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Deano's 20L tank


Deano

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:lol: Barnacle Blennies are the best :lol:

 

I love that acan.

 

I am liking the Blennies alot.

 

You think that is a acan? I wasn't sure if it was a Acan or Micromusa, because I have 3 acans and a Micromusa in my 135 and this coral really doesn't seem to be like either. The pylops don't extend like the acans or micomusa. The pylops stay tight together.

 

I haven't figured out how to get all the blue out of my pictures of this tank. But the picture provided really dosen't do this coral justise. It is really more purple in color.

 

Very unique scape. I love all the little guys hiding.

I appreciate you checking out my build thread. As I commented above I really do enjoy the Blennies.

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Definetly an acan.

 

The truth is it really makes me no difference what it is. I like it, so it stays!

 

Said I wasn't going to do SPS's in this tank, but I couldn't resist. I picked up a sweet little Acropora coral today. They called it a Fuzzy tip. Geenish with blue tips and grren polyps.

 

Will post some pictures once it is settled in completely. It's been in the tank for about 2 hours and already the polyps are extending.

 

Pictures of my new SPS.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well I have been working up a plan for my stand. I was going to make one but then I had a idea to buy a cabinet base and a top. I was able to purchased this with a laminate top already built The doors and front are solid oak and Veneer sides. $170 all I have to do is stain it. I am going to stain it black so that the grain will show and then clear coat it with polyurethane. The thing is the cabinet is 24" deep. A 20l is 12". Should I leave the cabinet 24" our cut it down to say 18"?

 

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Well I cut down the cabinet to total 20" deep. Looks much better, plus doing this will allow me to put a 40 b on it if I should deside to move up.

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I found a set of brand new GLO individual t5 reflectors at a LFS for 50% off. I bought them and I am in the process of building an oak hood to transfer the lights from my Odyssea into. Wait tell you see my method of mounting the hood over the tank. I've never seen anyone do this, you will be amazed that you never thought of this. It will be cool, becasue you will be able to swing the hood out of the way.

 

FORGET cables and hanging!

 

Stay tuned parts on order.

 

Everything is stained including my new hood. All I have left to do now is clear coat it all. AND get in my hood mount.

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Well the stand and Wood Hood are done, waiting on my special bracket to mount the hood to the stand.

 

Stay tuned for the hood mounting I think you will like it.

 

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OK this little project is completed. thumbsup.jpg

 

Less then $30.00 to mount this hood over the my tank. Since this is all contained on the stand I don't have to worry about moving the tank and have to reset hanging cables. Keep in mind you can mount this to a wall stud behind your tank as well. Because the TV bracket swing arms (where they pivot on each other) are not the same length you can not center the bracket mount to the tank, but since the arm swings it is not to critical where your stud is unless you are going to have the bracket completely collapsed as I did then the bracket location is much more critical. Another critical mounting issue to the tank stand is the stand arm should be tee at the bottom and bolted on both sides of the tee. This give the mount arm rigidity and keeps it from sagging or tilting in. You can't tell that this bottom bracket is tee since it is setting over the back wall of my tank stand. But this should give some idea. Sorry couldn't find 2 of the same bolts here.

 

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Since I can swing the hood out of the way getting into the tank is very easy.

 

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YES! I know that I need to paint them aluminum stand arm, but I figured it was easier to see while it was still unpainted.

 

On a scale from 1- 10 I give this about a 8, only because I drilled and tapped everything. If you used nuts and bolts this project is a easy 5. Even less if you mount the bracket to a wall stud.

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OK! Stand is now 90% complete. Since this tank will be moved to my office I still have the wiring for the light timers to complete. But the timers are hooked up to my 5.5 gal AIO that is at my office. That tank will be retire with a chance of it going in my sons room plumb into my 135G tank. His room is just above the 135 in the basement and he has been asking for a tank in his room but it get so hot in the summer I just didn't want to deal with it. But plumbing it into the 135 will cure that problem.

 

I gutted the Aquatraders light and mounted the 4 T5 bulbs into the hood with individual GLO reflectors.

 

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Looks nice really like the canopy mount! Very cool and clean finish!

 

Thanks, I appreciate your kind comments. I hope you find some 18" bulbs for your NE 18" fixture.

 

Here is my 5.5 with the same fixture. This is Nanotuners UVL's 454 and Indigo Sun bulb.

 

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This tank will be replaced by the 20 long that this thread is dedicated to. The 5.5 has just been to frustrating since day one. I'll be glad when it is out of my office. In fact it is going down after work on this very day.

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Love the stand!

 

 

Thanks I appreciate it.

 

By the way the Shrimp and Goby are doing great. But I have to say the Barnacle Blennies are becoming my most favorite fish in the tank. If I could find a couple more I would get them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I received my 2 speed fan controller with Temp Monitor today. I will be installing this into my Wood Hood with X4 24" T5. Hopefully I can attached the temp probes to the two of the bulbs and adjust the fans speeds to set at the perfect operating temp for T5's, 95F

 

$22.00 Fan controller

$14.00 5V - 12 V Power supply.

$8.00 2 qty. EverCool Fans.

$6.00 4 qty. 60mm fan covers.

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$50.00 total.

 

Priceless for the cool factor.

 

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I will update once installed, most likely this weekend.

 

Forgot I can set the temp to F once I make a trip wire. Default is Celsius.

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Ok I got the Fan controller hooked up and running. Everything was going great but I just couldn't leave it alone I had to tweak it a bit. Well! 1st thing I did was try and move my temp probe. These things are VERY delicate, I broke it and had to order a new one. The other mistake I made was to unplug the bulb from the ballast while it was on, I fried my ballast. :( I am a total D/A.

 

So I now have a pair of Fulham WH3 ballast on order. Other then the money this is a good thing. The Odyssey ballasts are not the best quality any way.

 

SO! before I messed everything up, here is what I had. On my back lights I was running 50 C and the front ones were 39 C at 50% fan speed. If I increased the fan speed to 80% - 100% the temps would drop to 45 C on the back and 36C on the front. This is within tolerance but in the attempt to lower the fan noise I would like to run them at 50% fan speed.

 

I think the reason the back bulbs are running hotter is how the bulbs are setting in the hood. So what started my big mess up was I was putting a plastic tube between the fan and bulbs. I am hoping this will help draw the air directly down the length of the bulbs and not just around them. I then wanted to move my temp probe to the center bulb on the back ones, failed.

 

ONE other thing I removed my splash shield before I screwed everything up to see what the temps were and you would think the bulbs would run cooler without the splash shield. NOT although 47 C is close it is still a bit high. So shielding the bulbs with the fans is a plus.

 

Any way when the new ballasts and temp probe comes in I will do some more experiments. But I believe the fan controller with temp monitor is a worth the effort. At least for optimizing T5 bulb use.

 

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Well a sad day one of my Beloved Barnacle Blennies has went MIA. I have looked everywhere including the sump. I see bluezooaquatics has got some more in so I guess I will have to order a couple more. I would like to have 3 or 4 total in this tank since they are so small and fun to watch. "little fish with a HUGE personality"

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Lately this tread has been heavy on equipment so it is time for some eye candy.

 

My latest addition. I have been watching this guy at my local Petco for a few weeks. It is a ORA Yellow Assessor captive breed. The research I have done on these is they are quite rare wild caught but ORA has started breeding them. If you can find them on line wild caught ones are $100 to $130. I found only one place that sold these for $50.00 captive breed and they had non in-stock. I bought this one for $49.95. I think it was a great deal and I am very happy with it. Hopefully my Cherub Angel will not harass it to death.

 

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Check out the growth on this.

 

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Some good growth here as well.

Before

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After

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How about the growth on this Clam.

 

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This Monti is taking off as well.

 

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Wow that is an ingenious canopy design. I never thought of using a TV bracket but it looks totally awesome and seems very versatile as well with the cantilever design.

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