SDartifex countertop extension [retired]

[Belac]

Yeah I kind of figured they were thermoelectric.

 

How about a PC water cooler raidator? Those can be had fairly cheap.

[SDartifex]

Sexy plate is sexy!

 

Your tellin me

 

Yeah I kind of figured they were thermoelectric.

 

How about a PC water cooler raidator? Those can be had fairly cheap.

 

Yea, I priced it out and it would be around $100 for the cooling system alone. So if I do end up going that route I'll probably just go with a bigger TEC and use a standard CPU heatsink that way the entire system would be around $100 and I can always add the liquid cooling later if I wasnt happy with preformance. The more I look into other iptions the more the TEC makes sence though.

[SDartifex]

So I've come along way with the stand, but I still have a lot to do.. Some minor sanding to make everything fit flush, and I have to paint the thing but the constant rain for the last month has been keeping me from spraying anything just yet. Eventually I want to cut out more of the left pannel so that the refugium can be displayed or hidden behind a door, but thats gonna be farther along in the future. Sorry for the grainy photos but I didn't have much time to take good photos.

That stand was a total mess a week ago with wires and tubing all entangled in each other.

 

Then theres the new livestock, some from online and some from my local LFS

 

New sun coral with the wrasse

I got this torch from a local LFS, it has green and yellow with blue/purple tips so I hope its colors come out more with stable parameters.

A bicolor frogspawn

Some pink zoanthids (the didn't like me putting the light right above them for the photo )

A setosa

 

And my new favorite pieces the epic fungia

and a blue tipped acro that I haven't been able to ID so any help would be appreciated

looks like it could be a tenius, but I thought tenius had more coralites than this guy does.

[Belac]

So if you go the thermo electric route are you going to just sit the bottle on it?

I may have a slight better idea I just had if that is your plan.

[Mr. Microscope]

And a suspected nudi

I've yet to see it much on any corals though so I'm hoping its not carnivorous

Pretty sure that's a flatworm.

[SDartifex]

So if you go the thermo electric route are you going to just sit the bottle on it?

I may have a slight better idea I just had if that is your plan.

 

Actualy I was thinking of building a double walled acrylic container (like a thermos). The TEC would be mounted so that the ceramic cooling side would be mounted underneath so it will come in direct contact with the food solution. Keeping the food suspended seems like it will be the difficult part though. I wanted to do a simple DIY magnetic stirrer, however the TEC and its heatsink would be in the way and I dont think it would work well over such a distance.. Pneumatics may be a better option, but the noise involved turns me off to the idea.

 

What was your idea?

 

Pretty sure that's a flatworm.

 

Sure is, I'm quite positive there some form of acoelmorpha. BTW I read an article about your electron microscopy of some coral fragments, those are some epic photos! Must be fun working with such powerful equipment.

[Belac]

Just build you a tiny glass tank. Put the food containers in the water so they are submerged almost compleatly. Run your pelter on the glass or some other device to chill the water. Then you can run all the bottles at once and theoritaclly keep them an even tempture with minimal temp loss. The biggest issue I see with this keeping the food bottles down.

 

If you don't want to run a pelter on the wall of the tank then you could do the thing out of acrylic and use some other method of cooling the water. Acrylic would be much easier to fabricate with you just could't use the acrylic as a good thermal sink.

 

Selaing the tank as much as possible on the top would also help with keeping the temps down.

 

Double walled might be a good idea to fight condensation. Or get some of that styrafoam for walk in fridges. We have that over the attic fan in the summer. Its R value is amazing.

[SDartifex]

Interesng the tank idea could solve my stirring issue. I would just build the magnetic stirrers into the tank under each container.

 

I also just realized that I dont have to pay for water in my appartment so I'm considering doing a semi-open-loop (can you even use 2 hyphens in a word?) water cooling solution for the hot side of the pelt's. I'd be willing to bet I could turn the whole system into a block of ice with such a large heatsink. Which reminds me I'm going to have to figure out a temperature controller.. Possibly something with a thermistor attached to a FET to try and stay cheap and simple.

[Belac]

And the ice is bad why? If you made the tank salt water then you don't have the issues of it freezing undernormal conditions. Meneral oil is often used in computer cooling systems. It is basicly inert, might look into it.

 

You know I think I am going to nock together blue prints on sketchup tonight when I get home. I doubt I will physically be able to do any of the other tasks I need to do, but my brain will still be going 100mph. I may end up building one of these eventually my self. How big a bottle and how many are you wanting to put in there?

[SDartifex]

And the ice is bad why? If you made the tank salt water then you don't have the issues of it freezing undernormal conditions. Meneral oil is often used in computer cooling systems. It is basicly inert, might look into it.

 

You know I think I am going to nock together blue prints on sketchup tonight when I get home. I doubt I will physically be able to do any of the other tasks I need to do, but my brain will still be going 100mph. I may end up building one of these eventually my self. How big a bottle and how many are you wanting to put in there?

 

Yeah I had figured using a brine solution would be best since its just saltwater (incase of any leaks or spills) and is easy enough to make up.

 

I was thinking since the enclosure would be fabricated from acrylic instead of putting a bottle in there you could just build in chamber(s) for the food. That way theres no floating issue and you could seal the whole thing up with a fill cap(s) to add more food with a minimal chance of mess. But to your question I'm thinking around 500ml. I need to make this system fit in the stand of my setup so vertical space is limited. But whatever you come up with I'm sure I'll be able to tweak it for my specifications.

[Spirofucci]

Nice pics dude. The skins on the stand look great, but I gotta say that the Salifert art looked much better!

[Belac]

Makeing the containers is fine. But the problem with square is the fact stuff will get stuck in the corners. I will let you know what I come up with.

[Veng]

I've been toying with the idea of setting up some kind of minipico fridge that would hold a few bottles like oysterfeast and phyotofeast and the likes and keep them at fridge temp, then just use a dosing pump to put them into the tank. However I'd want something really clean as I don't have a cabinet to hide everything in. Keep us filled in on what you end up with, I may end up copying

[SDartifex]

Makeing the containers is fine. But the problem with square is the fact stuff will get stuck in the corners. I will let you know what I come up with.

 

Acrylic comes in pipe too

 

I've been toying with the idea of setting up some kind of minipico fridge that would hold a few bottles like oysterfeast and phyotofeast and the likes and keep them at fridge temp, then just use a dosing pump to put them into the tank. However I'd want something really clean as I don't have a cabinet to hide everything in. Keep us filled in on what you end up with, I may end up copying

 

Will do, though honestly I'm more concerned with getting a proper light going by the end of the break. I hope to have the auto feeder done some time this summer, but If classes allow I may get it done sooner.

[Belac]

That was what I was thinking. I personally would use acrylic drinking glasses because they cost much much less. I didn't get to the blue prints tonight. Maybe tomorow. How tall/wide are we shooting for? If you don't have a prefernce I probably wll do it so I can shove it into my stand.

[GalaThoun]

great looking tank so far. Your sixline looks alot more innocent then the pita sixline i got.

[SDartifex]

That was what I was thinking. I personally would use acrylic drinking glasses because they cost much much less. I didn't get to the blue prints tonight. Maybe tomorow. How tall/wide are we shooting for? If you don't have a prefernce I probably wll do it so I can shove it into my stand.

 

Didnt even think about acrylic glasses, that could work nicely. I would like to keep it In the stand so space is my biggest enemy. I have a 12x12x6" space on the shelf and a 11.5x6x7 space above the ato resivoir that is free. I'm not sure either will cut it however so I'm considering modifying the shelf so that I can be lowered below the skimmer cup giving something closer to a cubic foot to play with. I figure the mag stirrer to occupy around 3" tall to be on the safe side. So that would leave around 9" to work with.

 

great looking tank so far. Your sixline looks alot more innocent then the pita sixline i got.

 

Thanks! As bice as looks he's definitly living up to the species reputation stealing food from the cleaner shrimp and lps. If I get a good feeding solution going I may pass him along to exchange for some schoaling gobies, or maybe a basslet.

[Belac]

I have used acrylic glasses for both a co2 desovling chamber on my freshwater planted and a few other projects as well. Still haven't found any streight cylinder glasses made of acrylic but I don't see how the taper is going to be much of an issue in this case.

 

9 high by 12 long it is then. Well assumeing I can fit every thing in that. Also been toying mentally with putting the stirrers on the side of the tank. Need to have some one who has a stirrer run an experement for me first, to see if it will work or not.

 

I think the stirrer could run on a pulse to help cut down the noise, as well as the ammount of wear on the plastic. Lets say it starts spinning 30-45 seconds (no basis for those numbers they are a random time that seemed reasonable) before the pump makes a pull from the chamber. Seems like a good idea to me.

[Veng]

Will do, though honestly I'm more concerned with getting a proper light going by the end of the break. I hope to have the auto feeder done some time this summer, but If classes allow I may get it done sooner.

Like all projects we have to prioritize. I've got a few on my DIY list right now.

 

 

That was what I was thinking. I personally would use acrylic drinking glasses because they cost much much less. I didn't get to the blue prints tonight. Maybe tomorow. How tall/wide are we shooting for? If you don't have a prefernce I probably wll do it so I can shove it into my stand.

I may have to try an acrylic drinking glass out as a DIY media tumbler container. I think I could do that in a couple of hours and really cheap.

[Deleted User 3]

Last August I was forced to sell off all my livestock during a move. So of course ever since the last of my frags left I have been itching to get back in the hobby, but I had to downsize to accommodate my new home. I eventually decided to build an ADA 60-f and I decided I wanted to do so with all 4 sides and the top viewable and aesthetically tolerable to accommodate the placement of this reef at the end of my kitchen counter. So far I have fabricated a 1" steel square tube frame, planed and sealed some pine boards for the tank and sump to rest on and begun to acquire or design all the necessary items for the build

 

The tank was my first item to arrive and is also my first experience with an ADA aquarium.

 

 

 

Ive also begun to culture some dry rock in a rubbermaid bin and am quarantining some live rock I intend to use to seed the dry rock. If I dont observe any pests from the seed rocks by the end of the week I will begin seeding the dry rock with it.

 

 

The button polyps may go before I move the rock into the tank. Depending on how I decide on stocking I feel like they may become a problem further down the line if I dont take care of them now.

 

I have those exact polyps! Well only one of them, and it never splits it only gets bigger. It used to be like pencil eraser size, and now its dime sized sometimes, and green, exactly looking like yours!

[Deleted User 3]

Just a quick update, the suspected nudi has been positively ID'd as a species of Acoel flatworms.. From what I read there not predatory to corals which is probably why I've never heard of them before. They apparently dine on pod's so the recent explosion in pods is probably to blame for there recent debut. It seems like the best way to get rid of these guys is to get rid of your pods, which is annoying to say the least. I just hope they don't become a real problem and I can avoid a war all together, that pipefish is sounding better every day now

 

Also I have yet to see any red bugs on that smooth acro I got a little while back, so I'm happy to be red bug free for now. Though I noticed an aiptasia poking out from under the super glue stuck to the frag, so I took the frag out and torched the bottom with a lighter.. Stupid thing is becoming more trouble than its worth for a tester piece.

 

Other than that the SPS have been doing great though so I'm ready to pick up some large pieces and get this tank going. I just need to work out a light to run over my QT tank before I move forward, I don't wanna have any more surprises once I start adding expensive colony's.

 

I used flatworm exit for the copepod eating ones I had, it didn't entirely work.. so I just squished the few i'd see or try to suck them up, eventually I see NO pods on the glass, but not worms either... =\

[buddythelion]

And my new favorite pieces the epic fungia

and a blue tipped acro that I haven't been able to ID so any help would be appreciated

looks like it could be a tenius, but I thought tenius had more coralites than this guy does.

SEEEXXYYYYYY!!!!

 

I think it's a tenuis as well. Man, I was looking at that plate, it's a really sexy piece for sure. Great cops!

[Belac]

I finally did this last night. It is a bit rough and I didn't use cups for the tubes. If I ever build one I will make sure to update the plans to use drinking cups.


Thoughts?

[Veng]

I like it, but it is pretty large. 800ml is a lot of food. If you need one that big, you might consider getting one of the mini fridges with a compressor (they're quite quiet actually) and ripping it apart. I think they are under 100$ so probably 25$ on craiglist.

 

Inside of them is that ice try section, that's actually the heat exchanger. You could pull it out and place it in an insulated box in mineral oil and float your tubes/drinking cups in that.

 

I looked going down that path the other day, but I'm looking for something to hold the 6oz bottles (177ml). I think I'll end up down the single bottle wine chiller option.

[SDartifex]

I have those exact polyps! Well only one of them, and it never splits it only gets bigger. It used to be like pencil eraser size, and now its dime sized sometimes, and green, exactly looking like yours!

Awesome! I hope they grow huge, I havent seen any signs of matting or splitti g like other polyps so I'm inclined to think there the same.

 

I used flatworm exit for the copepod eating ones I had, it didn't entirely work.. so I just squished the few i'd see or try to suck them up, eventually I see NO pods on the glass, but not worms either... =\

Cool, I havent had much trouble with them. I noticed around 5 at the height of their population boom, but now only spot one every few days so I'm not to worried.

 

SEEEXXYYYYYY!!!!I think it's a tenuis as well. Man, I was looking at that plate, it's a really sexy piece for sure. Great cops!

Thanks buddy! I am verry happy with the plate, and its eating very well about 2x a week. Sadly when I got home this morning from a short trip to see family I found the tenius had RTN'd to near nothing.. It went from looking great to completely dead in less than 48h so thats a bummer. I tested all my parameters and everything is perfect so I really dont know what caused the necrosis.

 

I finally did this last night. It is a bit rough and I didn't use cups for the tubes. If I ever build one I will make sure to update the plans to use drinking cups.Thoughts?

Looks great! You gotta host the sketchup file so I can take a look at it

 

I like it, but it is pretty large. 800ml is a lot of food. If you need one that big, you might consider getting one of the mini fridges with a compressor (they're quite quiet actually) and ripping it apart. I think they are under 100$ so probably 25$ on craiglist.

 

Inside of them is that ice try section, that's actually the heat exchanger. You could pull it out and place it in an insulated box in mineral oil and float your tubes/drinking cups in that.

 

I looked going down that path the other day, but I'm looking for something to hold the 6oz bottles (177ml). I think I'll end up down the single bottle wine chiller option.

You have a point, I considered that but I'm not sure it would work in the space I have available. The volume can always be adjusted with height, as long as it doesn't go under ~45mm for the TEC.