I was just looking over PhotoJohn's build and had many similar experiences in building mine. Took me over a year saving up for stuff and getting it done right (or right enough in the
DIY world). Here is a quick rundown on what's been done lately and I'll have some pics to share shortly:
**Custom built island stand to be viewable from front and back -- Eventually when we move in a bigger place we'd love to have it fully viewable. I have the front doors done but still need to build the back ones at a later date. Approx dimensions 60"x34"x20"
**Custom built canopy -- With six "feeding doors" three on each side, plus three 3" vent holes drilled into each end for cooling. Was looking to add some mini-louvers but it isn't too bad being open. Need to add some fans in there since I open a couple of doors and prop a floor pedastal fan on my wastebasket to cool it off.
**Got her wet on May 1 w00t!!! -- I didn't have everything I wanted (skimmer, return pump,
sump) but wanted to get the biological filter going and cycle her out. Added 60lb of
aragonite reef mix, 50lb of lace rock, 15-20 lbs of
LR. Added a CUC of 2 emberals, 5 nassarius snails and 10 blue leg hermits on June 1 (ammonia and
nitrates at zero then)
**Growing hair algae -- Been getting a little too much algae for my taste, been doing small water changes weekly and adding topoff
RO/DI water from home as needed.
Nitrates running a little high and may have
phosphates but need to pick up a test kit when I get some extra funds.
**DIY LED Moonlight – OK I do have this grand plan of using PWM to dim LED’s and have found a great kit for a DC motor control for about $7 that is PWM and some nifty blue led waterproof bars with 3 LED’s in each for about $3 each. But in the interim, I found an LED light bar in the automotive section of Walmart for $10 (Pilot Automotive LED Light Bar – CZ-152B WK) made to wire into your car’s 12VDC wiring. I have an old power supply for some long-gone piece of electronic gear rated at 12vdc with about 400ma, cut the connector and soldered together the wires and BAMM..DIY moonlight. It had a foam tape backing, so I just stuck it on the ceiling of my hood.
**DIY Overflow -- Picked up a bunch of acrylic scraps on sale for super cheap at Tap Plastics and built a
HOB overflow. Was going to drill it was about 75% confidant I could do it OK, but did not want to risk having to buy a whole new tank
THe internal box came out pretty nice. Its about 8"x3"x6". Also have the outer box at about 7x3x11" with a divider baffle to keep the overflow tube underwater and not break the siphon. Drilled with a 1" bulkhead and just waiting to get my return pump and
skimmer going and will build a Hoffer gurgle buster standpipe to fit.
**DIY Recirk
Skimmer -- Have 5" diam acrylic about 16" tall, 3" riser tube and will have a 5" diam catch basin. Still working on it and haven't commited to the entire design yet but will promise to post heavily on this
**18g Tall
sump -- Have an 18g tall tank to use as the
sump. will look to drill both ends to have the
skimmer and return pump sit outside of the unit. Still will have to play with baffle config.
**DIY media reactor -- Looking to build a square media ractor for Phosban or Rowaphos. Flat sheets of acrylic is wayyyyy cheaper than a tube and easy to handle. Should be able to bet a nice setup on this. I saw a great
DIY post somewhere....once, but my stupid ass forgot to bookmark it as a fav for future reference!
