First Setup plan

[Redoog]

I am also struggling with my lights. The xmas LED where bright and lasted, but Te ledhard to mount, and did not work with my timers.

the rope led seemed to be perfect, easy to mount, expandable, however they have mostly burnt out. i will try again with some 10,000 hours lights. but i think this time I will add another zone and timer. am whites, pm whites, and blues.

The blues are lasting longer, but they are not on for long periods like the white. So i will have blues come on 1 hour, then am whites 5 hours, overlapped 1 hour by pm whites which will be on 5 hours followed by 2 hours blue. I also run blue for 30 minutes at noon.

I also need to vent the hood, maybe even a small computer type fan to cool things and remove humidity.

 

[david yurik]

View attachment 590581

are the gray horizontle lines in the 2nd shelf the lowes egg crate stuff? thanks for the rapid response btw. dave

 

[Redoog]

no thats the felt and batting filtration . First level is where i pipe the water in. second is the filtration, third is bio balls, fourth is scrubbies, and bottom is for heater and air wand.

the three red are shelves i can slide out to get to media. of course i have yet to remove anything from the current setup, i just swap the felt and add some new batting.

 

[Redoog]

I should have said yes and no. I do put a piece of egg crate under my batting I found it works better. If not you only filter where you have holes drilled. And it clogge faster I also use a piece on top of the felt. It is to keep the filtration from floating.

 

[david yurik]

I should have said yes and no. I do put a piece of egg crate under my batting I found it works better. If not you only filter where you have holes drilled. And it clogge faster I also use a piece on top of the felt. It is to keep the filtration from floating.

i forgot. where is the felt? i thought you had floss on top of the egg grate. sorry if you already explained but i read so many things i forget what goes with what sometimes.

dave

 

[Redoog]

ok no problem. And in case you missed it, egg crate is actually diffusers for floresant lights.

So, I have a plastic drawer from walmart, and i drilled a bunch of 1/2 holes in the bottom.

then i put a piece of eggcrate in the bottom. I did this, because if you put the felt in the drawer without it, you will end up just filtering around the holes. So you will have a spotted piece of felt. It doesnt last as long. with eggcrate under it, the water can pass through more of the felt, making it last longer.

then i cut a piece of felt and a piece of batting that are about 4" wider and taller then drawer bottom.

I have anothre piece of egg crate that is a little smaller then the drawer.

I layer a piece of felt, then batting, then eggcrate on top of that. I fold the material up over the edges of the eggcrate, and stuff it in the drawer on top of the other egg crate.

The reason for this, is to keep the felt and batting from floating, and water going around it.

I am due a filter change, I will shoot some pics, I need to buy batting though

 

[Redoog]

Someone want to see how i do my filtration. I change this once every few months. I never do vacs or water changes. Unless we have power outage, then i have to top it off. I do have a slow drip going in the sump.

i think the images speak for themseves. cut a piece of felt, cut a double piece of quilt batting. insert eggcrate first, use second eggcrate on top of material, stuff it in replace the drawer.




IN this image notice that the drawer is nearly full of water. this is how i know when to change it.










Step one insert first piece of egg crate













New material in place notice there is no water visible. i flows straight through until it gets clogged up.