Quiksilver's Ultimate 29g Tank Thread

[quiksilver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11720209#post11720209 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Waxxiemann
That dragons breath is really nice looking.

Thanks! Yeah I agree and thank Marc for the donation of it. He had quite a bit in his top down clam tank in the entry way of his house. I begged for some and he said it was stinging his goniapora anyways. So big thanks to Melev for that.

 

[melev]

Gorgonian. I don't have any gonipora.

 

[quiksilver]

er ya Gorgonian. My B.

 

[quiksilver]

Ok.. well here goes nothing.

This will take me a few days to post everything with explanations as Marc and I took about 100 pictures of this DIY build. It took about 12 hours of planning, buying supplies and construction and no sleep until 9AM but it works flawlessly so far.

Explanations and pictures to follow:

 

[Mishap]

So where's the awesome DIY pics?!

 

[quiksilver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11721373#post11721373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mishap
So where's the awesome DIY pics?!

RC decided to be really cool and go down for like 4 hours right after I posted that. Trying now.

 

[jefnalyssa]

Great thread so far!!!! Does RC have a schedule when it goes down?

 

[Budde]

I am pretty sure it doesn't. But, don't take my word for it.

 

[quiksilver]

It goes down for maintenance at like 3:30 AM central every night. But last night and today was something else.

 

[Dan Thrash]

thanks for the thread. it is always cool to see these build threads. question for you....i'm planning a new setup with a 25 gallon sump, same skimmer, very similar to yours. what are the dimensions of your sump and height of your baffles?

thanks!

 

[quiksilver]

Well after reading the Treating with Vitamin C and the Italy's Best! Matured SPS Aquariums I wanted to dose both papone/amino acids and vitamin C. I'm not home sometimes enough to consistently dose this stuff on time, so I needed a reactor.

Quiksilver's Blue Coral Method Reactor (Papone Reactor w/ Automatic Vitamin C and Amino Acid Doser):

My idea was to build a box that would sit on an acrylic shelf in my stand. An air stone in the bottom would provide flow (for mixing) and a constant oxygen supply (vitamin c is an antioxidant). An Aqualifter would provide a small flow of tank water and it would drain back into the tank at a dosing rate. The most important thing would be adding a automatic feeder to the top of the box that could drop amino acids and vitamin c.

Because of the limited space my stand had left, I decide to make my box 5"x5"x6.5" tall. Here I am gluing the first pieces of the box together after Marc and I cut them. I'm not happy as you can see because the freaking seam had bubbles all over it... I was a sad panda.

Freaking bubbles in the glue...

The next few sides glued better.

Weight was added to assist with keeping bubbles out of the seams.

Excess acrylic on the sides would be left to be routed off later so everything would line up nicely.

 

[quiksilver]

Next I measured about an inch from the bottom of the reactor and would glue in tiny strips of acrylic. This would be to hold a shelf above the airstone. We'll get to that in a minute.

I cut a shelf out of plastic mesh and then another out of egg crate to sit on top. This would help disburse the air from the airstone over the whole reactor and keep papone and aminos from settling in the bottom. I also used a butane lighter to bend a piece of rigid airline tubing to fit under the shelf.

I ordered Marc to go in the garage and make me a top. He's the man.

 

[quiksilver]

The top would keep the rigid tubing from being able to fit. So I drilled a hole just above where the water level would be in the reactor and made another bend in the rigid tubing via the butane lighter.

Admiring my work so far.

 

[quiksilver]

Marc thought it was OOOHH so funny watching me struggle to get the shelves back in (he's a tool and had to photograph it all ). I eventually cut another one that fit better.

Then the master of acrylic himself took over for a bit and made my shelf to hold it. My idea here was that any leaks in the reactor would be caught be the shelf and drip through a hole back into the sump.

 

[quiksilver]

After Marc finished the shelf I worked on a mount to attach to the shelf for the automatic feeder by bending a piece of acrylic with a torch.

This is where everything gets a little complicated. The water would be coming in from airline tubing. The airstone from below would be making micro bubbles. My idea was to make a chimney that would lead up to the auto feeder and then a ramp for to catch the aminos and vitamin C. The inlet for the autolifter would then pump water into the ramp and mix it with the rest of the water. The ramp would keep micro bubbles from popping water into the auto feeder.

Sounds complicated but not nearly as complicated as making it... UGH. Check the pictures.

Here you can see the inlet coming into the box and then the RO/DI tubing leading it up to the ramp. The chimney above it will lead from the auto feeder to the ramp and mix with the incoming tank water.

Here you are looking straight down the auto feeder mount and chimney.

I drilled a hole at the level I wanted the water level in the reactor and fed RO/DI tubing down (will go to the sump).

The finished shelf would hold the entire reactor and a hole was drilled on the back left of the shelf for water to drip into the sump.

 

[Mishap]

Ok, so ya posted another bunch at the same time.

That's a pretty good idea.

 

[iairj84]

That auto doser seems to be pretty cool, I'm interested to see how it works... I was originally going to start dosing the C through my top off water but it seems it looses its beneficialness after 12 hours or so.

 

[quiksilver]

Here I'm just water testing the box and checking the water level inside the reactor.

The auto feeder was then added and mounted. I used a Lifeguard Rainbow Auto Feeder that I had bought years earlier from Marine Depot. It has separate compartments each feed and you can feed up to 5 times a day. I just set it to 2 times a day one has vitamin C only (morning) and the other has vitamin C and amino acids (night).

The door on the right side was cut and an acrylic hinge was used to open and shut it. It allows me to drop in the papone into the reactor (I can't really automate that part as the papone is frozen).

Once I got back to my house I installed the reactor with 4 stainless steal screws. The aqualifter is mounted just behind the reactor next to the prop tank. The air pump is in my storage stand next to the tank and is higher than the reactor so it can't siphon water if power goes out. With pump, reactor, and the aqualifter it uses less than 10 watts running. It mixes perfectly and I have it set to drop the vita C once 1 hour before lights out with the aminos and once by itself in the morning.

I added a few rocks from my bansai trees that had never been used, to keep the shelf from floating.

The aqualifter is taking the water from the sump and the reactor drops the additives back into the sump just before the return pump.

 

[quiksilver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11723545#post11723545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dan Thrash
thanks for the thread. it is always cool to see these build threads. question for you....i'm planning a new setup with a 25 gallon sump, same skimmer, very similar to yours. what are the dimensions of your sump and height of your baffles?

thanks!

Sump is 28" long x 14" wide and baffles are 13" tall for a total of 22.1 gallons minus the part of the skimmer above the sump level.

 

[AVALover5498]

Great 29 Evan! Can't wait to see this thing grow.

-Chris-