Adam The Aussie - 70 gallon build

[mxett]

Their are plenty of Aussies on here

 

[AngeloM3]

Just curious....

Why'd you spend all that money on a chiller before you even knew if you were having heat issues?

 

[Rickyrooz1]

Nice tank! Great job getting that Mantis out out there.

 

[amehel0]

nice one thing is make that aquascape taller. and btw angelom3 when you live in qld australia then you'll under stand the whole 2 heaters and a chiller thing. put it this way it can go from 36 degrees to 18 degrees over a few hours on some days. and that celcius!

 

[Adam007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12626552#post12626552 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AngeloM3
Just curious....

Why'd you spend all that money on a chiller before you even knew if you were having heat issues?

Its currently winter and with the lighting I have my chiller is even coming on at the moment. Only 2 or 3 times a day, but I would hate to see my tank if I did not have a chiller during summer

Some more updates to come

 

[Adam007]

Found what appears to be another brittle star come out of the rock after lights went out the first night, however have not seen it since. Discovered afew little fanworms aswell, apart from that have not seen much else life !

Also fixed up my return pipe so that it comes up and into a 'T' and then out over each side of the weir via 45's. This looks much better now:

DIY 12V Auto Top-Off - I got annoyed with the float valve that I had purchased as I could not find a thread to suit the connector on the valve. This system also relied on gravity to feed the water, I didnt really like the system to tell the truth, so I thought up this idea !

Parts :

240V -> 12V 1000mA Transformer $FREE - Found in drawer at work
Jaycar Float Switch (Part Number: SF0920) - $19.95
BCF 12v Camping Shower - $27.50
Piece of clear acrylic for holder - FREE - scored from work scrap bin

TOTAL: $47.45

BCF 12v Camping Shower, remove the shower head and butcher the power cable, leaves you with a neat little 12v pump with a decent length of hose attached

NOTE: have removed the spring, just in case rust was to prevail !

Then just solder it all up, not too hard, sheesh I even managed to get it right. I left my piece of acrylic at work though so will pop in tomorrow and grab it, then use the trusty toaster to bend it up into a nice bracket

 

[Adam007]

The top off is complete, and working 100% !

The pump is fairly quiet, you hardly hear it as it does not come on very often at all.

The only thing left for me to do is find a water storage container that is thin enough to fit inside my stand.

Here's some more progress / completed pics:

Bracket to hold the Float Switch, toaster came in handy again here

Bracket to hold the water in line:

Water storage container (only temporary)

All completed and hooked up, working great !

 

[Adam007]

Went and visited a friend today and got another 1/2 box of LR.. this is top stuff and absolutely teaming with life and coralline algae, im very impressed with it

 

[Adam007]

Found some more hitch-hikers, woohoo !

What appears to be a whole colony of these things:

And a single one of these guys, maybe its a Zoa ?

This coral came with it aswell, not sure how it will fair, we shall see !

 

[Lunchbucket]

I would make sure you place your autotop off tube above the water line or you can siphon into or out of the sump.

Lunchbucket

 

[Adam007]

Yeah I have now fixed that, cheers !

 

[Lunchbucket]

Looks great

 

[kar93]

You used your toaster for bendign acrylic? Thats a great idea, definitely use that in the future!

 

[Adam007]

Yeah, I work in a school and attempted to use the Manual Arts strip heaters to bend the acrylic, however I did not have the patience to wait the 40mins for them to warm up, so I just bought it home and spent 2min infront of the toaster heh

 

[AngeloM3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12653661#post12653661 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Adam007
Its currently winter and with the lighting I have my chiller is even coming on at the moment. Only 2 or 3 times a day, but I would hate to see my tank if I did not have a chiller during summer

I noticed you lived in Australia after I posted that
Whats the average temp during "winter"?

 

[Adam007]

Where I live, looking at the month of May:

Minumum temp: 10.4*C / 50.72 degrees Fahrenheit
Max temp: 27.1*C / 80.78 degrees Fahrenheit

Average temp during the day would be ~23*C / 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit

And thats our "winter"

 

[AngeloM3]

oh damn! Ok makes a lot more sense why you got a chiller!

 

[kar93]

Any updates?

 

[DrBegalke]

Re: Adam The Aussie - 70 gallon build

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12597876#post12597876 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Adam007
Hi Everyone,

Not really sure if this post belongs here or in the Nano area.. however everything in the Nano area seems under 50 gallon, and everything in this area seems to be over 150 gallon !

Hey, nice tank.

Ya, there really should be a member's tank forum for systems that aren't nano, but aren't over 180 gallons.

 

[Acan Lord]

Re: Re: Adam The Aussie - 70 gallon build

Re: Re: Adam The Aussie - 70 gallon build

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12771842#post12771842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBegalke
Hey, nice tank.

Ya, there really should be a member's tank forum for systems that aren't nano, but aren't over 180 gallons.

I agree I consider 75's and 100's far from nanos. Great build so far man. You got some awsome rock too.