NeonRabbit221B
2500 Club Member
After trying for a month to keep a consistent skim on an old Berlin Classic I got for free I decided to try to convert it into a chaeto reactor. I had an additional one as well and had no reason or possibility to run two old fashioned skimmers on a 40B with a 29G sump so figure one of them could be an experiment. The plan was to use an old pump (Powerhead 802 running at roughly 170 gph) and an arduino to run RGB neopixels to dial in the right color combination.
I didn't need the center tube or outer tube and wanted the skimmer to be sealed so I cut the inner tube to be about 1" which left about 1/2" after pushing it back into the skimmer neck. I used one of the tops of the reactor attachment as a lid and siliconed that in place to seal it. I ran a small airline tube to the auxiliary air inputs on the top so no water could escape.
I cut down some egg crate to make a basket to hold the chaeto and super glued that to the acrylic inner tube rim that remained. It fit nicely and I figure this is fairly easily changed out if I wanted.
I used an arduino nano and a 56 neopixel strand to give me about 20W at max power or estimated 13.5W with the channels reduced for the preferred spectrum. Each pixel has a red, green and blue led inside so I set it to a maxed out red, about 65% for the green and 40% for the blue. I can adjust these value but it works out to be about 48% red, 33% green and 19% blue for each neopixel.
I leak tested it and set my reef-pi to a 7 hour timer to start. Monday when I get my film I will try increasing this but this sucker is bright without the light being blocked out.
I didn't need the center tube or outer tube and wanted the skimmer to be sealed so I cut the inner tube to be about 1" which left about 1/2" after pushing it back into the skimmer neck. I used one of the tops of the reactor attachment as a lid and siliconed that in place to seal it. I ran a small airline tube to the auxiliary air inputs on the top so no water could escape.
I cut down some egg crate to make a basket to hold the chaeto and super glued that to the acrylic inner tube rim that remained. It fit nicely and I figure this is fairly easily changed out if I wanted.
I used an arduino nano and a 56 neopixel strand to give me about 20W at max power or estimated 13.5W with the channels reduced for the preferred spectrum. Each pixel has a red, green and blue led inside so I set it to a maxed out red, about 65% for the green and 40% for the blue. I can adjust these value but it works out to be about 48% red, 33% green and 19% blue for each neopixel.
I leak tested it and set my reef-pi to a 7 hour timer to start. Monday when I get my film I will try increasing this but this sucker is bright without the light being blocked out.
