Rebuilding Pirate's Reef

[GPReefer]

I was cleaning out some old pics from my Photobucket account and I ran across these pics. Some of you have seen them before. I really miss this little 7 gallons of saltwater. It was fun to take pics of. I had it up and running for about two years, until I finally moved most of it to the 140. A lot of the smaller pieces were lost in the rock work of the 140 and I still have some of it. Just thought I would post them again for the hell of it.

 

[aquamanic]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Wow - that truly was some great reef keeping if you had all that in 7g ! You'd make the experts crazy!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Damn whole lotta luv in that 7g

 

[Palancar]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

That was one fine Nano and like always the pictures did not do it justice.

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Thanks. It was all hand made from scratch (except the skimmer & lights). It was unique, I will say that. It did have a bit of filtration under the hood. It was, um ... a little over the top. It was a fun project to do while I was working on the new 140. I had all of the equipment already, just found a new use for it.

 

[oimate842005]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

That was definately one of the best nanos around at the time!

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

That was one fine Nano and like always the pictures did not do it justice.

And thanks to you Louis for helping me stock it! :beers:

 

[eland]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Thats just awesome. Gary you are the mac daddy of plumbing!

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Thats just awesome. Gary you are the mac daddy of plumbing!

Ha! Well, I have been ruining PVC pipe and fittings for a very long time. It was nuts to do and not very practical, but it kept me busy while I was still assembling equipment and frags for the 140. If it hadn't taken up so much room, I would have kept it set up. The stand was actually from my old 45, so I had that already also.

The project was inspired by this guy that used to publish articles in FAMA Magazine (decades ago), named John Burleson. He did a project that was way past this in insanity. He had almost and entire wall full of equipment, all dedicated to keeping a 29 gallon display going. I just always wanted to do something over the top like that, but on a smaller scale.

 

[minhvu]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

That was definately one of the best nanos around at the time!

That's one the the best looking nano ever. That's incredible for a 7gal.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

I miss it too man! One of my favorite nano's of all time!

 

[ronniem]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Gary do you still have that nano or did you sell it off?

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Yeah, I still have it. I started to throw it away a couple of times, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I did spend a lot of time on it, but I suppose I didn't really have anything else to do. I espeically like the canopy that I made for it. That was kind of fun building it in the arch shape like that. Like the little mini-sump (with the world's smallest bubble trap) and fuge also. If I had it to over, I would have made it a little longer so the t5 fixture would have fit on it better. I originally built it to fit a power compact fixture (which I didn't like once I got it).

 

[ronniem]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

yea i would not get rid of that either Gary. You should set that bad boy back up.

 

[Kirk_M]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

You'd be a fool to throw that away. I was always amazed with how the pictures of the INSIDES of the tank always looked like they belonged to a MUCH bigger aquarium.

 

[dave]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

talk about 10 lbs of stuff in a 5 lb box

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

You'd be a fool to throw that away. I was always amazed with how the pictures of the INSIDES of the tank always looked like they belonged to a MUCH bigger aquarium.

I think the reason it looked that way was the rocks that I used for the scape. A lot of nanos use one or two regular sized rocks. I went and foraged through the live rock tub at Fintastic and came home with about 10 pounds of 2" to 4" rocks. Then I just scaped the tank like I would have done for a full size tank, but with smaller rocks. It had caves and many of the same features as a big tank.

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Zombie thread! Ha! I have been going back and forth on what I want to do for a nano now. I am seriously contemplating bringing back Pirate's Reef, the 7 gallon display tank pictured in the beginning of this thread. I built that tank while I was planning and gathering equipment for the 140. I still have most of it piled up in the attic. The chest part was a lot of work to have it just wasting away. Kinda miss it. Might be a fun winter project to resurrect it.

I ran across some old build thread pics (the build thread got accidentally erased in some site maintenance many years ago). This was fun to build...

This was the old sump, but will probably not use it this time around. It is still in use on another tank though.

 

[dwebster86]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Holy crap thats alot of plumbing for a little 7g

 

[GPReefer]

Re: I Miss My Old Nano

Holy crap thats alot of plumbing for a little 7g

Ha! Absolutely! There was a closed loop system inside with alternating flow. The tank was originally built about 8 years ago. And yes, it is definitely over the top. The kind of thing that happens to me when I get bored. :twitch: