SM 100 style new build

[Spartacus66]

Here is my version of the ats. Instead of t5ho lights, I am using four t5 14w lights (2 bulb) , for a total of 112 watts. I kept basically the same dimensions, though sized for the four fixtures.

So far, I have used it for a week, but didn't take any pictures of what I harvested. It was thin and brownish.

I am using it above the tank in a 55g hex.

http://tapatalk.com/mu/6b1d1b4d-3e29-2d7e.jpg
http://tapatalk.com/mu/ad82f649-3e73-6c71.jpg

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[Spartacus66]

Hmm other pic doesn't seem tube cooperating... http://tapatalk.com/mu/b8cf2066-3eb9-7d28.jpg

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[SantaMonica]

First wood one that I've seen.

[Spartacus66]

It has acrylic laminated to the inside. It's water proof. So far. :-)

I'll play some pictures of the inside when I have more daylight.

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[Spartacus66]

I have struggled with low pH since I started the tank in January. It is almost always 7.8. So I was super excited to see it up to 8.1 on the fifth day of running the scrubber, only to be disappointed when it fell back to 7.8 on Monday, the day I cleaned the screens for the fist time.

So I did the experiment of running an airstone in tank water outside. It registered at 8.4ish. Then I ran the stone for about an hour inside on different water and it was 7.6 ish! No wonder I feel 80 years old! We have no O2 in this place!

Good news then, the scrubber was growing nice O2 producing algae, toward the end of the week. Now I just need to address the O2 quality in the house. I'm thinking houseplants. Or would those not be enough?

[MorganAtlanta]

Probably not really a lack of O2, but an excess of CO2. You probably need more exchange of air with the outside.

[Spartacus66]

I'm starting to struggle with some leakage issues...sheesh! Long story short, I may need to rebuild the box. Basically I laminated the acrylic to the wood, then assembled and tried to silicone the joints, but it was a tight squeeze. The other issue was that I didn't have or understand how the bulkhead was supposed to fit, so I glued in a PVC 2" coupling. That is the main culprit I think. What I will probably have to do is build a new acrylic "inside" box, makes sure it has no leaks, then laminate it to new wood which includes the light brackets. That's the long version :)

I am still getting the light brown algae, slimy stuff, with no green showing up yet, so I'm cleaning it every five days, as the FAQ stated. I'll upload some pictures Saturday when it will be due for its next cleaning.

[SantaMonica]

Let the brown grow more. It's black you want to clean off sooner.

[Mrcgibb]

Hi m8 using silicone was your mistake m8 ,silicone doesn't bond or stick to acrylic you need solvent weld , like tensol 70 to bond ne weld the acrylic together if you put your hands at either side of your scrubber you will be able to pul it apart quite easy ;)

[Floyd R Turbo]

Acrylic won't bond to silicone, that is true, and if this were a structural bond then that might be the source of the leaking. But in his case it should work fine. If you laminate it to wood, which is the structural component, so that the joints are not providing and structure, then you can seal the joints where the acrylic meets with silicone and it will prevent water from leaking through pretty well. It when you try to make a watertight box out of acrylic using silicone when you get in trouble.

Also, a method has been developed to prepare plastics so that they will bond with silicone. It is being used in the US to make glass tanks with PVC and acrylic bottoms and sides even. I know of tanks that were made with acrylic notched ends for weir-type overflows and bonded to the front and back glass. As far as I know, it's not something that's available to the public. But it promises to be the next generation of tank, once it proves itself and becomes widely accepted as durable. I myself won't be getting one anytime soon though, glass and acrylic tanks last decades if maintained and installed right, so I have a hard time putting all my livestock into a new tank design just yet!

[Spartacus66]

What I did was build an "interior" box of acrylic laminated to wood with adhesive. It stuck tight, and the wood is providing the structural support. Then more wood was added as a base and to support the lights. I only used silicone to seal the seams on the inside of the box.

If I can't find the leak (which I suspect is the drain), what I probably will have to do is build another acrylic box using solvent weld, make sure it is watertight, then laminate that to the wood base and end pieces.

[kentth]

I would build two boxes, one out of acrylic the other out of wood, then drop the acrylic box into the wood one. That way you pull the acrylic one out for cleaning or repair if necessary. I like to be able to take things completely apart if possible.

On my new sump all of the dividers are in slots and grooves and are removable. The refugium can be removed completely from the sump and is complete self contained.

Kent

[Spartacus66]

Not a bad idea, Kent. I like the drop-in idea.

On a sad note, had something really bad and gross happen today. I went to check on the algae growth and noticed some nice 3d growth starting (cleaning day was supposed to be tomorrow). But I also noticed a really nasty, sulfur-ish smell, almost like the way Prime smells. Then I noticed it was really, really wet around the tank. I pulled the scrubber down, took the lights out and found all kinds of leakage---and mold growing.

I cleaned out the drain, which appears to have been the cultprit, stripped out the old silicone and then applied new. I'm going to let it cure for 24 hours, then install the new bulkhead I got and do a water test. If that works, all is good.

Otherwise, I'm going to have to order some acrylic and start over. Sigh. Meanwhile, my tank is loosing some serious filtering. I'm going to have to cut down on feeding, do a big water change and hope I can get the scrubber up and running by Wednesday or so.

[SantaMonica]

An ouce or two of vodka will keep thing good for a few days.

[Spartacus66]

Well, the bad news is that after re-siliconing the box still leaked. Badly. So I set it aside, worked a connection and got some free 1/4" acrylic (thanks so much, Kathy!!!) and did some fabrication today on my day off. I also rebuilt the wood box surrounding it, following Kent's suggestion, so that the acrylic SM-100 dimension box is removable. I also stained the wood pieces.

tomorrow I will do some water testing, capping the drain (fingers crossed). If that goes well, it all goes back together Sunday. Pictures coming soon. Hopefully. :)

[Spartacus66]

Finally! Finally I have the scrubber back online, no leaks and scrubbing away. Just started it up today after having to do some plumbing and re-plumbing, rock adjustments, sound dampening and sundry other inconveniences. I ended up building an inner acrylic box than can slip in and out of the wood box which has the lights mounted on it. I had to re-make the slotted pipe, and messed up the slot somehow, so I have too much flow out of one end, making a lot of splashing noises. Hope my wife always wanted a "water feature." :lol:

I'll upload some pictures from my phone in the next post.

[Spartacus66]

http://tapatalk.com/mu/b8ce1341-b490-ed71.jpghttp://tapatalk.com/mu/b8ce1341-b4a4-1da5.jpghttp://tapatalk.com/mu/b8ce1341-b4b7-2709.jpg

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[kerry]

Nice work, how is the growth going?

[Spartacus66]

In the 3 weeks I had it going before, I was just starting to get some GHA in places. Since I just re-started it yesterday, not much. I'll post some pictures next Friday after the first week. Thanks for your interest! :)

[Spartacus66]

Cleaned my screen for the first time on the new build and was disappointed at the growthhttp://tapatalk.com/mu/ad829f2c-58b5-8c85.jpg

Same pump, same screen, same distances, the only thing different was I had a new pipe, with a wider slot. Obviously the flow was off for some reason. Any ideas?

What I did today was make a new pipe with he standard 1/4" slot. I increased the flow in the pump maybe. Hard to tell.

Another pic with flash:http://tapatalk.com/mu/ad829f2c-5970-3227.jpg
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[Spartacus66]

I'm also getting some diatoms on the pvc in the tank. Is that normal? I can't test for nitrates right now because my API test kit is hosed, giving me falsely high numbers.

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[SantaMonica]

1/8 is normal, not 1/4.

Let it grow more.

[Spartacus66]

Correction: it is 1/8th. Duh. The other slot was 3/16" to 1/4". This one is 1/8". Wasn't thinking yesterday, apparently :oops:

[Spartacus66]

Here are my screens from the latest cleaning. On SantaMonica's advice I waited 10 days since my last cleaning. http://tapatalk.com/mu/6c663e46-432d-8442.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/6c663e46-434b-c4fa.jpghttp://tapatalk.com/mu/6c663e46-4360-7d5f.jpg

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[kerry]

Its looking good, how are you nutrients?

[Spartacus66]

My API Nitrate test is whacked, showing around 5 times the correct amount (I verified it at a water treatment place). So until I get the salifert kit I'm ordering at the end of the week, I have no idea, and I don't test for phosphate right now either. I do have coraline growing like mad--seriously wild growth for the first time ever. I'm dosing kalk and it is barely keeping up. So the tank must be in pretty decent shape.

[SantaMonica]

Keep in mind that you have to measure nutrients right away to get a correct reading. Each hour that the water stays in a bottle will allow the bacteria to consume the organics, and thus decrease pH, and increase N and P.