Custom 5.5g nano #2 Journal

Taari

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Nov 4, 2010
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Many of you have seen the 5.5g custom nano tank I built for my mom to put in her windowsill. It turned out so good that I decided to make another for myself to put in my living room.

This first post is an overview of what I have planned for the whole setup and I will update with each part as the project progresses.

Tank:
5.5 gallon rimless. 30"x6"x8"

Filtration:
standard 5.5g sump/refugium. I am going to have a hole drilled in the bottom of the show tank and install a bulkhead fitting that will be covered by substrate. I will have a piece of 1"ID PVC tubing fitted into the bulkhead that will extend to about 1/2" below the top edge of the tank. This will serve as a drain to the Refugium that will be stuffed full of fast growing stem plants. The other half of the standard 5.5g will be filtration with a 250gph submersible pump to return the water back up to the show tank through an acrylic lily pipe that I will make.

Lighting:
I bought a 30" T5NO single bulb fixture. I'm going to build a custom box for it to go in and I'm going to add a 70 bulb LED Christmas light net my mom didn't like because it was too blue, so I thought they would add a nice blue tint to the tank.

Decor:
Natural white sand, black river rocks, manzanita branches.

Plants:
Various crypts, various Java fern, Blyxa Japonica, Anubias nana and petite nana, various mosses, whatever else I find and think will look neat.

Fish:
A pair of scarlet badis, red cherry shrimp, a school of 8-10 microrasbora.
 
First project done is the stand. I'm going to wait until I have the tank built to drill the holes in the top for the overflow and the lily pipe so I can get the positioning just right.

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I had to go look at your other nano 5.5 to see what you are talking about, but it is amazing. I can't wait to see where this one goes. Where do you get your glass cut, and how expensive it is to do?

I got my glass cut at a local salvage shop. It was $16.50 to have the glass for the first tank cut. I polished the edges myself with some wet-dry sandpaper. It was so cheap because the glass was salvaged out of old buildings and windows and such.
 
wow,;) ur making me think of building a tank like that for shrimps!:) any Co2, especially as it seems u have high lighting levels? good luck;)
 
NICE! I had to go look up your build for your mom too, came out great! Stand looks very nice too. You should be very proud of yourself!!

Nice score on the glass. I need to find a salvage shop around me, glass is expensive!
 
Thanks! I didn't show how I built the stand because I made alot of mistakes and had to fudge it in spots. It didn't help that I wasn't using the proper tools. My dad refused to get the table saw out of storage, so I had to do all of the slots and tabs using a router table. It got pretty frustrating at times, but it came out nice in the end.
 
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