Friar's 20 Galllon -- Still Alive!

[friar1]

FTS 05/25/15

 

FTS 11/09/14

 

 

FTS 11/02/14

 

 

FTS 04/13/14

 

 

FTS 01/12/14

 

 

FTS 11/20/13

 

 

So, I have been planning this one since last year. But with the trailer we had, I could not justify a 20 gallon tank. I have been collecting various parts of the puzzle, including the lighting system (LED Full Spectrum DIY), Filter, Built a cabinet for it over a year ago.

 

So where to start? Wanted the 20 g so I could have fish, but no space in the trailer we had. Prayed for a house, not really because of more space for a tank, but because we needed more space for the family. Daughter is in middle school, and things were getting tight in the old place. I did build a cabinet/stand for a twenty gallon tank back over a year ago, and the wife, bless her heart, put it to use as a cabinet in the bathroom. Not really my intent, but the Wife was happy, and that was what really mattered.

 

Found a DIY controller from the Jarduino build, and began the pursuit of parts for a good LED system. That was when last year everyone began talking about the LDD drivers by Meanwell. Super Cheap and super small. That combined with a Makers Heatsink made this feel like a doable DIY project.

And then, last spring, A house! A real house. Hadn't lived in a real house since I was a kid. Of course, my parents never told what a chore it was to keep up a house you own yourself, so the extra weekend work sort of surprised me! PLus, since it was kind of distressed, we had a lot of work to do just making it comfortable to live in.

Sorry, am I rambling? So over the summer, I completed the purchase of needed equipment. Got a cheap 20 gallon rimmed tank, not my first choice, but a Rimless just wasn't possible at this time.

 

Here it is after installing the prefilter I made. The prefilter is set up to do a couple of things. First chamber is the overflow and where I will have filter floss. Water flows to the next chamber by holes in the bottom of the second panel. The second chamber will house macro algae, maybe refugium type substrate. The back of the tank will be blacked out except for that second chamber which will have a light in the back at a reverse photo period. The water will then flow up to the shortened top of that chamber and over to the last chamber where a heater and filter intake will reside. The canister filter will run only chemical filtration (hence the need for a pre filter). Example of water flow through the pre-filter is below.

 

 

So, Equipment--

 

20 Gallon Tetra Petco Special (Cheap, but functional)

 

Filstar XP-S Canister Filter

 

SunSun Canister Filter

 

DIY in Tank Pre-Filter section, black plexiglass

 

Hydor Evolution Powerhead, 600 GPH

 

20Lbs CaribSea Special Reef Grade Sand (I REALLLLLYYYY Like this sand. It is just right, in my estimation

 

Dry Rock from CARIBSEA SOUTH SEAS Dry Rock 10 lbs

 

And BRS Reef Saver Dry Rock, 5 lbs

 

DIY Lighting controller, 48 volt power supply, Arduino Mega board, RTC, Touch screen LCD, Meanwell LDD Drivers

 

LEDs:

12 Royal Blue

4 White

1 Red

1 Ocean White

2 Hyper Violet

 

 

75 Watt heater 100 Watt HEater

 

Livestock as of 11/02/14

 

Coral -

Neon Trumpet.

Candy Cane

Assorted Rics

Duncan

Mushrooms

Assorted Zoas

Red People Eater Paly

Acan - 2 heads

Prism

 

Fish -

Clownfish (not sure of exact species)

Blue Head Hi-Fin Gobie

Large Red Brittle Star

2 Emerald Crab

MANY Hermits

Assorted Snails

tiny Brittle Star Hitchhiker

 

Built In Fuge-

Cheato

Shaving Brush

 

Homemade Skimmer

 

Feeding: every couple of days, just a little freeze dried Cyclopeeze.

 

Maint: 20% Water change every week or every four days. Clean Filter once per month.

[specore]

Congrats on the house! Sounds like you have a nice start on your build as well.

[friar1]

So here is the Light System, The MakersLED Heatsink,

 

The Controller from the Jarduino project:

 

 

And the cabinet:

 

 

Almost done with the lighting system, and my bride wants to have this tank wet before her mother comes for the holidays, so... Stay tuned!

[.Newman.]

cabinet looks boss

[friar1]

Thanks Newman

[Moolelo]

congrats on the house! Prefilter is a cool idea to use with a canister. I wanted to do something like your overflow when I started my 20Long, glad to see that it is working well for you.

Can't wait to hear more as this build progresses.

[Sunar357]

Congrats on the house and the build!

[friar1]

Well,

Up with lights!

 

Another Angle:

 

 

And now with Water!

[zeke2020]

Sweet scape!

[wow.such.chris]

Thats some high quality diy! Very nice.

[friar1]

Sweet scape!

 

Thats some high quality diy! Very nice.

 

Thank you both.

 

But... you haven't seen the mistakes! I was not able to put the controller into a nice project box like I wanted to yet.

 

And the Cooling fan is not yet controlled by the Jarduino controller. Among other things haha

 

But, it is a start

[friar1]

So, I had to change some lighting values. The reds are waaaayyyy too much, even at low settings. Have to make sure they stay low throughout the daylight cycle. Also, really need to hook up a temp sensor to control cooling fan. Don't like the noise it makes when it is on full.

[friar1]

Went home and saw the pre-filter had lowered water level in the last section quite a bit. Not sure why this is (must be fluid dynamics) but I filled those sections up to the top. We will see what it looks like when I get home. and Take Pics tonight

I also need to seed tank with bits of live rock soonest!

[.Newman.]

i really like the little cave idea and the whole scape. looks great!

[friar1]

Gee, Thanks Newman. I am glad I got the Dry rock. I was able to assemble it and play around with it outside on a table. A lot easier than live rock. I have live Rock I will seed into the new tank once I see everything is working ok.

I wanted to make some high spots for corals needing better light and still leave room to add the rocks from the 4 Gallon into this one.

 

 

Can't wait to get going! The only thing is, no more money! haha. It might be a while before adding much livestock. Oh Well. At least I got the thing running right?

[GHill762]

Looks good, well done!

[friar1]

Thanks GHill!

[GHill762]

That jarduino deal looks sweet.. Can you control each individual color with that?

[friar1]

Yes I can. It can control seven different LED drivers. I am using these drivers, the Meanwell LDD. They are super small and Super Cheap.

 

[friar1]

Also, the Jarduino lets you fade each color up and down according to your preferred schedule.

 

I checked the Pre-Filter, it is now full and running really well, skims some of the surface because of the overflow I use to get water into it

 

Not a skimmer, but at least it helps break some of the surface tension

[PRJ]

I love the tall column in the 'scape! Excited to see how it develops.

[friar1]

Thanks! I wasn't trying for it, it is how it came out in the end. I really like it too.

[friar1]

So checked the water in the pre-filter and it was low again in the last chamber where the inlet for the canister filter is at. Not sure why.

 

I turned it off until I can get an idea of what might be happening.

 

Put a piece of live rock in the tank from my 4 Gallon Finnex. It has two very hardy corals, a ric colony and a small zoa colony. Everything looked great this morning on that rock. Will use this to begin cycle and seed the dry rock.

 

Here is a shot of the touch screen for the LED controller (Jarduino)

 

[gqlmao]

Very neat little pre-filter design, works as a surface skimmer, hides equipment and looks clean at the same time. My guess is that the lower water level might be your pre-filter not being able to allow sufficient flow through to match the canister. It might be a very small difference between the pre-filter flow and the canister flow over a long period of time it will slowly make the water levels drop. If you can drop the flow in your filter slightly I would try that and see what happens.

 

Subscribe for more!

[friar1]

Yep, thought of that. Might just break off some teeth at the skimmer end, can't adjust the filter intake.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!