Slakker's Eclipse 12 Build Thread (Sorry, 56kers)

[Slakker]

Thanks for checking out my build.

Here's how it all started, a used tank purchased from a friend for $40. Had I done research on Nano's beforehand, I probably wouldn't have made the buy...but I did, and I kinda like this goofy little tank...even if it is set up terribly for a reef environment as is. Join me on a crazy journey of purchases and DIYing, would you?

Here's how it was the day I bought it...It's a mess. Algae all over, the filtration had been off for at least a week, so it was just bad. Still, I cleaned it up and filled it back up...kept the sand in there (which resulted in some gross algae clumps laying around for weeks.) March 22nd:

After being refilled:

I was happy with that for a while, just adding some liverock, a couple turbo's and some hermits. After a while I got sick of the hideous yellow that the Eclipse's standard 5500k bulb, so I ordered a 10k/Actinic 03 50/50 and threw that in. I also picked up more live rock, a pair of Ocellaris, and a peppermint shrimp (In a bout of impulse buys and poor judgement, all of that went in on the same day.)

Well...the clowns turned up sick, and to this day are in QT (fully recovered, and working their way back up to natural salinity after Hypo treatment) That scramble for QT supplies cost me quite a lot of cash...I would have spent half what I did had I been able to order the stuff as opposed to buying it and random LFSes that had what I needed. Anyways, here's that:

 

[Slakker]

And it continues

And it continues

Then came the time for me to move home from the dorms. So, I moved the main tank home first, left the rocks and inverts to fend for themselves in a rubbermaid for a few weeks and painted the back of the tank. I also replaced her gross old sand with about half a bag of new Aragamax (Loving the oolitic sand...might create problems when I start adding real flow though.)

Refilled it and got the rocks and (by this time both turbo's had been devoured by the hermits) inverts back into a real tank and out of the rubbermaid. Here it is after restoring the rockwork back to it's original "splendor" and giving it some time to clear up.

In all this time I and my father have been building a stand. Mainly 2x4 construction with some weird pre-primed paneling stuff for the side panels. Here's a couple of thumbnails for that.

The door. I'll be concealing the edges of the blue paneling (which will also be in the middle of the door) on the sides with some quarter round dowling, and to make it more uniform I rounded off the inside edge of the door with the router.

 

[Slakker]

And finally...the main reason I am creating this thread today.

As some of you know, the Eclipse 12 ships with a 13w PC fixture...absolutely worthless for anything photosynthetic (the coralline's been doing okay over the last couple months though).

A 175w Metal Halide retro run by a PFO ballast and with some sort of 14k bulb. I picked it up from a local reefer for $75...not a bad price if you ask me.
Certainly a big difference from the 13w:

Tomorrow's project will be to build a pendant for the mogul base and a stand to hang said pendant from. I'm planning on using some fairly heavy gauge aluminum I've got laying around and some masonite to build the pendant. The top of the pendant, where the mogul base will be bolted, will be made from the aluminum to help dissipate heat away from the fixture and bulb as much as possible. Most of the rest of it will be made with masonite and the whole thing will be spray painted black.
As for the support to hang the pendant from, I believe I'll build it from 1" PVC. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading so far.

 

[Slakker]

Almost forgot...the reefer I bought the MH from threw in a couple of frags of Pulsing Xenia for free...I drip acclimated for 45 minutes and then placed them as high on the rocks as I could manage to try to get them through till I get the MH in place without freaking out too much from lack of light.

I got two frags, one attached to a snail shell, and the others were just loose. The snail shell frag is sitting somewhat happily in the place I put it...I'm sure it'll start opening up in a couple days. However, the free polyps keep falling off of the rocks into the sand.
Here are some pictures:

 

[bucknellreefer]

Looking good! Can't wait to see what you come up with for the stand, I should have mine painted tomorrow.

 

[Slakker]

Forgot to add also...that BioWheel was quick to disappear. I think it's come a long way since the day I got it...I had forgotten just how rough it was such a short time ago!

 

[Jadams]

WOW!!! that tank has come along way in a short period of time...I cant wait to see more updates and corals in there!

Great work!

 

[Slakker]

Alrighty...made some progress today. It's a bit sketchy right now, but I wanted to get it up to give the Xenia a bit of real light. I'll refine it over the next couple of days, including paint and actually finishing construction on the pendant.

I've also gotta come up with a better way to hang it (and hang it the right way...i'm thinking a chain is the better option if I can find stainless steel) Also i'm going to have to start lowering it bit by bit to see just how close I can get it without my temperature going crazy and frying everything.

Here's a couple pictures:

 

[Slakker]

Dropped the height a few inches today and it's still not overheating.

All of my xenia is now attached and seems to be happy...and I might be crazy, but it seems that even my peppermint shrimp is more active since I upgraded the light.

 

[bucknellreefer]

I am not surprised that you haven't had heat issues, my tank is running cooler now with 250w over 20g than it was with 70w over 10g. I might need a more powerful heater!

 

[Louie3]

WoW cool PVC set up, you could probably drop the MH to like 8" off the top. Nice price for an expensive product

 

[Slakker]

I thought it was a good deal, myself.
I cemented all of the joints and painted the PVC stand black this evening with some Krylon Fusion. I figure it should be safe to put back over the tank in the morning, it's already nearly dry. I'll also lower the light three or four inches and see what the temp does.

 

[Slakker]

Here's a picture of the PVC after being painted.

I learned a very important lesson: When you buy Krylon Fusion, there will be a little red square thing in the nozzle. Do not remove that piece, it is not a plug. That piece is your friend. However, when I painted the back of my tank a few weeks ago I tossed that piece and was dumbfounded as to why instead of spraying out in a nice even spray, the paint was more spitting out and dripping all over the place. I finally figured out why as I was preparing to paint the PVC, and due to the ridiculous amount of paint that ended up just dripping out of the nozzle onto my hand and/or the driveway I ran out of paint before I could completely finish...I've got a bunch of places that need touching up and I still need to paint the bottom of the feet.

Anyways, the light is down to about 11" over the surface now and still no heat problems that I'm aware of.

And I took some photos of the Xenia today. It seems to be pretty happy at the moment, though I still think I need an MJ900 for some real flow, and if that seems to be enough I may remove the Eclipse filter completely and use it only if I need to run carbon for some reason.

 

[Jimbo327]

Dang, way to rescue a tank! I wish I could fit a MH under my nano hood. I have a couple gobies so I want to keep a hood on mine.

 

[Slakker]

Thanks, Jimbo...the kind comments mean a lot. I've put a lot of work (and probably too much money) into it. I have huge plans for this tank yet, and I figure everything I've done so far can easily be transferred/applied to another tank.

Once my clownfish are ready to be introduced into the display tank I plan to cut a bit of a lid for the tank out of some Eggcrate light diffuser. I've heard that Ocellaris can be jumpers and I don't want to take any chances.

 

[Slakker]

Does anyone think it would be unsafe to trim down the center brace a bit? I don't want to remove it entirely, just trim down the horizontal space on the top of it to reduce the disruption of the light (Not a huge fan of that shadow.)

 

[BLKTANG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10125862#post10125862 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slakker
Does anyone think it would be unsafe to trim down the center brace a bit? I don't want to remove it entirely, just trim down the horizontal space on the top of it to reduce the disruption of the light (Not a huge fan of that shadow.)

The tank will eventually bow,& leak if u remove the center brace.

 

[Jimbo327]

I did not even notice the center brace. I wonder why they put that in there. It is only 12g. None of the other all in ones have this brace. Maybe Eclipse is just being safe, but I'm not sure. Sure looks unnecessary though. At least put a clear center brace so the light can go through.

 

[Slakker]

The only reason I can figure for the center brace's existance is that they needed something to support the huge filter box. The top trim isn't even glued on or anything.

I wish I had thought to fill it up without that top trim on to see how much it bowed and then checked the difference with it on.

That center brace is a "T" rather than just the flat piece you see...would it cause a problem if I were to trim back the flat horizontal part of it and left the vertical element?

Also, in a 12g tank is that center brace really critical?

 

[Slakker]

Cut and "frosted" a piece of thin acrylic to go over the filter box:

FTS today:

The Xenia is starting to get bigger, methinks: