Finally back to a good place...

J

jonurban

New member
Hello all, it’s been great reading all your posts and taking your advice. About 2 years ago I had a heater fail and my temps increased dramatically while I was away for a weekend resulting in a heartbreaking loss of a lot of livestock. My Spotted Cardinal survived (he’s my buddy, I've had him since 1999) along with a few other fish, but I lost almost everything else. So, after the loss I moved the tank and upgraded to some DIY LED lighting. Previously I had 3 175 watt metal halides with 2 96 watt PC’s. I have to say, i’m happy so far with my LED lights, and I look forward to not dropping a few hundred bucks on bulbs every 12 months. The tank runs cooler now, and no need for a chiller. Restocking is going to be fun, but I’m definitely going to take it slow.

Lighting:
I made three of these DIY LED pendants, they consist of
18 - 3w 20000K cool white , 220lm FEDY LEDS
10 - 3w Royal blue 450-455nm FEDY LEDS
Each pendant has two strings of 14 bulbs and is powered with a meanwell ELN-60-48d driver and 10volt 1amp power axdapter.

Total LEDs : 84
Total Watts: 252
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Refugium:
The refugium is a ESHOPPES R-200 and is illuminated 24x7 with a pendant 50watt LED that I got on ebay from china for $50... I would not recommend this light for a display tank, but works well for a sump.

Skimmer
I also made a DIY skimmer for about $60 in PVC and a RIO 800 Venturi pump. The skimmer is made of 4” 1” and ½” standard PVC, 2" clear pvc and a 5.25” clear acrylic collection cup mounted to a 4" PVC female threaded coupling, the input = 1/2 inch PVC and the output = 1" pvc w/ ball valve to control flow ... for build supplies and directions PM me.

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Main Tank:

The main tank is a 125 gallon RR with 1 Eheim Jager 200 watt heater, 2 SUNSUN JVP 102B pumps, and a unknown powerhead.
This photo is from early July before I started stocking again.. Much of the live rock was made by my brother, my wife and I about 5 years ago. We used the crushed oyster shells, cement and sand, and used directions found on GARF.
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Live Stock
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Welcome to the forum. Great intro and awesome DIY job on the leds! Tank looks great as well!
 
Wow, that's the best DIY rock I've ever seen! Can't wait to see how you reshape this tank. :D
 
Thanks Everyone!

Steveo, here are the materials and instructions for the skimmer, when I get a chance to take some photos I may add them to a DIY thread on the skimmer.

The skimmer can be thought of as two pieces.

The top piece can be called the collection cup...

Collection Cup:
(QTY 1) Clear Extruded Acrylic Round Tube 4 3/4" ID x 5" OD (got off ebay) aprox 6" high.
(QTY 1) 4" Female threaded Coupling
(QTY 1) 4" to 2" reducer
(QTY 1) 2" clear PVC (purcashed on ebay)
(Qty 1) Plastic Cap (I used an old DVD-R tray)

Step 1:
Using PVC glue, affix the 4" to 2" reducer inside the 4" female threaded coupling.

Step 2:
Using Weldon 5 or Crazy Glue, affix the Acrylic tube to the top (non threaded portion) of the coupling. (crazy glue will cause your collection cup to haze)

Step 3: after the glue dries line the inside with a bead of aquarium epoxy.

Step 4:
Cut the 2" clear pvc length to be shorter than the acrylic tube height by about an inch to an inch and a half.


The second piece we can call the stand:

STAND:
(QTY 1) 4" PVC male thread coupling
(QTY 1) 4" diamater PVC [length 24"]
(Qty 1) 4" PVC flange (for the base... get the kind that has the solid knock out bottom, used for toilets)
(QTY 1) 1" uniseal - (drill with a 1.75 hole saw) i got these from aquaticeco
(QTY 1) 1/2" uniseal - (drill with a 1.25 hole saw) i got these from aquaticeco
(~3') 1" PVC
(~3') 1/2" PVC
(QTY 2)1/2 PVC 90 degree elbow
(QTY 3)1" PVC 90 degree elbow
(QTY 1) 1/2 PVC cap


Step 1:
Glue the male threaded coupling to the 2' length of 4" PVC

Step 2:
Glue the 4" flange to the other end of the 2' length of 4" PVC

Step 3:
Using a hole saw drill a 1.75" hole in the pvc at a height that will clear your refugium walls (this will be the output)

Step 4:
About 2" below the step 3 hole, drill a 1.25" hole in the PVC

Step 5:
insert the uniseal grommets in the holes

Step 6:
use a step bit to drill a hole in the 1/2" PVC cap that your RIO pump output will fit into.

Step 7: cut the 1/2" pvc to the correct length and feed it to an elbow and into the stand.

Step 8: cut the 1" pvc to the correct length and feed it to a ball valve and into the stand.

Step 9: inside the stand attach a 1" 90 degree elbow and a length of 1" PVC. You want this length of 1" pvc on the inside of the stand to run almost all the way to the bottom of the stand to help eliminate the amount of bubbles you'll be returning to the refugium.

Step 10: hook up a RIO 800 venturi pump to the 1/2" pvc.

Step 11: use the ball valve to control the output of the skimmer, give it about 2 days to break in.

That's it....
 
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