Need to start cutting some costs...

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fishhugger

Guest
Well I am thoroughly disappointed...I got a 30 gallon tank for free that I was going to try to setup as a sump...unbeknownst to me, a 30 gallon and 55 gallon tank have the same width. If it was only 1 inch shorter I could've made it fit
. Sure I would've had to cut one of the braces to get the length of the tank in there, but that could've been easily remedied. I was even contemplating attempting to drill my tank.
I think I'm going to go sumpless...I'm just not sure its going to be worth the time, effort, and money to setup anything less then a 30....even if I get a 20long, its still probably going to have 15 gallons of water at the most.
If I even thought I had a remote chance of convincing my dad of the importance of a QT, I would definitely try to set one up....but he said if I brought home another tank he would kill me =S....even though I only have my 55.
I think I might be able to get away with hiding it in my basement and breaking it out as a hospital tank.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by FishHugger http:///forum/thread/382617/need-to-start-cutting-some-costs/40#post_3343296
Well I am thoroughly disappointed...I got a 30 gallon tank for free that I was going to try to setup as a sump...unbeknownst to me, a 30 gallon and 55 gallon tank have the same width. If it was only 1 inch shorter I could've made it fit
. Sure I would've had to cut one of the braces to get the length of the tank in there, but that could've been easily remedied. I was even contemplating attempting to drill my tank.
I think I'm going to go sumpless...I'm just not sure its going to be worth the time, effort, and money to setup anything less then a 30....even if I get a 20long, its still probably going to have 15 gallons of water at the most.
If I even thought I had a remote chance of convincing my dad of the importance of a QT, I would definitely try to set one up....but he said if I brought home another tank he would kill me =S....even though I only have my 55.
I think I might be able to get away with hiding it in my basement and breaking it out as a hospital tank.

Never mind this post..I misunderstood..Look below
 
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fishhugger

Guest
Before anyone yells at me....I might be able to get away with setting up the 30g as a QT :)
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
your sump doesnt have to be huge, a simple 10g or whatever you can fit under there would be sufficient for alot of things like getting your heater and probes out of the DT, growing a little macro alage or set up that scrubber you wanted. lots of things you can do with jsut a little sump. the bigger the better, but anything is better than nothing.
 

ibew41

Active Member
on jan 22 there will be a frag swap at an lfs by the buffalo airport that will also have used equipment cheep and there is going to be a raffle also you can meet local reefers
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
Cool, if your going ill have to try to meet up with you =D. Then you can tell everyone here how cool I am
.
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
2 cans of krylon fusion gloss black and one collapsed lung later, finally got my tank painted :)
And one special pic for Meowzer :)
Oh yeah and for what its worth, I used pvc primer where my old thermometer strip used to be, and the nasty gunk just wiped right off =D
BTW, the camera sucks and doesnt do my work any justice, despite me being pretty lousy with a spray paint can...also the front pane could use a wipe down, lol



AND heres muh other kitteh ^_^
 

amazo

New Member
FishHugger where are you located? I'm pretty good at knowing where the best deals are around Jamestown,Buffalo,and Erie(I'm cheap lol JK I also work within a limited budget).There is a lot of fancy stuff that would be nice but not is not necessary.I take a very balanced BIological approach ie:take things slow,1 lbs.of live rock or more per gal. and i didn't add all at once but when see a piece that i like I'm still adding here and there,add to you bioload slowly but a good clean up crew is a must,learn to feed them only what is needed(I feed many times a day but just enough to keep the critters happy and healty).Every system is different and what one person does is not going to work out for another(I do things many would cringe at but it works for me-I don't change my water as much as many people who have a much more high tec system,I don't QT fish before they go in my display becuse my QT tanks have become prisons for my trouble animals like an unfreindly crab my son bought me and a mantis shrimp I found but I only buy from trusted sources and most places I go QT the fish before they will sell them.Get some good quality water and a little bit of seed rock(the Fish Place has Rubble rock for $4 a pound) and build on what ever weakness you run in to(buy the critters to eat the algae you have trouble with or a six-line wrasse to eat worms),what ever your problem there is probaly a way to counter-act it you just have to do your reserch.
 
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fishhugger

Guest
Some progress finally =D.
Moonlights are complete, spent about 5 bucks on it.
36" led strip - 3$
Basic switch 2$
12V DC adapter I found lying around.
Pics



All in all I'm happy with the results. For 5 bucks I couldn't ask for anything more. I'm glad I didn't use a dimmer because its not as bright as I thought it would be, which is good because it was I thought it might've been too bright.

Just cant wait to see how it looks with some water.
 

drewsbrews

Member
Looks like you got the same led strip I did. Worked well on my 24" tall tank. eery blue glow I didn't put it on my new light. Though, for the price I can just order another.
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
ALL BOW BEFORE THE POWER AND GLORY OF FLOWER!!
New used skimmer has arrived, and I CANNNOT wait to be able to use it. Many thanks to flower, it is greatly appreciated, as I've mentioned in private messages about a million times
And of course new pictures/updates
Skimmer

Drilled the glass (which was incredibly easy, although a little timely and nerve wracking) Inserted the bulkhead and glued the outside PVC elbow, didnt do the inside because it wont be permanent.

Got my return pump (quiet one 2200) plumbed in, will probably add some sort of spray bar later

Heres the 10G tank and 5g hex tank that will be my sump and fuge, respectively. The 5g has the bulkhead because it will be raised slightly higher then the 10g tank and will drain into it.

In this next picture, and the previous, you can see that this vertical brace is on the outside of the stand, it was originally on the inside. I had to knock it out and flip it, because there was less then an eight of an inch too little room for even the 10gallon tank. /bang head on wall
I just reattached it with finishing nails where the staples used to be.
The crossbrace on the inside isnt attached well to the backside of the stand. It was originally stapled down to the top side of the vertical brace....now its not really attached to anything...I tried using the finishing nails to come in from the side, but me being an idiot, and not thinking it through, attached the vertical brace first...and had very little room to hammer the horizontail nails back in. I'm debating adding a few SMALL screws where the nails are sticking out just above the vertical brace. (you can see that in the previous picture)

and last but not least, the big mess I have left behind, because I haven't finished and am toooo tired to go on :S
 

flower

Well-Known Member

LOL...Don't get too happy...This type of HOB skimmers are famous or micro-bubble trouble and flooding...keep an eye on it, it does skim well but it has an evil side. Happy reefing!
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
Understandable, but I just love seeing packages arrive at the post office ^_^
I'll be carefull though, but as long as it doesnt open up an evil riff into an evil abyssal dimension, I'll take my chances =D
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
I wish :(, I ended up having to work that night, amongst other things that came up. I remember clearly because I also missed a party that night too.
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
PLUMBING COMPLETE!!! hopefully.
Well I got it all glued together, but I can always break out the dremel and repair couplings. But I'm real hopeful that everything runs smoothly, heres what I finished.
So here is the drain line, it gets T'ed off to the fuge and sump, with a ball valve on the fuge side to ensure that im not getting too much flow, I doubt I will but it didn't hurt to add it. I would've gotten a gate valve, but I couldn't find them at home depot, and didn't want to order one.

Here is my drain line, and fuge drain line going to the sump, and the HOB skimmer all going into the little skimmer return basket thingy, it may not be hooked up right, but I haven't really payed too much attention to the skimmer yet to try and figure it out, I've got a good idea of what's going on though.

The union piece screwed right onto my return pump.

and heres a shot of the WHOLE downstairs. One adjustment I had to make was to move my canister outside the stand, but thats no big deal to me as its all contained. The skimmer is surprisingly not to difficult to maneuver in and out of the stand. the only thing that cant be taken out now, is the 10 gallon tank >.<

I feel sooo close, I have to put a few zip ties in on the drain line to hold it in place but even now its fairly solid. I cannot wait to do a test run, but that will unfortunately have to wait for now. :)
AND YES, that is a gfci outlet...the placement could've been a little better.
 

drewsbrews

Member
The drain tubing looks small, but after the head loss on a sub 500gph pump it may do just fine. Tons of water movement to the sump isn't necessary anyway so long as the powerheads keep things stirred up.
Are you going to use chaetomorpha in your fuge? if so I'd suggest the "bright effects" 18watt 6500k spiral fluorescent flood bulbs (I found em at lowes). They are about $9 a piece, add a $2 outdoor socket/mount and a power cord. I am using two about 1.5inch above the water over my small fuge 10"x10"x12" section in the sump and it went from a fist size ball to completely filling the fuge in about 6 weeks. I have to trim out 1/3 of it every 2weeks or it starts to take over the whole sump. All this from an under $30 diy light. The Chaeto with mud in the fuge, and the DSB in the display tank are doing such a good job I pulled my skimmer out.
atleast you have plenty of room to get in there. My 20gal comes up to about 4 inches from the top of the door openings. I haveto squeese my big arms through any time I want to do anything.
 
F

fishhugger

Guest
I dont know what im doing in the fuge yet, aside from a DSB and lots of pods. But I have a few problems to work out before I get that, but I haven't had much motivation lately.
The 5g fuge wasn't sitting level so it overflowed before it could drain to the 10 g tank, and it still overflowed when I had it sitting level. I'm thinking because the drain sits horizontal theres not enough pressure to force the water through it, I had to turn the ball valve down to a mere trickle before it stopped overflowing....even though there was no back pressure on that line. So I'm bumping that up to 2" drain. The return pump is overflowing my tank when I have any air going through the drain (hofer gurgle buster). The only reasoning I can come up with that is since I'm using a 1" return line that its exceeding 600gph...the pump manual said to use the largest diameter return pipe to maximize flow, so I skipped out on the half inch adapter that come with it, so I am going to T off the return line to run back to the pump, with a ball valve to control that.
I just haven't felt like doing ANYTHING these last two weeks, I guess I'll get that done soon, then when tax returns come in, Ill be ordering an RODI unit. I dont know what I want, but it has to handle a lower PSI....I think about 40psi, but im not sure. I can't get both a booster pump and an RODI unit, because I cant splurge much more then a hundred bucks.
 
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