| Hardware |
| Hardware Due to the expensive nature of this hobby I have made every effort possible to conserve money in respect to my tank's hardware. I am very fond of designing and building things from scratch, so much of this equipment has been made by myself. If you are interested in the design, plans, parts, etc. email me; I am always willing to share. Stand The stand and hood I constructed myself out of .75 inch Birch with an internal frame made from pine 2x2's. All of the molding is Hemlock and the entire stand was stained with a honey colored semi-gloss urethane. Tank The tank is a standard 29 gallon from All-Glass Aquarium. The back wall has been painted flat black to hide power cords and water lines. I use a 3-4 inch deep sand bed for denitrification purposes. It is composed of 50 pounds of oolitic grade aragonite. I am much happier with the look of this sand compared to the crushed coral substrate that was previously in th tank. There are also 30 pounds of live rock that are full of life. The tank empties into the sump via a DIY hang-on-overflow. This overflow was created using the CAD drawing from LifeReef. It is constructed from .25 inch clear and black acrylic. Lighting Currently, I am running (2) 75 watt URI 50/50 VHO bulbs on a Fulham Workhorse 7 ballast. I like this lighting combination very much and I am very pleased with Workhorse ballast in terms of price and performance. Sump Due to the lack of space inside my stand, fitting everything in there was quite a challenge. Therefore, I used a 10 gallon trash can as my sump. It's nothing fancy, but it holds water and my heater, so I'm happy. Protein Skimmer This is my DIY Beckett skimmer. It is modeled after the Precision Marine Bullet 1. It is fed by a GenX Mak 4 (1190 GPH), and because this is also my return pump, the skimmer gets around 800 GPH. The Beckett 1408 Foam Jet Fountain Nozzle requires a high water flow rate to make the micro-bubbles. An internal baffle was installed to reduce the amount of bubbles that return to the sump. This skimmer has a 1.25 inch gate valve to control the internal water level and a .5 inch ball valve to adjust the air intake. This project was a major success both in performance and cost. Refugium For my latest project, I built a hang on refugium. Its very similar in design to the CPR Aquafuge. The dememsions are 16x13x5 and it is constructed from .25 inch acrylic. There are 3 pounds of live sand and several species of Caulerpa in it. The refugium is powered by a Maxi-Jet MP 400 powerhead and lit with an 18 watt daylight bulb.. So far amphipods and copepods are developing nicely, we will see what effect the Caulerpa will have on the tanks hair algea problem. I consider this as another successful DIY project. |
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