Setting up a 125g on the cheap - Page 2

isistius · #26 10/03/2007, 07:04 AM

i made mine and they work real nice.

iyo what's the best way to cap the check valve?

also, what's the purpose of the vent tube? is it to allow trapped ait out?

NewMariner · #27 10/03/2007, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by dhnguyen
The siphon is never lost in the first place.

I've had gone through about 4 power outages and not once did it lose siphon.

You won't loose siphon, but how did you manage to not drain your tank? I havent read your links you posted so maybe the answer is there...Im at work and will check those out later..

But it seems to me that it would keep draining and youd have water on the floor.

isistius · #28 10/03/2007, 08:53 AM

it only drains to the top of the pipe inside the tank

dhnguyen · #29 10/03/2007, 10:25 AM

Exactly. Just like a typical HOB overflow, the water will only drain up to where the inlet pipe is, or in the cae of the HOB overflow, the inner overflow box.

isistius · #30 10/03/2007, 11:27 AM

dh- can you answer my ?'s at the top of this page for me?

thor32766 · #31 10/03/2007, 11:27 AM

wow that is really cool love how little rock you have in the tank!

dhnguyen · #32 10/03/2007, 11:31 AM

I capped my air check valve by attaching some airline tubing to it then used one of those stupid plastic air valve screws that came with the original maxijet pumps. You can just as easily use any plastic air valve to close it really.

Yes the vent pipe is for the trapped air to escape.

dhnguyen · #33 10/03/2007, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by thor32766
wow that is really cool love how little rock you have in the tank!

Like my old art professor used to say "sometimes less is really more"

isistius · #34 10/03/2007, 11:35 AM

thanks

shaft187420 · #35 10/03/2007, 11:41 AM

Hey dh, I have the same exact skimmer and was wondering about the mods you did to it. Was wondering if you have any pics of you mod in progress or if you followed a guide?

dhnguyen · #36 10/03/2007, 12:13 PM

no unfortunately I don't have any pics of the skimmer mod in progress.

Essentiually all I did were

1. Mesh modded the OR pump with 2 layers of enkamat pf4 mesh (tried 3 and 4 layers but I found that I got better results with just 2 layers)

2. Lengthened the neck by joining a 5 inch section cut from an old JEBO 180 skimmer body (which happens to be the exact same diameter as the Turboflotor T1000's neck. The black bayonet base on the neck is removable so with a bit of wiggling, you should be able to take that off no problems.

3. Then I glued those useless black knobs (supposedly to control the water level inside the Turboflotor) full open and jerry rigged some 3/4" elbows, pipes and added a ball valve for better control.

dhnguyen · #37 10/21/2007, 02:53 AM

I got some new frags for the tank

And this is what happened to a nice purple birdsnest colony that fell onto a bubble coral during one of my aquascaping ventures, it was on the bubble for maybe 5 seconds tops.

dhnguyen · #38 10/21/2007, 02:57 AM

Here's the "killer" bubble

and a recent full tank shot

dhnguyen · #39 10/21/2007, 03:02 AM

ricordias

sea cuke

sump

adddo · #40 10/21/2007, 05:56 AM

Looks great!

Holothurin warning on the cuke though?

dhnguyen · #41 10/21/2007, 11:03 AM

Thanks. Actually the pink knobby sea cucumber (Pentaca anceps) is one of the few sea cukes that have been successfully (re:safely) kept. As long as you don't have anything in the tank that will harrass it.

The pic shown is of it feeding, very cool to watch.

somethinfishier · #42 10/26/2007, 01:11 AM

Awesome, I really like the aquascaping.

dhnguyen · #43 10/26/2007, 01:34 AM

Thanks. I picked up 3 orange lined cardinals a couple days ago.
They are eating like pigs and very cool to watch hovering in the mid tank.

Very cool schooling fish. The camera doesn't do them justice in the colouring.

tydtran · #44 10/26/2007, 11:03 AM

Very nice work. Your project is an inspiration.

dhnguyen · #45 10/26/2007, 11:57 AM

Thank you. I wanted to demonstrate that one doesn't need to break the bank in order to setup a decent system. There's a lot that one can do to keep expenses low by shopping for used parts and bargains. A little DIY here and there also helps a lot.

Funny thing is I spent only a fraction on this setup versus my first tank (55g) and yet it is ten times nicer.

mg426 · #46 10/26/2007, 01:37 PM

Nice job !! Rock On

jrcastro · #47 10/26/2007, 05:03 PM

I like the overflow design. Is it standard 1" PVC?

dhnguyen · #48 10/26/2007, 05:17 PM

Actually I used 1/2" PVC for the main pipes since I didn't really want a high throughput through the sump anyway. Only the inner overflow pipe where the tank water drains to is 1". Mostly because I wanted to maximize on surface skimming.
Each overflow can handle up to about 300 gph max.

kmacartney · #49 10/26/2007, 05:20 PM

Great setup! I made an over flow like that out of two 1.25" that meet into a 1.5". One of the tubes handles my mag 9.5 wide open.

dhnguyen · #50 11/06/2007, 05:33 PM

I have been waiting for LA to have these in stock since forever. FINALLY they had them instock since last week. So I ordered 6 of these guys yesterday and they should be delivered tomorrow some time.
Thes are known to be delicate shippers so wish me luck

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_...fm?pCatId=1428