ashtricks Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Plans changed and I am not going to use the Spec V as my first saltwater tank. Instead I will be using the 20L lying around. The tank will be bare bottom. I am not a fan of anything HOB coz I have had nothing but bad luck with them. So the AIO is the best thing I can do with the 30inches of viewing that the 20L gives me. I don't have the tools to cut the teeth for surface skimmer so I am planning on drilling a bunch of holes instead. Would that work? I have attached the pics of the cardboard mock up that I will be setting up. I kept the mock up on the left side so I can take pics of the inner arrangement. For the actual setup, this will be placed to the right near the wall.t And the return pumps will be on the rear of the tank too. I will possibly make the central chamber as a removable media rack. The AIO is transparent acrylic So I am looking for ideas to make the tank side wall opaque. One idea is to lather it with silicone and cover it with pool filter sand and let it dry. Equipment going in the tank: 1x MiniJet 606 1x MaxiJet 400 powerhead Filter floss Chemipure Purigen Planned: Fit a cobalt neotherm 50W somewhere. Link to comment
RK_tek Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 In my experience, teeth or holes do not allow for as much surface skimming as one normally wants. A notch works much better. It also does not trap little bits of algae or cat hair as has happened in my tank. My first tank have overflow teeth and after leaving for a week, I came home to a tank in danger of overflowing because a clump of algae got lodged and my ATO was trying to make up for the level drop in the rear chambers. HTH Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Thanks RK_tek! I'll give it a thought. May be make something adjustable.... Link to comment
Chief Reefer Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Looks good. Pretty basic design, there are a few on here like that. I personally like teeth, but cant say I have tried the holes. You should make a removable media basket for the middle chamber - something like what In-tank makes....You could probably even post in the WTB section for someone to sell their stock IM basket for like the 30 long or 40 - most people upgrade to intank or custom cadys, and just have these laying around. I did a 20 long AIO, but instead of taking the 30" down to like 25" or w/e it is, I decided to do my AIO along the back wall, taking up about 50% of the back wall, and only about 4" into the display. I realize this sounds confusing, so, pictures! Worked really well for a long time. My only suggestion, if you went this route, would be to make sure you leave enough room to get your hand in to those back compartments...otherwise youll be sitting there with chopsticks having a bad time haha, Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Chief, I like your idea, but that might the tank placement near a wall. The reason I am opting for side is, it will give me more flexibility with the rock work and will still have both the sides viewable. I am thinking of making the media basket with the left over acrylic. Dimension wise, I am going to take up 3" of the display space. Link to comment
Chief Reefer Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Chief, I like your idea, but that might the tank placement near a wall. The reason I am opting for side is, it will give me more flexibility with the rock work and will still have both the sides viewable. I am thinking of making the media basket with the left over acrylic. Dimension wise, I am going to take up 3" of the display space. Here was the side of the AIO - made it into a little display fuge. It was cool for sure: And as long as you can get your hand in easily, all good. Never know what tiny thing might get accidentally dropped in there or a fish could end up back there....I just remember being really frustrated sometimes working on that tank haha. Anyways, good luck with your build! Link to comment
abaro2 Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Awesome ideas! You should definitely do the removable media basket and could easily make one out of egg crate! As for the drilling of the holes, you could probably drill the hole but then slowly move the bit up and down to create notches. It will definitely allow for better flow because the holes being as tiny as they are seem like they could clog easily and you definitely do not want all your tank water on the floor or a burnt up pump while away at work for the day. Link to comment
russ722 Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Do share some pics when u get started Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Thanks for the ideas guys! I wish I could have started this by now! The storms have been crazy..... Most of the time goes in shoveling the drive ways, pathways and the roof... urrgghhh! Hopefully I will be able to start in a couple of days. Link to comment
russ722 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Looks nice, I seriously thinking about doing this too can post up measurents of the baffles and locations? Thanks. Edit: what do u guys use to cut the teeth and is there a certain amount needed and length? Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Looks nice, I seriously thinking about doing this too can post up measurents of the baffles and locations? Thanks. Edit: what do u guys use to cut the teeth and is there a certain amount needed and length? Oh... I forgot to mention the measurements! The inlet and outlet chambers will be 4inches wide and the middle one will be whatever is remaining. The thickness of the whole thing would be 3 inches. I chose 3 to fit the purigen bag. 4in side chambers will be able to fit both my return pumps + a heater. The middle chamber will have chemipure+purigen + chaeto (maybe) from bottom to top..... Link to comment
russ722 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Awesome thanks. Edit: one last thing how do you have the middle baffles set as far as spacing? Are they flush with the bottom of tank? If so how tall? Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Awesome thanks. Edit: one last thing how do you have the middle baffles set as far as spacing? Are they flush with the bottom of tank? If so how tall? One is going to be flush to the bottom, so the water flows bottom to top in the middle chamber. This one will not go all the way to the top, but will be about an inch and a half shorter. The one next to the inlet chamber (The one with teeth) is going to be about an inch and a half above the bottom. (The one that has holes drawn in my photos.) I still haven't decided whether these two baffles will be a part of a removable media rack. Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 So I finally got this one off the floor.... Cut the acrylic. This pic is the markings of the cut. Luckily all pieces fit on one side, so I have wiggle room to screw one build... (hope not!) After LOTS of scoring, I managed to cut the acrylic. Will put the photos of the final cuts in the evening... Link to comment
russ722 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Just curious, how are you planning on cutting the teeth and at what size ? Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Just curious, how are you planning on cutting the teeth and at what size ? I am planning on doing that today/tomorrow. Will do it with a drill and move it in a straight line. I might drill multiple holes in a straight line and then join them, and file the middle to make it look pretty. I don't know how high I will make them yet. Will start with an inch or so. But... then again... I found this link... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=808539. So technically... it is still in the air. Link to comment
russ722 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Yea I saw that post also, what thickness acrylic are you using? Most people use 1/4 but I have some 1/8 here and its pretty strong Link to comment
ajmckay Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Personally I would use 1/4" acrylic because it's easier to hold in place with silicone. That being said I don't think that there would be a huge issue with using 1/8" considering how it will be braced on the inside by various baffles and such. Regarding the weir, I would just leave it flat on top... You'll maximize the surface area and reduce the risk of something going wrong or looking bad by drilling holes. Unless you can use a jig of some sort or a carefully aligned drill press I would be hesitant to try and drill holes in any sort of alignment. Granted it's under water so it might not be that noticeable, or maybe you'll get it perfectly aligned? It's just been my experience that trying to get fancy like that leads to frustration when what you really want to accomplish is really pretty easy - you just want a weir that water flows over which will control your water level. Anyways, looks like a cool idea I can't see the pics because my work blocks them but I'll take a look later and see if I have any better suggestions. Okay see the pics now... Judging by they acrylic you're using and the tools I would definitely not attempt holes. Acrylic is a funny material to drill. Most of the time holes come out fine, but if your bit isn't really sharp and your angle extremely consistent (hard to do with a hand drill) then you stand a good chance of cracking the acrylic, especially if it's near an edge! As for cutting, scoring will just get more difficult and less precise as you get into smaller pieces! If you stick with this method I would try to cut such that you leave flat edges where you join pieces. If the edges are beveled this will make it harder to get a good bond. Alternatively, you could use a hard sanding block and carefully sand the edges square. Ideally, if you know someone with a table saw you can borrow some time on it or have them cut it for you, should be relatively quick. Regarding the color, you could make a sandwich. Spray paint the back of the acrylic black or whatever color you want then take another piece of acrylic (you said you had enough to make 2) and glue it together into a sandwich. Put a thin layer of silicone all around it and that should seal it from getting water in it (because it would look really ugly if water got in - so be absolutely sure you are able to apply the silicone effectively). As for the design, I think it works well, but if at all possible I would try to either make it into 2 chambers, or alter it in such a way that the return chamber holds a lot more water. Normally in these designs there's only 1 pump, at the bottom with a hose going up to an outlet hole. The reason is because this chamber will have to deal with all the evaporation losses in the tank. Being that it's so small I see a few problems. First with a pump so high you're likely to get some air sucking unless you can somehow put the intake deeper into the chamber. Next, with such a small water volume an auto top off is essential. Assuming that chamber will hold maybe a gallon it will need to be refilled several times per day or it could run out of water and then the pumps run dry. That's not to mention it will be noisy when the pump sucks air. Here's a design I came up with that IMO might be easier to put together and that will keep the largest volume of water available to the pumps for evaporation losses. The small baffles at the bottom make it so that the entire AIO section absorbs the evaporation losses... As long as you fill it daily or so it shouldn't be noisy at all. If you are concerned about noise though you could simply make those baffles taller and then that would keep the water level in the middle section fixed and the 2 pump chambers would share the evaporation loss. Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 WOW! I am going to use your design! Learning a lot from this! awesome! I did cut the baffles and the wall with a plastic cutting hand tool :| I had to score it 50+ times... i guess.... I am thinking a dremmel would be a good investment right now..... Link to comment
russ722 Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Nice idea I'll have to remember that. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 WOW! I am going to use your design! Learning a lot from this! awesome! I did cut the baffles and the wall with a plastic cutting hand tool :| I had to score it 50+ times... i guess.... I am thinking a dremmel would be a good investment right now..... Glad you like it One of my favorite parts of the hobby is the design phase(s)... Sometimes I'll plan for months to find the best solution or try to come up with something innovative. It's most important to think it through - visualize how the water will move through your system. While not tested I think that this design is simple and effective as drawn out. I would align it so that the bottom of the weir is pretty much at the same level as the bottom of the black trim. Expect the water level to be maybe 1/4" higher than that, though more flow could increase this distance and low flow could decrease this distance. I personally find that a Dremel isn't very good for working with acrylic... Seems the cutting bits are too small so they tend to melt the plastic more than cut it so you end up with these blobs of melted plastic on the edges that you then have to break off (or sometimes they fly off and burn you). A sanding drum can be useful IMO to clean up edges, though I would avoid using a dremel at all on a long edge because it will probably turn out wavy no matter how hard you try to go slow... Also cutting discs don't work. Their little saw attachment IMO a good way to cut the notch out for the weir would be to first mark it out, then use a drill and carefully drill 2 holes in the corners. Then use a coping saw (like $5) and connect the holes along the line. It's actually pretty amazing how straight of a cut you can get with a coping saw - I think the reason is that the blade is so thin that you can do frequent course corrections to keep it from drifing off the cut line. It probably won't be perfect but I think it will work well enough. Then just use a sanding block (hard block, not sponge) to smooth out and square up the edges. For assembly you could probably use super glue/super glue gel and then reinforce with silicone fillets. Depending on how square your edges are though you could just get away with using regular super glue. Good luck! Link to comment
ashtricks Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 Sux! Didn't get time today to work on this one.... Need to take care of the ice dams on the roof first... Link to comment
knd107 Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 I would extend the last baffles (both) so the heater is always in water but otherwise pretty sweet design. Link to comment
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