Wine bottle reef

[distantfire]

It's coming along fine avalanche in fact I've been working on some differnt aquascaping ideas for it.

I still have to order two new 9watt bulbs to replace the 6700k bulbs that are in the lightfixture. And I'm hopeing to find a good deal on the pump so that I can order both the lights and the pump from the same store.

 

kinetic I'm hopeing that my cuc will take care of most of the algae. But I also have a dedicated toothbrush for geting into some of the tighter spots. The water flow inside of the bottle and my bottle brush should be all I need for keeping the neck of the bottle clean. Along with 3 skewers and 2 chop sticks that I rubberbanded scratch pads on for scraping off any harder algae. That along with my turkey baster, tweezers, curved forceps and a razor blade rubberbanded to a dowel rod. For anything that is harder to scrap off. Is all I got right now for taken care of algae in the bottle.

[distantfire]

I bought this tetra filter at Walmart in November. And since I needed a pump for this project. Well you know I just had to take this tetra filter apart. So after about 20 mins. of bending and cuting with my dremel I was able to remove the pump. And on the pump's label it say's Tetra made in china 80gph. Well I took a toenail cliper to the implelar blades and I think it's pushing closer to 40gph now.

[distantfire]

Here is the water flow the pump has now. And I can trim back the impelar more later if the flow is to much. The pump doe's look huge inside the bottle but it's really not very big at all. I might add a suction cup to the side of the pump and stick it inside the bottle that way. Or glue a magnet to the side of the pump and see if I can get another magnet to hold it in place from the outside of the bottle.

[xJoshx]

put 2 holes in the cork? 1 for intake and out put? lol use airline for it? idk just a guess

[distantfire]

Yeah xJoshx I've been trying to avoid plumbing it thru the rubber stopper. Because there has to be another way to do it and still keep the whole bottle clean looking. I'm going to look around for other submersible filters and see what I can find.

I figure by the time I get the heater, pump/filter, LR and corals into the bottle. I'm only going to have about a half gallon of water left inside the bottle. And if that's the case then.

I might just as well fill up a dixie cup add a piece of LR rubble and put a couple zoa's on it LOL.

[Matty1124]

try and find a small table top fountian pump... i pulled one out of my brothers fountian after he moved out... i think its like <60 gph and its like the size of a silver dollar... ill take a picture of it when i get home... it was to small for what i wanted to i didnt use it

 

Edit: i may be off on the GPH but that is the number i remember...

[ColdWaters]

elite mini sub filter, 48gph using it on my 2.5 pico and its tiny

[distantfire]

Matty1124 I thought about just buying a small fountain pump. Or perhaps even one of the micro jet pump's. But I had the tetra filter already and it wasn't working right. So I tore it apart and fixed it.

But now I see a problem with having a pump inside of the 1gal. bottle. The problem is the amount of space the pump takes up. Because that space should be filled in with LR and coral.

My goal was to keep this project simple. And I know it can be done by adding a elite mini-filter. But the mini-filter would also take up a lot of usable space just like a pump.

In order to get the finished look that I'm after. At this point I would need to drill the bottle and connect it to ether another 1 gal. bottle that is laying sideway's directly behind it containing a pump, heater and macro algae or a smaller 2.5 gal. sump/fuge.

And doing that would of course defeat the goal I had set for this project. So right now I'm at a stand still. I know a ceramic airstone or 2 could be used to help with skimming and circulation. Any other idea's are wellcome.

[Matty1124]

 

 

that is the pump i was talking about 12V 2W it say its good up to .43m of head pressure

 

another idea:

ok so its 1am here and i was just thinking why dont you take a piece of LR and go to town on it with your dremel so it has a outlet on the side and you could drill holes in the rock towards the bottom in the back... all you would need is a chunk of LR bigger then the pump and the patience to hollow it out.. it could be like alittle house for your pump while still giving your LR space

 

EDIT:

here is one more thing you could try... i dont know how your going to display the bottle but you could drill it from the bottom in two places and have one an overflow tube going to a fuge and the second could be used to pump water in, the tubes could be hidden inside of your LR in you drill a hole in two "towers" of LR... and you could hide the tubes ioutside the bottle in some type of decorative wooden legs... which i assume you would be planning on unless you want the bottle rolling around... i think this way would be more labor intensive but would work

 

EDIT #2:

ok this is it befor i go to be... that pump i showed a pic of also has an output for a small halogen bulb with a seperate switch that could be used for a fuge light.... im thinking you could use this pump in a fuge and kill to birds with one stone... macro lighting and a tiny submersable pump for a tiny ass tank... god i wish i had money to start a project tank...

oh and yes that is my hairy leg im sitting in my bed in my boxers... creepy, right?

[distantfire]

Thank's Matty the fountain pump you have there look's like it would work very well. And having a switch for additional lighting is a added bonus.

The bottle is laying sideway's in a simple wooden rack. It could be drilled thru the bottom. But you would see the 2 hoselines when you look at the bottle from the front.

I think a really nice sump/fuge could be made by having a second 1 gal. bottle laying sideway's behind the display bottle. My wooden rack would just have to made bigger to hold both bottles. The background could still be used to divide both of the bottles. And the background would have the 2 holes drilled thru it for the hoselines.

It is very tempting to do because that will increase my total water volume. And give me a place to hide my heater and pump.

But I've been working hard to keep this project simple. The big challenge I found so far is the lack of space inside the 1gal bottle.

[Ryan_H]

drill the bottle for a drain and overflow, build a box under the stand to hide a 2.5 gallon sump/refugium, and use live rock to cover the plumbing in the tank.

[distantfire]

That's a good plan to pets unlimited fish guy I like 2.5 sump/fuges. But before I give up and drill the bottle. There are 2 thing's that I'm going try. First I'm going to try making my own version of a lee corner filter. And second I'm going to try and add a filter to a uplift tube.

They use to make a small plastic box filled with carbon. The plastic box of carbon was added to the top of the uplift tubes on undergravel filters.

Like the old penn plex turbo's.

The only thing I had to do was pry open the plastic box and change out the fresh water carbon they were using. I'm going to look around and see if I can't find some of them.

[avalanche1201]

come on distnant....bumb!

[distantfire]

The bad news is my hard drive is going out on me. And right now I don't have the extra money to get it replaced. The good news is I have the stand finished. And I'm waiting on the 9watt 10k and 9watt actinic light bulbs to get here.

I've also been super busy lately and that has cut into my tank building time.

Besides working on this special wine bottle reef pico.

I also have a 3 tank project that I'm puting together. And I really like the way my 3 tank project is turning out. So I decided to take a bunch of pictures of the 3 tank project first. And then start a thread on it because everybody loves pictures. Here is how I'm puting it together:

All 3 of the tanks are on shelfs with spindels for legs. The first display tank drains down into the fuge tank. And the fuge tank drains down into a sump tank and then from there the water is pumped back up into the first display tank.

The fuge tank is going to have 10watt submersible lights. And both the fuge tank and the sump tank will have a cover to help slow down evap.

It's pretty much the same thing I had in mind for the custom contest. But I goofed up the contest because I bought the wrong size display tank.

[avalanche1201]

man that one sounds sweet...cant wait to follow that thread

[avalanche1201]

any updates?

[distantfire]

I'm still working on it Avalanche. I've really been swamped these last couple week's. But at least now I got my hard drive problem fixed. And I will be updating this thread so stay tuned.

[avalanche1201]

awesome, cant wait..might try to make one myself this summer if i work at the liquor store again

[distantfire]

A little something I've been tinkering with.

 

 

Now I just have to add some krylon fusion to the mini uplift tubes. And then get them adjusted into some LR rubble. My thinking is the LS will hide the air line tubing and the LR will hide the uplifts.

Water flow alway's work's well with uplift tubes that have a 90 deg elbow and are close to the surface. It should be interesting to see how these perform down lower.

[avalanche1201]

looking awesome...if I get my hands on a dremel Im def. making one of these this summer for my work.

 

But let me get this straight....The airline tubes are connect to a T...each branch of the T runs to a 90deg elbow...this provides the water movement....thus fixing ur problem on that? and do you have a back compartment in the stand that will hold the air pump etc?

 

edit: and the stand is just wood w/ 2 pieces sanded down to the contour of the bottle right?

[distantfire]

The air line tubing and uplift tubes are something that I'm going to be testing this weekend. With summer coming I want to keep the heat down inside the bottle. And I think these uplift tubes might do the trick. The air pump will just sit out of sight some where behind the tank. I didn't bother to make a cabinet for this tank to sit on. Becaust the whole thing is so small that it can sit on top of a dresser, end table, computer desk, book shelf etc.

I drilled the hole in the top left 1/2 inch cpvc pipe big enough for a electrical cord to pass thru. So if my up lift tubes don't provide enough water flow. Then I can just take out all the air line and put in a small water pump.

And yes the stand is just 2 pieces of wood sanded down to the contour of the bottle. I used my contour gauge to speed up the process. And traced the out line of the bottle right to the boards.

[avalanche1201]

awesome....im a huge fan of this project, keep it comen distant

[punk-o-rama]

OMFG!!!! This is sweeeeeeettttt!!!! You have inspired me to make myself a pico out of some random household object that is clear and holds water. Hopefully my parents wont mind cause im only 16 and still live at home. Dude we need more pics and get this little puppy stocked!!!

 

 

P.S I really like this little pico in case you hadn't noticed!!!!!

[distantfire]

Well I tested my mini uplift tubes tonight and here is the water flow pattern from them.

 

 

I'll be taking the uplift tubes out and using a pump.

This project has given me a lot of new ideas. The curved glass of the bottle and limited working space inside of the bottle. Has really been a interesting challenge for me so far.

[ProFlatlander15]

Thank god there's water in that thing now! I was beginning to worry Distant! Looks alot better than I anticipated (no offense!).