Marc`s 1k gallon system.

[Jason McK]

The amount of thought and planning that went into your tank never stops amazing me. With each post I'm even more blown away

J

[Chin_Lee]

OK that self cleaning head video just made my jaw drop. Marc can you take close up pics please????? I need to incorporate that into my new skimmer design.

[Skimmerking]

NOT BAD I GUESS

[woodcarver]

Marc , Incredible !! I think you should be Prime Minister or failing that, King !!!!

....................................Dave

[justinl]

wow. amazing. dude, you are freakin brilliant

[Lucky Strike]

Marc,
Thanks very much for taking the time to anwser my questions with so much detail. it is truely apperciated.

when doing the epoxy resin top coats, did you add anymore layers of fiberglass, or was it just topcoats?
whats your feeling on sanitred and why didnt you use it

Thanks again for helping me soo much. I feel alot better about using fiberglass and resins.

[danny zubot]

Wow, thats all I have to say. I know who I'm gonna call next time I venture out west.

Any chance you could back up a bit and take a shot of the whole tank? Maybe get something in the photo to show the scale of this beast?

[Funky_Fish14]

Marc,

I must say, your system is probably one of the best thought-out I have yet to see around. It has alot of the primary features I've thought of or considered adding to any future upgrades for myself, and more, and you've managed to make them all work so well together.

I have only two questions:

1. The tank's 'body'(the wood frame/sides) does not appear to have much bracing or be very heavy? And the plywood doesnt look to be extremly thick, I would guess at maybe 5/8... 3/4" at most? What are the dimensions of the 'main' tank?

2. I notice on your (ingenous ofcourse) self-cleaning head for the skimmer, you 'squeegee' both sides of the cup neck, both inside the neck, where the column of foam rises, and also in the cup itself, where the foam would simply pass over the edge causing the bubbles to pop and skimmate to fall into the cup. Skimmate buildup in the cup itself I wouldnt think would affect the skimmate production? Aside for on the top rim itself, and maybe 1/4" down into the cup itself on the neck? Also, does your cleaner target the top lip or rim of the neck at all? Im sure the second squeegee inside the cup however would add stability to the 'tool' itself as it rotates as well?

Thank-you for entertaining my questions!

And thank-you very much for sharing your system here with everyone! Im sure your ideas have helped motivated many people in here and possibly helped solve some of their problems!

Cheers,

Chris

[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.