colony grew it had both green and yellow skirts so I took a frag of each color on two frag disks and I'll be interested in various sps(digi, monti, acro)


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

And as far as the faux sandbed is concerned I'm not really sure as far as coralline growth is concerned because this one is my first but others who have done it on various forums seemed like there was a 50/50 stat between all of them for coralline growth or not. But if mine does grow coralline I don't really care because if I went BB it still would be covered in coralline but at least I won't have a weird reflection from the bottom and still have the grainy textured look of a sandbed.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Well I believe I already have the zoas in the picture, that or they look strikingly similar to the Electric Green Eagle Eyes. I might take a few offf of your hands just to make sure I do have them, any thing else you have in there though? What montis\digis do you have.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Oh yea I forgot to mention I have a baby green Saint Thomas mushroom that came from a blue one. I'll snag a picture of them later on. And I have sunset montipora, rainbow montipora, purple digi, green cap, purple cap and red cap.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Your a Monti collector are you not? I have a neon green digi and a super red digi...I also have a flower petal cap I could break a small piece off of. I know my son would kill for a Thomas Mushroom, I would have to keep it until it was propagated of course. My son is a mushroom collector with at least 30 kinds. I will say that shipping shrooms is oddly difficult unless you pack them with little rubble and lotsa water, they seem to foul the bag quickly.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

I would like a piece of the flower petal and I'll probably ship the shroom and zoas moist not fully summerged because they seem to survive a lot longer in tidal mode (not summerged) than fully summerged with foul shipping water.

Mother shroom


Baby shroom... I'll get a better pic I just snagged one real quick before I had to go to work.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Well if you think we can work it out then I am definitely game. I will frag things up tomorrow.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Yea I'm totally game!


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Did you wanna try some digi too?


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Yea I'll take some digi as well 
Thanks


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Found a fake brick board at lowes to go around the stand! Just need to start cutting and glueing.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

I like how this project is all DIY style and in the end it will be something people will be like, where can I get that, or did you have that custom made?

Oh I will see about sending the corals next week, is a thursday delivery OK with you? I like to send on Tuesdays and it is a 2 day travel.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Yea bud, Thursday delivery sounds perfect! And thanks man I trying to make this tank unique.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Just lining the boards and trim up! I'm waiting on some corner molding blocks to come in the mail to finish up.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Any pics of how the inside stand is or how the sump will run? You mentioned a doser are you going to run that on this tank or jack it for the SPS?


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Yea I'll grab some pics of the sump later when I get off work. But here is the almost finished stand! Just need to make a door for the sump side.


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

Looking good man, I finally noticed that there is brick next to where it is going.
Oh! I sent those out today and they should be there Thursday, I included a little extra as the frags were small.
Let me know how it goes and if there is any trouble drop me a message and I will do my best to fix whatever went wrong. And make sure to acclimate very slowly, digis are notorious for browning out from stress.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Lol that "brick" next to it is extra fake brick board haha. And alright cool! When do you want me to send your stuff?


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Here is the sump.
The first chamber (left to right) is where the overflow is and where a bubble magus nacqq skimmer will be. Then the second chamber is where the water level will be, controlled by an eshopps float valve, CPR nano tumbler(running chemi-pure elite), two 50 watt ehiem jager heaters and the return pump(which will be a mag 7 not the sicce it the pic). Then the final and third chamber, which is going to be fed by the return pump, is going to be chaeto and as you can see I glued egg crate on the top of the chambers baffles so that it can't escape.

Other equipment list is an ai nano and a jebao wp-10


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

New rock scape! Almost done curing!


----------



## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

That is some Killer rock work going on there, what are you using epoxy and rods? I never know what I want until I actually have had the tank up for a little while, I tend to rearrange a couple times before I am done, I am envious.


----------



## dylanmegyptian (Sep 10, 2013)

Yea I tend to rearrange as well but this one is set in stone because we are going to be surrounding the stock list/designed around a golden dwarf hawain moray eel. I drilled holes through the acorn barnacles all the way into the rock to make tumnles for him. And yea I used fiberglass rods and jb water weld to anchor the rocks.


----------



## Dovii 64 (May 31, 2014)

Looking good.


----------

