WOW, look at my tank:D

[prow]

Originally Posted by Intranick

question is.. is there a market for setting up and installing things like that?

i think so. that site autotopoff.com has pretty much only topoff stuff. they also have optical sensors i was planning on using but heard salt creep could cause them not to see when i need them to. so i opted for these guys. later i plan to add holders for the sensors, used the black mounts just get an idea of the levels and placement for the holder i will add later. i have seen similar products around but these were like 1/4 of the price. i got all these with the conrtollers, everything for about the price as most one sensor setups.

[prow]

mps9506, O yeah it did. i have been thinking about that thread. i think that is about the time when my old pc died. i dont think i ever finished it. going to have go back and finish it. or put a link in it to here

[mps9506]

Originally Posted by prow

i think so. that site autotopoff.com has pretty much only topoff stuff. they also have optical sensors i was planning on using but heard salt creep could cause them not to see when i need them to. so i opted for these guys. later i plan to add holders for the sensors, used the black mounts just get an idea of the levels and placement for the holder i will add later. i have seen similar products around but these were like 1/4 of the price. i got all these with the conrtollers, everything for about the price as most one sensor setups.

FWIW their dual top off switch setup is very inexpensive for what it does. I purchased one from them in 2003 or 2004 I think and it worked great. I later upgraded to the osmolator from Tunze, but only because I'm a gadgety guy and I like the idea of the optical sensors
The autotopoff.com unit was easier to setup...

[prow]

yeah i looked into those too. but i needed (ok wanted) too many sensors, $$$$$ for other systems.

ok now i just need to go over my lighting and Ca+ setup(also auto controlled ) and then on to some real eye candy. now, i need to go load up some more pics now

[Grasspicker]

along on this one. I love the work. When I do decided to go bigger than my 29 ill be looking you up.

[prow]

welcome aboard grasspicker glad to have ya here.

ok i did not take pics on the build of the canopy. had to wait on shipping this and that so waited to get a complete shot. but, in the end i did not take the canopy off to setup the moonlights so never got that completed shot. but here is a really terrible drawing.

[prow]

mmmm, that small print is this.

[prow]

where is SAS? i got this idea from him. here we have my DIY muffler for my skimmer. its simple as easy and most importantly works awsome. absolutely no noise from the air tube at all. silient as heck. everyone should do this!!

here it is, i used velcro strips to strap it on to my stand. could have put it anywhere but like the idea of sucking air from outside the stand, i have good normal air flow along the back of the tank, tried to limit using that CO2 saturated hot air under the stand for skimmer.

[prow]

here is how to do it.

drill a hole in a pvc cap. i used 1" but this tubing is for the 1500gph..other may want to use smaller pvc. my air tube is just fat. push the air tube through it, make sure the hole is small enough so you have to really push teh air tube through.


then cut a few inches of the air tubing off, dont toss it you will need it. then drill a hole through another end cap. cut a piece of pvc pipe to fit in the caps. just a few inches, 3-4"ish. put the cut piece in the other cap.


now just put them together and strap like above and here it is again all strapped up.

[prow]

i planned/plan/am using my refugium to get rid of the CO2 excess from my Ca+ reactor. i implemented a few things here. first the design of the refugium. you can not see it, will get a video later. but by design the CO2 filled water(after reactor effluent drip) has to goes through on sec with cheato, it must go downward then goes into another sec with more cheato, where water flow goes up. this keep my cheato tubbling in both sections. but they tubble in different patterns, you will have to see later. and forces teh CO2 rich water to flow through all the macros, aiding in growth(exporting) and eating up some of the CO2. there is also the recir from the return pumps to help reduce CO2 excess. the bonus here is i am promoting algae growth in the refugium not the display tank. so far work better than i expected.

i also added a drip box so i can control the ph with in the reactor. using one of my aqua Jr's i keep the effluent ph at 6.45-6.60. the controller shuts on and off the CO2 via solenoid. i also added a little chamber and put where i put some Ca+ media to help buffer things. its just a fish holder/acclimation thingy. i will be changing the media out maybe every 6 months with new media. i get some real good algae growths to help with buffering in there aswell. i may end up making a bigger drip box so i get more algae growth and can add more (deeper) media bed. o i just drilled a couple holes on the side where i wanted the water level to be.
here it is here.


got a little holder that belonged to old skimmer i had laying around. fits my ph probe and reactor lines perfectly.


here you can see the algae growth in just a few months. nice huh



holes drilled on the side



FYI: i used weldon for the baffles on this, just cause i had it out and it was right there. if you like to look prettier i would just use silicone.

[prow]

ok, i think thats about it for the nuts and bolts of it. but before posting DT shots i wanted to show how things went as far as algae growths in the refugium and general working of the sumps.


here you can see the skimmer sump in action. the bubble tower works nicely, added more rubble rock to it sence this pic.


skimmer is just crancking away i also added a fan to this sump aswell, but the fan here is more for providing air flow to my twin return pumps.

[prow]

later you will see how little algae growths i get in the DT( later later of course i will be trying to get heavy growths of certain algae, aside from coralline.

after a month or so it looked like this


here is sump after a few months.



this is before i started up the Ca+ reactor.



the bubble tower on this sump works great too.


here i added a 6" airking fan to the refugium.


today it looks something like this, actually less algae, but did get some thick matted green aglae covering everything after the red but before it got cleared up.

[prow]

ok now for the real eye candy. just a few notes here. before start up i bleached all the rock and sand, yes bleached it. while i was building the sump and everything else the tank was going, just sumpless. with nothing for a month, but did add weekly deli shrimps and left till they disolved into nothing. then added a wrasse then a month later added another wrasse. then it sat with only two 28watt T5s for lighting. that was just for the fish, did not want algae in the DT yet that went to a total of about 7 months before adding corals and hooking up the Ca+ reactor and lighting. also of note is i did a little project with some of my clam seen below. these guys were infected with "whitespot" disease. antibiotics have been know to cure this disease but dosing levels is unknown and you must get them to ingest it. without knowing the proper therapeutic levels and with out knowing loading doses and maintenance dosing needed for treatment i decided to just let them ride it out. FYI; it is thought whitespot disease has a 100% death rate if not treated. well i got these guys for $20 bucks and wanted to see if indeed there is a 100% death rate with these guys. so far i did lose some but a couple seem to have improved and the white spots are almost gone. still there are a couple more i dont think will make it. but hey, if one makes it(looks like 5 will make it) then that was a well spent $20 and so much for eric's 100% projected death toll. but its only been a few months so in year will have to come back to this 100% death rate from this unknown protozoa. i did try to get my friends at carbrilo beach aquarium to look into it but i geuss there are to busy researching mud, gezzz the nerve of those guy. they are more interested in mud than my clams i am so not inviting them on my next dive trip. ok i need to go upload some eye candy shots. and take some too

here is a sneak peak at whats to come , this shot was about 3 months ago, i think. you can see two of the little guys just about dead here.

[PEMfish]

You just don't stop, do you? Alright lets see it... ( can you feel it building? )

[prow]

lol, snuck it in on you, lol.