Thanks Kien, ideas are meant to be shared! God knows I stole a few from Greg!

Yeah. That is one cool ATO. :)


Its going so slow its painful. I haven't done much in the last week or so, been way too busy at work. Ordered a couple new poly tanks for a bigger mixing station though... :)

Nice! I look forward to more updates of the progress! I wish I had the space for an 'Ichthyology Laboratory'!

Finished job looks great Warren. :first:

Thanks Laurie!

You must be close to putting water in soon eh!

I wish! There are still 4 big ticket items I want/need before start up.

1) Dosing pump. Thinking about a Libra, just because it matches the black/red/white theme. Alternative choice is a BM or a Kamoer. Single dosing pumps are out of the question.
2) Controller: Decided on the Apex
3) Chiller: Need a 1/5 or 1/4 minimum.
4) Lighting: Still can't decide LED or T5. I want the best of both worlds, but ATI's hybrid's are so expensive, and they don't come in black. Considering a DIY hybrid.

Those four items equal big $$$. Plus I still need consumables and test kits, not to mention rock from Eli, substrate, salt, etc. I may need to get a second job, lol.

Might not be salty until Christmas. If that's the case then the chiller can wait until next summer.

Why do we choose this hobby again?! I'm just thankful my wife is supportive!

I'm wondering why you want such a big chiller ?

My system is 105G total and I use a 1/10HP
It's only 280 watts and I run it with an Eheim Compact+ 2000

My old 1/4HP was 480 watts and required a minimum 600+ GPH so more power and money on a bigger, noisier pump

Good question Greg. Let me ask you this, on a very hot day how long does your chiller run?

Ya ya, it runs longer

When it's hot enough in the house for me to be uncomfortable and can't sleep, I turn on our whole house air and the chiller then doesn't run
So 1800 watts of 24/7 power saves me 300 watts of tank hardware power :lol:

My old 1/4HP used to run for 4 mins and this one probably runs for 10, so there goes all my power savings

But, I like using my 1/10HP as it's very quiet. I leave the pump running and never hear it (no stale water in the chiller)
And the setup takes up considerably less space
Plus it and the pump were about $250 less

With a 1/4HP unit at least you won't have to worry about working it too hard
Just be sure it's setup properly so it doesn't short-cycle and burn itself out
I initially had trouble setting up my old one and it would run for about 45 seconds every 4 mins :surprise:

Oh, plus I had to put the old chiller in my office as we couldn't sleep with it running beside the tank