hobogato

well, i am building (at least attempting to) a hang on back beckett skimmer for someone, and decided to try a new design to keep all microbubbles from dumping out the drain into the display. a few of the times i have posted finished projects, people have asked if i chronicled them, and i never had - so i decided to do that this time. i didnt want the HOB to be untested, so i decided to build one for myself (in sump) using the new design to make sure it would work correctly. as you can see - i could use a new skimmer anyway: my skimmer - dont laugh, it works great, it is just really ugly because it was one of my first acrylic projects - before i even knew how to use weldon. it is held together (and has for almost two years) with nothing but silicone and a plastic frame on the outside of the box. so i started with a couple of pics of the materials - $100 worth of acrylic and $140 worth of PVC. it took me about 45 minutes to cut all the tube pieces for both new skimmers and about an hour to rough cut all of the flat pieces for both skimmers it took me 45 minutes to sand all of the ends of the tube smooth by hand it took me about 15 minutes to run all the flat pieces through the jointer to make the edges perfect. on my last wookworking project, the violin, i found out that even though you have the jointer set to take 1/32" off of a piece of wood, it takes alot more off of a finger if you mess up - but that is all healed up now. (notice how i still keep that pinky curled under, away from my other fingers tho now ) look how nice those edges look it took me another hour to do the finish cutting on the flat pieces with the router. it took another 4 hours or so (with some beer, er i mean wait time scattered throughout - notice i saved the beer time until after finishing with the jointer) to finish putting it together and plumbing it. heres one step close to the end and here is my new skimmer. i will hook it up tomorrow and see how it does. once i see it in action, i will make any adjustments needed to the design before finishing the HOB one. ill post ther rest of the process after i finish the second skimmer.

that's the right stuff

i am using reeflux in my DE fixtures, and i like the 12k better than my previous, the 10k. when it is time to replace my SE bulbs i am going to go with reeflux 12k in those too (running standard coralvue 14k right now - just a tad too blue). my corals are really starting to get some great colors also.

finaddict is near 1604 and 35. if you are heading up 281, aquatic warehouse is just off of 281 near the airport, and cb pets is at loop 46 and 281 about 20 miles north of 1604.

i just started a reeftopio order on maast, but you are welcome to participate. maybe one person from austin can swing by and bring everything back for everyone else. i am far northeast SA about 1 hour from the I35 / 183 interchange.

i dont ship, sorry. if you want em, youll have to come get em. i am about an hour from the 183 - I35 interchange.

a whopping $10. not sure how many of each it will be, we'll see when you get here

the biggest ones are about the size of a nickel.

1 and 2 are very similar, but i am not sure they are exactly the same - they came from different sources and looked very different from one another when i got them. RPEs are $5 a polyp also.

#1 and #8 - cheap - $10 for 5-10 polyps of each #10 - $5 a polyp.

here are all the palys i have.

those are the RPEs that others have posted, they are much more red in person. i also have some teal palys, some brown/green with white stripe, some purple with orange skirt and some metallic green. i will sell ya some red shrooms too.

too many to list - here are some quick pics, only actinics on right now

tx - i have all kinds of zoas and palys that ill sell ya some small frags of - at last count, we had 60+ different color combos. lmk

oh btw, you can love your lights, just don't LOVE your lights, it could get painful, and im sure it would scare your fish tongue6.gif toothy12.gif

well, i think lighting is some science and some personal preference on my tank, which is 24 inches deep, i run 3 @ 250 watt SE 14k and 2 @ 250 watt DE reeflux 12k, and 8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic. i like the color and look of the tank with this combo, and i am getting decent growth - i do run a kalk and calc. reactor too which helps. most of the people i have talked to or read say that 25 inches deep and under is ok for 250 watt lights, but a deeper tank than that would be better with 400 watters. clint (fishypets) also knows tons more about lights than me, so you may try to get him in on this discussion as well. side note - if you want to take a trip to my house after visiting your atm, you are welcome to icon_tongue.gif if interested, i can pm you a list of some of the corals i have that are fraggable right now, but all of the frags will be pretty small until my corals grow out a bit more.

nice to get things the way you want them eh? sometimes overdoing it isnt good tho - i think if you go with the 400 watters, you will run into some heat issues unless you are running a chiller. you will also need to acclimate your tank (corals) to brighter lights by running them for less time per day and slowly increasing back to where you are now over a couple of weeks or more.

check with robert (hammondegge) - he is in austin and does a great job. if you were closer to SA, i could build you one.

ill do it if you really want me to, but i need one of the old reflectors as a template.

it was aisle 47 in our lowe's - by the windows. it is called solar tube or sun tube (cant remember for sure). i used tin snips to cut it, it is very thin.

the DE is VERY easy, just take the old one out and flatten it. trace it onto the solar light reflector material and cut it out. there is no bradding involved, it just has four tabs that fit into slots. you could do it easily for about $30.

i didnt take pics during assembly, but the seams are just pop rivetted together.

here's an old pic of when i had them a long time ago - this is a pretty close macro, but they were definitely visible to the naked eye. i had them once more after this infestation, but they werent quite as big and they were not as bright yellow either. the second time they hung out in the polyps of the coral instead of on the smooth parts like these.

ok, so i finally finished this lighting rework project. here's a recap - i made luminark type reflectors for my 3 single end 250 watt mh lights, i made replacement reflectors (didnt change style) for my DE 250 watt pendants, and i made brackets so my PC actinics hang just above the water level but can easily be hoisted for access to the tank. here are a few pics. tank with all lights on before i started - 8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic, 2 @ 65 watt PC 50/50, 3 @ 250 watt SE CV 14k with spider reflectors and 2 @ 250 watt DE CV Reeflux 10k standard pendants tank with all lights on now - 8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic, no PC 50/50, 3 @ 250 watt SE CV with new reflectors and 2 @ 250 watt DE CV Reeflux 12k (new bulbs) with new reflectors in pendants - it doesnt really look this blue in person. pendant with old reflector pendant with new reflector anyone want these? you can have em just pm me, they are the old DE reflectors - nothing wrong with them (well, one of them has been straightened out and rebent, so it isnt perfect)

go to fin addict. they have at least three different kinds of acans right now, and two of them are lords.