Cedric

Actually, I can see no real harm dripping kalk now other than it may be a tad wasteful?

Mine is quiet. Maybe yours is defective? Bring back for a change?

? Whats wrong with the mushroom? Why must you exterminate it?

Hi ah^siao, sorry but I had to chip in coz its quite funny the way you "misread" his post. bubble_gum mentioned in his reply Therefore he already answered your question. Firstly, he did not buy "art glue", secondly, he already told us where he bought the acrylic glue from which is a place called ARTFRIEND. Hope this will clear things up.

I would suggest 1 x 150w MH say maybe at 14k. You'll save in the long run as its cheaper to replace 1 MH bulb then the T5s/PL/FL, etc. The MH will allow you to keep a higher range of corals and at greater depth as well. The setback is heat which may be solved if you 1) high the MH higher, 2) get a dc fan to blow across the surface.

I think its hard to tell if you've really overdosed without looking at your pH. Water circulation and amount of CO2 will paly a part too. Why not tell us your pH first?

Hi! Just like to say everything is looking good!

Thanks for your input! Will definitely help all the DIY gurus here!

Hi Ancelot, looks like you neither use the search function nor read previous posts do you? Anyway, here is my mod on the atman pump also for the marine sources skimmer from Octopus bay. Still running good! *cross figures* I showed Mr Octopus the design and he is getting his partners in Hongkong to make the spindle wheel for our Atman AT-105 pump. Should be arriving in Singapore soon and all owners of the marine sources skimmer will be getting the new spindle wheel impeller from him free!

Maybe you can bring your SMS 122 to Nature Aquarium at Thomson. They carry Milwakee controllers and might be able to help. But before that, can you try calibrating with either pH 10 or 4 first and followed by pH 7? Might make a difference if the slope is already on the extreme end. As for the CO2 cannister, I'll say dump it back at Petmart and ask for a refund or trade in for something else. Get a decent aluminium tank. The pitch should always be the same for all regulators and cannisters.

Now that makes sense. You should be able to get better equipment than most of us here. Get what you can while you are there before coming back!

Hi szesteve, are you residing in Singapore? I notice your wall plugs and they look foreign.

Wah! Looks good man! What pump you using?

I fully agree!

Hi Cookiemunster, perhaps its the way I wrote my post which misled you into thinking that I am insisting most other brands use piston compressors. Apologies for that. However, I must add that there are indeed quite a few chiller brands that do indeed use piston compressors such as TECO , TR, RR, and even Pacific Coo. In any case, piston compressors are not really that big! A dead give away to tell if the compressor in use is indeed a rotary compressor is the physical shape. A rotary compressor is almost always cylindrical and tall. A piston compressor is much like a dome shape. There is nothing wrong wrong with a piston compressor, just that a rotary compressor is a newer technology and more efficient, thats all.

Hi, just like to share my view points. I too was debating over Pacific Coo or an Atman and other brands, so based on the three points brought up by Cookiemunster, maybe I can do some comparison. 1. Cost: Atman before mod = $500 Atman after mod = $600 (including cost of new materials and DIYing myself, hence no labour cost) 2. Efficiency: Atman - Excellent with a good rotary compressor but not a true rating of 0.5HP as brought up by Maxima. Compact and Small in size. Small titanium Coil Good for 4 feet with my limited experience 3. Noise Level Atman - Excellent, near silent Therefore based on the above (just my personal opinion) I could not bring myself to come up with more than 2x the money for other brands. Hence I guess I bought the Atman primarily based on the price point which is near impossible to beat for most of the chillers available now.

Its ok Cookiemunster, its alot more fun and alot cheaper to do the diy myself. In any case, I've already successfully completed the modification.

What happened is this: Atman Chiller's Controller is too senstive, cutting in and out as often as every 6 minutes. 3 minutes on, 3 minutes off. This may/will result in shorthen lifespan of the compressor. Orginal Solution was to completely bypass the orginal controller with a new external one. While this solves the problem of cutting in and out too frequently, it created a small potential problem. Since the temperature is now sensed from the new controller's probe in the main tank, if for whatever reason the chiller pump or return pump fails, the temp will read high, chiller continues running but the water in the reservoir is stagnant and may freeze as a result. New Solution is to run two controllers together, solving the problem entirely. But this is alot harder to diy. Hope you can understand better.

Apologies to Calciumreef! I kept thinking that it was him who made the comment!!!! Also dunno why? Sorry bro! To Cookiemunster, what do you think?

Yes it should work for all chillers. Perhaps just different wiring, got the study the wiring diagram first!

Finally, after 4 hours of hard work, its completed!!! Note the extra wire coming out of the chiller, thats going to the external controller mounted on my electrical cabinet on the other side of the tank.

A close up of the wiring near the power inlet

And proceeded to mod the internal. This will be much more complicated then the mod I did on bro lighteningstrike and Eric. A pic of the internals semi-completed.

Opening up the chiller I decided to take a pic of the compressor for Maxima to confirm the actual compressor rating.

Hi everyone again! Calciumreef made a valid point previously about the water reservoir freezing up since the external probe will sense a high temp while in the main tank even when the chiller pump fails. This has set me thinking quite abit. Finally, I came up with a rather simple solution! I'll use two controllers together! The orginal atman controller will be set at a lower temp say 24 degrees with the temperature probe in the reservoir. The new external FOX temperature controller will be wired in series and set at a higher temp of 25 degrees. For the chiller to run, both controllers must be triggered on. So lets say when the temp has lowered from 26 degrees to 25 degrees, the FOX external controller will turn the relay off while the atman controller will remain on. Net effect, the chiller remains off! If the worse case brought up by calciumreef happens, i.e. chiller pump or return pump fails, the FOX controller will sense a high temp and remain on. But the atman internal controller will sense a low temp in the reservoir and turn off the chiller at the preset 24 degrees!!! Finally problem is solved! With that in mind, I decided to mod my own chiller!!!