chippwalters

Just uploaded a new reactor design to Printables. Here are some pictures. Learn more about it at:

https://www.printables.com/model/292376-aquarium-reactor

Gave one to Tim to try out. Made in PLA (which I've tested and seems to work fine in my smaller saltwater tank over 1 years time).

Cost of materials isn't too bad: 

• Acrylic Tube: 4" x 3" OD 2 3/4" ID : $6
• Pump at Amazon: $11
• 3D plastic: ~$4
• Laser cut Acrylic pieces: ~$4
• So, it's under $30 all-in if you have a 3D printer and a Laser cutter.

On 2/24/2022 at 8:15 AM, mFrame said:

That's a beautiful design Chipp!  I have transitioned to printing tank parts with PETG for durability.  Have you done any investigation about PLA and it's lifetime in saltwater?  How long are your parts lasting?  I know that several strainer feeders and other parts I have printed tend to become algae traps so I was replacing them often.  I've wondered about coating them in epoxy, the print lines seem to provide the surface area that algae loves.

Hi Mike,

My parts seem to be doing well. I've got a reactor in the sump for close to 10 months now, with no issues. I wash it out every few months, but my sump is cryptic, so there's not much light getting to it for algae to grow.

Hey guys, been a while since I posted. Tim and I get together every couple weeks to talk about saltwater stuff and politics (jk!). I already have an interesting 22 gallon with 15 gallon sump going on over a year now and it's doing great. But the purpose of this topic thread is to show you a small reef tank I've been designing with Tim's help. It starts with a 6 gallon inexpensive tank from Amazon, somewhere around 80 bucks. And has a pretty nice $60 lamp which I'll share with you later. The goal is to create a sump area in the back and do it in a way that minimizes maintenance effort while maximizing water changes. So I have a tiny little pump that has a valve in it which can pump water out of the back into a 1 gallon polyethylene milk container so that there's no siphoning necessary. And, there's a little can be pure tray set up for the overflow box as well as a cryptic rubble sump area.

Here's a video that explains it a bit more. I'm using a glowforge laser cutting machine to help out and if I need to have got a 3D printer but I'm trying to minimize the customization necessary. In other words, the idea it would be that I could just cut out the parts on the glowforge and ship them in a flat pack and somebody could assemble them if they wanted to.

Anyway, here's the video explaining part of it.

Yeah, that was ABS. We'll have to wait and see how it works out.

1 hour ago, Timfish said:

If I'm remembering correctly yhe overflow Chipp printed when he first strarted printing stuff and has another couple years use on it in addition to how long your system's been running.

 

This small tank reactor is great for nano tanks under 40 gallons. It moves around 100 gallons an hour through the media bag.

I use it with pre-packaged bags of Chemipure Elite:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BS96U60/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Q20Z0XT4EXQ1MGPEWZ53?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

but you can use it with any media in a filter bag, including charcoal, gfo and other.

It requires the use of this inexpensive pump, which snaps directly into the side. You can get 2 of them for $18:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SKGYNYZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The unit can sit on the bottom of your sump or you can attach it to the wall using these 1.26 inch D x 1/8 inch neodymium disc magnets (always be careful when handling magnets!):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089CPXQQG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The magnets are enclosed in screw cap containers.

This reactor is super simple to operate and clean. You can easily snap the pump on and off the unit, and there are no holes on the bottom so it won't drip water when your remove it from your sump. Just unscrew the lid to swap out the media bag.

I printed it in PLA using a .4mm nozzle with .2mm layer height. Printed on my MK3S+

Files can be found at: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/139031-small-aquarium-tank-reactor

Gorgeous! You've done a great job with this tank

7-2016 Update

Tank looking decent these days. Gave the clam to Timfish as he was getting too large. Picked up another Ocellaris. Had a bad outbreak of both brittle and asterina stars (as in multiple hundreds) and bought a harlequin shrimp to help out. Ate all the asterinas in a week. Sheesh! I think he paired down the brittle stars a bit, but they're harder to get at inside the tukani rock.

Ended up buying a choc chip starfish to feed the little guy while I look for another home. Took him all of 10 minutes to flip him over and begin.

Saw him fighting off a larger bristle worm today! Funny, now I have 4 different shrimps in this little tank. The pistol (which rarely comes out), the cleaner shrimp, the peppermint shrimp (which hides in the dendro feeding tank upper right), and now the harlequin. They all seem to get along okay. The cleaner runs the peppermint around-- the harlequin 'owns' the cleaner and the pistol pretty much stays to himself.

Timfish, a good friend, brought me an all but dead Japanese Dendro, and I setup a feeding tank for it and another I had, and they seem to be doing really well. He also brought me some really nice Duncans.

Here are the images:

FTS

The Peppermint Shrimp and Dendros

The Harlequin shrimp and bristle worm standoff

Big thanks to Timfish for all the help. He's been generous giving me advice and a frag or two or few million

One more thing. I used to have (see above) a crushed coral bed. It kept away any cyano but sure looked crappy. So, I switched to a medium grained white sand substrate, and sure enough, just as with my other two tanks, the cyano appeared after a few months. I tried some of the antibiotic additive, and it worked the first time, but not the second. FYI, the phosphates were low so I'm not sure where it came from.

I talked with Shane over at Fishy Business and he swears by this stuff he sells there called "Start Smart", a bottle of aquarium starter and maintenance bacteria in solution. I had used it before and didn't think much one way or another about it. He said to use twice the normal dose regularly until it went away, then a maintenance dose once a week after. Dang if it didn't work great! That was a number of months ago and things are still crystal clear as far as my cyano goes. Now to try and get rid of the small sprigs of hair algae....

Thanks! It's "Love Theme," part of the Blade Runner soundtrack from Vangelis.

My once a year update :-)

New Vid:
https://youtu.be/9A3_-DLw34Y

Trying to figure out how to 'embed' a YouTube video. Nothing I try seems to work... Any ideas?

My once a year update :-)

New Vid:

Do you remember how much you paid for it new?

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Kim, sorry to hear about the over feeding incident. Hope things turn out. I too just lost some 2+ year old acans which fell (or should I say we're *pushed* by Mr. Tuxedo) from their post into one of Pat's recovering frogspawn. The euphyllia won the ensuing battle.

Great to see how well you've done with this new setup. It looks great!,

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Man, you folks move fast!

Another update. Inspired by Timfish and KimP, I've decided to do some new aquascaping. Plus, I've got a new iPhone 6+ and I wanted to check out the video camera stabilization feature.

Here are 2 videos. In the first one, the fish were on strike and decided not to show. After lengthy negotiations with their agent, Mr. Cleaner Shrimp, (and involving some frozen mysis shrimp), they showed up and played to perfection their award-winning 'swimming fish' roles for which they were hired.

I received my order from brs with the clear netting, so I got the screen tops done.

I always liked that solution. I've sadly lost at least 3 fish to jumping and recently purchased the same kit. Nice to see it works for you!

A year after I started this. Been through some ups and downs, but I told Timfish I'd post changes. Lot changed. Switched out the crushed coral for Tropic Eden Reeflakes Aragonite. Had a crash and lost the hammer and zoas. Added in a Samosa months ago and it's doing fine.

Had a bit of a flatwork outbreak and bought a 6-line and it seemed to take care of it. Just upgraded to the new single Radion and I think it makes a difference as it is brighter and has UV.

Here's what it looked like a few weeks ago. You can see 1) the UV BMLED fixture (orange) I 3D-printed and the old Radion:

Here it is today:

Added a chalk bass which really gets along well with the 6-line... who would've thought?

And these ACANs have been with me now for years. They've survived total destructive tank crashes. They are amazing and I really enjoy feeding them.

Hopefully, I'll update again sooner!

Bummer. Have to be at a meeting at work so I'm gonna miss this. :-(

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I'm shooting to be there. Look forward to it!

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Do members get any type of discount?

I've been testing this fixture out for a couple months and it's working very well. I just took a new job so I'm going to have to wait till things settle down a bit before I can print out anymore.

Two of these should build a hold a long fixture without any problems. Providing for multiple fixtures in a cantilever design is probably not something that can work.

OK, I think I'm finally finished. I've broken it down into 3 prints, and the accent color (yellow) is the 3rd print. I'm now testing it out to make sure it's sturdy enough-- I have it hanging on an empty tank for awhile.

Even better, I'll bring you some electric green GSP which I'm sure you'll like. It's pretty much taking over my tank and killing everything it touches, but it's so very PRETTY! Let's call it an 'advance.'

Got a bit of time on my hands and decided to finish off the BMLED mount.

Here's where I am. I need to tweak the mounting screw and I'm done. Then I'll pick a better set of colors than orange! Note the pic where it's flipped up (thanks Victoly for the suggestion!).

Interesting. I have a MIG here at home and I suspect that even with a very precise nozzle, the resolution would be fairly course. All of the impurities in the actual welding create all kinds of pops and bubbles and artifacts.

Still working it. Been too busy with work but hope to finish it up over the holidays.