Ira Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Yeah, no need for silicone unless it hasn't been properly glued together. Silicone doesn't stick very well to acrylic anyway, might just be more trouble than its worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Changed my design, no slots any more. What do you think of this? Dimensions are 600 L x 180 W x 200 H. Inside the bays are 45mm wide for the lights and 78mm wide for the waterfall. Made the dividers in 2 parts. The bottom part is 50mm high and will be glued in to hold water in the middle section. Then I have 2 drop in pieces of acrylic that I can put on top as splash guards. I've got some 12V, 40mm square fans that I can put anywhere in the light bays. I'd just drill holes when I want to install them. I've also added some 10x10 notches in the 4 corners to allow cables to run out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAS Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 :thup: loving it :thup: I just used a piece of paper and a rule, I know...... so last century right :facepalm: There is no hard and fast rule for the construction of these,so if its going to work for you go for it,however personally I would think about sealing the lights from the channel,you will get evaporation which may cause problems to light fittings. Simple enough to make sliding doors at back to access tubes. If you do that you just may want to make the channel wider, easier to clean thats all and if you install a bulk head fitting in the bottom at some stage you will need a minimum of 60mm for 25mm fitting. future proofing. You may want to use a "gland fitting" for you cables to go through instead of the 10mm gaps, it will just make it a bit more light tight. Ira is right,no need for silicon if you get the glue right they are water tight. Other wise looking good, but are you sure the screen size is right 50mm x 15mm ? thinking 500 x 150 may work better RUNAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Hehe I meant to say 50cm x 15cm, or 500mm x 150mm. The lights I'm using have waterproof caps on each end and are made for mounting directly above the water anyway. I guess I could try it this way and if I don't like it, I could always glue the panels in. The channel is 78mm wide, so large enough to mount something underneath in the future. Will take it to some plastics places tomorrow and see what it will cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAS Posted September 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 HI,not much to show this week , certainly knocked the a%#*^ out of the black/blue bacteria problem I had :thup: What is on the screen is reminants of that Laters RUNAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted September 23, 2012 Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 So, what's the running cost of this? A few cents a day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAS Posted September 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 Pump rated @ 12.4 W LEDs 10w , so yeah cents. RUNAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted September 23, 2012 Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 Pump rated @ 12.4 W LEDs 10w , so yeah cents. RUNAS Hmmm, So 13-14 cents/day, so about 4 bucks/month. Assuming the light is on 24 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted September 23, 2012 Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 I think he runs the lights at night time, so $2.94 per month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAS Posted September 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 Yep. 16 .hr per day 10 in off peak. Makes little difference to my monthly bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted October 21, 2012 Report Share Posted October 21, 2012 So how's it working? Got lots of green algae now? And if so, can you reuse it and feed it to algae eaters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Not trying to hi-jack, just thought this might be the best place to post. I was inspired by RUNAS to do one of these as well. Mine is a bit bigger and uses 24W T5HO's at the moment. My mesh is 550mm x 190mm, light from both sides. 2200L/H flow. These are my week 1 pictures (I'll take week 2 tonight as I didn't get a chance to clean it over the weekend). Algae was about 2mm thick in most places. Left half: Right half: Both out of the scrubber ready to clean: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 And what has it done to Nitrate levels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAS Posted October 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Hey Phantom. I was just thinking of ya on Sun, I was going to PM you to see how things were going but seems things are going great. Great growth you have there, after a week ! I'm leaving mine alone now, having a peek a week to make sure no blockages and pretty much letting stuff grow. To bad we don't have a "nice algae" smiley. Nitrate levels ? RUNAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Week 2 photos. Nitrate has stayed constant between 10 - 20 ppm the whole time. These pics are after 9 days growth. The growth was easily twice as thick as my week 1 result. In unit: Out of unit: After cleaning: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Are you still using your skimmer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 hrmmm..... nitrates not dropping??? are you still doing your usual maintenance??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Yes still using skimmer, although it pretty much stopped producing after about 5 days running the scrubber. Instead of filling the cup every 3-4 days, it is still only half full after emptying it about 10 days ago. I haven't done water changes while using the scrubber as I wanted to see how well it was working. The nitrates may have dropped, it's hard to really tell where the results sit. I'll do a decent water change this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puttputt Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Nice diy, but alot of work for a pretty poor system of removing nitrate. How anyone gets there nitrates to 80ppm is a mystery to me. A good skimmer, REGULAR weekly water changes and good base of liverock should take care of all of that easy. Bit like a refugium (yes, i've had refugiums), pretty, but growing macro algae is a pretty poor way to control nutrients. If you run your tank right, dont over feed and over stock, - basically the same as you would a tropical marine reef - shouldn't need any other bits and pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAS Posted October 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 puttputt, would you mind telling me what plants etc you have in your tank ? If its a NZ coldie that is. And if it is how does one go about getting them to start growing on the rock? Courious. Thanks RUNAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 tip #1 get rid of your cone snails.... the saltwater ones are worse than the freshwater ones.... if it wasn't for the fact im a bit scared of playing with the balance I have i'd remove the lot. every time I get some algae going well they decide to decimate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puttputt Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Yes, its certainly a nz coldie Runas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.