Dinosaur to Phoenix, a new 22G Long mini build

[theatrus]

Water-in test. I have cut much of the plumbing and did a fill test. Need to glue pumbing before I can properly do leak testing.

The siphon drain is very quiet - will be a nice upgrade from my current 90 on the old MegaFlow Durso.

 

[YHSublime]

Fresh as!

 

[theatrus]

Oh no, its 2023. How did that happen. Anyway.

The good news is I've removed the mothballs from this project (since 2019!) and decided to get it up and running. The first step I never sorted out was ... lighting.

The LEDs will have their own build thread soon, but I like doing things custom, but not custom for cost savings sake. To that end, I've added some 8020 (25 series) uprights and verticals. Of course, when I built the actual stand, I had some build-divergences from my original 3d models, which led to some mistakes you'll see, and remedied with some more extrusions now being on order.

The current light concept is to build a pair of LED light bars, with a twist (more on that soon). I added uprights to the stand, and started with the actual heatsink holder.

(You'll notice the horizontal member is exactly 25mm too short - sigh).

The uprights are attached to the stand. Here you can see my as-built being different than as-designed, because I had to make some weird spacing with the uprights and that ludicrous triangle.

You may be wondering, whats with the little 3d printed white plastic on the horizontal light holder?

Thats the prototype holder for the horizontal heatsink element, as shown only holding one side. And printed in white ABS.

Terrible pictures, but more details on this soon in a DIY LED geek thread, but some teaser images from a set of test -fit boards I made to validate some interesting connections on this heatsink extrusion.

And a bit of modeling to show how a 10mm thick 60mm fan will mount.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Curious to see the LED stand when it's finished, looks neet so far!!

 

[GatorGreg]

how’s the tank coming along? Wet yet?

 

[theatrus]

This project man... Anyway, time is the thing running away from me. But I'm going to get this wet and cycling in 2 weeks if I don't die first.

Here is an under tank shot:

Left is the Ca, Alk, and ATO bottles. Above is the electrical space. Two MP10s (purchased in 2019!) are mounted, but not yet fixed in place. I'm making a quick DC distribution block so I can power all the pumps from a single 24V Meanwell OWA-120 power supply, saving tons of plug and cord space.

I'm also planning on putting a Trident down here. I may not use the EB8 at all (use a head unit and 24V power for the Trident). The biggest pickle is the Trident is too tall for the electrical space ... which means I'm going to perform a Trident-Deconstruction to remove the extremely excessive gray and orange plastic. In theory the Trident's reaction chamber will still need to be the highest point of the system, so I'll 3d print some parts for that mounting. My other system runs on a Ca reactor so having some automation on 2 part will be extremely nice.

 

[theatrus]

Well its sanded and wet now.

Only one leaky bulkhead. The sump is running, but nothing is organized down there yet... No salt either, just in case I need to do some fixes.

The return pumps are back to a pair of Sicce Syncra 0.5 pumps, currently throttled all the way down - the MightyJet was much louder than the Sicce pumps, go figure.

Also, if you have Vortech pumps sitting on a shelf since 2019, the update process for firmware to get them to Mobius is ... insanely annoying. Make sure you keep your phone awake, since it aborts the second the screen locks. And takes upwards of 20 minutes per pump.


Overflow is super quiet - very happy with it.

 

[theatrus]

3d printed myself a filter sock holder

 

[theatrus]

Mounting a refugium light - this is a custom 3d printed frame.

Some base rock. Some fresh uncured live rock. Now to let it marinade.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Mounting a refugium light - this is a custom 3d printed frame.

Some base rock. Some fresh uncured live rock. Now to let it marinade.

Glad to see the tank is filled with water sand and rock now!

 

[theatrus]

Let there be ... temporary light!

This is a pair of XR15Pros Gen6. On the RMS mount, which coincidentally fits perfectly over 8020 25mm rail...

Yes, yes, I need to finish my GleamRails. That will also fix the spread problem (center of the tank is low light). But time is scarce, and these worked in a pinch.

I did 3d print the snoot and base plate for them. Otherwise there is far too much light spill into the room. The plate has embedded magnets (print, stop at layer, insert magnet, resume) so it just snaps to the bottom of the Radions. The snoot fits inside the plate so its how swappable for different shapes and sizes.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Let there be ... temporary light!

This is a pair of XR15Pros Gen6. On the RMS mount, which coincidentally fits perfectly over 8020 25mm rail...

Yes, yes, I need to finish my GleamRails. That will also fix the spread problem (center of the tank is low light). But time is scarce, and these worked in a pinch.

I did 3d print the snoot and base plate for them. Otherwise there is far too much light spill into the room. The plate has embedded magnets (print, stop at layer, insert magnet, resume) so it just snaps to the bottom of the Radions. The snoot fits inside the plate so its how swappable for different shapes and sizes.

Those lights look great!

 

[theatrus]

Things are actually looking nice, despite... my sump failing.

I had made it a few years ago, but its clear the solvent cement I was using didn't make a good bond as the joints were super porous. I heard the sharp crack as the skimmer section failed on me.

Currently, the tank is running well, with the sump being a Tropic Marin bucket. Cycled in about a week from the new live rock die off combined with biomedia from the existing tank, which was nice and fast.

Coralline has started forming on powerheads and dry rock. Cleanup crew of snails was dropped in.

And two ORA lemon damsels. I do intend to keep the damsels - as they're super interactive fish with the room and people, and add lots of fun movement. We will see if they uphold the "not terrible" damsels sales line with maybe another semi-aggressive fish or a clown pair.

The new sump has been rebuilt, and is in testing. I enlarged both the return sump chamber and the skimmer chamber, and added a movable partition to the return chamber to adjust total height. I wanted to try to get the total sump higher wall, but just lacking in under tank space so maintenance would be a burden. More pictures on that soon.

Also of note, I've plumbed in a 18W Pentair UV unit on the left return channel. It _just_ fits between the wall and the stand, and I didn't account for it originally. I recently added a 80W UV on my 90G, and I just love the overall results.

 

[theatrus]

New sump!

Basically like the old one, slightly changed baffle dimensions, and a new height adjustable final baffle.

 

[Simonv92]

Test hinge install. It’s a go.

Hi @theatrus. How are the hinges after some time? Are them rust? I was thinking about using the same hinges on my cabinet..
Thank you!
Simone

 

[theatrus]

Hi @theatrus. How are the hinges after some time? Are them rust? I was thinking about using the same hinges on my cabinet..
Thank you!
Simone

No rust so far and they're working smoothly. They are less exposed overall to the salt environment and at least splashes. Would recommend if you have the router or tools to make the pockets for them to sit in.

 

[Simonv92]

No rust so far and they're working smoothly. They are less exposed overall to the salt environment and at least splashes. Would recommend if you have the router or tools to make the pockets for them to sit in.

Thank you very much!

 

[Flameback Pair]

@theatrus nice going. Subscribed!!

-Mitchell.