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Chyendra's 45 Gallon Cube


Chyendra

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So the way the tank is drilled doesn't make any sense... Basically it has an overflow box that is centered along the back wall and extends the full height of the tank... which means that it COULD be drilled on the bottom... but it's not, it's drilled on the back wall. The bulk head for the drain is about 3" from the top and the bulkhead for the return is about 3" below that. The return comes with a loc line return thing... (I'm not sure what it's called)

 

The drain has a 90deg PVC in the inside, pointing down with a small hole on the top and ridged tubing stuck in it to draw air in. The tube would make a terrible sucking noise if left open, but if you blocked it, then the water level in the overflow box would drain and the PVC would pull in air... which was even noisier.

 

I decided to make a durso standpipe which you can see in the pictures. I put a cap on the top drilled with a tiny hole (I wasted alot of PVC caps to learn this --> if the hole is too small, the water level in the overflow box will drop too low, make a lot of splashing noise and eventually will "flush" every few minute... yes, like a toilet flushing... If the hole is too big, the water won't drain fast enough and the water in the display will begin to rise and rise and rise... eek!!) I also put a bit of flexible airline tubing over the ridged airline tubing that was already installed and tied a knot in it to keep air from bring drawn in.

 

I decided to use flexible tubing to reduce the sound of falling water... it doesn't help much. and it was a pain to find a flexible tubing to fit the PVC so I'm not redoing it.

 

I wanted a dual return so that I could use my SCWD (which I love!) so I decided not to bother using the drilled return hole at all (there is NO) space to work inside of the overflow box and I was terrified I would crack the tank if I messed with the return pipe too much) SO... I just put a cap on the return hole to keep water from leaking out of it.

 

Instead, I just have flexible tubing from my return pump, to my SCWD and then to simple return PVC pipes that hang on the back of each corner.

 

IF I were better at plumbing, I might try to set up the two pre-drilled bulkheads as herbie style drains, which would probably be quieter than my current set-up. But I'm not 100% sure it would work. Someone should try it.

 

Pics!!

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Check out the little silencers they sell for the coralife super skimmers as another option. Its the difference on mine from loud to quiet on that particular piece of equipment.

 

Glad to see your swap goodies are doing decent.

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Is that silencer just for the coralife skimmer? I have an Aqua C Remora, and it's pretty quiet (I use a piece of paper towel covering the top chamber to silence a bit of noise) the noisest part of my tank now is the water falling in my drain, so not too bad.

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ya thats exactly the same as my 60. however, i'm using the single return. The overflow looks great and saves space but i would never be able to fit my hand back there.Can you?

It also looks like it would be imposible to remove the bulkheads without tearing out the overflow... oh well shouldn't need to do that anytime soon.

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No, I can't fit my hand back there either, I was afraid I would crack the glass by messing with the bulkheads too much. It does look nice, but I almost wish it was made of glass or somthing I could scrape b/c I don't like all the coraline growing on it. You can remove a portion of it for cleaning, but only one section, which isn't helpful.

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squirrelieygrrrl

wow Chye!

 

lovin the new digs. though i have to say i sure did enjoy checking in on your hex too. i can see this tank is gonna be great.

 

ive been itching to do a plumbed tank as well so all your documentation on your probs/fixes has been a great help to shed some insight into how this whole thing works. lol. ive been so intimidated by the whole plumbing thing. good to see that it isnt nearly as complicated as i was making it out to be in my head. lulz. plus i just love a sweet tank built on a budget. hope it all thrives and you can bring your vision to fruition. best of luck to ya love. ill make sure to check in on this one for sure.

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when you redid your lighting, did you put the retrofit stuff into the existing fixture, or is it built directly into the canopy? pictures? how do you like the ARO ballast? what bulb are you using?

 

i have something similar to what you had when you first set up (a 150w halide with 2x 24w T5HOs), and i was thinking about just changing out the sockets/ballasts for 250w versions rather than replacing the whole fixture.

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The drain has a 90deg PVC in the inside, pointing down with a small hole on the top and ridged tubing stuck in it to draw air in. The tube would make a terrible sucking noise if left open, but if you blocked it, then the water level in the overflow box would drain and the PVC would pull in air... which was even noisier.

 

I decided to make a durso standpipe which you can see in the pictures. I put a cap on the top drilled with a tiny hole (I wasted alot of PVC caps to learn this --> if the hole is too small, the water level in the overflow box will drop too low, make a lot of splashing noise and eventually will "flush" every few minute... yes, like a toilet flushing... If the hole is too big, the water won't drain fast enough and the water in the display will begin to rise and rise and rise... eek!!) I also put a bit of flexible airline tubing over the ridged airline tubing that was already installed and tied a knot in it to keep air from bring drawn in.

 

I decided to use flexible tubing to reduce the sound of falling water... it doesn't help much. and it was a pain to find a flexible tubing to fit the PVC so I'm not redoing it.

 

where is that airline coming from? on my durso, i put the airline tubing into the hole in the top of the durso cap (which is held in place by wrapping teflon tape around it, or you could use a small rubberband -- i've never tried tying a knot in the airline). that seemed to help me more than anything. tuning those drains is definitely a challenge.

 

I wanted a dual return so that I could use my SCWD (which I love!) so I decided not to bother using the drilled return hole at all (there is NO) space to work inside of the overflow box and I was terrified I would crack the tank if I messed with the return pipe too much) SO... I just put a cap on the return hole to keep water from leaking out of it.

 

is the SCWD loud/distracting?

 

IF I were better at plumbing, I might try to set up the two pre-drilled bulkheads as herbie style drains, which would probably be quieter than my current set-up. But I'm not 100% sure it would work. Someone should try it.

 

my understanding is that the key to herbie drains is the siphon. i don't know for sure, but it certainly seems like it would be tough to keep a siphon with a 90 degree elbow...?

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No, I can't fit my hand back there either, I was afraid I would crack the glass by messing with the bulkheads too much. It does look nice, but I almost wish it was made of glass or somthing I could scrape b/c I don't like all the coraline growing on it. You can remove a portion of it for cleaning, but only one section, which isn't helpful.

 

i never thought about cleaning the overflow.... huh.... not sure there is anything to do about that

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Wow so many comments, I'm excited :) I'll try to answer the questions posed tomorrow, with some more pictures of my canopy and over flow. Right now I have a large animal surgery exam to study for :(

 

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

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"Shell" for the stand eh? Awesome!! I thought making my sides removable was pretty cool.

The shell idea beats that by leaps and bounds!

 

Excellent idea!

 

Oh, and Happy belated. :happy:

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ive been itching to do a plumbed tank as well so all your documentation on your probs/fixes has been a great help to shed some insight into how this whole thing works. lol. ive been so intimidated by the whole plumbing thing. good to see that it isnt nearly as complicated as i was making it out to be in my head.

Yeah.. it's good to get an idea about how things work BEFORE you set it up... where as in my case, in my head I was thinking... "It's an overflow, tons of people have them, how complicated could it be? Water drains down, pump pumps is back. Easy!".... It's not THAT simple... but I'm learning! My plumbing seems totally jankity compared to alot of DIY threads I've seen, so don't use mine as an example... BUT It's awesome to have a sump/fuge. Now I feel like I can easily add extra equipment if I need to, like an auto-top off or dosing pumps.

 

Great looking tank, can't wait to see the sps frags grow out.

Thanks! I know I can't wait for them to grow out too! I finally got all the frags glued down. Here's a pic of the top of my aquascape. I know the frags are kind of close together, but I'm just getting started and I think down the road I can thin them out and keep the ones that do best in my tank.

TopCenter02_15_11small.jpg

 

when you redid your lighting, did you put the retrofit stuff into the existing fixture, or is it built directly into the canopy? pictures? how do you like the ARO ballast? what bulb are you using?

 

Right now I'm using a used no name 20K bulb that came with the retrofit kit. As you can tell from the above picture, it is not really doing the job with my SPS frags... I'm trying to be patient and give it some time... but I have a Pheonix on the way that I will be replacing it wil soon.

 

I thought about swaping out the sockets and ballast in my old fixture, before I got the canopy. I even started to take it apart, but I decided that it wouldn't come apart as easily as I hoped, and I kind of wanted to keep the light as a back up (it's on my quarantine tank right now). I'm sure it could be done, but I didn't want to destroy the fixture in the process. I just installed the new reflector and sockets strait into the canopy. Again... a little jankity.. but it works! I added some computer fans to keep the heat down, and they work right now, but I have a feeling they won't be enough come summer time.

 

I like the ARO ballast ok... it's probably not the best, but definetly better than the Oddysea I used to have. I'll have to get a good bulb with it to see some better results. I don't have a PAR meter, so it's hard to say how well the ballast is performing.

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where is that airline coming from?

It's coming from a hole with ridged airline tubing that was originally drilled in the 90deg elbow. see the tiny white tube above the elbow in the second pic? I didn't like it. So I put the flexible tubing on it and tied a knot in it to keep air out... I guess I could have just glued it shut, but this is reversible. Putting airline tubing from the hole in the durso is a good idea... hmm I could adjust the air better that way.. maybe I will try it :)

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is the SCWD loud/distracting?

Not at all, It's super quiet. It's only loud when my return pipes are too far above the water and my siphon hole starts sucking air. my overflow and fans are much louder. It's obviously not as good as an MP10/20/40 at producing "waves" but for $10 it's ALOT better than just plain old return pipes, especially since they produce 100% of my flow. (no powerheads)

 

"Shell" for the stand eh? Awesome!! I thought making my sides removable was pretty cool.

The shell idea beats that by leaps and bounds!

 

I can't take credit for the idea... the guy whole made my stand always makes them this way. It is a great idea though! I love it!

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so you are upgrading ya lights, awesome.

 

I know much of halides, cuz i don't plane on getting into having those types of lights.

Thanks for asking

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Thanks!

I'm going to run my heater, fans and use the temp probe to stabilize my temp (I don't trust the readings that my coralife thermometer is giving me)

I'm going to do an an auto top-off with 2 float switches.

and I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with the last outlet. Probably, I'll set-up my return pump so that I can do a feeding mode. But if I ever get a doseing pump I could always use it for that.

It also comes with a pH probe, so I'll be able to see what my pH swings are throughout the day and try to stabilize that.

 

I'm excited!

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