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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Wine bottle reef


distantfire

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avalanche1201

distant....its look amazing! I've been saying i wanna build one...now I HAVE to build one...that thing is sooo sick....how do you geel about the flow?

 

and what did you stop it with again?

 

i just thought to...maybe u can drill a small hole in the side for the airline and silicone it in so you dont have a tube coming from the top down

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distantfire

I will get it together Proflatlander it's just going to take a little while to finish. Between being swamped with extra work at the hospital. And trying to manage 3 apartment buildings in my spare time. I'm happy just to get a few mins of break time to be on here LOL.

 

Avalanche I didn't drill the bottle for the air line. Because doing that would have stoped me from reaching the goal. Remember I'm trying to keep this project simple. No HOB's or sump/fuges allowed on this project. And I could only bring the air line in from the top down. Because the front is caped off.

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avalanche1201

yea I remember simple as possible....but since u cut the top i was thinken a little hole wouldnt be much more.

 

Its still @$$ sweet project. Are you happy with the water flow?

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distantfire

Kirin 1 I moded a 80 gph pump and tested it. The water flow from it is still very high. If I had to guess I would say my moded pump is pushing 40 gph.

I found a 30 gph fountain pump on line for sale cheap. I don't know how well it will hold up in a SW tank. But the price is right and it is smaller than the pump I'm using now.

 

Avalanche there is a few reasons I didn't drill any holes in the bottle. 1 Is because I don't want people to think that the bottle is connected to another tank. 2 There is a higher risk of the bottle breaking. Because of the weight of the water inside of the bottle. 3 There is a chance that at some point in time. The bottle might start leaking around one or more of the holes.

I took out the mini uplift tubes and put in my moded pump. With the pump I have no dead spots at all. But the water flow is still to high.

I belive a combination of clear rigid tubing with a air stone along with a pump would be perfect. The problem is there isn't enough space inside the bottle for both the tubing and the water pump.

I was thinking the air stone could drive bubbles up the clear 1 inch tubing to a piece of fiber floss and some matrix carbon/phosphate balls. Once in a while to help keep the water clean. The tough part would be having to change out the air stone on a regular basis.

 

Hey punk-o-rama I'm glad you like my project so far. Stay tuned because there will be more to come.

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distantfire

Well I tested my new 30gph fountain pump. And in 3 hours the water temp. was 91 deg. I pulled out the 15 dollar fountain pump and put back in some air line. I'll have to do some more tweaking to hide the air line. But that shouldn't be to much trouble. I also have to trim the tiny cork end caps on the 1/2 inch pipe and paint them to match. After that it's just a matter of adding some LS and stocking the bottle.

 

 

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2-87.jpg

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distantfire

Hi sleepy for cleaning I'm going to be using a few differnt things. But mostly a piece of sponge clamped into a curved forceps.

In the last 2 pictures the bottle look's kind of dirty. But really those are just tiny micro bubbles on the inside of the glass.

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distantfire

I've tried a few things so far sleepy to get good water flow. I even made a longer uplift tube with a 90 deg. elbow. But regular air line is working fine. And it's not taken up as much space inside of the bottle.

I know it won't be to long before I have this bottle tank up and running.

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distantfire

I accidently put a hair line crack in the bottle this afternoon. The crack is close to the bottom of the bottle. Where the slot is on the front side. And instead of trying to remove the crack by drilling the slot bigger. I'm just going to buy a new bottle of wine and start over.

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ProFlatlander15

NOOOOOOOO!!!! I'm sorry distant, that sucks! I am glad you're gonna get a new one though, way to not let it get you down.

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distantfire

Thank's Proflatlander I'll be starting over again soon. I have everything ready to go I just need to buy a new bottle.

 

LOL yeah mickle I don't know of any other SW tank. That a person has drink first.

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distantfire

Instead of having just a square opening on the top. I'm going to round off both end's. So the opening will look more like this when viewed from the top down (__)

And something else that you have been wanting me to do. I have a old whisper 10-30 air pump with dual outlets. So I'm going to drill a pair of holes in the bottle and put in 2 air lines.

I also want the bottles handle pointing more straight up instead of leaning back. And in order to do that I have to drill my opening across the bottles seam. That's going to be risky but I belive the finished look will be worth it.

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distantfire

Belive me Mickle I was thinking the same thing last night. Trying to drill while being drunk would be crazy. Doing it sober is risky enough and now I have to buy another pack of drill bits too.

 

Thank's sleepy I was geting ready to start stocking the bottle. I even had a mushroom frag picked out. Now I have to start over again but I will get r done.

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avalanche1201

awesome, cant wait to see how this one will turn out...ive got a feeling it will be even sweeter then the first...hopefully when I build it it will be half as good.

 

 

also just thought of this...what are u doing for top offs? Going to mark it on the bottle? or set up an ATO or something? or just have a set drip per day?

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distantfire

For top off's I'm just going to use a glass filled with DI water. I thought about trying to drill a small E&J brandy bottle and adding a drip tube to it. But I don't have the space above the wine bottle right now for a ATO. And over all I think the ATO might become to much of a distraction. Don't you?

If the wine bottle was plumbed into another tank. And that tank was inside of a stand. Then a ATO could be hooked up to the tank and kept out of site so it wouldn't be a distraction.

I'm also looking at the aqua lifter pump. I think the aqua lifter pump could be plumbed into the wine bottle and used to make a closed loop. Of course if it work's then I won't need to add any air line. I'm going to test it on the cracked bottle that I have. And I'll let you know if it work's.

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avalanche1201

sounds good distant.

 

only problem im seeing now is keeping the water the same level since its less then a gal......so I tihnk even a little evaporation a day would be alot...hope everything works out, and ill be following this next bottle even closer then the last

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