RoboPhung Posted May 2, 2004 Share Posted May 2, 2004 Hey guys, After learning so much over here on these forums, I think I finally have my tank modified enough ready for some reefing. Here it is... It's an eclipse 6 retrofitted with a 32w CSL. I attached a ac500 fuge to the back running carbon and sponge media. The fuge is lighted with a 13w 6400k pc clip-on light, and rests on a little homemade stool. So far the fuge is holding 2 lb of ls, 2-3 lb of lr, and a red mangrove. I got about 8 lb of lr and 8 lb of ls in the tank, this thing has been running in stock form for 8 months now. I barely got all the modifications up and running yesterday. Inhabitants include: bicolor pseudochromis 5 various hermits skunk cleaner shrimp hawaiin feather 2 bumblebee snails 2 redfoot moon snails 1 astrea snail Comments and feedback would be appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment
coral reef Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 couldnt agree more with these other guys Link to comment
huari Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 Sweet. well thought out. I liked the way you used the ac500 to prop up the lid with the -looks like- corallife light legs. also the width of your ac500 gives you full flow from back to front. I don't see your heater but i guess you can pop a 50W tronic in your fuge. Now you just need a auto top off to compensate for the open top. Link to comment
NaNO ReeFiN Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 Tank looks great. My only concern with the hood raised like that is the fish can and probably will jump out. Link to comment
MidiMouse Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 Wow, very clean setup...love it! -Lam Link to comment
RoboPhung Posted May 3, 2004 Author Share Posted May 3, 2004 Lol thanks guys. For a while I've had a hard time dealing with the greenspot algae, so i let it grow wild in the back of the tank. After I get my corals into the tank, and start dosing alk/calc, maybe I can get coraline to grow over it? And yeah I took out the heater for now because it's super hot in s. cali right now and the tank temp is stable at 82 all day. I'll add a 25w heater into the fuge pretty soon. Link to comment
RoboPhung Posted May 3, 2004 Author Share Posted May 3, 2004 Oh yeah and so far the pseudochromis seems happy. No signs of jumping. I'm not sure if they're known to jump out of open tanks? I'll be sure to keep an eye out and maybe make some kind of acrylic cover, but I'd rather keep it like this so heat won't be an issue. Link to comment
parotkilah2 Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 i love the hood on the tank. if there is one thing i hate about the eclipse hoods (i have a 3 gallon eclipse reef myself) is the you can't put any kind of bigger filters on it without tearing apart the hood. i built a wooden canopy for mine but i really wish i would have seen yours first and gotten that idea. how is your temp and evap with the hood being raised of the tank like that? also do you have any fans in the hood? brandon Link to comment
RoboPhung Posted May 3, 2004 Author Share Posted May 3, 2004 My temp is about the same as before with the canopy unraised and stock lighting. I don't think a fan is necessary as the heat escapes just fine. Evaporation is pretty bad though, daily topoff is needed, next project will be an ADTO system. One thing is that I can't take all the credit for this idea. I was originally inspired by qualudethunder's tank. U can see his tank in this thread. Link to comment
qualudethunder Posted May 4, 2004 Share Posted May 4, 2004 Very cool Robo, Set up looks great. I'm glad that I inspired somone with my mod. I wanted to run an AC500 fuge as well but was afraid of the flow being too much. Did you lift the intake tube up a bit off of the impellar to cut the flow? I can't even crank my mini on full without having too much current. The little stool for the fuge is a great idea. Very cool work. I also ran my 6 without the top frame for a while, and although I liked the look, I let my paranoia get the best of me and decided to get another frame (bigals $4.99 cheap). Auto top-off (or strict daily manual top-off) is a must for this setup. Looks great Robophung Link to comment
RoboPhung Posted May 4, 2004 Author Share Posted May 4, 2004 Actually I didn't lift the intake tube at all. If u look at the pics closely, the part of the intake that's submerged in water belongs to an ac-mini. I had originally bought the surface skimmer attachment but decided to not use it because it takes up like 1/3 of my tank space lol. It did come with a pipe reducer (the black part u see joining the bigger part of the intake to the mini part). I used that and some pipethreading to make the mini-tube fit snug. It slowed the flow down pretty good imo. I'm thinking of using the pipethread to cover up half of the grill at the bottom of the intake or maybe plastidip the very bottom half of it as it should slow down the flow to a more acceptable level. Right now the flow is fine, except when the evaporation takes away a half a cm of water from the top and the waterfall causes major airbubbles all over the tank. Yeah forsure you won't be able to use the top frame of the tank at all if you decide to go with the ac500. Link to comment
qualudethunder Posted May 4, 2004 Share Posted May 4, 2004 Ahhh I got you on the mini intake now. Thats a good way to slow down the flow. There all good ideas you have for slowing down the flow actually. That setup is really clean. If I cut the middle section of the frame I would be able to use the AC500 correct? I believe that part is mainy there to hold up the stock filter. I have been planning on cutting mine out for a while because it blocks some light. It may lose a little support but not much. Link to comment
RoboPhung Posted May 5, 2004 Author Share Posted May 5, 2004 Maybe...i'm not sure. I know the ac500 is a very tight fit into the back of the eclipse. You'd also have to saw off the additional piece of plastic that supports the biowheel part of the eclipse filter. If you should try it keep me updated. I'm not really pleased with how the eclipse back and front bend out from the water pressure. Link to comment
qualudethunder Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 Before I go get one... one more question, this is for anyone really. Do you think running this without a powerhead will be ok in the long run? I mean you have a flow of water over almost the enitre surface. I would not think that you would really need one. That would be sweet for these eclipse setups....no heater or powerheads in the tank. How does it look to you Robo... I see you are not running a PH. Does the flow seem to hit most of the tank... are their many dead spots on this particular setup? I think I can squeeze it in with the top frame with minor altering...I will let you know. Link to comment
RoboPhung Posted May 5, 2004 Author Share Posted May 5, 2004 My tank is pretty bare right now so I I can't be entirely sure there isn't stagnant water in my tank. But from observation I can say that using the current mini intake, and the throttle all the way down, and removing the plastic ring collar off the intake that's right before the impeller, I get a strong flow over the top of the tank. My feather duster on the bottom is swaying a small amount. Maybe this is the perfect speed to set your ac500 if you want to not use ph? Should I decide to do other mods to further slow the speed down, then yeah, I think a little microjet would be necessary. Link to comment
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