Finally my tank arrived ! and my DIY reactor and skimmer

Chin_Lee · #1 07-08-2004, 06:20 AM

Well its been a long seven months since I had first ordered my first tank from IA, and a long three months since my second tank and I finally received the tank on June 29th. I had sold the first tank because the couch didn't fit between the tank and the stairway and it needed to be 3 inches shorter. This was what it was like for the past three months after I had built that stand for the first tank:

The tank arrived, I cut the stand, put the tank on top and voila:

Couch fits beside the tank. I put up the banister yesterday behind the couch which made my wife very happy because my little one can't jump/fall from the kitchen down the couch and into the family room.
The overflow at the end of the tank is plumbed down to my basement where I have a 180 sump/refugium under the stairs.

On top of the sump is my chiller that used to be for a lobster tank. The coils used to be long and oval but I had carefully bent the pipes to be able to fit in my sump. Its a pretty heavy duty chiller since its was used to chill room temp water cold enough for lobsters/crabs. The sump had just finished filling with RO/DI water (notice how blue the RO/DI water is)and I'm filling the actual tank now.

Here's my little one playing inside the tank:

So with my free time while I had been waiting for the tank, I built myself a DJ88 calcium reactor:

This design is very simple and very enjoyable to make. I haven't started using it so I can't elaborate on its effectiveness but it gets GREAT reviews on RC.

After I had finished the DJ88 reactor, I still had more time so I decided to make a BIG skimmer. I had a whole bunch these parts cut for me

about a year ago in a CNC machine shop when I was really keen about making these things but I suddenly lost interest so they've been sitting in my garage for the past year. But I decided since I have the parts, why not make a big skimmer just for fun. So I played around with the table saw and router for a few hours and made these:

I put them together and its about 4 feet tall. I also put two holes for dual injectors in case I decided to upgrade later on. I glued the smaller riser just a little crooked so I am naming this skimmer the Leaning Skimmer of Pisa. It shouldn't really affect the skimming any. One thing I did on this skimmer is that I used a 1/4" round corner router bit on the inside of the bottom of both tubes to create a smooth edge; I'm hoping it will help with the rising of the bubbles by eliminating the sharp edges. Here's the skimmer beside my niece and my distressed son.

I'll post pics later once the skimmer is in operation. I've been waiting patiently for two days for my sump to get filled and I'm expecting another two days for my tank to get filled. Once thats done, then it will be time to add the salt and the fun begins!!!!

yagimax · #2 07-08-2004, 06:59 AM

Wow, great looking setup and thanks for the super pics.
I'm looking forward to your updates and hopefully you won't look as distressed as your son did.

Gary

hockey nut · #3 07-08-2004, 07:15 AM

VERY NICE. The best part is setting it up and adding all that rock etc. Have fun

. Would luv to see pics somtime. Cheers

LostMind · #4 07-08-2004, 07:44 AM

Congrats Chin! Looks good so far

johnny rock · #5 07-08-2004, 10:53 AM

very nice bud!!! were did you get the stand?? Did you post on www.aquariacanada.com those pics? I recall seeing a reactor just like that! looks really good. I see you like the shade of white

Doug · #6 07-08-2004, 01:09 PM

Looking good. Nice work on the skimmer & reactor.

Gujustud · #7 07-08-2004, 03:40 PM

Looking very sharp! Great work on that skimmer. Whoever made the parts did a good job

Btw, I just noticed in the second pic, you've got the jumper chair pretty close to the tank. Hopefully your son won't take a jump to see his fishy's

Chin_Lee · #8 07-08-2004, 09:25 PM

Thanks all for your encouragement.
Jonny Rock, no i didn't post on Aquaria.ca and I built the stand myself. About 6 inches of the stand is on the kitchen side and the remainder is in the family room. It gives me an extra six inches in the room while making the tank a part of the separating wall. I took the color from the house interior design and bought a gallon of the same paint for the stand; my hood will be the same color.
The reactor is a very popular design by DJ88 and he posted the designs on RC. The trend has about 60 pages!!! Check it out, very interesting trend.
Gujustud, the high chair is moved around to feed the little one but thanks for your concern.
I'll post more pics once my rocks and everything is in. I've got another 18 inches of water to fill in my tank!

snaggle · #9 07-09-2004, 12:54 AM

how big is the tank it looks huge

Chin_Lee · #10 07-09-2004, 03:20 AM

the tanks 68x24x24 - i think its about 170 gallons. I really wanted to put a tank right across the entire length of the room where the couch is but I didn't think that the flooring would have held it up. And of course another primary reason is $$$$$ - this set up is already hitting my bank account pretty hard. Thank goodness for overtime.