Tinkering with my 550!

Matt

Matt

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Thought i'd make a barrier to stop fish jumping into my rear sump. It's not 100% fool proof obviously but better than nothing and fits perfectly! You can also see the filter floss holder I made with egg crate.
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Spent a good part of today upgrading my lighting! (somewhat). I find the BOYU came out with quite poor lighting, so I spaced the original PC's out a bit and fitted another 24W PC in the middle. Running off a seperate ballast, fits nice and snug ;)
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Upgrade from 48W PC to a total of 72W PC, i'm sure my corals will appreciate it ;)
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Only problem was I had to remove my LED moonlights to install the new lights. I'm going to buy a waterproof LED strip and stick it directly on my splashguard when I get the chance ;)

What you guys think?
 
very cool!

I see you moved your skimmer one compartment across.. what do you have where it used to be?

oh, just wanted to know, you know the pipe that comes out of the skimmer, with the plastic screw thing.. should i keep that open or closed?
 
robski: I moved it one over because I created a stand out of eggcrate that i'm using as a filter floss holder. So poop goes straight into the filter floss. Any detritus that gets through that will be dealt with by the skimmer!

The pipe with the plastic screw is adjustable, depending on how "wet" or "dry" you want your skimmate. Just open it up enough that there are bubbles forming at the top of the collection cup.
 
Cool, could you post a pic of that compartment if possible, so I know what to do to mine exactly..

oh, and what is filter floss?

thanks matt
 
Thanks guys! ;) Quite happy with how it came out! ;) I was a bit worried of breaking things knowing how hard it is to replace BOYU parts, but I figured I wasn't happy with it anyway so might as well give it a go! Just waiting on some waterproof LED's to supplement moonlights ;)
 
For any BOYU reefers interested in this upgrade:
Total cost: R279 :D

It's a 10 000k light - the replacement light for the JBJ 12G DX Nano Cube. The ballast (to run the light) is the 25W Aqua-Light made by Marltons.

I bought it from VIP pets in Northgate.

Some advice:
Rear light: move 1 cm backward. Front light: move 0.5 cm forward. To move these lights just drill new holes in the reflector.

By removing the LED's you have ready made holes for the clips for your new light.

The reason I bought the Aqua-Light ballast was because the end caps fit into the hood, bend back the hole in the reflector a little so they can fit.

I then ran the wires under the reflector and out the stock hole with the internal ballast power - just increase the diameter of the rubber grommet thing covering the hole.

Simple as that, first DIY I ever did! ;)
 
Warr: hehe trying to STUDY and not spend too much time on my tank! :D I'm losing hehe
 
Like your "barrier" also thinking of doing something like that as I found one of my snails in my first chamber the other day. I also run fillter flos, change it once a week, but I just run it under my skimmer. what happend to your cooler?
 
Tank-o-holics: Being winter it didn't come on ever ;) I'm also planning a tank upgrade so will need a larger cooler. Gave it to my friend mike bushie (alongside my old 24G JBJ Nano cube) hehe
 
Nice mods Matt, could you get a strip of normal leds and use silicone to cover the connections?
 
Wee-Man - Matt will just have to decide on whether using 220 Volt LED's (that runs directly off 220Volt - but these ARE extremely expensive), OR 12 Volt LED's (that have to run via a 220volt to 12Volt transformer box) - less expensive....


Matt - the good idea would be the "moonlight" units that I got from my LFS when they were still in CPT CBD - have a look at my thread of my tank - about January this year I posted pictures of these LED lights/moonlights....

I know that Andrew from Eco Aquatics brings these lights in as well.....
 
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