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#2
06-22-2006, 01:25 AM
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The reason behind the different bulbs is easy, it's what I had handy! The 24" was from my 33 planted tanks original hood and the 18" was dissected out of a $12 home-hardware fixture I had lying around!
Now that all the dust has settled, and I can see just how bright it is I am really quite pleased. I get a "shimmer" from this canopy that is very similar to the effect I've seen from Halide lighting. Not quite as nice, but awful damn close for a $30 hood! The jury is still out on the rock work, I like having the big piece in the middle and I'm pretty sure that I want that piece at the bottom left to stay in the front, I think I'll try something else though with the stuff on the right! My next project with this tank will be to set up a backpack style sump. I can grab a plasticy garbage can thing with about a 5 gallon capacity that will fit perfectly (and out of sight) behind the tank, I'm going to set it up so a pump brings water out of the tank and into the can, which will then overflow out of the can and back into the display tank. 2 questions as far as my DIY reservoir/sump go, should I bother filling it with anything other than water and possibly some live rock? It will be a fairly verticle (8Wx10Lx12H) fixture without any light other than ambient light from the room (as planned now, but that may change). My main concern is to add water capacity on the cheap (don't have to decorate it!) to mitigate any mistakes my SW inexperience are bound to create! This thread has been a great help, keep the advice and replies going! 
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#4
06-22-2006, 02:39 PM
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Definately make it an add-on macro algae refugium instead of just additional water capactiy
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#5
06-27-2006, 02:56 PM
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Just another update,
Made another trip down to the city the other day and picked up a few more pieces of live rock. Also got my trashcan sump set up bringing my total capacity up to 15 gallons. Here are a couple of shots I snapped quickly on my way to work this morning The new layout of the tank:  A side view of the Sump:  Now I just snapped these first thing this morning so all that's on are the actinics, but the lights haven't changed and you've already seen those!! I'm really pleased with some of the smaller chunks of rock I found, crawling with life, very lightweight and as you can see I could make some neat arch formations with them! The trashcan sump is as easy as pie, I took all the pieces of LR I wasn't particlarly thrilled with out of the display and put them in the sump. In the top picture you can see I just mounted a PVC pipe in the side of it and siliconed it up real good, it just overflows back into the main tank as it fills up. I relocated the HOB filled with Live Rubble and the heater into the sump and the tube you see going from the sump to the main tank is actually connected to the HOB filter intake so it draws water from the display over the sump and into the HOB filter, which empties into the sump which empties back into the display!! The water bottle you see sitting on the HOB will be reincarnated today as an auto topoff device, and the beer bottle in the background will soon be joined by several more as DIY projects are thirsty work. My current conundrum is what to do as far as a more permanent mount for that light. I've considered hanging it, but I want to make sure that the tank is where I want it before I start putting holes in the ceiling. The other option would be to mount it to the stand (which is waiting on plywood skin before it's complete), the trouble I have with that though is it will be in the way if it's bolted on and I want to do something. Any ideas?
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#6
06-27-2006, 03:03 PM
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You should paint your background blue so you don't see the trashcan through the glass, will look cleaner.
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