About to build a aquaclear 110 fuge mod

[tophoo]

Do any of you guys/gals have any suggestions or comments before I start?

I just picked up a used on for $30 off of kijiji and thinging about putting 2 chambers in it.  The first with a heater and maybe some filter floss or sponge to catch the bubbles. For the second chamber, I was thinking about a dsb and some cheato.

[tophoo]

Ok guys, thought that you might be curious what I have done on my DIY journey


I took the basket and took it apart


I then cut one of the sides in 2


I then siliconed the bottom of the media basket to the "overflow" of the filter to catch and cheato from going into the tank



I used the side of the basket as a baffle and siliconed it in place


I cut an opening in the lid to let the light shine on the cheato and with minimal evaperation

[tophoo]

I'll post the finished product soon

[bizfromqc]

Cool build, I've seen it done on other forums and almost tried it myself before decided to try my hand at an AIO (you can see my sig for the progress).

Out of curiosity, what's the total volume of water in an AC110 and what size tank are you going to use this on?

Good work!

BTW, you should probably move this to the DIY section

Edit: just moved the thread to the DIY section

[tophoo]

Out of curiosity, what's the total volume of water in an AC110 and what size tank are you going to use this on?

Thanks!!!

Not sure how much water it holds, maybe little over a gallon.  But, I do know it's rated for 60-110 gph. I did shave down the impeller to reduce the flow a bit.

I currently have it on a 20g reef tank

[tophoo]

alright guys, this is what I have done.

I put 2.5lbs on live rock in it and a hand full of cheato.

The light I picked up is a basic clip-on desk light with a energy saving 12w, 6500k, 900 lumens bulb.

I'm having problems with light leaking into the display tank so I turned it off at night.  Will this cause any problems? Any suggestions to stop the light leak?

[tophoo]

Ideas??

[bizfromqc]

Submersible light or a piece of black (or painted black acrylic) between hob fuge and main tank to stop light from leaking into it.

[tophoo]

Submersible light or a piece of black (or painted black acrylic) between hob fuge and main tank to stop light from leaking into it.

I don't know if the submersible light would be powerful enough and I have a background on my tank so no problems there. The light is coming from the overflow where the water comes out. 

thanks for your idea tho

[bizfromqc]

I don't know if the submersible light would be powerful enough and I have a background on my tank so no problems there. The light is coming from the overflow where the water comes out. 

thanks for your idea tho

There seems to be many accounts of people using submersible lights to grow cheato with good success on other forums, maybe someone with more experience could comment here on its use.

As for the light, have you tried using it on the side/back instead of the top (if you have the room)?

Something like this would work but it's quite a bit of cash...
http://bit.ly/KQJrRL

[brotherluv]

I'm pretty sure he meant black plastic between your main light for your tank and the fuge part of the filter where the light is leaking through...not on the back of the tank.

[tophoo]

ah,  I tried something else.  I just covered must of the "grate" with tin foil and it worked! Next to no light leakage

check it out