Burningbaal Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 OK, since the temperate thing fell through, I'm going the tropical route. tank: little cube-ish vase totalling right about 1/2g if filled to the rim - $2.99 filter: AZOO mignon 60, i think it moves ~16gph and will hold about 1/4g (maybe less?) - $13.99 heater: I think I'm going to stock it with super-hardy stuff that can take temperature fluctations and go heaterless...if that spells danger, I may have to add something. lighting: rapidLED DIY. 4"x4.25" heatsink -$4 2-led moonlight kit - $14 5w CW w/ 60d optics - $5.50 violet/UV diode (POP!) - $5.50 i already have some arctic alumina thermal compound from my computer build...not sure how to count that cost. If i get a heater, it'll prob run about $15-30 rock and sand will come from my 90g, probably no cycle planning some blue xenia, maybe try a paly or two I have in the 90g. not sure on other livestock yet...catalina goby? how do they do at 75degrees? summer will be that hot prob. maybe i should just get a heater. any tidepool shrimp, crabs, fish or nemes that could take the temps swings? competition budget is $120, I've got about $46 into it now (not counting shipping). I may just bite the bullet and get a heater and $30 heater controller cause I'm scared of it overheating a 1/2g tank. Unsure on how to mount the heatsink above the tank...Ideas? The moonlight driver can power 4 diodes, so i bought the 2-diode kit and added a white and a violet. I'm mostly going to use the thermal cpd instead of screws, probably slap some gorilla glue or something there to help make sure they stay put. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I think you've got the right idea with the heater-less tank. Heck, if you read the info on The Seahorse Aquarium's website, he says, No heaters. Period. I don't know if he's right. I'm assuming his tanks are heaterless? Anyhow, it's about impossible to find a good heater that's small enough and reliable. And since we can't fit a RKL into the budget, Keep it Simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 I could ft a little heater controller for $30 on amazon, it would work, but that makes my temp regulation cost about 45-50, depending on the heater...leaving only 20-25 for livestock etc... Sent using Forum Runner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 In my house the temp can swing dramatically :( So a heater is a must. In the original post Islandoftiki recomended a good heater. 25 watts is WAY overkill but the controller makes it workable. Link Its $29, pricy but I belive it will be worth it come fall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 fine, you convinced me. just ordered that controlled heater. hopefully I'll appreciate it. I'm thinking now about trying to keep some digi and birdsnest in here. It'll be running 5w of white led and about 9w of blue/violet, heated (hopefully stably) and can easily run some carbon/GFO in the mignon (I think?). if I keep livestock low, this might be awesome as an SPS femto... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 with the controlled heater, I'm at $74 for all equipment. planning goby/snails and possible sexy shrimp to take up most of the rest of budget, probably just run some scrap filter floss and possibly a bag of GFO/GAC in the mignon...let's DO THIS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 with the controlled heater, I'm at $74 for all equipment. planning goby/snails and possible sexy shrimp to take up most of the rest of budget, probably just run some scrap filter floss and possibly a bag of GFO/GAC in the mignon...let's DO THIS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 got my AZOO filter in the mail today...it's crazy small! It's about 3" long, about 2" wide and 4" tall (at most, about 1.5"x1.5"x2" is taken up by the pump motor, external to the water area). pump says 60-90lph, which is about 16-24 gph, which is 32-48x the tank's volume...should be ok for my sps. by my calculations, that's about 0.085 gallons, or about 1 1/3 cups of water...crazy. I'm thinking the heater may not fit... :/ heater says it's 4.5" long, the whole filters about 4"...hope it's submersed enough to be safe! now waiting on the lights and heater...getting excited! Livestock: I ended up with an accidental frag of blue digi, have a brown-polyped birdsnest and might be getting a nub of birds of paradise soon. I've now got two chalices (thanks to Garret's meeting) and may put one/both in here, but nervous about over-lighting them. thinking sexy shrimp or two, one nass snail and one trochus snail. maybe a teeny goby, but I'm leaning against it. I've got a red monticap I could put in, but I'm thinking a super-high-light encrusting or scrolling sps would be ideal for near the sand, let the birdsnest and digi grow up to fill the space...any thoughts/offers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 PIC! That's a regular wine bottle cork next to it...for scale! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 That filter is tiny, but in perfect scale for your vase The build is looking good so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 That looks like a perfect amount of flow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 ya, if I open it up all the way, it should be about 48x turnover, pretty solid for sps. I also got the heater and rapidled kit at home (the filter came to work). I am definitely getting excited about this now. the heater's just a tad tall for the mignon, so I'll have to make a cutout, but the lid fits so tight, I would have needed to make a cutout for the cord. the main thing now is getting the led deal setup. I am running the filter with a little table salt in it (just cause freshwater acts different through pumps/etc). seems pretty good, hopefully be able to take care of any leaching or something before actually setting this up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 I'm going to just wire them in all series. I thought a lot (and talked with rapidled) about doing something fancy with a SPDT switch to have a night-time effect (with just one of the moonlights on, the other three diodes off), but it's pretty tricky and they've never tried it so they don't really recommend that I try it. If the tank is still good after the comp (or if I have extra money after livestock), I may add a couple 'high power' blue diodes from radio trash on a wall wart for night time lighting. problem is that the diodes (and resistor to equalize voltage) will probably run about $5-10 and the wall wart is about $15-20, so I doubt I'll have an extra $30 in the budget, we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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