My DIY 10G project Finally Started

[vapor7]

Yeah i supose it does never thought about that, Could someone tell me if i have wired the MH right as it wont switch on .

 

Thanks

 

Ash

 

Well I am not sure if this is it, but in the bottom right hand terminal strip it looks like a wire is missing. I see a blue, green/yellow and brown wire going into the strip and just a blue and green/yellow coming out of the terminal strip. It also looks like there is only one wire coming out of the ballast there needs to be two. That means you are missing either the hot or the neutral going to the lamp. Do you have the schematic for this fixture? If you do post a picture and we will see if we can get it hooked up right.

[ashkeenon]

Thanks Vapor. Thats what i thought where the brown wire goes to the lamp theres nothing connecting it to the ballast.

[ashkeenon]

Hi so i got a bright idea today and bought another tank 12" x 8" x 8" for my office pico this will tide me over untill i get my 10G nano up and running as i think im going to just buy a MH pendant but im pretty skint just now just bought a newish car and insurance etc and being a student dosnt help either so this is what i done today.

 

 

New clearseal rimless tank for the display

 

and here is the lighting i bought about a month ago its a 18w T5 oone blue one white

 

Here is the old tank i had before i cut it up for an equipment chamber fudge at the back of the tank guess its kinda the same setup as my 10G

 

All the glass cut up

 

and heres the tiny sump fudge

 

I have also built a little stand canopy which i sprayed black today however the finish was really poor due to it being quite cold and the paint dryed in all crackled, so this needs to be stripped and painted again. Will post pics when it is done as it looks awfull just now.

 

 

Ash

[ashkeenon]

Hello again its been a while since i last updated anyway. I have been really busy with work n stuff so not had a chance to do much i have managed to build and paint a stand for my office nano tank and got all the stuff i need for it its just the case of finding time to put it together. Meanwhile i have just put my 8" cube in the stand just now untill i sort out the 12" one.

 

Here is a few pics of the stand and betta tank.

 

 

This is the tank which will eventually be my office nano

[ashkeenon]

In between working on the office nano i have finally managed to get my hands on a 70w metal halide. Its all wired up and working now. The setup came with a remote ballast with a quick disconnect feauture it was all pretty much prewired all i had to add was a power cord.

 

The problem i have now is what sort of lamp fixture do i use as i have a pendant and a reflector fixture take a look at the pictures. And how do i mount this in my hood there always seems to be a hurdle to get over in this project.

 

Here is a shot of the ballast wiring

 

Just starting up the lamp has a nice cool blue colour to it

 

Option 1

 

This is the pendant im talking about

 

Ideally i would like the lighting fixture to be inside the canopy again just to give a clean setup look

 

Just cant see how i would be able to mount it in the canopy any ideas on this

 

 

Option 2

 

Here is the reflector type fixture which i ahve temporly mounted in the hood but not sure how to mount it properly again any ideas welcome

 

 

 

This is a sheet of mirrored aluminum i am going to use a s a reflector and to stop burning the wooden lid if i use option 2

 

 

Thanks

 

Ash

[NYPRODJ]

MORE PICS!

[ashkeenon]

Hi all Merry xmas and a happy new year.

 

Been a long time since ive posted been really busy with uni anyway finish for good in three weeks. Some more pics as requested by NYPRODJ. Not much fixed the MH to canopy, ive ordered some led moonlights and an acntic blue light aswell to suppliment the MH. Got all the things i need now got a RO unit, salt, refractometer, termometer, test kit, sand etc so at leat i think ive got everything feel free to chip in if i need anything elses besides money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plan on getting water in the weekend i finish uni as i would rather start the tank when ive got time to moniter it and stare endlessly.

 

Ash

[NYPRODJ]

Looking good! My 5.5 gal version of this tank has officially been running for 1 year and it is doing fantastic! These little all-in-one tanks are great... one question - what did you cut up that old tank for?

[ashkeenon]

thanks

 

I cut it up so i could make a small fuge out of it to stick it on the back much like my 10G one.

[ashkeenon]

Hi all

 

Just thought i would add some photos of the equipment i have added to my tank.

 

 

Got a dog in a box today nah kidding but he likes to investigate everything.

 

Some equipment, refractometer LED moonlights Hydor Flow

 

Digital Termometer in place all ready to go

 

Here is my RO unit many thanks to osmotics for there good coms and fast delivery, cheers

 

Installation of RO unit water feed in to RO if anyone is interested

 

and a photo of the waste line in to the drainage pipe.

 

Heres the LED's mounted they came prewired with a dimable voltage switch ties and sticky pads for fixing. the LEDs are water resistant but not submersible. Reasonable price off ebay heres the link if anyone is interested. LED's

 

 

 

 

And heres my first tank inhabitant.

 

Ash

[NYPRODJ]

OoOOOOOoooOooO yummy

[FUGU!!!]

God damn this is cool!

[ashkeenon]

Well Today i have officially dipped my feet into the saltwater.Got two little bits of live rock today about 1.5kg or so all together everything is up and running now, Thanks God heres some pics.

 

Mixing the salt in 5mins with a paint mixing drill bit.

 

 

RO water bucket just added the salt

 

 

And heres the salt mixing in action, in an article i read by some chemistry dude who done some tests on mixing salt it was said that the faster the salt is mixed and used the better as something in the salt dosnt get a chance to evaporate if its done quick, and he found that by mixing it with an electrick drill and a proppeller turned out the best how do you guys do it. so i guess this is how i chose to do it that way

 

 

First bit of live rock

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not this is my 100th photo and i think its a nice one too no diy stuff. Anyway on a visit to the pet shop to get a net i seen a little bit of live rock i liked so decided to get it. Wow this hobby is very impulsive and addictive im gonna be satying out the LFS as much as i can. Untill i at least start my new job after uni. Im only gonna buy live rock when i see nice pieces as its taken me this long so far so dont mind waiting a bit longer to get it the way i want think im gonna have two islands one bigger than the other.

 

 

Under the canopy

 

 

Pointed one of the pump outlets upwards for a bit of surface aggitation.

 

 

 

Thanks for all the help so far

 

Ash

[Izzue]

Very Nice Ash...

 

Love this thread...esp all the pics...keep them coming

 

Izzue

[coraln'fish]

That's awesome. It's so clean and you built it all yourself, nothing premade. I hope I can learn all of this some day.

 

~Ryan

[NYPRODJ]

A+ work... keep it up! Are you having trouble getting the front panel to stay closed? I suggest using magnetic tape =o) or if you wanna go DIY crazy wire up an actuator arm to a switch or remote control or even your computer lol

[ashkeenon]

A+ work... keep it up! Are you having trouble getting the front panel to stay closed? I suggest using magnetic tape =o) or if you wanna go DIY crazy wire up an actuator arm to a switch or remote control or even your computer lol

 

Yeah what it was i built the canopy and afterwards i thought it would be a good idea to have a opening at the front so i didnt distrub the lighting when i need to do stuff. However i have some powerfull little magnets i was gonna mount so it stays put.

 

Ta

 

Ash

[ashkeenon]

Voila heres some pc fans i rigged up to take the heat of the MH light i have taken photos on how ive done it so will post the process later for anyone who is interested.

 

 

Ash

[ashkeenon]

So heres how i rigged up some fans if anyones interested first off i found some low voltage plug adapter. I then bought two 4omm PC fans.

 

 

First things first cut off the yellow wire and the 3 pin connector.

 

 

Then strip the wires of the plug

 

 

Now i striped the wires of the PC fans

 

 

I then joined the two fans wires togetherso they can both run off the one plug.

 

 

I then connected the PC fan wires to the plug adapter i joined the black wire to the black wire and the red wires to the white and black wire on the plug not sure if it maters. That worked for me.

 

 

Heres it all wired up

 

 

i then decided just to tape up all the wires looks a bit neater too.

 

 

and here they are in action mounted at the back of the canopy.

 

 

Heres a pic of the tiny little shrimp thing thats floating around the tank sorry its not the best quality pic not sure how to use the macro mode will have to read the book. Anyone no what it is.

 

 

thanks

 

Ash

[Leo10988]

What kind of adapter is that?

[ashkeenon]

Im not sure i know that it transforms the volatage to 12v thats about it.

 

I am having difficulty keeping the temprature steady when the halide is on it goes up to 28 when its off it drops to about 24. the fans dont seem to be doing much any sugestions.

 

Ash

[ashkeenon]

Hello

 

Added some more live rock over the weekend cost me a small fortune but thats it all now just the fish and corals . Heres some pics. Rock scaping is much harder than you think took me a bit of time just to arrange 4 rocks.

 

Heres a front tank shot cant wait to see some fish in there hopefully it wont take long to cycle due to the size. Im starting t get a bit of green alge on the rocks that has been there longer turned a bit brown but done a water change when i added the new rock.

 

 

Any one no what that spongie purple thing is on the bottom right rock.

 

 

Side view.

 

 

Ash

[ashkeenon]

Hello just thot i would add some more pics ive got heaps of algae growing well was untill i cleaned the glass a bit.

 

 

Here a clsoe up shot of the small rock on the left. you can see the tiny feather duster just ito the right of the purple sponge thing.

 

 

Heres the rock at the other side looks completly green from a distance

 

 

Heres the full tank shot.

 

 

I have been taking test every 2 days of the water parameters weird thing is amonia is at 0 - 0.25 and everything else is zero theres been no spike at all not even when i added more rock. Must say though there wasnt any noticable die off from the rock as they were very clean fully cured live rock.

 

From this do you think its possible to add a clean up crew or should i just wait its been like this for two weeks.

 

Ash

[ashkeenon]

Hi

 

another update got my small pico up and running temporary untill i get enough time to finsh the stand and mini fudge at the back but heres some pics with the left over live rock i had from my main tank. Think its going through one of those diatom blooms.

 

 

 

 

Ash

[NYPRODJ]

WORD!