It fits...but it is supposed to replace the top lid currently on the skimmer and the builder forgot that the existing top lid has a tube on the underside that is part of the skimmer function.

It also has holes in it, where there shouldn't be holes.

Here's my existing lid on the left...and the replacement lid (with carbon top) on the right. This builder builds things so custom, I don't think he ever does the exact same thing twice. He just forgot that the lid has a function other than carbon filtration. I'll document this better when it is ready to go on.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/000_0200.jpg

Wow I'd need a tiny head to fit in my skimmer! That is hella impressive haha!

I was diggin around in some of my photos and came across this,

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...i/IMG_0968.jpg

He was way over 2 feet and the blades on his tail were over an inch.Theres a little powder blue behind him to give some scale, yours is well on its way to gettining this massive.
Tank is still looking good, glad its on the road to recovery.

wow.....wish i have a bit of those caps in my tank

Gad...that unicorn Tang is a monster! That hump on his back makes him look very different than mine. I wonder if that develops with maturity or if that is actually a different type. I suppose we'll see.

I wrapped the skimmer with thin black foam that I picked up from Michael's today. It comes in a roll so all I had to do was cut the length/height and the natural curve of the foam holds it in place. This should prevent coraline etc from growing inside the skimmer. When you come for a visit, I'll take it off so all you see is a clean white skimmer!

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0688.jpg

No more stink....
 

The necessary modification for my skimmer carbon cup arrived today. It was a two minute installation to get this thing installed onto the skimmer. No more ozone/skimmate stinkiness....Yeah!

For my non-aquarium followers... The carbon cup is filled with carbon. It sits on top of the skimmer collection cup. Fumes rise up through holes in the top of the skimmer cup and are absorbed by the carbon.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0689.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0690.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0691.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0692.jpg

You've got to be kidding me, that isn't a skimmer it's a NUCLEAR REACTOR! Puts my 2 skimmers to shame, Very nice!

Great skimmer cup mod. The way mine is already stinking I'm wondering if some DIY is not in order to do something similar.

Cool Mod. But isn't that smell an integral part of reefing? LOL

Yes....but there's a slight health issue with the ozone. Mostly for me, as I'm the one who spends all the time back there breathing it!

Got'ya. that is the main reason I do not run ozone.

Some Parrot deaths and health problems have been connected to ozone generators in the house hold. Having 5 birds in the house means no ozone for me

J

Wow, neat skimmer cup mod :cool:

I was just wondering though, can you really smell the ozone? How much do you dose? I'm just asking as I ran ozone for awhile in small doses (like 25mg/hr) and never smelled it (even when I cranked it which made me wonder if it was even working or if the "tank clarity" was all in my head.

Oh yes, you can certainly smell it. It's not a strong, unpleasant smell....sort of vaguely electrical-like. The ozone generator I have is 250mg/hr. The ozone is controlled by Redox measurement on the AQT controller, but it mostly runs all the time. Redox swings daily in the exact opposite way to pH and temperature...going down in the daylight, and up at night.

As Redox rises at night, the controller shuts off the ozone, so there are periods at night where it is not on. I'm not certain, however, that the 250mg/hr that I'm adding actually has a measurable impact on redox in my tank. I may not be adding enough to be concerned about.

Yes, I don't know if it is really doing any good or not. It seems to be doing no harm so I'm going to continue. Ironically, smelling the ozone is about the only way I can know for sure that the ozonizer is still working!

Awesome Vlamingi. I got one a couple of months ago & I'm hoping that mine will also turn out to a be beautiful male with streamers & awesome colouration.

wow

Hey brad

Thanks for allowing Ken and I to come over and gauck at your incredible setup. I'm already in negotiations with the wife to come to some sort of deal with getting a new much larger setup.:mrgreen:

My invitation is always open for you to come look at my setup anytime.

Merry Xmas to me!
 

Xmas came a bit early to my house. I bought a new TV and so I had to renovate much of the basement. I think the room is much improved as I can now sit and enjoy the TV and the aquarium at the same time. Next up..new seating!

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/IMG_1403.jpg

....and a nice picture of Ripple, who is feeling blue because he can't see the TV as well as before.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1394.jpg

That's my dream chill room right there! :mrgreen: Nice xmas gift... 50"?

Ha...ha.. I guess the wall is making the TV look smaller than it is....

I guess I should have put a nice aquarium photo up there on the screen.

:lol:... 65" ... Final Guess! It is pretty deceiving at first glance.

Looks Great!!!!!

Fantastic room to spend all your time in.
If I had a room like that in my house I don't think i would ever go out. :lol:

Hi Brad

Great work the new TV looks fantastic.

Once you get that new Lazy Boy theatre seating your unwanted REEF friends may just come over for an hour and stay a week.

Oh and what can I say about your Atlantic Blue it is fantastic.

Tom R

Looks fantastic and man, Ripple is one awesome looking fish! :cool:

ditto

There's nothing about that room that *doesn't* make me want to come hang out. I clean up really nice and barely make a mess man.

Always wanted an Atlantic Blue...great photo of Ripple!!

87 pages and almost 200,000 view's!!!!!

I bow before the thread master :D

Tank polishing...
 

One of the things that I get asked about a LOT is how bad a problem scratches are on the acrylic tank...and would I do acrylic again...etc. etc.

At almost three years running now, the tank is pretty badly scratched. It's the tangs. Their spines just leave marks. There are also a fair number of urchin chew marks, but those are mostly around the edges where the coraline grows.

Mostly, the scratches are only visible to me. While the tank is filled, it takes a pretty bad scratch to be noticeable. Unfortunately, algae tends to get into them and the magnet doesn't remove the algae from the scratches. It requires that I get my arm in there and rub in order to remove the small algae spots that cling inside the scratches.

So....I decided to polish the entire aquarium. As this is the first time I've attempted this, I was pretty nervous. First, I hand spot-rubbed the worst of the scratches using 2400 grit paper. This is pretty upsetting to look at...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0699.jpg

Then I began to polish the entire panel working my way through 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 grits using the Mag cleaner. With each change in grit, you change the direction of the rub from sideways to up/down. Rubbing up/down is extremely difficult. Each pad takes about 30 minutes to cover the entire panel a few times. The final grit (12000) is so smooth that you can no longer use the mag cleaner and you have to do it by hand.

The result..? At least 95% of the visible scratches are completely gone. Some of my original 2400 polish is still visible in some areas and I've learned that you have to be consistent with the pressure you apply. As I rubbed the 2400 by hand, and the rest using the magnets..the difference shows. Three years from now, I'll do a better job! All done...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0701.jpg

Sorry for the generally poor pictures here. These are taken through the side panel, at an angle, showing the backside of the front panel. That is a terrible way to take pictures, but the only way to show the effects of the sanding.

Very nice!!!:biggrin:

Wow Brad, thats pretty awesome to hear that that method actually works. I've heard a lot about people "planning" to do it but never heard any of the results. I'm glad it worked out for you (even though when I was there last I never really saw the scratches, hard to see them past the gorgeousness of the tank contents :wink:).

That room looks great! As always the tank is inspiring for those of us working up to a bigger tank.

Sounds like a pretty tedious process...how long did it take you?

3 hours for the large front panel...about 1.5 hours for the back panel and 2 hours for the side panel. One panel per day is all I could handle, but once you start on a panel you don't want to stop halfway.

It is mostly the same as doing a magnet cleaning of your tank...continuously for multiple hours!

Finally got my neck wet...
 

I finally got around to changing the skimmer wet-neck supply line from 1/4" to 3/8" and that seems to have done the trick.

Here's a quick explanation of the wet neck and a video showing it in operation.

I tapped into a nearby return line.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0718.jpg

The water is pushed into a chamber that surrounds the neck of the skimmer inside the collection cup. The water overflows the top edge of this chamber and flows down the inside of the skimmer neck.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0717.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0719.jpg

I'm hoping that this keeps the skimmer neck a bit cleaner. Immediately, I can see that it creates a higher foam level even though the input water/air is the same as before.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...h_100_0721.jpg

Very cool. I did not realize that the foam would actually rise in the neck. But after thinking about it, it makes sense as there is less resistance as the foam climbs

J

Misc. ramblings...
 

A quick report on the performance of the wetneck: I'm very pleased. The wetneck is keeping the throat of the skimmer clean, so I will only have to remove the top of the skimmer every month or two now. I would say that the volume of skim has tripled, but that the skim is less dark than before. Basically, I'm skimming much wetter than before.

Nitrates measured "0" the other day, so either the skimmer is working or 6ml/day of vodka/vinegar/sugar combo. Either way, something is good.

Breaking the cardinal rule of "clean tank before photographing...." Here is how things look at the moment.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1405.jpg

A few fish hit 2 year anniversary in the past weeks. Here's some shots of a couple of birthday boys, along with the newest fish.."Rusty", who arrived in November.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1429.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1416.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1414.jpg

That wet-neck mod is GENIUS! Is that a feature of your specific skimmer, or just some awesome idea you came up with?

Does your Achilles always have Ich? Can't recall if I read a post by you or someone else on RC in the Achilles Thread in "Reef Fishes" that mentioned theirs always has it.

Rusty Angel looks awesome BTW..

The wet neck came with the skimmer, which I purchased used. The maker sells it as an upgraded version.

That was me on RC, talking about my Achilles tang. For the most part, I've simply ignored the ich. In keeping an Achilles for over 2 years with ich, I think I've done better than most with this particular fish. It doesn't seem to be the death sentence people think it is.

No doubt.. He certainly doesn't look "not happy". :mrgreen: