Dan's Jelly "Pseudokreisel"

[Youngster Dan]

So, my thought process is to mimic the general designs of Innovative Marine's Nuvo series. I think they are very smart tanks, and I plan on utilizing their skimmers, filter compartment thingies and their slick look.

Everything is acrylic, and the main tank components are going to be 1/2" thick, with everything else being 1/4". All parts will be black except the front where you see jellies.

Here is how the aquarium will look head on:



Pretty simple - jellies and circles go together like, uhhh peanut butter and jelly.



Now that I hide the fake front panel - you can see the basic tank design. The return is not shown, but will be a lockline spray nozzle that loops over the tank and runs parallel to that little square thing on an angle that you see on the top left. I plan on using a maxi-jet 1200 for my return. The little hole will be covered with mesh that will allow water through -- but no jellies. Having the spray nozzle angled parallel to this screen prevents the jellies from getting stuck on it.

I plan on bending a piece of 1/4" acrylic over a 24" diameter PVC pipe. I'm not sure how it will work, but fingers are crossed!!



The back has two holes drilled for a closed loop beer fridge chiller. I haven't gotten to how I am going to convert a beer fridge into a chiller yet, and if you have suggestions or tips I would love to hear it! I want to keep the temperature at around 10-13 degrees celcius.



From left to right the "sump" goes: Return + live rock or bio-balls/something, nuvo filter, nuvo protein skimmer + overflow.



A top down kind of view.

Thoughts? Holy my brain hurts. Also, learning sketchup was fun but also kind of a pain at times!

[monocus]

use a heat gun to bend your acrylic

[syncro]

Cool plans.

Have you considered moving the right baffle up so the water flows through the entire sump?

So the water comes over the overflow, down under the first baffle, over the second baffel and then pumped back into the tank.

[lastlight]

Sounds like one heck of a DIY adventure I'm looking forward to more!

I tried making a beer fridge cooler once but it failed. I looped a ton of plastic tuning in it but it didn't work very well. I later read that you really do need the titanium loop found in real chillers to make it semi efficient. Also the compressors in these fridges aren't made to be worked so hard and die pretty quickly. Just what I'd read before I bought a real chiller. Hopefully you have better luck!

[Youngster Dan]

Originally Posted by monocus

use a heat gun to bend your acrylic

Yeah, that was the plan. Have you done it before? Any tips?

Originally Posted by syncro

Cool plans.

Have you considered moving the right baffle up so the water flows through the entire sump?

So the water comes over the overflow, down under the first baffle, over the second baffel and then pumped back into the tank.

Good catch, I will definitely move that baffle up! Much appreciated

Originally Posted by lastlight

Sounds like one heck of a DIY adventure I'm looking forward to more!

I tried making a beer fridge cooler once but it failed. I looped a ton of plastic tuning in it but it didn't work very well. I later read that you really do need the titanium loop found in real chillers to make it semi efficient. Also the compressors in these fridges aren't made to be worked so hard and die pretty quickly. Just what I'd read before I bought a real chiller. Hopefully you have better luck!

Hmmm, I really haven't put much thought into the chiller side of things yet. I could always buy one, but they are just so expensive that it wouldn't be for a while. Do you know if you can get the titanium loops somewhere cheap?

I think I could get away with running the water closer to 15 degrees but don't know if I would want to get it any higher than that.

[Youngster Dan]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Very cool. They have a couple pretty cool setups at the ocean discovery centre.

Yeah they do! These tanks are where I got my inspiration

[sphelps]

I'd use an oven for the bending, a heat gun on that size of sheet will likely give less than steller results.

170°C should work well for cast material but don't use a gas oven. For best results build a wood mold with the right curvature and place the sheet on top of it in the pre-heated oven. The sheet will form around it by itself.

[Duker]

This is going to be bad ass! Love it, ill help u guys collect the jellies....yippee let's go diving!!
Hey I think Joel still has a 1/2 hp refurbished chiller at progrow. Good deal too if I recall.

[Youngster Dan]

Originally Posted by Duker

This is going to be bad ass! Love it, ill help u guys collect the jellies....yippee let's go diving!!
Hey I think Joel still has a 1/2 hp refurbished chiller at progrow. Good deal too if I recall.

You know I am in!

Do you know how much he wants for that chiller? You may have solved my problem.

[monocus]

just go slowly, moving the heat gun at a medium pace.it will take time.you can also heat the acrylic in a moderately heated oven first