supremo

tried cutting it but the blades metal and my cutter can't make it. i'll try the straightening approach. thanks bro

some people asking me where to buy the "clear" PVC....I got it from Hai Cheong. At first 2ft cost $50 but because this was old stock and not too clear they gave me at a lower price I only used 18 inches cause it'll be too tall for my cabinet so I still have 6 inches for whatever next DIY

updates: weakness in the design, as you can see in the previous pics, the fan is enclosed in a box, and because the fan is pointing downwards it is affecting the efficiency of the fan because it tries to draw air when there's not much air under the black acrylic. need to do some tweaking on that aspect.

hi bros, I was suddenly stumped because I didn't know how much kalk I should put inside. i read in a thread they put 6 teaspoons so I did but then i realized my reactor smaller than theirs cause mine only got 3.6liters of water inside well, hope it turns out okey. anyway, i then run the stirrer for 15minutes, although my setting is already very low the kalk reached all the way to the top after the 15minutes of stirring, i waited for another 15minutes before i got some sample water to test, the results are: Ph 8.6 (too bad my tester ony go until 8.6, probably higher) Kh - 36 Calcium 550ppm does the above measurements make sense? i'll probably adding about 2 liters of this at night when my auto-topup is on. that on the average is my make up water rate. any comments? *spoiled hard disk ah....in fact I do have cause my hard disk just crashed making me lose a lot of data

hehehe bro, i think making a KR and making a CR is so different that your bluprint would probably stay as a blue print. updates: been running for 24 hours and no leaks. will now be adding the kalk and test the output for Ph, Kh and Calcium tonight

you're referring to the magnetic stirrer bar right? paid $10 each

hi bro, may I know what type of shop is the one selling the magnets?

actually, i thought about using the circulatory pump, but a bro told me that the pump spoils easily because of the kalk. plus the new thing nowadays is the magnetic stirrer thing. i started with buying a used 12vdc motor with gear, but when I was trying to figure out how to attach the magnet I though of attaching a propeller and glue on to it. but then i realized why not use something with the motor and propeller together already saves me a whole lot of gluing. of course we'll need to see if the motor doesn't spoil easily because of the magnet. do good thing is, the design makes the stirrer plate easily replaceable

word of caution? hmmm... are you referring to the chemistry of it? i think there's a lot in the net the explains the purpose of Kalk, from http://www.simplifiedreefkeeping.com/faq/17.htm it states that: Benefits of adding Kalkwasser: You may be interested in why it is so important to add Kalkwasser. Some of the benefits are: It adds calcium that is needed by most of the creatures in the reef. It encourages the growth of pink and purple coralline algae. It keeps the pH elevated. By adding Kalkwasser on a regular basis (make-up water) and doing water changes every 2 to 3 weeks, I have found my pH to be consistently between 8.2 and 8.4. Keeping the pH at this level makes it less likely that micro-algae will become a problem. The reef just seems to love Kalkwasser. There are many more scientific and chemical reactions that are beneficial. Take my word for it: adding Kalkwasser on a regular basis is one of the most beneficial procedures for maintaining a healthy reef and desirable water chemistry. as for the electronics...please note that although you're running it at short moments at a time, bear in mind that a fan would draw more amperes if it's not supplied with the optimum voltage because torque is lessened. So be sure to get an adaptor with enough amperes in it. The fan I used is 480milliamperes but the adaptor I used is 1000milliamperes. I glued a piece of round glass at the bottom. As for the stirrer, I got it from ACEZ at Sim Lim Tower. Their the only shop I found which sells it by piece instead of a pack of 10 pieces. It's teflon coated already cause that piece is not DIY

by the way, does anybody know where I could buy REALLLLY STROOONG magnets? Prefer the Cyclinder type cause it'll fit nicer in my DIY.

In case you're wondering what's in the controller, I just added LM317 Regulator to allow me to control the speed. The diagram I attached below (Note: I just got this from the net and I will not be responsible if somebody tries to make one and it doesn't work or worse cause any injury ) I needed to control the speed because I think my magnet not strong enough so if very fast, the stir bar gets left behind by the magnet which causes rattling sound.

I decided to separate the stirrer plate and the controller because i'm placing the reactor in the sump area, didn;t want to let too much moisture to enter the control area so placed a wire so that I could keep it outside the cabinet. i'll probably have to replace the casing of the stirrer when the Acrylic shops open, but for the meantime I just built with some wood and scrap PVC. here's what's under the stirrer, on the other side you'll find 2 magnets glued on the other side of the propeller.

although i've tested the stirrer inside the PVC, I took a picture of it while testing it on a clearer container. see the whirlpool inside the container?

here's a close up of the top part of the reactor...

Hi peeps. Just wanted to show my DIY Kalk Reactor. It's made using mostly of transparent PVC, but it's not very transparent like I thought it would be but I guess if you look closely you could still see how much stirring is going on inside. here it is without the stirring plate, just checking for leaks....

hehehe seems to be in demand. i was being silent but my DIY got shelved so am looking for 1 too. sellers market!

bro, you want I could lend you the Kent Venturi 1st? I got another DIY project in progress lah so no time to tinker with the skimmer. Let you test first so if it works you can continue to look for your own set later. At least no money wasted if it doesn't work too well. I also benefit cause I would know if there really a great difference.

well done bro, both on the skimmer and on your little princess

bro, can i borrow that tool to remove the venturi? bought it second hand and the original owner is still checking in his storeroom, i doubt he'll still have it though. by the way, would there be an improvement? anybody tried it? cause when I was trying to remove the air inlet, it seems to be jammed so I think this is going to be a 1 way road, no turning back once I open it up

bro upz for your sale! just loved looking at your post because of your signature icon

good looking skimmer bro, but wouldn't it be a bit wobbly? I mean 1 meter high skimmer with a very small foot print (excluding the eheim of course ) hope to see the results once it's up and running. cheers!

makes sense bro, a very good educated guess oh well, i guess i'll keep my injector 1st and see if got any lobang needlewheel skimmer around to experiment with. at least i think needlewheel skimmers don't have a venturi section thanks for all the help bro

yeah bro, probably. was thinking of closing the input hose of the built in venturi of the red sea

jusr removed it when i took out from the sump

i attached it to the base of the Red Sea Berlin.