untouchables

fully agree. thats why i think juz buy off the shelf is better. too bad i cannot afford such a skimmer have to make do with dual weipro and trying to diy a cheap beckett, using pvc pipe for the chamber (it works!) and using an old skimmer tower (not that tall but try first lah). if i got the money to spend, i rather juz get aquac than those diy or other skimmers since the cost is almost the same. cheers!

can catch mouse but can catch efficiently enough to reduce the mouse population, maintain it or mouse population will still grow? going by the saying, might as well use air powered skimmer???

if u take a skimmer and breakdown the components, you will end up with some standard parts. the common part is the tower and to improve efficiency, juz make it taller. taller is better as it gives more contact time. next comes the input method, which can be direct, downward draft, spiral, etc. seems like spiral and downward draft give the max contact time compared to the direct input. imo, spiral is better if you compare the distance taken by the air bubbles. lastly, the bubbles creation method. apart from air bubble skimmers, the others require a powerhead. they are: a: beckette. a beckett is juz a different venturi design and the darn plastic beckett nozzle is around S$45-50. need some slight modification to get it working but frankly speaking, total cost for a beckett nozzle with mod should not exceed $100! the expensive part is the acrylic tower! b. venturi. i dun think need to explain this... c. spray injection. patented by aquac. dunno how actually works as have not seen its internal but since it is a patent, u cannot diy d. needle wheel. uses venturi to create the initial air bubbles and uses a modified impeller to chop the bubbles to even smaller ones. the modified impeller is normally with lots of wheels (normal impeller generally got 3 wheels). which is better? everyone have their opinion but among the top, it is either beckett, needle wheel or spray injection. assuming everything is same (tower size, inlet method, l/h), juz go for one that gives the most foam with the smallest bubbles. do note that the smallest bubbles may not be best since it may give lesses bubbles. what you need to do is find out how many bubbles and its average size and calculate the contact area. the one with the largest contact area is best. unfortunately, im unable to find complete figures to do the comparison. what i hope to see is for someone to mass produce cheap huge towers and let us plug in our preferred injector. diy towers using arcylic is juz not worth it! cheers!

hmm now i know why i always read people saying teco hot air blow to the front but mine always blow to the back. so new model diff... anyway, front and back got different meh? juz make sure the hot air dont get blown to the inlet/outlet tubes (both internal and external).

uv sold. thanks!

i dun think it is the overflow... i got ur problem too. if return pump too powerful, the tank fills to the brim. this is becos the water needs to be of certain height before it can flow into the overflow. what i did was break away some of the "teeth" to allow more flow from main to overflow box. lesson learnt. give up to 1" for water to fill above ur overflow box!

spur of the moment... i bought too many and my bioload going through the roof!. letting go one of my purple tang for $30. around 2.5" in size, i think. u get to choose fr 3 of them. eating pellets and frozen food so no worries when u bring home. stable and healthy. self collect fr my place at yew tee.

if anyone interested, i got a brand new unit that i got for my q tank but as im finished with my fish stocking, dun need it anymore. im juz gonna use medication instead so selling this NEW and UNUSED unit for $30. juz PM if u r interested. cheers!

i use this instead for PAR comparison... PAR comparison

wow u mean it is THAT yellow? hmm looks like im stuck with 10,000K or 14,000K (if edmund can bring in the hamilton). thanks for the info guys.

went to SL tower today and found that 400W Philips SE bulb is less than $40. wow only drawback is that it is 6500K. not other spectrum. anyone used them before? thot of using these instead and complement with blue light. much much cheaper and 6500K is best for SPS... or so i read so far.

if anyone wants to buy it and want a BLV 20,000K bulb instead, can swap with me. my bulb is 2 months old.

oic. thanks for the clarification. i thought can consider ur friend set since im looking into 400W but the bulb not available yet (i one that i want).

bro vincent, can i ask if the eballast is from viclite? i called them last week cos i was looking for the same thing and they told me they have eballast for 250W and 400W but not dual support. therefore, i have to buy base on the wattage of my bulb.

why would you want to switch off your skimmer? unless it is so efficient until you are skimming nothing for hours, then maybe you can consider doing it but on off on off very troublesome right? juz let it run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i got 2 ft fl light for sale but not weipro. juz normal type but alum casing. one of them is boyu brand. tube is 1ft or 1.5ft. cannot remember liao... if interested, PM me.

anyone got 250W 10,000K SE bulb that i can buy or borrow to test? if not BLV, then please specify the Kelvin.

no stock and they got lots of 250W ones to clear before reordering so it is like weeks and maybe months of waiting.

im looking for 400W BLV 10,000K SE bulb. prefer brand new but the shop at sin ming out of stock. im currently using 250W BLV 20,000K SE but felt 250W not sufficient for SPS and was told 10,000K is better for SPS growth (can someone advise?). pls PM me if u have what i want.

6 months!?!?! wow i can probably wait that long, if i have a second or maybe a third tank wow bro, this is for u

some consolation... my offer still stands

no choice cos i bought an atman rated at 1400 (i think) and is so darn noisy, i returned it the same day. decided not to go with china pumps anymore cos it is either noisy, unreliable or incorrect rating. i hate to have a pump giving out noise, esp when you are running it 24x7. arrghhhh gets on my nerves.

bro, u got PM.

seems like im not the only one getting trips. the past week, whenever it rains and it always followed by thunder, my ELCB will trip. luckily normally trip around afternoon so it is a few hours before i come back. no casualty so far but i suspect the ELCB or earth is not done properly or should be adjusted to be less sensitive. maybe time to call in the electrician.

im running 1260 on a 2012 and it is still too strong. had to put in a valve to reduce the flow rate. 2012 should be using a 1500l/h pump but from my testing, can go up to 1800l/h max, assuming min head loss.