haha im not a mad genius nor a fabricator, im a university student with too much time on his hand, Im study is in the field of design so most of the things come up as a result of figuring out ways to fix issues around my situation.

The T5 tubes are just acrylic tubes, they come in tubes so i didnt need to do anything to them. The only things that i needed to do was cut the flangs on the sides of the tubes to be able to screw the tubes onto my existing Aqua Medic lights. All the DIYs i did are made by a table saw, dremel, and a drill press, oh and my hands

Im a finishing carpenter by trade, so I know and appreciate the time and skill involved....nice work:thumb:

The tank is looking fantastic... Where did you find the acrylic tubing?

i found the acrylic tubes at industrial plastics and paint. sometimes they will have some scraps that are 3ft long if not, just ask the people over the counter for the size you want, they'll most likely have it in the back.

Heres an update on how the skimmer cup is working. I like it so far, its pulling some dark stuff out for me, i still need to tweak it to see where the optimal height placement for the cup but so far so good. This is what it looked like 48 hours after using, i had to empty the cup once with dark green tea color skimmate (cup was adjusted too low).

look at the foam head
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...p/IMGP6029.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...p/IMGP6031.jpg

foam head and skimmate
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...p/IMGP6030.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...p/IMGP6032.jpg

big ups respect bruddah man, you do some fine work with your hands!

another update,

with summer coming our way i decided that i should help out my tiny little chiller and take some load off the thing. So i decided to make a DIY fan using 120mm fans(as they are usually less noisy), i looked around for parts which pushed high CFM (how much flow it pushes) with low dBA values (noise level). I ran across the GELID Silent 12TC fan, it has a temperature probe which allows the fan to either crank up in RPM or down, depending on the heat level. 750RPM at 22C and 1500RPM at 42C, these things have a 58CFM rating with a 12-25.5dBA noise level! So away i went and bought 2 of them.

I have mine running on 9V AC-> DC power supply and i cant hear anything, and it STILL pushes alot of air, i cant imagine how much air it would push if i had it running on a 12V PS.

After i got my hands on these fans i decided to make a casing for it so that it doesnt fall into my tank and kill everything, i came up with something simple which works for me to help move some air across my tank, having the heated air move away before hitting the surface of the tank it helps in cooling but not via evaportaion although there is still some as the fan gets pretty wide angles. None the less after i attached the fan i havent hear my chiller turn on yet, and it usually turns on 2-3x within an hour or so and its held my temperture at 79.5F for 3 hours now.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6037.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6045.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6038.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6039.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6040.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6041.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6042.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6044.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...n/IMGP6047.jpg

Heres a video showing how much air im getting across the 3ft tank, as you can tell im using toilet paper as the way of showing air movement (i couldnt think of anything else:redface:) but i think you guys can see how much air is being moved by this fan driven at 3/4 of the spec voltage. The video seemed to have picked up my tunze 6055 ramping up and down in speed, but in real life you barely hear it!, weird haha
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...h_IMGP6052.jpg

total cost:
GELID Silent 12TC fan: $8.99
im using an old powersupply, but a new one would probably be $10-20
acrylic total cost would be roughly: $5
==================
cost: $24-34

Once again....Mad skills:hail:

haha fishytime, i think anyone could have made that enclosed box, this DIY really didnt contain much work other then some simple eletronics and figuring out which lead was the + and which was the -:lol:

heres an update on how the skimmer cup has been working. I adjusted it to skim somewhat wet and this is what im getting.

The cup has overflowed quite a few times on initial use as i didnt know what height to put it at
but that little overflow prevention loop on the side has prevented the floor from flooding a good 2-3x
so i know its working!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...y/IMGP6488.jpg

heres an update that maybe more interesting to look at then my DIYs. After using the new skimmer cup for a few weeks i found it much more efficient than the deltec one so i decided to stay with it.

So my tank has been up and running for a year and roughly 5 months now majority if not all the frags i had initially has turned into miniature colonies. here are some of them that i took with a under water box with my point and shoot...i need to get a DSLR soon for school and photos :lol: enjoy guys

unknown acro (tabling from what i can tell)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...y/IMGP6499.jpg

tenius sp.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...y/IMGP6501.jpg

ORA Borealis Acropora
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...y/IMGP6506.jpg

granulosa sp: (seems to be purple tip)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...y/IMGP6502.jpg

bali tri color:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...y/IMGP6507.jpg