| Here is my setup for my 36gal bow tank. I use 2x55w 9325K AH kits. As you can see I have not spent allot of time building a fixture. Even thou I spent 12 years as a carpenter and use to build cabinets as long as my tanks are in my aquarium room I chose to spend more time on what's in them not the outside appearance. This is one of my first fixtures I made. By installing the ballast on top I don't have to worry about heat build up. |
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| With 2x55w on this 36gal bow tank I had to stager the lights. On my other fixtures I put a hang over block on the ends to keep the light from moving side to side. I do this because I keep open top tanks now. On this bow tank the is a center brace the keep the light from falling in. For now I will keep this light fixture but I plan on redoing it and adding a 2x13w cf in front. |
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| One thing I like about my aquarium room is that I made all the inside walls 1/4" chip board. This make it easy to mount any thing any where. Here you can see I mounted two Aqua Medic 1000 CO2 reactors on the wall. One is for a 75gal. and one for this tank, 36gal bow tank. The 304 Fluval is for this tank. The bubble counter is for the 75gal but there is one just like it on the other side of the 36gal for it. These bubble counters are OK but they have to be refilled with water once a month or so. I like my DIY bubble counters I have on the rest of my tanks. They don't need to be refilled for a year. |
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| On the other side of my 36gal I have one of my 20# CO2 tanks. This tank feeds three tanks by use of a three way valve. One 20# tank lasts about one year running three tanks. I use another 304 Fluval to run my 30gal tank above. No particular reason I use Fluval their just what I started out with and have had no problems so I use them on all my tanks. On my 30gal I have a DIY CO2 reactor. Its made on the same line as the one posted here in DIY stuff. This tank has one of my DIY bubble counters. I got the idea for the bubble counter form a post that Rex made. Its his design. I use surge protected plugs and simple timers for all my lighting on my tanks. OH! and you can see my drain for my aquarium room. HEY! It works and its simple. |
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| Sorry about the blurry pic. As you can see their real easy to make, just make two 1/8" hard tubing, one short and one long. silicon them in the cap and add a check valve on the line to the tank and there you are. Works great and you don't have to keep refilling them. |
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| One thing I like about the Aqua Medic CO2 reactor 1000 is the bleed off valve at the top. When you first set them up or if there is a power outage you can bleed off the gas build up that could cause a vapor lock or a decrease in water flow. I found a air inlet valve at the hardware store with thread on I could tap in the top of my DIY reactor. This gives my DIY reactor a bleed off valve feature like the 1000s have. |
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