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Sammy's 20G Cube


sammy113

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Hi guys! After a while without reefing due to my last move and had to sell my 40B, I'm ready to start again. This time with a smaller tank. When I saw ELOS mini tank I loved it. Unfortunately its out of my budget.... So, I decided to take some ideas from it and create something similar. The system consists of a tank with the same measures (17x17x16), nice slick stand and sump. Also the lighting will be a DIY that I'm about to put together. I have a friend that works in a glass shop and offer me all the glass cut to size and even drilled for free, how can I say no?. The light will be LED driven and have almost everything ordered waiting to be received. So far I have the tank done, Sump and part of the stand. Sorry, I didn't took any pictures of the build. Still need to finish the stand, get some plumbing stuff. Still haven't bough a pump and protein skimmer.

What pump you guys think will be enough for this tank? I was thinking on a Mag3 maybe a 5 will be too much.

As for the skimmer, don;t really know what to get. he space is very little in the sump so I need a small footprint skimmer. Any toughs? Now for a few pics!

 

Updated FTS

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Here's a crappy render with lights on

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Few Side Views:

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Thanks Maria!

 

And now into the real pics of what I've done so far

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Drain down to sump is 1" and return from pump is 3/4" (just inside the tank. guess will have to reduce it to 1/2" to connect it to the pump. It was a mistake on the glass shop drilling the hole)

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The Sump, pretty simple

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Here's some pics.of the stand. All laminated except for the door that took to the shop to drill some holes for the hinges. The door will go in white like the rest and will cover it with red vinyl. Couldn't find red laminate.

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With the the tank sitting on it :P

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Aaaand look what came in the mail yesterday...

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And the Heatsink also... The power supply, fan and cable are on its way, should be here today. Still need the LEDs that bough in the group buy with evilc66

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Great build! I look forward to seeing more.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Looks really nice. Is the tank hanging off the front edge a tad?

 

Yes it is. Thats because the front door will sit right there under the edge of the tank and closes flush to the tank like the sides. Still have to finish the door tough...

 

I'm a little slow now until I get the bulkhead for the return. I need to have it before I glue the corner overflow and will have to somehow come up with something in such little space. In the Sketchup drawings I made it with PVC to the top but I'm afraid that will be very difficult. Guess I'll ave to go with flexible hose. Any toughs???

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Paleoreef103

Very nice! How many LEDs do you plan on running? Guessing by the 2 buckpacks, 12, but maybe you have more. What'll be the configuration? Optics?

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Paleoreef103 said:
Very nice! How many LEDs do you plan on running? Guessing by the 2 buckpacks, 12, but maybe you have more. What'll be the configuration? Optics?

 

Thanks! I'm going with 12 LEDs two 1000ma buckpucks with potentiometers to dimm if necessary. While I wait for the rest of the LED stuff to come I'm still designing the fixture and LED color configurations. This is what I have so far. Any advice? Ideas etc always welcome. Today I got some more stuff in the mail. I just need my LEDs.

 

The fan is a 24.5V one. Can I plug this together in the 24V power supply along with the LEDs without problems?

 

Evilc66 you don't know how much I'm suffering! lol WHERE'S MY LEDS!?!?! JK. Got a great deal with him and the group buy :P No more talk... here's the pics!

 

DSCF1116.jpg

Question: Should I place the fan over the heat sink or does it work better removing or grinding some of the fins and putting it like built in? P.S. sorry for my english, is not the best... :(

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First design with rectangular housing. Material: Probably thick acrylic or wood

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Second. Circular fixture. Material: PVC pipe (8" diameter x 1/4" thick)

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Thats all for now! Still need some little stuff on the tank to make the first water test with pumps and all. I have a 500GPH cheapo pump somewhere and probably will try it. What do you guys recommend on a tank like this?

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Scrumptious

:lol:

 

Looks like a good start. The fixture looks very Elos E-Lite ish.

Thanks! yup pretty much Elos, I like their design. How their fixture works in terms of cooling the lamp? Does the entire aluminum housing works as the heatsink? because I didn't saw any fans on it or breathing vents/holes in some of them. I've seen one with some kind of ventilation pointing at the water but saw other completely closed

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yep, the entire housing acts as a giant heatsink, it gets pretty hot.

 

That is the regular Elite, I think in the limited edition Elite, it does have a fan but m not sure how it operates.

 

PS: good start :), oh and as for ur idea of using acrylic for the fixture housing, I would be careful. Heat+acrylic is not a pretty good combination.

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yep, the entire housing acts as a giant heatsink, it gets pretty hot.

 

That is the regular Elite, I think in the limited edition Elite, it does have a fan but m not sure how it operates.

 

PS: good start :), oh and as for ur idea of using acrylic for the fixture housing, I would be careful. Heat+acrylic is not a pretty good combination.

 

Thats what I tough about the E-lite... I'm also concern about using acrylic in the lamp and the heat. Tough maybe it could melt or bend a little and that definitely something I don't want. Thats why I tough about using 1/2" thick that hold more head before it tries to bend or melt. Maybe not a good idea overall.

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Thanks Adin and Bruce. Today I'm working on the corner overflow and rest f the plumbing. Hope to finish this and glue it today. Hopefully by tomorrow I can do a water test. Still need a friggin pump. Don't know if try one of those new Maxi Jet or go with a mag 2 or 3. I don't think I need high flow from the pump as I'll be running a fuge. I also have a koralia nano that maybe can use if more flow is needed.

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Time to update!

Finished the corned overflow. Didn't turned out the way I really planned but came out very nice tough. I wish it had a 1/2" bulkhead then the locline with the nozzle but its not easy to find those black bulhead here in PR. Tried buying online and after 6 days of the order placed, the package never got ship because there was a problem with my address. Actually no one ever contact me, it was me who asked for the package. The decided to somehow use regular PVC bulkheads that I have a lot of them and drilled the acrylic so the 1/2" threaded end of the locline tightens behind the acrylic with the elbow. Tomorrow I'll run it with water.

Full shot with stand done. Still need the red Vinyl Sticker for the door. Will get it by monday

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In case you where wondering, the water will overflow over the acrylic. I tried to to the teeths like all overflows but looks like my router bit was not helping me. Will use a row of eggcrate painted black to prevent fish getting sucked.

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And my Suggie looking at me like "what the hell you doin'? its 3PM let me sleep!!!"

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Short Update. Finally! its up and running! Ran the water test with just a small water leak in the hose from the pump to the tank. Just tighten the clamp and voila'. The overflow works very nice, the plumbing is extremely quiet, I tough the 1" drain tube will sound like a toilet without the durso (I don't have space for it) Still need just to glue the plastic over the overflow to prevent fish jumping over it and then start the light. I will start the fixture housing to entertain myself with something until the LEDs arrive. Heres a vid of it running:

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Man, that tank is awesome.. That is some great work you do. I can't wait to see what you do with the LED fixture.

 

 

Oh and by the way, that sugar glider is the coolest pet I have ever seen. What a cute little guy..

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Very nice build, did a great job mimicking the elos. The overflow is a little worrisome, hopefully you are setting up a very reliable top off system. Since it has no cut outs slots (atleast I cant see any) in it if the water level drops below no water will be going into the sump...

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Man, that tank is awesome.. That is some great work you do. I can't wait to see what you do with the LED fixture.

 

Oh and by the way, that sugar glider is the coolest pet I have ever seen. What a cute little guy..

 

Thanks! Hopefully within week and a half already have the LEDs here and all running! My sugar glider is a cutie I love him :happy:

 

 

Very nice build, did a great job mimicking the elos. The overflow is a little worrisome, hopefully you are setting up a very reliable top off system. Since it has no cut outs slots (atleast I cant see any) in it if the water level drops below no water will be going into the sump...

 

I'm definitely installing a top off system. Also DIY already have the float switch and all. If the power goes of there is not a lot of water going down the overflow. Most of the water goes down thru the nozzle from the pump but doesn't overflow my sump (already test everything) if the pump compartment runs out of water and the top off isn't working, definitely there will be no water flowing down to the sump again but I have a koralia nano for extra water movement. That is something that could just happen with anyone with a surface overflow box or something similar. I didn't made any holes under water level cause I prefer to collect water from just the top tough. Not sure if I answer your question or explained myself. Thanks for worrying! good observation

 

Very nice build so far! I like the rectangular light better. Good job!

 

Yup! mee too! I'm definitely going with the rectangular. Anyways I plan to do this that it can be easy to change just in case. Just remove the heat sink with fan and LEDs and get it inside the new housing :D

 

this tank build is friggin schweet! great job!

Thanks Dude! ;)

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Hi guys, I've been working on the lamp housing. I had some 1/2" acrylic laying around and decided to give it a try. As this is 1/2" thick and acrylic needs to reach super high temps before it gets to melt or bent tough might work. I have some thin aluminum sheet to cover it after everything is done. I hope I can glue it with contact cement.

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Right now is taller than I wanted to be but since I will try some optics on this I don't want them to stick out of the fixture housing so I will have to raise the heatsink a little. Maybe at the end I can trim it a little. I have doubts about the fan over the heatsink. Does it go blowing air to the heatsink or is it better to have it removing air from it?

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I was thinking that maybe I coud have a piece of thin aluminum and drill it with the exact diameter of the optics and have a nice even finish to hide the wiring, screws and stuff and just have the optics flush with this aluminum sheet?

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