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DIY 15 Gallon AIO, DIY WetWorx Skimmer, and Foam/Rock Wall *NEW PICS 02/14

hcsceo

By hcsceo,
in DIY Projects

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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o cool. i figured scuff it up and paint it lol use a rust resistand spray paint.

 

I considered this however, the tank will sit on top of the bracket once finished and water always gets down the backside of tanks so it would be exposed. If that bracket started rusting under the tank there would be no way to know. The only downside to powder coat is that if it does rust underneath the powder it is very hard to see. Proper preparation takes care of this issue as the part is bead blasted clean and free of water before the powder coating process starts. The better solution is to design this type of bracket out of Acrylic but after costing the thick acrylic I would need to support the light in my design, I decided to try the powder coat finish and make the bracket from metal. In some ways this is a test for a larger tank down the road. The metal is 1/4" plate steel so it should hold up very well.

 

 

 

 

wow

Its been a long time since I checked back on this thread

 

really effing cool!

 

tracked! :happy:

 

Yea!!! Someone loves me LOL

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jonmar

jonmar

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Nice work with your wall :)

 

Oh and maybe I'm a little bit dense, but I'm trying to figure out how your pulling in air with that MJ400. For my MJ1200 I have to actually put the airline tubing inside the intake to get any bubbles. Is it because your using a smaller pump that its able to create the bubbles this way?

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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Nice work with your wall :)

 

Oh and maybe I'm a little bit dense, but I'm trying to figure out how your pulling in air with that MJ400. For my MJ1200 I have to actually put the airline tubing inside the intake to get any bubbles. Is it because your using a smaller pump that its able to create the bubbles this way?

 

 

OK I had the same issue as you and looked all over to find the solution and couldn't find a thing. I asked google and he didn't know either. Even with the tube all the way into your mj1200 you probably aren't getting the amount of air you can be getting. What you need to do is create more of a pressure drop in the intake so that more air will be forced into the pump. How do you do that you ask? LOL If you look at my pump I have that silicone tubing attached to the intake. I drilled a hole for the air intake tube and jammed it in there. Then on the very end of the silicone tube I put in another silicone tube that necks it down again to about 3/8" or 1/4" can't remember which. In effect I'm starving the pump of water, creating a pressure drop in the intake and forcing it to make up for that pressure drop by sucking more air down the tube (Basically a backwoods venturi) The advantage of all this is that I reduce the flow into the skimmer and create more bubbles at the same time. Slower flow rates through the skimmer should give the bubbles more contact time with the water and increase the effectiveness of the skimmer. With that additional pressure drop the location of the air intake tube doesn't make a lick of difference. I bet my MJ400 would suck air at 24" inches without issue this way. Stay tuned as I'll be modding the pump next with mesh and gutter guard to reduce bubble size even more.

 

Steve

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jonmar

jonmar

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OK I had the same issue as you and looked all over to find the solution and couldn't find a thing. I asked google and he didn't know either. Even with the tube all the way into your mj1200 you probably aren't getting the amount of air you can be getting. What you need to do is create more of a pressure drop in the intake so that more air will be forced into the pump. How do you do that you ask? LOL If you look at my pump I have that silicone tubing attached to the intake. I drilled a hole for the air intake tube and jammed it in there. Then on the very end of the silicone tube I put in another silicone tube that necks it down again to about 3/8" or 1/4" can't remember which. In effect I'm starving the pump of water, creating a pressure drop in the intake and forcing it to make up for that pressure drop by sucking more air down the tube (Basically a backwoods venturi) The advantage of all this is that I reduce the flow into the skimmer and create more bubbles at the same time. Slower flow rates through the skimmer should give the bubbles more contact time with the water and increase the effectiveness of the skimmer. With that additional pressure drop the location of the air intake tube doesn't make a lick of difference. I bet my MJ400 would suck air at 24" inches without issue this way. Stay tuned as I'll be modding the pump next with mesh and gutter guard to reduce bubble size even more.

 

Steve

 

Sweet, that makes perfect sense. Lol i may put my skimmer back on my tank then... its one of those crappy seaclone ones tho ><

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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OK guys update here. The two wall panels are siliconed to the glass now and I've foamed, epoxied, and sanded the crack between the panels so it looks like one unit. The tank itself is done and ready for water. The only I item I have to get done is the light mounting system and I'm ready to cycle. I'm going to hold off on the skimmer till I get the cycle started. Hopefully there will be water in this thing this weekend.

 

Steve

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PoopCola

PoopCola

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OK guys update here. The two wall panels are siliconed to the glass now and I've foamed, epoxied, and sanded the crack between the panels so it looks like one unit. The tank itself is done and ready for water. The only I item I have to get done is the light mounting system and I'm ready to cycle. I'm going to hold off on the skimmer till I get the cycle started. Hopefully there will be water in this thing this weekend.

 

Steve

 

cool!

 

MOAR PICS

when the tank is set up

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Deleted User 6

Deleted User 6

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Very very nice wall. I just figured out that mine floats - so now I have to silicone it to the walls. I'm hoping to get water in it by this weekend too! I'll race you ;)

 

Seriously - I'm impressed by the work. Keep it up.

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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OK guys the light bracket is cut and welded up, and the top plate for the light is complete. All I have to do is drill the bracket and powder coat it black. I'll try and post some pics of the bracket and light assymbly together tonight. If all goes well I'll be installing this tank on my desk Sunday.

 

Steve

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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Well I got the bracket powder coated mirror black tonight. All I have left is routing out the base and the top to accept the bracket, and finally painting the base. My plan is to install this Sunday at my office. Hope you enjoy.

 

Light Bracket

photo-3.jpg

 

Light and bracket together

photo-4.jpg

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ajmckay

ajmckay

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Hey hcsceo,

 

Great build! I'm also impressed with your ability to detail it all. I've read the whole thread, and my favorite part to this point is the rock wall... I like your 2 part design a lot. You skimmer and lighting designs are also good.

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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Ok I'll reply to everyone a little later but right now I was too excited so I had to post this. Don't hate.

 

Steve

 

 

photo-3.jpg

 

photo-4.jpg

 

 

 

I still have to trim and paint the base, but this thing will be cycling tomorrow.

 

Steve

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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wow that looks sweeeeeet

 

whats your total cost at?

 

I'm at about $429 right now which includes lights. I really wanted to spend less but I'm not sure you can cut any more corners than I did. I really wanted to do this for $300 total but you know how things go. I had two goals starting out. 1- It had to work. 2 - It had to "look" factory. 3 - Had to be inexpensive. I'm happy with the final outcome as of right now. It took a solid two months and I still haven't finished the Skimmer. There are a ton of hours in it. If I had to build one for someone it would cost $1500 easy cause the hand time involved. I could have bought a biocube or something like it but the DIY aspect really draws me to these projects. If I could change one thing about this project it would be a bigger desk at work so I could have fit a larger tank.

 

ajmckay Posted Today, 12:15 AM

Hey hcsceo,

 

Great build! I'm also impressed with your ability to detail it all. I've read the whole thread, and my favorite part to this point is the rock wall... I like your 2 part design a lot. You skimmer and lighting designs are also good.

 

I'm glad you like the project. I really feel projects like this help others expand beyond getting stuck with cookie cutter tanks. We'll see how the skimmer design comes out hopefully I don't flood my office with it.

 

evilc66 Posted Today, 09:24 AM

Looks nice. How is the skimmer coming?

 

Evil thanks for keeping up with my project. I follow many of your LED lighting projects. I considered a LED system for this tank but the price of the T5HO was just too good. The company I work for builds custom fountains and LED lighting is a very big part of what we do. We take 100' shooting fountains and turn it to Koolaid at night with LED systems. Our systems are all over the world and in most all of the amusement parks. I have access to LED's that aren't even on the market yet. Someday I'll build an array that will make Mom's and babies cry and the dead will walk to the light looking for the promissed land only to find nemo. As far as the skimmer, I haven't done a thing as I decided starting my cycle was more important at present. I'm planning to take a few days off from this project next week then hit the skimmer hard next weekend. I've got all the cut lists done and modeling in sketchup. All I have to do is build it and really it won't take long. I'll for sure get that done soon as it is a big part of why I designed this tank the way I did.

 

Steve

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alexn09

alexn09

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First, I must say that I think your tank design absolutely rocks.

I'm sitting at my desk next to my cycled but basically empty ten gallon tank

and you are giving me some awesome ideas that I wouldn't have normally

considered. I'm really impressed and I'm sad that this is the end of the

thread.. for now! I'm looking forward to your tank in the future.

Good luck!

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