filefish949's 7.5 gallon SPS cube

[filefish949]

as some of you know I lost most all my SPS recently. then my 5 gallon sprung a leak I had no way to save them and wish I did. I have received

many generous offers to help restock my tank but, after recently treating red bugs, and with fear of AFEWs I

decided not to do anything until I have a hospital / quarantine tank. so here goes

 

what i started with:

 

15 gallon tank & cut plexi from LFS Fish Collection____$40.00

300gph return/circulation pump___________________$free it was sitting around

small piece of Plexiglas from home depot___________$2.50

silicone adhesive from home depot_________________$3.00

hose and fittings________________________________$free it was sitting around

70 watt viper from dtfleming . _____________________$100 shipped

ACJr. pH probe and DC 8_________________________$free it was sitting around

custom aquatic skimmer__________________________$45 shipped

 

total so far____________________________________$190.50

 

 

 

first I got some of the materials together, i wanted to make sure the skimmer would fit

 

 

 

I drilled the hole for the return, it had to go through the overflow baffle and the fuge baffle

 

 

next I scored and snapped the carbon / media baffle

 

 

next I test fitted the whole thing

 

 

lastly I siliconed the baffles in place. this was tricky because with the first baffle in, I could not get the caulking gun in place to lay a bead for the next baffle. I drew a line on the outside of the tank, laid the bead of silicone, then slid the baffle on to the bead, the back side bead I just did the normal way of laying a bead with the baffle in place.

 

here it is drying, getting ready for me to fill it

 

 

 

 

anyone interested in fixing the leak in my 5 gallon SPS, it is yours for the taking

[sammy113]

thats a pretty thick acrylic for the baffles. Looks like 3/8"~1/2". How does it work? The water flows over the first baffle and the middle one is raised like 1"?

[filefish949]

yep, I can notch it later if need be, but that is the general idea. the 2nd baffle does not even have to be as high as the overflow baffle, it just needs to be higher than the level I set the sump at.

 

bummer I was planning on testing it out this morning but it was so freaking cold last night that the silicone did not set

 

yea it is 1/2 inch, but my LFS cut it for me for free. I think I am going to mount my viper k2 on the taller baffle

[dubsmcfly]

really sorry about the the leak in the other tank i was following it as i am making a 5.5. But good luck on this one just think positives! bigger tank... more room!!!!

[filefish949]

really sorry about the the leak in the other tank i was following it as i am making a 5.5. But good luck on this one just think positives! bigger tank... more room!!!!

 

thanks, i am working on bigger and better things. i plan on filling it with water this evening, and perhaps, will have time to do my new super secret skimmer mod.. ok it is not all the super secret, it is a gate valve with a microbubble difuser

[sammy113]

Oh right.... you have a Viper that clamps. I forgot that. 1/4" baffles probably won't be enough to hold the lamp, so 1/2" is perfect

[filefish949]

Oh right.... you have a Viper that clamps. I forgot that. 1/4" baffles probably won't be enough to hold the lamp, so 1/2" is perfect

well that is just serendipidus, it will be nice not to have to extend the arm all that way

 

well I did the gate mod last night (couldn't find a 1/2" gate valve so it is a bal mod ) it will probably need some tweeking once I get water in the tank

 

it has been 24 hours and the silicone has still not set WTF? I think I may have bought the wrong silicone or perhaps it is just to darn cold in my garage. I used GE 100% silicone

[Uhuru]

sorry about the other tank! I've been setting up my tank in the garage and I have to wait 3-4x's as long for silicone or paint to set because of the freezing temperatures.

[Kirin1]

it has been 24 hours and the silicone has still not set WTF? I think I may have bought the wrong silicone or perhaps it is just to darn cold in my garage. I used GE 100% silicone

 

 

Silicone will cure slower in the cold, a warm dry area with good ventilation is best.

 

What pump are you using on this bigger version of your tank?

[filefish949]

Silicone will cure slower in the cold, a warm dry area with good ventilation is best.

 

What pump are you using on this bigger version of your tank?

 

 

I think i will bring it in the house.

 

I am going to start with the same no name 300gph pump I had on the 5 gal ver but I am going to add one of fragel reefs $5.00 nano pumps on a wave timer.

 

do you have a reccomenddation on a reurn pump?

[Kirin1]

I was just curious. If you want to stay in the 300gph range, do a Mag3 or an Eheim 1250. Of course, those are kinda pricey, a MJ1200 will probably do fine at 295gph.

 

If I was to make a recommendation, I'd say get a slower return pump, like an MJ900 or even a MJ600, to give your filtration maximum efficiency, and use a Hydor Korallia Nano for circulation in the display.

[sammy113]

Mag 3!

[dtfleming]

Not to hijack your thread, but I just got the same skimmer and I plan on doing the mesh mod. Did yours come with any directions? Do I need to put the airline tubing from the pump to an air pump? Tks.

[filefish949]

Mag 3!

 

well if and when it breaks I will consider a mag 3 or ehime, perhaps if I see a used one for sale I will get one. normally I am a big proponent of using small in tank pumps for flow as opposed to a big return pump because, there is a lot of loss in head pressure and it is not efficient. i am only planning on chato in my fuge, so a lot o flow is desirable

 

on to the skimmer mod. I had to make a few mods to the bracket which you may notice but I will not go in to. the bracket was not designed for a rimmed tank

 

 

the fist thing I did was to shorten the riser tube to get the skimmer up out of the sump more, but not so much that the pump is out of the water. the next thing I did was to have the exhaust dump down a 1" pipe to my fuge, that will give the micro bubbles more time to dissipate before they make it to the return pump

 

 

in this picture you can see the grey riser extension, this is important as if the riser is sealed before the ball valve, air will have a tendency to build up and blow out sporadically which will give your skimmer an inconsistent water level

 

 

 

 

in this photo you can see how deep the 1" micro bubble diffuser runs, i may trim it up higher once the system is running

 

 

 

here is a direct cut n' paste from my 5 gal build to illustrate how I did my mesh mod:

 

 

THE MESH MOD

 

 

 

First problem was finding suitable mesh, so i made some from this filter material. it is fairly common. I took a VERY sharp knife and sliced it as thin as I could

 

 

 

I ended up with a small sheet of mesh

 

 

the next step was to choose a portion of my sheet that was suitably thick and trim it as big as I could without restricting the impeller

 

 

 

 

next I used my thumbnail to seat the mesh between the needles, you could choose to superglue it but the impeller plastic is fairly waxy and I don't think it would stick

 

 

 

here it is, modded in the pump

 

 

my pump fit a Little loose so I put 1 tight wrap of 3M super 33 (very thin) electrical tape around the nozzle and trimmed it flush. this worked like a champ and it now fits as tight as a debutant on prom night

 

 

SUCSESS, here are my new bubbles

 

 

 

Not to hijack your thread, but I just got the same skimmer and I plan on doing the mesh mod. Did yours come with any directions? Do I need to put the airline tubing from the pump to an air pump? Tks.

 

 

no need for an air pump, this is venturi system, which is the same principle use in a carburetor. it sucks the air in all on it's own before the tank leaked i was actually playing with restricting the air line with mixed results

[filefish949]

I am a dork, i just spoke to mey LFS, he called to tell me he just got a shipment of sps I should check out. I told him about my problem with my silicone drying slow, to make a long story short, he told me that the 100% silicone I got from home depot is probably the wrong stuff and may very well leach toxins in the tank and kill my corals.

 

I am heading over there after work to get some aquarium silicone so I can strip may tank down and start over.. live and learn

[AcroporaLokani]

Tank looks good, to bad about the silicone.......

 

For the few days the skimmer was running before the leak did it seem to do a decent job?

[filefish949]

Tank looks good, to bad about the silicone.......

 

For the few days the skimmer was running before the leak did it seem to do a decent job?

 

 

oh yea, it worked great.. mind you i was thinking about an ASM mini-G, I had one in my hands at the lfs, but then I thought... that skimmer I got works great. it works like a scaled down version of my full sized euroreef.. the cup fills to fast but my next mod is a drain tube. lets see how it works with my new gate mod

[filefish949]

last night i put water, sand and some dead coral skeletons (future liverock) in the tank. i will add some live rock if a few days when the watter has cleared up and I am sure there are no systemic problems IE: leaky tank

 

I can tell you I a thrilled with the larger tank. it is much easier to aquascape and to just do anything. also the 50% additional water will give me 50% additional stability. the small tank is fairly foreign to me. the smallest reef I have ever had was a 20 hex, I do not remember the date but I can tell you I had just bought the newly released math coprocessor for my 8086 and an additional meg of ram bringing me up to a scathing 2mb not to mention I had a behemoth 36 MB HDD.. this was a serious computer

 

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[filefish949]

I added some liverock today. I think I need to work on my aquascaping skills one piece had a few hitchhikers, a red metallic mushroom, harrymushroom and a purple digi (SPS) picks to come and I could sure use some aquascaping tips

[Kirin1]

filefish,

Thanks for the sponge-meshmod!

 

I saw that in your other thread and copied the idea for my Sapphire NC12. That pump isn't a N.W., so I had to notch the impeller w/a dremmel to make something for the sponge-mesh to hold on to.

 

Works a lot better now, still pretty wet skim, but much more of it, like 2X.

[filefish949]

filefish,

Thanks for the sponge-meshmod!

 

I saw that in your other thread and copied the idea for my Sapphire NC12. That pump isn't a N.W., so I had to notch the impeller w/a dremmel to make something for the sponge-mesh to hold on to.

 

Works a lot better now, still pretty wet skim, but much more of it, like 2X.

 

cool! this is how it works.. the free exchange of ideas. take some photos an make a thread on how you did it. I am not familiar with the Sapphire NC12, is there a way to lower the water level in it? I did a gate valve mod which gives me very good control of water level in my skimmer and a exhaust diffuser mod which effectively eliminated 100% of the micro bubbles I may upgrade the pump now but I would sure like to see how you modded your impeller. one thin to note about real wet skimmate, you are removing salt from your system at a faster rate, which won't be a problem with regular water changes. just remember that everything your skimmer pulls, your ATO replaces with kalkwasser, or water which has no NaCl

 

 

here is my rock with the hitchhikers on it. sorry the water is not all that clear yet but my digi has full PE already! and some sand laying on it

 

 

remember this is a SPS tank so I have 300 GPH of floe in a 7.5 gallon tank that is 40X it is hard to get mushrooms to sit still so they are a bit blurry

 

red metallic

 

 

hairy

 

 

 

my lame aquascaping, looks like a Pile of rocks

 

 

427

[filefish949]

well looks like it is getting stable. I have put a few more frags in it and m going to start using it to quarantine a few nice SPS this weekend. more pics to come

 

[filefish949]

just picked up 9 super cool sps frags including a Oregon tort, lime in the sky and purple rimmed green cap. I just mounted them and they are mucusing and don't have any PE yet so I will snap a few pics tomorrow

[filefish949]

here is a teaser, this is the Oregon tort, I will snap some more later

 

[filefish949]

here is a full tank shot, I will do some macros with id's later