New Tank

[Richer]

I finally got my new tank temporarly plumbed up and running.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/tank1.jpg

The tank measures 24"x24"x12" and will be lit by a single 250w SE bulb on a HQI ballast. The tank sits on a stand thats about 36" high, which was built to optimize the amount of space under it. All the panels on the stand will be removable to give me the most amount of access to the sump as possible. I'll post up a full pendant/tank/stand shot when I'm finally finished with this project... right now, just about everything is rigged up temporarly (my return is actually 3/4" vinyl hose clamped onto the side of the tank :eek: ).

Just for kicks, here's one of my clowns in her BTA:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/bta.jpg

This was quite the project... just about everything (except the pump and lights) was DIYed, including the tank. If I had to do it again, I'd probably plan the tank swap out a bit better.... I was up until 4am last night (morning!?) doing the swap :eek:.

-Rich

[Aquattro]

lookin' good!!

[Dez]

Whoa, you've been busy....


Did you get a temp ballast to run your 250? TTYL...

Looks great.

Des

[kuatto]

Turned out real nice,cant wait to get my cube set up.

[muck]

Damn Rich you dont fool around!! :eek:
Looking mighty nice. Mayhaps I should pop over sometime and check out the real deal. :mrgreen:

[Richer]

Thanks for the comments :razz:

Dez - I rigged up my 36" 2x250w setup over this tank. I'm taking it down tomorrow. So I still need to find myself a temp ballast until I receive my hqi ballast.

kuatto - Remember to post up pictures when you're done :razz:

muck - Time flies when you're having fun... I actually didn't realize it was 4am until I went upstairs and looked at the clock :eek:

-Rich

[Richer]

Just a small update...

I finally finished up my skimmer today (almost :rolleyes: ).

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/metroopt/Aquarium/Saltwater/skimmer1.jpg

The skimmer measures about 30" high (including collection cup)... there are no flanges on this thing, the collection cup is a push fit, and the riser neck is big enough for my small hands to fit through. The skimmer is fed directly from my overflow drain, and a WP4 (a Sedra 9000 knockoff) is used for recirculation with no venturi. I eventually plan on buying a Sedra 9000 needle wheel impeller in the future... but for now, I'm happy with the results. Picture was taken an hour after I had the skimmer running. I still need to make up a lid for the collection cup... for now a piece of scrap aluminum will have to do :eek:

-Rich

[Delphinus]

Cool setup. Fed by overflow and recirculating should be a very promising way to go.

Maybe I'm a bit tired so I'm overlooking the obvious, but if there's no venturi where are the bubbles coming from?

[Richer]

Thanks Tony. The bubbles are coming from the drain. The recirculating pump just chops them up into finer ones.... I tried running the recirculation pump with the venturi on it, but the skimmer didn't perform as well unless I restricted the airline tube so that it was almost closed. I found that the water within the reaction chamber would burp a lot with the venturi running.

-Rich

[Delphinus]

Oh ... cool. Haha didn't even consider that. Well looks like it's working pretty well. :cool: