HecticDialectics Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 dang... that's some shopping list! Got awesome written all over it! I considered a controller too, but I'm not sure what the point of it would be... I don't trust the cheapo temp probes enough (ranco ftw), I already have a timer I can stick my lights on, and the Bubble Magnus doser has a self-contained timer. Nothing left for the controller to control. Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 HD, I don't know about the Arctica chillers. However, my Current chiller has an outlet for a heater. It applies power when the it reads a lower than programed temp. So, you may want to investigate that before buying a redundant temp sensor. Link to comment
J-Ranko Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 I'm waiting for a giant check in the mail, but I've added an SWC Xtreme 120 cone skimmer, a Bubble Magnus dosing pump, a JBJ Artica chiller, and a Ranco dual stage temp controller to my list of stuff to buy. Buying stuff is so fun. My black silicone is still in the mail. Looks like tracking says either today or tomorrow. Why are you buying a chiller? Will you be lighting this tank with metal halide? Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 HD, I don't know about the Arctica chillers. However, my Current chiller has an outlet for a heater. It applies power when the it reads a lower than programed temp. So, you may want to investigate that before buying a redundant temp sensor. Articas are supposed to be better. Also a quick internet search appears to suggest Current discontinued the line? I'll buy yours for like $30... Why are you buying a chiller? Will you be lighting this tank with metal halide? I live in Texas, and I like to set my thermostat to like 87 in the summer when I leave to keep the bills down. It'll be cheaper to run a chiller than keep my apartment at 78 with an outside wind chill of 100. Link to comment
Drift Monkey Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 I feel like I could probably use a chiller. I never turn on my AC because I'm a cheap college student. This looks like a nice build though...I'll be followin' along! Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Articas are supposed to be better. Also a quick internet search appears to suggest Current discontinued the line? I'll buy yours for like $30... I live in Texas, and I like to set my thermostat to like 87 in the summer when I leave to keep the bills down. It'll be cheaper to run a chiller than keep my apartment at 78 with an outside wind chill of 100. Moran! I'm not suggesting you buy mine. I'm suggesting you find out if it has a switched outlet for a heater. If it does, you may be buying a temperature sensor needlessly. Link to comment
spanko Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 .................... than keep my apartment at 78 with an outside wind chill of 100. I spit my coffee on my keyboard, wind chill of a 100, that's funny right there. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 Moran! I'm not suggesting you buy mine. I'm suggesting you find out if it has a switched outlet for a heater. If it does, you may be buying a temperature sensor needlessly. Oooooh! Yeah I don't think it does? I can't find any posts or advertising that SAYS it does, at least. Anyone know for sure because they're staring at their Artica right now? Everything I found on NR/RC suggested everyone either runs them on controllers (rancos, reefkeepers, etc.), or they play chicken with their heater and leave both hooked up to nothing, then just fiddle with the heater and chiller temps till they turn on at different times. I'm still not sure between a ranco and a rkl, tho, honestly. It's super hard to find something on the internet about a ranco failing, but the rk temp sensors have tons of posts with some people even saying they keep 2 back-ups because every 6 months the temp will wander crazy high or low. Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 I did a little digging for ya. I don't think it has that. The Arctica is a single stage chiller, while the Current is a dual stage. I'm assuming this means what I think it does. You may want to verify, just in case. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 I did a little digging for ya. I don't think it has that. The Arctica is a single stage chiller, while the Current is a dual stage. I'm assuming this means what I think it does. You may want to verify, just in case. thanks, ray! everything i've found suggests the same, and I spent a solid hour or so looking for info. my overflow is officially going (back) in tonight, will post pics of the entire original and re-do jobs. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 Arrrg! Throwing away my glass overflow. Ordering some black acrylic right now. I'll just have to keep up on scraping it to stop coralline growth. I just can't get the glass to look good. The black silicone is just a hair lighter than my black background paint, so the seam gluing the long piece to the short side piece looks dumb. :facepalm: And I don't want paint to start flaking off a year from now either. Link to comment
Mini-Dude Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Arrrg! Throwing away my glass overflow. Ordering some black acrylic right now. I'll just have to keep up on scraping it to stop coralline growth. I just can't get the glass to look good. The black silicone is just a hair lighter than my black background paint, so the seam gluing the long piece to the short side piece looks dumb. :facepalm: And I don't want paint to start flaking off a year from now either. I'm sorry...GL in making it Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 Nothin to be sorry about. It sucked. There's apparently a reason no one uses glass to make an overflow. It'll take me all of 15 minutes to heat, form, and install the acrylic. Link to comment
calvin415 Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Nothin to be sorry about. It sucked. There's apparently a reason no one uses glass to make an overflow. It'll take me all of 15 minutes to heat, form, and install the acrylic. +1 Acrylic FTW! Don't silicone it in so you can remove it for easy cleaning. Link to comment
anemone fan Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Sump Baffle Silicone-ing! How to silicone basics: 1. Get glass cut. Get it cut 1/8" smaller than width of sump so you have a 1/16" gap on each side when installed. Measure your sump, these Aqueon tanks are a toss up on real dimensions. 2. Tape off however wide your glass is. Mine was 1/4" glass, so I taped off 1/4" where i wanted the baffles. 3. Set up a rig to keep the glass in place. Something as simple as tape against the wall of the aquarium can work. See pictures below. For a bubble trap raised baffle, you get more creative. I had some foam from something. You can also use lil 1" square blocks, I dunno, look around your house and find something small to wedge under. You only silicone the sides. 4. Preparation is key. Wipe glass down with alcohol. Walk through the steps prior to starting to run the silicone. 5. Run a nice sized bead of silicone down the edges of the glass. For pieces sitting ON the glass (i.e. the non-bubble trap pieces like the last glass on the right in pictures below, which will be space for the return pump), I found it easier to lay down a bead of silicone on the bottom of the glass. Set the piece in place. Tape it to hold it upright 90 degrees. And THEN run the side beads as described above. 6. Wet finger. 7. Run finger along the beads to push the silicone between the baffle and the tank. Wiggle baffle a little to make sure the silicone is sticking. 8. Wipe off fingers on paper towel. 9. Remove tape. Pull tape edge closest to the glass AWAY from the glass. You don't want to smear silicone that's on the tape all over your visible glass. See picture below. 10. ??? 11. Profit. That is a good write up, love the ADA. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 Thanks! Once my acrylic gets here, I'll do some more write-ups for tearing out overflows, scraping glass, and molding acrylic. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 +1 Acrylic FTW! Don't silicone it in so you can remove it for easy cleaning. It's pretty awesome how that works on your overflow. I may give that a shot. I need to do some calculations tho to make sure the water level above my lowest drain, should the non-siliconed overflow leak for some random reason, isn't too much for my sump to handle. I designed my sump to have around 2.5-3g of headroom. And I anticipate ~1/3 of my tank's water will be over the lowest drain (3-3.3g), so it'll be close. For those following along at home: the water pressure against the overflow is capable of holding the acrylic against the glass (i.e. substantially more water outside the overflow box than inside). Ordinarily, if the overflox box were siliconed to the glass, the sump needs enough room to handle the water only in the overflow box over the lowest drain, plus water in any plumbing that will, as gravity dictates, flow back down. But if you're risque like calvin, then you need to be able to accomodate all of the water above the lowest drain over the entire main tank, instead of just the overflow box. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 Acrylic UPS tracking number received, ships tomorrow morning. :X Hopefully I'll have it by this Friday. I threw in a starboard base... kinda raise my tank up an inch. It's black, 3/8". No idea if it'll look nice. I think the cabinet I'm getting as a stand is going to be white, so it might add some contrast and meld the black background and black fixture together. Or it might look dumb. As The World Turns! Link to comment
d9hp Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 Thanks for the baffle write up...definitely would have tried to do all three of the bubble trap baffles at the same time without even think about it...and then disaster would have happened for sure. Which silicone did you use? Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Thanks for the baffle write up...definitely would have tried to do all three of the bubble trap baffles at the same time without even think about it...and then disaster would have happened for sure. Which silicone did you use? I just used the standard small tube aquarium silicone for the baffles. They aren't really under a lot of pressure. You could get something like the RTV 103/108 silicone if you really wanted, which is some hardcore stuff, but for sump baffles not really necessary. I've been pretty significantly side-tracked on my build for the past two or so weeks because it's gettin' to be busy season at school. I might get around to the overflow tonight tho. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 Fun with Overflows Here's the glass overflow. I like the sharp lines, but as you can see, there's light bleed through the inside wall and you can see a big bubble or two in the seam facing the front on the corner. Some 14lb fishing line I tied onto two page-binding rings for sliding between the overflow and the glass, works fantastic Once you get the sides free with the fishing line, you can just pull the glass away and cut the bottom silicone with a razor blade Clean up was done with some razor blades. I went through maybe 4 of them, completely scraping the remaining silicone away from the glass. Acrylic: Ah, black silicone! I haven't cleaned out the silicone dust yet, so excuse the dirty tank. I, of course, wiped away the dust from where I siliconed the new overflow using some 90% rubbin' alcohol. I siliconed it the same way I siliconed the sump baffles, so check out that post for how to tape stuff off. I'm going to plumb it tomorrow night and fill it with water Sunday. :X Link to comment
davidr2340 Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Nice work HD! Can't wait to see this thing wet!!! Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 #$%!#@#$! I just cracked my sump by picking it up. I hate Aqueon. Thankfully it's only the upper part of one pane on the return side, so it'll still hold water where it needs to. I'm not making another one, but i might patch it with a piece of acrylic outlined in silicone. Link to comment
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