Real Reefer's 5g AIO DIY

[RealReefer]

Helo fellow reefers!

Hope you are well. Some awesome setups here. True inspirations. I would like to share with all of you my new 5g AIO DIY build.

The Reef :
300mm (l) x 350mm (w) x 300mm (h) - Water level 270mm

AIO box:
300mm (l) x 80mm (w) x 300mm (h).

1. Overflow chamber: 50W heater and some filter floss
2. Filtration: Seachem matrix , purigen and carbon
3. Return pump: 230gph / 880lph
4. ATO: 0.32g / 1.2L with DIY double mini switch or single switch with optical sensor.

Circulation: Return pump for now. Still trying to figure if a MP-10 or Jebao SW-2 will work. Maybe way to big?
Light: DIY 54W led build
Substrate: Caribsea Seafloor special grade
Rock: Single piece of dry reef rock
Cabinet: DIY MDF

Rock and sand cleaned in a RO / bleach solution for 24 hours. Rinsed with RO and then soaked in seachem prime for another 24 hours to neutralize the bleach.
That's about it for now. I'll post a few pics of the progress so far.

Thanks for following!!

 

[RealReefer]

As promised. A few pics of the progress so far. Enjoy!

 

[RealReefer]

So the plan with this reef is to get it as stable as possible for the long run. I have integrated a 1.2L ATO chamber along with the rest of the back filtration and return pump.
I'm going to use a 6V DC dosing head with a DIY mini float switch setup for the top up. I also ordered a mini temp controller to control a 80mm PC fan for cooling.

This is the idea...

 

[RealReefer]

Morning all. Happy New Year to all. Hope you have a wondeful, exciting and blessed new year. All of the best!!!
A few more updates from my side. Rock and sand in 10l bucket with a bleach solution. With only 10min in it really shows how dirty it is.

24 hours later

 

[RealReefer]

To the followers. A few more updates. Back AIO compartment finished! I used the square for 90's and then tagged the glass on the edges with hot glue to keep it up straight. Easy to remove and clean after the silicone dried.

 

[kanders87]

Wow, nice work so far. Following along

 

[RealReefer]

Thanks @kanders87 for following

 

[RealReefer]

Morning followers. Thought i'd share a few updates with pics. AIO and perspex front panel is in place. Return is 16mm fitted with a adjustable flow nozzle. Overflow slots are 6mm. Normally i do a 5mm but i'm not sure if the overflow would handle the return on such a small overflow width. I also covered the back and sides with black vinyl to finish it off. Enjoy!

 

[RealReefer]

Now that the tank is finished, i'll be moving onto the DIY led unit. I'll be using a PAR38 54W led unit with a few modifications. For starters i'm going to change out all the led diodes with custom colours.

15k Cool White
Royal Blue
Deep Blue
Violet

I'll keep you posted on the progress! Enjoy!

 

[revhtree]

Nice! Following!

 

[JoshuaRock]

Now I’m really interested. I would have never thought about changing out the LED’s on a par 38. That’s brilliant!

 

[najer]

Very interesting, nice work.

 

[don_chuwish]

Beautiful work on the glass. What was that wrap you used to black out everything?

 

[RealReefer]

Nice! Following!

Now I’m really interested. I would have never thought about changing out the LED’s on a par 38. That’s brilliant!

Very interesting, nice work.

Beautiful work on the glass. What was that wrap you used to black out everything?

Thanks guys! and thanks for following.

@don_chuwish It's black vinyl. Same stuff they use to wrap advertising boards and so on.

 

[RealReefer]

Took the par38 apart. Very easy to do. What you left with is half of a heatsink with a big hole in the middle. Not very effective at cooling. a 50w driver, the led PCB and acrylic lens cover. This one is 60deg. Too narrow for my liking. I'm going to use it without the lens.

 

[RealReefer]

I desoldered all of the old led diodes. Cleaned the PCB and replaced with new ones. I don't have any deep blue leds at the moment. when they come i will replace 2x RB in the middle circle with 2x Deep blues.
Thinking of doing another 2 or 3 PCB's with different colour leds so that i can just swop the PCB in the future if i want to play with colours.

Have an awesome weekend!

 

[Fin]

Pretty neat! Following...

 

[don_chuwish]

Was there any thermal paste on the originals? I think I have the same (or similar) PAR38. Hope your mods work well, fun project.
I like the vinyl wrap idea, might have to play with that! Did it pull around sharp corners ok?

 

[najer]

Skills, nice mod.

 

[RealReefer]

Was there any thermal paste on the originals? I think I have the same (or similar) PAR38. Hope your mods work well, fun project.
I like the vinyl wrap idea, might have to play with that! Did it pull around sharp corners ok?

Yes there was paste on the originals. The vinyl works really well. No wrap around. I cut a piece of vinyl for each side. Used a stanley blade to trim the edges. Do not try to stick the whole thing in one go. You will sit with a lot of air bubbles underneath. Peel the edge, stick it down and work your way further by slowly peeling it off and as you put it down use you hand, finger or plastic card to "rub" in down to minimize bubbles. If you see a bubble you can gently peel back and put it down again.

When working with larger pieces of vinyl you can apply soapy water on the whole area and put the whole sheet down in one go. That way it wont stick and you can move the vinyl around making it easier to work with. Use a plastic bank card to scrape all the soapy water from underneath to make it stick. Basically you will scrape from one edge to the other. Leave it to dry and you will be good to go. Use about 1/2 tsp of dish washing soap per cup of water.