Islandoftiki Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Well, it is going on a 2 gallon tank. The good news is that if I ever want to convert it to a temperate tank... Just change the temperature on the RKL and throw away the heater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelsz3 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 want any of these? there popping up all over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 those look like some palys in my tank, but mine don't grow that crazy...in fact, I've got a pineapple spongse that started growing in the middle of the colony and it's really pissing them off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Heck, I'll throw anything in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelsz3 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 there cool but the polyps get to be around the size of nickels, like mini venus fly traps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnkrcklives Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Does anybody have a small frag of Yellow colony polyps? You know' date=' the ones that can be pretty invasive?[/quote'] You should have grabbed some when you were ant my place. You gonna make it to the meeting? I will bring you some. That 90 gallon is pretty much just a pest tank as well now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Yeah, I'll be at the meeting if anybody has any annoying or pesky-type corals they want to donate to the pest tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 This afternoon, I've been working on the stand/chiller/RKL assembly for the tank. Here are some pictures with explanations of what I have in mind. Here is the stand I'll be using (minus the door in this picture). I'm modifying the door. Originally it came with three glass panes, but I'm going to need some ventilation, so I remove the upper and lower panes of glass and am installing 1/4" galvanized hardware cloth. The Fluval Spec has a plastic base that is hollow, so I'm installing a plywood base piece to ensure the tank stays centered on the stand. This is going to be important to how I plan to use the chiller. The hole you see in the locating plate is where the cold probe for the chiller will come through. It will be mounted upside down with the heatsink inside the cabinet. Here you can see the cold part of the probe sticking through the hole. The hole was made larger than the chiller probe so the shaft of the chiller can be insulated with foam to prevent cold loss. The end of the probe will contact the glass bottom of the tank at near the rear chamber where there is a good amount of constant water flow. I will add some thermal compound to the contact point between the tank and the chiller. The chiller will also be height adjustable so I can get good solid contact between the chiller and the glass. The heatsink and fan will reside inside the top shelf area. I'm going to be hacking up this Ikea lamp to hold the PAR30 bulb. It will be attached to the cabinet with brackets and will be adjustable for height. The Reef Keeper Lite will be installed with the control unit on the top shelf area, visible through the hardware cloth and attached to a vertical backing piece (not yet built) And here is the completed door... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 I spent the majority of the past two days enjoying this unseasonably warm weekend we've been having here. However, I did manage to squeeze in some work on the aquarium chiller/stand. I built the spring loaded bracket that will keep the nose of the chiller pressed up firmly against the bottom of the tank. I modified and mounted the Ikea lamp to the back of the stand and drilled holes for the wiring. The lamp will hold the PAR30 BoostLED bulb. The lamp's shroud won't be used. I insulated the shaft of the chiller and tested the operation. That's frost forming on the end of the chiller probe! That's about it. I built the mount for the RKL's control module; it and a couple other pieces are being painted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 I finished the RKL module holder today... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ok, it's coming together tonight! The RKL, heater, and chiller should be fully operational by the end of the evening! Here is the chiller mounted inside the cabinet. Notice it's mounted on a spring loaded bracket so it will always make positive contact with the bottom of the tank. Here is the tip of the chiller probe that will contact the bottom of the tank. The rest of the chiller probe has been insulated. The door is installed and the RKL is powered up! View with the door open: Now to organize the wiring and install the tank! As always, the tank is running a little warm at 80.3 degrees, this will be a good chance to see if the chiller will drop it down to 78 where I want it to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ok, time to install the tank! A little bit of arctic silver heat transfer compound at the contact point. And the tank is installed and the chiller is running. Let's see how long it takes to drop the tank temperature .4 degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ok, moving right along here.... Wiring organized and done... Note the drip loop. You all should have these! And for the moment you've all been waiting for.... The final product! And you may be asking, did the chiller work? See for yourself. 78.0 degrees! Bam! Took about 1/2 hour to drop .4 degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Double post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Wow that is a clean build How does that chiller work? Is it just touching the acrilic? I didn't see any probes going in to the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Top notch you pulled out all the stops on this pico build. Very Clean well thought out. Not at all what one would expect of a Pico pest tank. You get two thumbs up from me on this one =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Wow that is a clean build How does that chiller work? Is it just touching the acrilic? I didn't see any probes going in to the tank. The chiller is actually designed to be immersed in the tank water, and it has the capability of keeping a two gallon tank at 55 degrees when used that way, so you could have a temperate pico tank with one of these chillers and a thick acrylic tank. I also could have simply stuffed the thing in the back filter chamber of the tank and called it a day, but that would have been an eyesore, and certainly less fun to build that way. Obviously, I only need to maintain a temperature below 82 degrees (ideally 78 degrees). Now, because of the really small tank size and the relatively powerful pump I have in it, maintaining a reasonable temperature in the tank when the ambient temperature is above 72 degrees becomes a problem. The pump generates more heat than I would have imagined. This tank is actually glass, so heat transfer is pretty easy. The chiller simply touches the bottom of the tank near the highest flow area of the filter compartment. I added some thermal heat transfer compound between the tank glass and the chiller to assist in heat transfer. I coupled the chiller with a Reef Keeper Lite which now controls the lights, the pump, the heater and the chiller. The tank should now hold steady between 77.8 and 78.1 degrees. Crazy tight tolerance, but hey, why not? Stability is important, right? Anyhow, the chiller has come on twice tonight, at about half hour intervals, and the tank temperature has not exceeded 78.1 degrees since it initially lowered the temperature. My ONLY gripe about this setup is that the fan is a little noisier than I would have hoped for, but fear not... I have a lot of experience with making desktop computers quiet, and this is just a regular old 120mm fan, so I should have some silicone isolators laying around in a box somewhere. I'm probably going to throw one of these chillers on my 10 gallon tank's AC70 filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ok, so here's a funny thing. Last night after finishing up everything on the tank, I noticed my new frag of blue xenia was missing. I mean totally missing. I had it in a stable location where it would eventually attach itself in a day or three. I'm pretty sure the mantis took it into his cave. I might try siphoning out his cave and see if it's in there. So, if you have a mantis shrimp... glue your corals down! I've also seen him cutting off bits of caulerpa and carrying them around. Fortunately I still have another smaller piece of it that wasn't taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 I don't see the xenia in his cave. Do Majanos eat xenia? It was fairly close to the largest majano... I've seen it try to eat a bubble algae before, so it doesn't discriminate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Alright, I've done enough yapping, time for pictures! I got the final icing on the cake today! A perfect sized small frag of yellow colony polyps!! Woot! I found them at Rose City Aquarium while picking up some sale goodies for my main tank! Here are the beautiful green palys donated by local reefer nelsz3! And above those, are Kimberlee's seafoam zoas. Wouldn't you like to have this lovely aiptasia in your main display tank? I didn't think so... Full tank shot. I just noticed the mantis shrimp make a guest appearance! Can you find him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Yellow colony polyp's are pests (scratch) I love mine Thank you for the write up on the chiller. A very creative way to use it. This is looking more and more beautiful. Maybe I'll just stop fighting the pests and let them go in my DT............ or maybe not (laugh) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuduku Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Wow, the full tank shot actually looks pretty. Although once there is a bazillion aiptasia maybe not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 The majanos will probably end up eating the aiptasia. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 I found the blue xenia! The mantis had been hiding it somewhere. I found it this morning being used as a door to his cave. I rescued it and tossed it into my main display this morning, then glued it in place in the pest tank when I got home this afternoon. The mantis is now using a paly as his door! He can have it. So, just for fun, I was playing around with a time-lapse video app on my phone this afternoon. Here's 10 minutes of pest tank action condensed into 30 seconds. Watch that little mantis go! He's like a little black streak... When I shot this, he was busy being a civil engineer, moving sand from the front of the tank to the back via his little upper cave pass-through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 That's awesome!! Looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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