Skimmer:
Well, due to school taking up so much of my time. I think i, and i regret saying this, may convert to a skimmer. With work, school, and business, I find myself forgetting to clean the skrubber every week like i should. So, i think, while I'm in school, to reduce my maintenance as i can leave a skimmer sitting for a long time as long as the waste trap doesnt over flow, this might be the route that I'll be going. So i'm thinking of doing a DIY skimmer unless i can find one for a good price to skim my 300g aquarium.
I was thinking of using a 5gal bucket, but thats as far as i have made it on the thought proess lol, it's been a long week. I have a 900gph pump that i could use. I was also thinking that i wouldnt need/want a waste trap, i want the waste to tube over to another bucket of some sort so that i can collect for a month with no issues. I'm thinking i will just dremel a whole in the lid of the 5gal bucket to put a funnel on top that will be siliconed and mounted to the lid then the 1/2" tube comes off the top of that and allows the waste to be dumped into another container big enough that if i forget about it for a month that it wont matter.
ATO:
Will have two float valves so that it is less likely to have anything bad happen, one valve will feed water to the other valve. It will be connected to a Carbon reactor/filter which is then connected to my cold tap water line. One valve water supply line will be connected to the next before the water is able to enter the tank. So hopefully a double failsafe will work.
Heat Exchanger:
Since the introduction of the 300g DT, not including the refuge, last winter the humidity got a little out of hand. So i am divising a plan to build a cheap heat exchanger that will:
have a humidistat to activate a relay switch that will activate 2 fans
One fan brings in outside air, the other pushes air out
It will have a tin foil core
Be mounted in the fishroom window as i will only need it during the cold months
will have a drain leading outside to expell any condensation so it will need to be in a plastic container of some sort
With a heat exchanger, there are two ways of doing this. 1) actually have the outside air brought in and the inside air blown out or 2) have the internal air pass over the foil core which will have cool air also flowing though causing condensation, removing the humidity from the air.
I'm kind of leaning towards option 2 as i feel that would save on the gas bill a little but i dont think it will be as efficient at removing humidity but option 1 will also bring in fresh air from outside which to me is a plus. With option 1 i think you will expell more heat than is actually transfered to the cool air coming in. ie. with the amuont of surface area to transfer heat to the cool area, i think that the warm air going out will be warmer than the air coming in and not an even transfer so for instance 65 degree going out and 60 degree air coming in presuming that the inside temp is 70 and outside air is 55 roughly. I havent actually calculated anything, just estimates and theories.
As with anything, this may take some time to accomplish as i have to find the time to make all this....
This is a bit off topic, but whenever i mention the size of my tank, it just sounds so small.... Maybe i need an upgrade.