Featured A Bedroom Nano

Hi all.

After about 6 months out of the hobby, I find that I am missing it rather badly. I don't think it's practical ATM to finish of my 350l project, so I'm starting up this one. Originally, it was just going to be a basic DIY bed-side table thing, but, well, it's progressed a bit - as these things do :icon_rolleyes:

Anyhow, the playing area of the display is 300x300x400mm, giving a volume of about 36l. There is an additional 20l in the sump, plus a further 9l hiding in the weir, giving a grand total volume of about 65l before displacement. Not exactly enough to :sinking: in, but it's better than no running system at all.

Stock

In terms of stock I'm not too sure what to go for fish wise, if I bother at all. I'll probably go SPS for corals and have just a couple of turbos and ceriths for CUC

Lighting

Planning either a DIY 150W halide plus 4 T8 Actinic lamps, or an AquaIllumination Sol LED unit. Not fully made my mind up, as while the AI will use less power, make less heat and not need lamp replacement it will also cost about 3x as much to buy...

AI Sol

Flow

I'll probably use an AquaMedic Ocean Runner 1200 unless someone has a better recommendation for a return pump that can do 180lph after head height losses of about 2.5ft. It must be dry plumbable, or able to sit in a foot-print of 10cm by 14cm ish.

Aqua Medic - KATALOG

I need some recommendations as to what to use in addition to this for more flow. Ideally, I'd like another 35x turn over from some pump(s) I can chuck in the back of the tank. Trouble is, as this area is a weir, the pump housing needs to be waterproof under pressure in case the power failures, so that's the trusty Maxijets out. Maybe I should double up on the OR1200's?

Filtration

Time to take a KISS approach for a change - DSB and a skimmer. That will be 6" cubed, with ceriths to turn the DSB over and an AquaMedia Turboflotor Blue 500 is the skimmer of choice I think unless someone can recommend a better alternative? The foot-print is 15x15x30cm ish btw...

Aqua Medic - KATALOG

Designs

If you can spot any issues, or if you can query anything you're not 100% sure is going to work, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Display





Sump





"Bed-side Table"

The view from my bed...



The view from the rest of the room



And the other bits you cannot see





And just for some perspective, this is where it will be going in the room, after it's been stained to match the rest of the furniture...

 

Good to see you back Rab

 

Good to see. Im looking forward to seeing your work mate.

 

Good to have you back fella and I see the OCD is still there with perfection

 

Thanks for the welcomes back

There is a problem (or 2) that I've spotted though... Looks like a sump design tweak is in order :unsure: Issue 1, due to the volume of the weir, the pump will run dry in the sump as it is ATM. A tweak to the "fixed baffles" and some funky plumbing in the sump will sort out the running dry, but it won't give me much margin for evaporation (issue 2), which is an issue I can't do much about with the amount of space on offer, short of a remote sump :whistling:

 

I like the design of the tank and the cabinet. Looking forward to seeing it built

 

Great, look forward to this.
A random suggestion for the pump. Eheim Compact 1000 - You will need to check the head height but it's a tiny unit and a pretty quiet runner in my experience. It cannot be dry plumbed.
Never run an Ocean Runner though so cannot compare oomph and noise etc.

 

Problems 1&2 plus tweaks, fixes, sorting, evaporation & space etc. Welcome back to the hobby of champions

 

A royal PITA to find a head loss diagram for these pumps, but it seems the 1000 is only just big enough in ideal conditions. By the time I've added a few bends, I think I'll probably need to up-grade to the 2000 model :sad: Cost wise the 2000 is comparable to the OR though, and the OR's have been described as running noisily by some :unsure: Food for thought, I may well be changing my return pump spec after this suggestion, thanks for throwing it into the mix :thumbup1:

 

Reet, well, I ordered the wood on Saturday, and I should have it by next weekend I'm getting the local hardware shop to cut the ply to size for me, but the timbre I'm doing myself, as per the diagram below;



I've also revised the sump plans to get around both issues I worked out earlier, and to take account of the fact that I'm now using an wet plumbed pump, as per James's recommendation





I'm getting a quote for the glass of a colleague at work, so I'll wait for that to come back before deciding where I'm getting my glass from and when..

 

Nice, great plans mate.. I love the "crap" area... if only I had planned for the amount of crap area I need my display would have had to be twice as big to make room underneath!

 

Nice to see a tank again Rab

have you thought about AquaX in place of weir
with two it would give water movement in place of the power heads and could be repurposed when you expand

a cleaner solution in the display

the down side would be a volume reduction

two return pumps or one more powerful one and a T piece should do it

 

Toby, I'll PM you about silicone to glue the tank together with shortly.

I hadn't thought about the x-aquas Gary, no. Thanks for the reminder, as I'd completely forgoten about them. :thumbup1:

I'm not sure how viable an option they are here though, as you need space and hosing behind the display, and I therefore wouldn't really get a volume increase through loosing the false back. The area would be replaced instead with an open air section to allow the pipework up/down, so I'd probably loose the 9l volume in the weir. IIRC they also aren't cheap for what they are and aren't going to make a grate deal of difference to the asthetics at the back of the system - the plan is to get a piece of black acrylic to go over the glass false back to the tank to hide the pipework - should probably have stuck that onto the diagram TBH...

x-aquas are certainly something I'll consider in the future though on a system where they are a practical option :-d

 

Reet, time for an update I think. The "Right Side Frame" is built and first finished ready for final assembly. The "Left Side Frame" is built and setting in clamps, ready to do the first finish over the mornings I have free next week. After that, final assembly and finish on the cabinet should be done next weekend, all being well, ready for staining up...

The neighbours love me I'm sure, the amount or routering (sp?) I've been doing for the ply inserts. :whistling: There is more of that to do also

Also, some Silicone has landed courtesy of Toby at LittleOcean. All I need for the tanks now is some glass Still waiting for the two quotes to come back on that :sad:

Return pump and Closed Loop are now on order. Went for a newjet in the back and for the return also. I'm hoping they are reasonable quality pumps, given they are made by the same people that make Maxijets, but they are worryingly cheap :unsure: With hindsight, I should probably have asked for some user reviews before ordering them, but never mind, I'll see how quiet and well built they are when they arrive a week on Monday, and I have a chance to unbox them and fire up to test... :thumbup1:

Should probably have taken James's suggestion on the Eheim compact though for the difference between that and the Newjet, that is actually speced as a smaller pump. Rash decision I'll come to regret possibly? We'll see.

 

Been a while since the last update, so I thought I'd throw some 'photo's at you to show the progress made thus far.





I had to revise the glass for the weir to take account of the holes for the closed loop pump. The holes I actually got weren't where I asked and 2 weren't the size that I wanted, but for £30 for all the tank, sump and cabinet glass - all with polished edges might I add, I can't really complain...



I'm also making enquiries on the below acrylic



I've also ordered the following plumbing;

Solvent Cleaning Fluid - 125ml
3x Hosetail - 20mm
Solvent Weld Glue - 250ml
2x 19-25mm Hose - 1 Metre Length
6x Tank Connector with Clamping Nut - 20mm
14x 20mm 90 Degree Elbow
1x 20mm 45 Degree Elbow
6x 20mm Ball Valve
2x 20mm Double Union
3x 20mm Rigid Pipe - 1.5m Length
2x 20mm Outlet Strainer
3x 20mm T Piece

 

Love the way youve boxed it in. Very nice

 

that looks good dude Giving me ideas for the Bedroom 50cm Cube Not sure on the Black Cabinet
I Like this Idea + I could Make Bigger to allow for crap in sump area lol

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Bit of an update. All the plumbing I can do until Coral Culture sort out the rest of my order is done. This is the DT. The strainers will be reduced in size and fitted to the bottom two holes. The pump sits on the pipes in the top left;



This is the plumbing on the junk shelf area, that is mostly hidden by being boxed in. I'll need to keep access to the ball valve, but I should be able to put a bit of 1/4" ply over and then attach the valve key again through a hole...;



And in the sump;



All I need to do is plumb another valve in the place of the gap you can see just above the weir, and another valve on the open T at the top - that one is so I can prime the closed loop

 

looking good fella, the only thing that would worry me would be the noise, having it that close to your bed, is that the missus side now? :taunt:

 

lol if its like my Wife you can not here the tank for her back ground music lol

I have a boyu 450 in mine at the moment and the noice has never been a issue and it has noisy fans