My 2 liter Opae Ula project(s)!

[hardware_failure]

First off sorry for the long post. I added some pictures to try to make it interesting.

I ran into a bunch of acrylic boxes that I think would make awesome nano Opae Ula homes. I have already started buying additional components, but some will not be here for at least a week. I actually went a little crazy, more on that below.

In the meantime, I was looking for some opinions / suggestions.

First off, the "boxes":
8"x4"x4" = 128 cubic inches. 128 / 1728 = .074 Cubic feet.
.074 Cubic feet x 7.48 = .55 Gallons (or .55 x 3.785 = Just over 2 liters)
The measurements on the box are a hair liberal, so I think its easiest to just say they hold 2 liters of water.

Pics:

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They have a lid that actually recesses about 1cm into the box. Its very clean and sung, but its not water or air tight. If they were pushed closed with the waterline just a smidge past capacity, they close really clean. As one can imagine the surface tension of water stuck on the sides of where the lid meets the box would make really "stick" closed.

Best shown with a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecnhXU-xW4c

I want to be very clear that the LAST thing I want to do is create a permanently enclosed, cruel "ecosphere" type setup. I want to provide everything needed for the shrimp on a long term basis. The one thing that would probably be unfeasible to provide would be a heater, but since Opae Ula dont generally don't need one I think it could work.

This is where I really need to get some advice...

If need be, I have considered drilling small holes, one that an air tube can enter for a sponge filter, and one for gas exchange. If I had to do this Id want it to be as clean as possible. This would likely be more optimal, but at the same time it would lose that extra sleekness of all enclosed, no water line etc.

Possible filter:
I have ordered some small corner sponge filters, air pump, line and stones. This is what Im imagining it would look like - (crude photoshoped pic):

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Light:
A found and ordered an LED unit thats listed as 22cm long which is 8.5", slightly larger than the box, but Im thinking (hoping) thats including the rails / clip. If so then removing them just might allow it to fit wicked perfect inside the recessed lid. If not then worse case I adjust/bend the rails as needed. I do not endorse this site or seller but this is the product (theres lots of sellers on this and similar chinese market web sites selling this product) http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DEE-20L- ... 29129.html
Photoshoped pic:

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As another possible light source, I also ordered this product (again not endorsing anything, just what I found):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281582930757

It is designed to be fully submerged. The "12 inch tank size" unit is listed at 7.89". Thats would be soooo edge to edge inside this box. It may or may not look quite as "cool" as the external flat strip, I think it will depend on how well the former fits. This would be able to be totally enclosed. So when they both get here I will see what fits better. Probable setup:

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Substrate:
Hmmm. Suggestions? I have some crushed coral on order as well. I already have some brown/tanish ½ pea sized gravel that I really like the look of and was going to mix with the coral, but Im open to suggestions here. Add some sand too maybe? How deep? I like deep substrates but in this scenario, real estate is a high commodity!

Flora -
Definitely want some nice macro algae, ie would probably at least buy the product from http://petshrimp.com/ Actually to be honest, I love densely planted anything when it comes to aquaria, so the more of what whatever I could get to grow, the better. Obviously the options for brackish water are somewhat limited, and how well the ordered lighting units will do is still an unknown.

Fauna -
Opae Ula of course, and small snails that can handle brackish water.

I think thats it for now. I also have marine salt and a hydrometer on order. The main reason for me posting before I have everything quite ready is I want to come to a decision on the substrate and filtering asap so I can start cycling. Ive never cycled something this small so any tips on that too would be great.

Thank you kindly for any suggestions / feedback!

[KenCotigirl]

Hello HF. The filter is not needed. The light looks like over kill. The under water light looks interesting. What is the angle of the leds. 90-120 degs. Can they be dimmed? Crushed coral should be fine. The tanks look nice. I like that they have a cover.

Ken

[hardware_failure]

Hello HF. The filter is not needed. The light looks like over kill. The under water light looks interesting. What is the angle of the leds. 90-120 degs. Can they be dimmed? Crushed coral should be fine. The tanks look nice. I like that they have a cover.

Ken

Thanks for the response. Would using a filter temporarily help cycle or should I give the first one a go without a filter entirely? If I use a lid with no holes, and there is no gas exchange, is that okay?

No, the LED's cant be dimmed. As far as the angle Im not sure I understand.. as far as the submersible bar goes, its attached via 2 suction cups and you can rotate it to any angle one desires. It might have a hard time reaching the entire box as I would have it close to a 90 degree angle, not wanting to point it an angle as to which the LEDs would shine in your eyes (very unsightly) I suppose one could mount it in the front of the box and then point it out more, but I think that would look kinda funky too.

[KenCotigirl]

I do not think the filter will quicken the cycling. Buying the macro-algae would be helpful. The angle of the led I am talking about is the spread of the light. You said the cover is not that tight I do not believe the air exchange is an issue. The bio load of shrimp is minimal.

[Mustafa]

Yeah, no filter needed, nor will it help in any way really. It tends to to just cause a nasty salt creep all around your tank that's a pain to deal with. As for substrate thickness...half an inch should be good enough. I personally use silica sand with some limestone rock or other calcium carbonate rock (crushed coral e.g.) placed on it here and there.

[hardware_failure]

Awesome, thanks for the replies. No filter makes this potentially even sweeter.

For substrate - My most current plan is Im going to try a bit of a fancy mix, with black lava rock as the main theme.

First a thin tiny layer of black sand... then small amount of crushed coral (only in the middle, dont want it to be seen) then small black lava rock gravel, then some sand to fill the cracks, then some bigger black lava rock gravel, then more small black lava rock gravel to fill in those gaps, then more sand. Obviously all in super tiny thin layers. Im going to try to make my own "formations" with pieces of 1-2" long black lava rock super glued together. I guess I will see how it works when all of my lava rock orders arrive.

[hardware_failure]

Hooray my crushed coral is here, exactly the size that I wanted. Its a little smaller than your average gravel and a little bigger than rice. Theres even a bunch of tiny mollusk shells. Neat.

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[hardware_failure]

Okay got all my lava rock in....

Grabbed various colors and shaped lava rock from my yard and :cough: around the neighborhood :cough:


I boiled them and soaked them in bleach then boiled them again (forgot to take a pic)
Here is the mini structure I came up with and glued together, forgot to take a pic while gluing too



From left to right: box, bigger black lava rock gravel (a little bigger than typical pea-sized gravel) black sand, crushed coral (a little smaller than pea-sized) and super small black lava rock gravel (also smaller than peas)


Close up of the small black lava rock gravel. I got a pretty big box of it. I think its sold as a topper for bonsai trees.


Box. (not very exciting I guess)

[hardware_failure]

SUBSTRATE / ROCK ASSEMBLY:

First a thin layer of sand, then small gravel on the outside (leaving a "bathtub" in the middle):


The cream filling; crushed coral in the middle:



Next - large gravel:



Finally, the glued rock structure, then more small gravel, and more sand on top of everything to fill cracks etc:




With lid:



Finally, filled with tap water:



I plan to leave just plain tap water in for a few days until everything settles. (and hopefully my lights arrive) I will then siphon out that water and replace with actual conditioned brackish water and start cycling.

[Mustafa]

Looks great! If you haven't dechlorinated your tap water before putting it in there, make sure to add some dechlorinator to your brackish water later to get rid of any residual chloramines from your tap water. Shrimp are very sensitive to even tiny amounts. Keep the updates coming!

[hardware_failure]

My first light arrived (actually a few days ago, lagged on posting) and to be honest, Im a bit disappointed. I probably had unrealistic expectations, as is main problems would be easy to forsee, even before buying it. In addition, the light is rather blue. I should note though, that the light appears FAR bluer in the pics than in real life. When you look at the LEDs directly while they are on, they look white. But still, too blue for me.

Here is the unit. It came with suction cups, but I took them off


Light in the box, from the back. This was my original idea. I could cut a slit for the power cable and then slicone it up for a faily seemless integration. Note I took the end cap off because it just baaaarely fits like I thought. Its still plugged and waterproof. The stick it self is not too bad of an eyesore, but the problem is the LEDs shine right in your eyes. Its terribly annoying and simply not going to work for what I want.

With this setup this is what the LEDs look like when you stare into the box (a bit over dramatic, but I had the pic and works as analogy):


On, on top of lid. Meh.


Probably the best option: inside the box, under the lid, front of box, pointing inward. The LEDs are not near as annoying (you dont see them really) but having that big tube right in front is a huge eye sore and just looks stupid IMO.

Same thing under lid:

On top of lid:


So this is going to be a no-go for me with this light. Hopefully the strip unit from china will look / work better. Right now I have some brackish water in with it a 5000k cfl on it, hoping to grow some algae, cycle etc.

[hardware_failure]

The other light arrived a few days ago, and it is much, MUCH better!

I mocked it up on the one box that I have that has a crack/hole in it. The first main one is cycling under an obnoxious light setup.

Here it is as possibly intended (but for a bigger tank) a bit overkill and awkward:


There are 3 rows of blue LED's in addition to the main set of white LEDs:


With clip and rails removed, it just doesnt quite fit on top, so close though! (maybe .5cm):


So I started chopping. First made some grooves so the LED strip could fit in less space. I couldnt chop the LED strip as it looks like its power leads were printed edge to edge:


Hacksawed off one end about .5 cm. The thin piece of clear plastic right below the LEDs cracked a little bit, thats what I get for rushing and not planning the cut better:


Tada! Fits perfectly!


Very nice white light (with electrical tape covering the blue LEDs):


So... I think Im pretty much ready to order some macro algae (chaeto) and snails!

[KenCotigirl]

Very nice. Thanks for all the pictures.

Ken

[hardware_failure]

Very nice. Thanks for all the pictures.

Ken

Thanks for looking! I know at this point its all a bit of hype without shrimp but they should be coming very soon. I suppose the real test will be if it can sustain shrimp, snails, micro and macro algae.

Here is the first box with the fitted light. The main notes to share are:
Salinity is at ~18ppm. Since there seems to be little definitive statements of "optimal" brackish salitnity range I went for 1/2 of 35 (salt water) which is 17-18ppm.
Even at this 50% salinity I got lots of salt crusting on the lid edge and all over external surface of the box, which is easy to see (a bit messy, I didnt clean it off to show how gunky it got just from me playing with it every few days)
I squeezed out a freshwater pre-intake filter sponge into the water about a week ago for some bacteria and biojunk.
Since then it has received 24hrs of 60watt equiv (14 watts total) of CFL light.
While things seem slightly more hazy than a week ago I see zero algae growth.
The new light is only 5w of LED, but I dont know what the incandescent equiv is.
The small stand of java moss has also been there for over a week - it doesnt seem to be growing but doesnt seem to be dying yet either. I just just threw it in there to see what it would do. Shrug. My gut says that it will eventually die, abit very slowly.

[KenCotigirl]

Very nice. I cannot wait till your shrimp arrive.