TriggaFish99
Premium Member
It's about time for an update. I guess I'll start with a full tank shot from the back. I know it's weird, but it shows the heart and soul of what keeps the tank up and running.
To start, here are a few pics showing the fuge, skimmer, and a little of the plumbing. You can see how big the fish room is from the pics. I was standing just outside of the doorway (48" and worth the extra effort). The tank on the left corner is a 55 gallon with the canopy. I guess the walkway is about 3.5 feet wide.
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Posting that pic reminds me that I need to seal the center brace. I threw it in at the last minute...just for safety. But it looks ugly as heck.
This pic shows my cool skimmer. It's a Euro Reef CS-12 with two Sedra 5000s I picked up from another member (Casey). It doesn't have any fancy mesh mods or anything. But I like it that way. As long as I keep up with the cleaning, it works like a tank (the military kind..not fish tank
:lol: ). Anyway...here's the pic.
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You can see in the above pic my ghetto skimmer silencer. I don't remember where I found the idea, but it works. I got a pill bottle from CVS. They were kind enough to just give me two, all I needed. I drilled two holes in the top/cap of the bottle and one on the bottom. I used my trusty Dremmel tool to get the holes just snug enough to force the tubing into them with a snug fit. I used two on the top because the inlet tube to the skimmer was about 1.5 times as big as the only tubing I had laying around. I'd also recommend that you use the really flexible blue tubing from a local LFS for this. It is easier to get the holes right. Once the silencer is set up...bam...no more sucking noise. It works great. Although I now have a fish room, I still prefer for my tank to run as silently as possible.
Here's a pic to try to give you a better understanding.
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And finally, here's a pic of the sump/fuge. It's a 55 that I glued some baffles in to make the bubble trap and the fuge. You can't really tell, but the water actually flown under the fuge. I was trying to maximize the space in the tank without routing the water from one end of the sump to the other. So, I put a bottom piece of plexiglass in the bottom sitting on about 8 pcv "T"s. That provides enough support so the plexiglass doesn't sag or put too much pressure on the silicone...since I know the silicone doesn't provide great support to silicone/glass surfaces. It's not great, but I basically made it out of stuff I had laying around...so it was cheap.
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By the way, if you look at my Free Macro thread, you'll see that it's time to trim again...so if you need some macro...pm me. It's way more full than in that pic.
To start, here are a few pics showing the fuge, skimmer, and a little of the plumbing. You can see how big the fish room is from the pics. I was standing just outside of the doorway (48" and worth the extra effort). The tank on the left corner is a 55 gallon with the canopy. I guess the walkway is about 3.5 feet wide.
Posting that pic reminds me that I need to seal the center brace. I threw it in at the last minute...just for safety. But it looks ugly as heck.
This pic shows my cool skimmer. It's a Euro Reef CS-12 with two Sedra 5000s I picked up from another member (Casey). It doesn't have any fancy mesh mods or anything. But I like it that way. As long as I keep up with the cleaning, it works like a tank (the military kind..not fish tank
:lol: ). Anyway...here's the pic.
You can see in the above pic my ghetto skimmer silencer. I don't remember where I found the idea, but it works. I got a pill bottle from CVS. They were kind enough to just give me two, all I needed. I drilled two holes in the top/cap of the bottle and one on the bottom. I used my trusty Dremmel tool to get the holes just snug enough to force the tubing into them with a snug fit. I used two on the top because the inlet tube to the skimmer was about 1.5 times as big as the only tubing I had laying around. I'd also recommend that you use the really flexible blue tubing from a local LFS for this. It is easier to get the holes right. Once the silencer is set up...bam...no more sucking noise. It works great. Although I now have a fish room, I still prefer for my tank to run as silently as possible.
Here's a pic to try to give you a better understanding.
And finally, here's a pic of the sump/fuge. It's a 55 that I glued some baffles in to make the bubble trap and the fuge. You can't really tell, but the water actually flown under the fuge. I was trying to maximize the space in the tank without routing the water from one end of the sump to the other. So, I put a bottom piece of plexiglass in the bottom sitting on about 8 pcv "T"s. That provides enough support so the plexiglass doesn't sag or put too much pressure on the silicone...since I know the silicone doesn't provide great support to silicone/glass surfaces. It's not great, but I basically made it out of stuff I had laying around...so it was cheap.
By the way, if you look at my Free Macro thread, you'll see that it's time to trim again...so if you need some macro...pm me. It's way more full than in that pic.
