AC110 Mod?

[sharuq1]

I was thinking of turning my AC110 into a HOB refugium like I have seen so many others do. However when I did a search for a mod I came up with nada so figured I would start a thread and ask advice.

What I had in mind as a possibility was basically turning it into a kind of mini sumpérefugium. (I unfortunately cannot accomadate a real sump in this particular house due to space limits.) I would like to do this but I would need help on exactly how this could be accomplished, so please reply!

1. Cover 1/2 to possibly 3/4 or 2/3 of the part that the water comes out of with plastic or something so that the water only comes out of the one side. (Bear with me I don't know the names of anything :razz: )

2. Put in 2 or maybe 3 baffles also of something plastic or whatever.

3. Why? Well I was thinking if I put in the baffles the water could go down under the first, then go through whatever chemical media I had, and back over to the next side which would have some sort of macro. Or another way would be to add an extra "chamber if I wanted to put in filter floss to change every couple of days for some added mech. filtration. This way it would for sure go through my media and to me just seems more ordered among other things.

Could this possibly work, or will I just wreck the AC110 and end with water all over my floor? :lol:

[digital-audiophile]

The AC110 is not that big :p

When I used one as a fuge on a 10 gallon tank I just cut up the media basket to make a guard for the return so fish would not get in and used a piece to cover the impeller section and then just put chaeto in it with a little CF light.

Worked pretty well for me.

[fkshiu]

I did the AC110 refugium mod back when I had my 46 gallon. Worked great.

All you have to do is remove all the media baskets and silicone in one acrylic baffle. I also cut down the impellor a little to slow down the flow.

I cut a hole out of the lid and put a little Hagen aquahome light on top (which is really nothing more than a night light). I used a mini-CF bulb from IKEA. The thing grew chaeto like mad. I had to prune it weekly because there isn't a whole bunch of room in there.

I even had enough room on the impellor side of the baffle to jam a small media bag if I wanted to.

I ran it on a reverse light cycle at night so I had to wrap the whole thing in electrical tape. It looked pretty ghetto but worked like a charm.

[fishface]

I did the AC110 refugium mod back when I had my 46 gallon. Worked great.

All you have to do is remove all the media baskets and silicone in one acrylic baffle. I also cut down the impellor a little to slow down the flow.

I cut a hole out of the lid and put a little Hagen aquahome light on top (which is really nothing more than a night light). I used a mini-CF bulb from IKEA. The thing grew chaeto like mad. I had to prune it weekly because there isn't a whole bunch of room in there.

I even had enough room on the impellor side of the baffle to jam a small media bag if I wanted to.

I ran it on a reverse light cycle at night so I had to wrap the whole thing in electrical tape. It looked pretty ghetto but worked like a charm.

i did the same but ran mine 24/7. worked very well...

[Wiedertäufer]

If you can't find an easy source of acrylic, you can also use the media basket itself or a cover from a cd case or something.

[Brent F]

Here's a long thread on making a refugium out of an AC70

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=601201&perpage=25&highlight=how%20to%20DIY%20an&pagenumber=1
________
ufc (http://ultimatefighters.org)

[Wiedertäufer]

I've actually heard that regular household GOOP is way easier to use for this project than silicone. I think in that thread the person mentions they redid it with a different adhesive. Silicone doesn't stick to the plastic the filter is made out of very well. I'd recommend the regular household GOOP.

As for a light, I'm planning on making a simple one for a spiral type screw in bulb. Chaeto grows really really well under 5500K+ daylight bulbs.

EDIT - also, here's a good post about a very simple mod to the media basket without having to cut or glue anything:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9483243#post9483243

[sharuq1]

Finally got around to modding my AC110 and here are the results. Figured I would post a few pics for the pic-lovers.

First I took out the basket, pulled it apart and covered the little vent on one side with a piece of plastic.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6218/dec1407042bj4.jpg

Next I dabbed on some crazy glue as well as using silicone to put in channels I had lying around from a glass tank cover that is not in use anymore. This will be for the baffle. The channels enable me to take the baffle right out whenever I want.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7655/dec1407043sj4.jpg
^back channel
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5905/dec1407044rd8.jpg
^front channel
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1549/dec1407038sl0.jpg
^and here is the baffle in place

I also put some plastic I had laying around on the front to keep the water flowing under the baffle and through the chaeto instead of out of the filter. I used the bottom of the filter basket and cut it, again using some channels to be able to place it as I found the basket rather hard to glue on. I used both silicone and a minor amount of super glue to place it.
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/3572/dec14070491qt6.jpg

I can fit in a mechanical filter (although not perfectly, I had to trim it and my baffle is a bit crooked). When this one is used up I will just gut it and keep sticking on floss and maybe add a bag of good carbon.
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2811/dec1407035vr3.jpg

Last I decided I didn't want salt water all over my light, so I took more channeling, this time one of the pieces that is bendable (for a flip lid or something on the top of a tank). I placed it on the back and siliconed/glued it there. Then I put the glass lid from my 2.5gallon tank into the slot. After that I used left over channels to stick on the front of the lid to protect it somewhat from me and my klutzy-ness. Adding glass will also have the benefit of cutting down on the evaporation. I put the light on the top and decided it was very slippery there....
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/5504/dec1407037si8.jpg

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/3686/dec1407046ei4.jpg

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7783/dec1407047uu1.jpg

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7330/dec1407048sf3.jpg

Light is a one bulb screw in cf that is supposed to be for a 5g tank.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/8105/dec1407049pf8.jpg

And here she is all lit up.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6181/dec1407051rk4.jpg


Sooo I tied a bunch of zip ties together and zip tied it onto the glass top. I didn't have any black paint lying around so I took the foil christmas wrap and taped that around the whole thing to keep the light inside the filter.
(can't see that as I didn't take a pic of it.) Pretty groovy looking all blue and sparkly like a christmas present, lol :lol:

In a few days time after it has totally dried I will give it a test run and see if it worked :)


Edit: It is running on the tank now. I did not mod the impeller, and flow was a bit too high at the baffle so I cut off an inch of it and put it back. Still considering modding the impeller but for now I am just going to leave it. Am getting some light leakage at the top of the ac and through the screen holding the chaeto in, but other than that it seems to work fine.

More recent edit: I ended up taking the mechanical filter pad thing out, it was more trouble than it was worth. Impeller mod was not nesc. so didn't do it. Made a little eggcrate stand to keep water flow up and through the chaeto (keeps it off the floor). All worked great.

[robzilla]

thanks for the photos, i gonna use of some the plastic meshing and do the same thing for mine, as the cheato sometimes escapes.