SkullV's Aquarium Adventures
- Thread starter SkullV
- Start date
Lil BamBam
Premium member
Yeah, corals here in AZ are a bit high and not to impressive like Chicago! But glad to have you in AZ..
SkullV
New member
Thanks Dre, and thanks for the hospitality last week!
Unfortunately here in the desert, I had to go back to LED for the sake of my electric bill. Went with the Maxspect 16k since I got a killer deal and to be honest, I hate it, but it'll work for now. The tank is starting to fill up a little bit. Just need to find a few more items. Hope all is well in Chicagoland with the storms and what not.
SkullV
New member
Thanks man! Saw your 40 thread and it looks great too. But as far as the light....nope! I hate the 3 cluster layout and hate the chip color even more! I don't know how you can go from that awesome spectrum in your DIY nanocube to this razor and say you love it! If I could drop all but 3 of the warm white chips and swap them for royal blue or even lime I would be much happier! With just the lps, zoas and nems its fine, but if I was doing sps this light would be for sale! I forgot how much shading you get with LEDs compared to T5s and this fixtures layout isn't doing it any favors in that regard.
Jep21
Well-known member
The light kind of grown on me lol but i agree with u i still prefer the nanocube diy led to this light.. I will eventually switch to better lighting but not for awhile.. So what size tank are u gonna eventually upgrade to bro?
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SkullV
New member
Next tank really depends on the house we buy. We've been looking at a few places but probably won't buy for another year or so to make some money on the condo were in now. I have been looking at large plywood tanks though and starting to get pretty interested. The real problem down here is chilling any kind of water volume with three 0s after it would cost a fortune.
ColaAddict
New member
Lookin good Ted.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
SkullV
New member
Hola amigos (see what I did there?). Its hot out but that didn't stop me from spending 4x as much on a low profile overflow and custom cut acrylic sump baffles as the tank/sump for my small upgrade! Still a small tank, not a nano anymore though. Doubled my water volume with a 40g Breeder and 20g sump and I figured I would post here to keep the build in one place.
Used the 1200gph Low Profile Overflow from Modular Marine on eBay and I love it! Ultra quiet with the beananimal system plumbed in (dare I say silent.....) and very slim in the tank:
I decided I was going to want more fish with the slightly larger tank, so I modified my trusty SCA301 skimmer by drilling out the bottom to accommodate a 1/2" uniseal bulkhead and swapping in a Sicce SK200 Needlewheel Skimmer Pump. All I can say about this thing is WOW, the air draw is incredible compared to the Atmann 1100 that was in there before. It skims is so much better that my girlfriend made me go out and make a carbon filter for the skimmer lid (more about that later). For anyone considering the SCA301, go with the Seaside aquatics CS3.5 its the same skimmer with the Sicce pump already installed.
Went with some custom cut acrylic baffles for my sump. These were also made by Modular Marine on eBay Glued them in with DAP Aquarium Silicone and am very happy with the result. The refugium chamber uses black acrylic and has teeth cut from 11" down to 8.5". This contains all of the light from my Par30 Refugium LED and will keep any snails, crabs, or misfit fish that need to spend some time in that chamber contained. The craftsmanship by Modular Marine is incredible and I would highly recommend him for any DIY sump or overflow builds.
Since I wanted to run my tank, chiller, and biopellet reactor off of one pump, I upgraded from the Jebao DC3000 to the new Jebao/Jecod DCT6000. The pump isn't silent but it is very very quiet. I can only hear it with my head inside the stand. Flow inside the tank comes from the same two Jebao WP10 pumps that I have been using forever. They got their first cleaning ever during the change over.
For my ATO container I am using a very nice 7.5g acrylic reservoir from Reefcreators.com. The craftsmanship is great and it looks great sitting next to the black stand, for everyone with significant others, this one's appearance was "girlfriend approved":
Aquascape is largely unchanged from the 20g. Just more space for fish and more sandbed for some nice LPS and Clams. About time to contact [MENTION=433]AACorals[/MENTION] again!:
The only things I don't like about this build currently are the stupid Maxspect Razor 160w LED and the fact that I used regular PVC which I painted with Krylon Fusion rather than using Black PVC. I regret that decision so much that I will be replumbing the whole tank when we re-do the floors next year and I have to move it. I really want to go back to T5, but its just too hot here. I did get a good chuckle scanning the forums and seeing some of the recent LED to T5 changeovers though!
Hope all is well back in Chicago!
Used the 1200gph Low Profile Overflow from Modular Marine on eBay and I love it! Ultra quiet with the beananimal system plumbed in (dare I say silent.....) and very slim in the tank:
I decided I was going to want more fish with the slightly larger tank, so I modified my trusty SCA301 skimmer by drilling out the bottom to accommodate a 1/2" uniseal bulkhead and swapping in a Sicce SK200 Needlewheel Skimmer Pump. All I can say about this thing is WOW, the air draw is incredible compared to the Atmann 1100 that was in there before. It skims is so much better that my girlfriend made me go out and make a carbon filter for the skimmer lid (more about that later). For anyone considering the SCA301, go with the Seaside aquatics CS3.5 its the same skimmer with the Sicce pump already installed.
Went with some custom cut acrylic baffles for my sump. These were also made by Modular Marine on eBay Glued them in with DAP Aquarium Silicone and am very happy with the result. The refugium chamber uses black acrylic and has teeth cut from 11" down to 8.5". This contains all of the light from my Par30 Refugium LED and will keep any snails, crabs, or misfit fish that need to spend some time in that chamber contained. The craftsmanship by Modular Marine is incredible and I would highly recommend him for any DIY sump or overflow builds.
Since I wanted to run my tank, chiller, and biopellet reactor off of one pump, I upgraded from the Jebao DC3000 to the new Jebao/Jecod DCT6000. The pump isn't silent but it is very very quiet. I can only hear it with my head inside the stand. Flow inside the tank comes from the same two Jebao WP10 pumps that I have been using forever. They got their first cleaning ever during the change over.
For my ATO container I am using a very nice 7.5g acrylic reservoir from Reefcreators.com. The craftsmanship is great and it looks great sitting next to the black stand, for everyone with significant others, this one's appearance was "girlfriend approved":
Aquascape is largely unchanged from the 20g. Just more space for fish and more sandbed for some nice LPS and Clams. About time to contact [MENTION=433]AACorals[/MENTION] again!:
The only things I don't like about this build currently are the stupid Maxspect Razor 160w LED and the fact that I used regular PVC which I painted with Krylon Fusion rather than using Black PVC. I regret that decision so much that I will be replumbing the whole tank when we re-do the floors next year and I have to move it. I really want to go back to T5, but its just too hot here. I did get a good chuckle scanning the forums and seeing some of the recent LED to T5 changeovers though!
Hope all is well back in Chicago!
SkullV
New member
Thanks man, and yeah, the sicce pump is a great change. I'm not sure why anyone would buy bubble magus skimmers when the seaside skimmers are identical, usually the same price or cheaper, and come with sicce pumps! The JNS/Aquamaxx shark pumps are sicce motor blocks as well.
Actually I forgot to mention, this dump was built around the eventual purchase of an Aquaxx Cones CO-1.
SkullV
New member
lookin' good Counselor......love the "disco" LED color spots you gotz goin' on........time to go T5 brah....
oh yeah....stock SWC/Atman skimmer FTW.....5 years and counting.....bawhahahahah!!!!
Nothing wrong with the atman pumps, but the sicce can be had for the same price and is so much better. 5 years ago that SWC was a mid/high end skimmer though. As far as the light, I know, I hate it! I could probably get the wider optics and turn the intensity up a bit to fix the color banding, but that won't fix the crappy choice they made in picking their chip combo.
SkullV
New member
Thanks! If I had a stand the size of yours there would be some crazy stuff going on in there!