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04/13/2019, 03:33 AM | #26 | |
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Location: Sydney Australia
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Quote:
Firstly I want to say this thread is great and your build quality is exceptional. For your drilling issue you may find a dowel bit will cut through the paint more cleanly. Here is an example - an Australian one, but I’m sure you will have no issues finding the US equivalents. https://www.bunnings.com.au/haron-10...l-bit_p6322979 Well done and keep the updates coming! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk |
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04/13/2019, 07:32 AM | #27 | |
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And thank you for the compliments! Bill |
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04/13/2019, 09:04 AM | #28 |
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Earlier in this build, I cut a piece of clear acrylic to serve as a splash guard:
However, it needed to be further cut in order to allow the air tubing and heater cord to get out of the bottle. So I marked and drilled two 1/4" holes in the acrylic: Then I cut slots out with my bandsaw: This piece is supported by the horizontal pieces of wood just above the water bottle, and the front vertical posts help hold it in place. It goes in from the side and holds the airline tubing and heater cord in place. The posts prevent it from sliding forward. That's it for the splash cover! Next, I want to vertically stabilize the bottle a little bit. Thanks for reading, Bill |
04/13/2019, 12:10 PM | #29 |
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The space that holds the bottle is a little larger than the actual width of the bottle; so it's prone to lean to one side.
To make padding to hold it vertical, I cut some ~3" strips of 6mm craft foam. Then I used spray adhesive to glue the strips to the horizontal wood bars. There, no more leaning! I can remove the foam and replace it as needed. Short and sweet. I'm in the home stretch! Finally, I wanted to make the entire rig more stable. This involved using the same anti-vibration padding that I used for the air pump. I started with a piece that was bigger than I needed, and glued it on the bottom using spray adhesive. After a few minutes, I trimmed off the excess with a very sharp blade. And that gives me a huge area that will help it grip any surface it's placed on, and further deaden any vibrations caused by the air pump. And that is a completed hatchery! But I'm not done posting here. Time to test it out and work out the kinks. Let's see it in action! Thanks for reading, Bill |
04/13/2019, 06:23 PM | #30 |
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Still following along
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04/14/2019, 01:23 AM | #31 |
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Location: Anaheim, CA
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Very nice build.
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240G mixed reef, 29G SPS/LPS clam tank, 50G mixed reef Current Tank Info: 300g mixed reef, 50g cube |
04/14/2019, 11:10 AM | #32 |
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Yesterday I set it up in my kitchen, and started a batch of brine shrimp eggs. My recipe:
I adjusted the heater a little over the next few hours, and found it to swing between 82-85 degrees Fahrenheit. I might raise it a tiny bit in the next batch. Looks good in the kitchen, and very quiet! Today I will check the hatching, take some more pictures, and think about a small thing or two I would like to add for convenience' sake! Thanks for reading, Bill |
04/14/2019, 01:56 PM | #33 |
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It's been 24 hours, and I have a sizable hatched batch!
I turned off the air pump but left the overhead light on for 15 minutes. This allowed the unhatched eggs to settle to the bottom. I then ran those out of the bottle using my new "faucet." There were very few shrimp caught up in this step, so I discarded these. Then I turned off the heater and the overhead light, turned on the LED light on the bottom, and left it for 10 minutes in the dark with the panels closed. The shrimp were drawn to the bottom! A closer look shows how they were attracted to my light. But even more interesting, they were attracted even more to the opposite wall. I think this is the LED light shining through the bottle and reflecting off the opposite wall. I then decanted the rest of the shrimp into my tray, rinsed them in RO water, and gave them a fresh supply of salt water for storage in the refrigerator That's a decent supply, considering I only used 1/4 teaspoon (that's 1.23 mL) of eggs! They'll last like this for a few days, but they're at their most nutritious for only the next 12-24 hours at most. For feeding the fish, I scooped out a small supply with a shrimp net and rinsed in fresh water. Ready for feeding. Fat and happy baby swordtails! To clean up, I removed the bottle and rinsed it out. The heater needed to be wiped off with a wet rag, and I also removed and rinsed the airstone. Cleanup and assembly took about five minutes. I then started another batch. Total turnaround was under ten minutes. And that's about it! I hope you've enjoyed this build. I'll be monitoring this thread, so if there are any questions or comments, feel free. Thank you for following along, and thank you all who left nice comments as well. I appreciate it! Bill |
04/14/2019, 02:04 PM | #34 |
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This is great, if you ever decide to sell this design let me know lol
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04/14/2019, 02:25 PM | #35 |
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Where do you get the eggs?
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04/14/2019, 04:14 PM | #36 |
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Location: Miller Place, NY
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Nice Job Bill!
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250 gallon mixed reef, 2 Reefbreeder's Photon V 2, Deepwater BLDC 12, DAS EX-3 Skimmer, MTC mini cal, 2-3/4" Sea Swirls, Aquacontroller & 6 Tunze pumps. |
04/14/2019, 04:50 PM | #37 | |
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Quote:
Here's the SketchUp file: Bill's Brine Shrimp Hatchery v2 (409 KB) Enjoy! Bill |
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04/14/2019, 04:51 PM | #38 |
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I got them on Amazon, selected after some research:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012IKVMFG I'm very happy with the results! Bill |
04/25/2019, 09:43 AM | #39 |
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Hey guys!
I've been using this hatchery for almost two weeks ago, running a fresh batch every day. In that time I've learned a few things and made a few small updates, so I thought I would close out this project by sharing them here. 1. Replaced the bottle. The Fiji bottle turned out not to be the best choice for this project. The slope of bottle to the neck is not long enough, so eggs want to settle along the walls. Instead, I'm trying out a "Brisk Tea" bottle, but I may look for something wider in the near future. 2. Removed the bottle spacers. The craft foam spacers made the cavity too small for the Brisk bottle, and they make it harder to slide the bottle in and out. Turns out the weight of the water the in the bottle holds it vertical just fine, so I ripped those out. 3. Removed the airstone. The smaller bubbles of the airstone do not circulate the water as well as just a bare tube. I found that salt mix and shrimp eggs were wanting to settle under it. Once I removed it and extended it with a 1" length of airline tubing on the end, the bigger bubbles moved much more water and kept everything from settling. 4. Used the lower chamber for storage. I didn't plan this, but the lower area serves to hold my baking soda, bleach, and a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon. I just put the baking soda in an old spice can and the bleach in an eyedrops bottle. Convenient! 5. Decorated the front. It seemed like the whole unit need some sort of decoration, so I found a picture I liked via Google search, and then traced it onto some red craft foam and cut it out. I think this looks a little better. 6. Added a timer. Since I need to time 15 minutes for the shrimp to rise to the top (for draining unhatched eggs) and then another 15 to come to the bottom (for collection), a dedicated timer made things much easier. So there we have it, nothing too major to change. I'm otherwise pretty happy with it! Thanks for reading! Bill |
04/25/2019, 11:58 AM | #40 |
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It's nice when a plan comes together.
Good Job!
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250 gallon mixed reef, 2 Reefbreeder's Photon V 2, Deepwater BLDC 12, DAS EX-3 Skimmer, MTC mini cal, 2-3/4" Sea Swirls, Aquacontroller & 6 Tunze pumps. |
05/03/2019, 03:20 PM | #41 |
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Location: Mustang, OK
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Impressive, but will this airplane fly?
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Lee Current Tank Info: 46 gal system |
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