Marc`s 1k gallon system.

[Snappy]

Marc,
I don't know how the heck I missed this thread and the one on Reef Central but I am definately watching now. As Christy said I must have been living under a rock. Anyway this set up is absolutely fabulous. I knew you had a great tank but I didn't know it was to this extent. You are truly an inspiration to the "humble little reef" people like myself. I will definately be looking you up when I'm headed to the coast this summer. Maybe I can trade some frags for a tour. To heck with nominating you for FTOTM you should be Featured Tank Of The Year (maybe the decade).

[SuperFudge]

Thank you guys...ill apologize again for being so slow.

Chin, ill fire a few up this sunday..i have been revamping it to work a little better and ive takin a bunch of pics of how its being done.


Lucky, no, i didnt use any fiberglass beyond the polyester layers.
I am sorry i am unsure what sanitread is.

Danny, thank you..ill get a couple for you on sunday when i have a chance to update on the self cleaning head.
Ill see if i can bribe my daughter to stand beside it to show scale for you..at 16, she`s much too cool for fish tanks..but ill see what i can do.

Funky,

The ply is 3/4" on the bottom, back and sides. euro bracing aswell as exterior bracing was used to achieve the rigidness i wanted to see.
On the front, the ply is laminated to 1.5" thick, and i bet stronger than most glass tanks.

Sludge buildup on the inside of the neck on most skimmers i built or used extends to about 4" down on the inside of the neck and in my experience greatly reduces skimmate production, i felt this was the most important feature of the whole unit.
I can watch production improve after the first pass with the squeege.
If you were refering to the outside of the neck, yes, it doesnt help with production, but was important for two reasons.
First i always watch here to guage the skimmate production and adjust accordingly, so i like it clean so i can watch this daily.
second and most important, it stabilizes the whole rotation of the unit and keeps both squeeges clamped against the neck while rotating.
It was very difficult to build everything by hand and get it precise enough to rotate exactly on center of the neck, so there needed to be a little play here.

The things to consider when i was building for this were many :
The lid for the cup had to be drilled and routed dead center for the bearing and motor casing or the pivot would be off center.
The outer groove routing where it seats onto the cup had to be precise, so the center hole wasnt shifted in any way.
The neck had to be dead center coming up from the base of the cup so the cleaning head would spin freely.

all considered, i was about 1/8" out after all pieces where placed together, and i hoped the squeege flex would absorb this difference while spinning.

One day, i would love to have a CNC....

I will explain what i have changed recently on the head when i next update on sunday.

Greg,

Sure, id be glad to give you a tour...and yes FRAG TRADES are always a bonus !

thanks all, Marc.

[untamed]

Beautiful....

I'm thinking about your wiper skimmer neck cleaner. You have it on a manual switch, are you running it constantly...on a timer...or just manually whenever you think it needs it?

If it runs only now and then, doesn't the inside wiper push off a big goober that falls into the skimmer? Or just this goober get pushed out the top by bubbles?

[SuperFudge]

Untamed, yes, until i can make the cleaning arm that im satisfied with ill just be plugging it in until clean.

If left for a day or two, yes a goober will fall into the skimmer...but with a working unit theres no reason this should happen.
When i im done, ill place it on the controller for like a minute for every hour.

this is the new head, but i went backwards on the arm portion on this one.
This one i used a rubber brush...It cleans better, but after about 2 passes it has taken all the water off, and starts to stick due to the rubber heating a little...

Anyways, 1 step forward and 2 steps back it seems...atleast the actuall motor portion of the head works better on this one.

Heres some pics of this one..

Inset bearing,



Guts,




Motor mount and body,




Starting the casing,






The key hole shaped cleats to hold it all in and to make removing the motor easy.





The whole head,



Here was a test one....you can see how it hugs the neck...unfortunatly heres where its hard to make one that works well, too loose and it misses spots and too tight it jams...but you get the idea.



Finished, but not....lol.




Marc.

[Skimmerking]

Marc why not buy a course brush like a long tooth brush or, a coated wire brush and attach it to the acrylic where you claneing is..

just a thought

[SuperFudge]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

Marc why not buy a course brush like a long tooth brush or, a coated wire brush and attach it to the acrylic where you claneing is..

just a thought

Asmodeus,
Ive tried a few types of brshes already, but i would like on the next try to use one with longer bristles..like 2 " ones. it seems when i try to make it using shorter brushes, the needles get too rigid and jam it up.

Marc.

[SuperFudge]

Had a chance to make a new head with longer brushes....it is bigger than all the others, but works the best.


Another crappy vid if anyones interested.