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Should use silicone oil on the seals, not petroleum based products, Vaseline etc as this will degrade the seals. I used push fit plumbing silicone oil from Wickes.

What you do there is place the heater on the same plug as your filter, yes either bodge two lots of wires into plug (:mad:) or use an adapter, so that when you turn the filter off to do a water change the heater gets turned off as well. I am now using a JBL 200W heater (in 180l tank) for last...

Dow Corning 785 sanitary sealant has 30 year warranty again UV degradation and loss of adhesion, so would expect aquarium sealant in its quite benign environment to last equally if not longer.

My mate got a 2nd hand 120 litre tank in 1990 (don't know the make, but was rimless with single tube lighting hood, might have be Eheim ?) and finally sold it on in 2019, after he had had it 29 years and showed no signs of silicone degradation.

This is to do with number of rollers in the peristaltic pump. A cheap 3 roller peristaltic pump, can allow liquid to reverse flow back through the pump, as there is a pump rotor position that when stationary still allows fluid to flow through, especially if you locate the pump below the fish...

My mate repaired a cracked bottom of his tank (placed tank on hard surface on a grain on sand which cracked the bottom pane in one corner), by siliconing a sheet of glass (from an Ikea picture frame, get the size you need !!) to the inside of the tank over the cracked corner. Lasted at least 15...

Make your own dosing system: DIY Project - DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump with alternate switching. Mine is over 10 years old and still doses fine.

It will work for a while with dirty tank water, before gumming up, despite being on the filtered water side. Look how the spray bars & piping accumulate detritus despite being "filtered water".

What you need, if your battery pack/UPS doesn't support switch over is one of these. Automatic Power Transfer Switch These automatically switch to battery power if the mains in fails. More importantly they prevent back feeding of your battery fed mains back into the incoming supply which as...

The bottom pieces need to be like this to put the load and spread it into the horizontal bars as well as ensure you are not putting the feet into end grain of wood.

No silicone doesn't stick to acrylic. The "big tank boys" who make tanks out of epoxy coated wood with large thick sheets of acrylic as viewing window, use mechanical means (either clamps or water pressure) to hold the acrylic to to the silicone seal as silicone does not stick to acrylic. This...

Try taking it apart, I expect you will find you will be able to peel off the silicone with a finger nail, proving it hasn't actually stuck to the plastic. Some epoxies glue nylon very well, but you need to check will they glue PVC as well. What happens with "non glued silicone" is over a...

Silicone is no good for a permanent fixing. There are very few things that silicone actually bonds to, the majority of plastics is one of them. Treat the silicone as a "thread sealant" rather than a glue. You need to solvent weld to do it properly, obviously ensuring both plastics you are...

Problem with UPS is they start getting painfully expensive for reasonably run time... For example the cheapest APC BVX700LI @ £120 quotes 36 minutes run time @ 50W. I am assuming the 50W is your light. However you MUST also have your CO2 on (algae farm if lights on and no CO2 & filter!!), 5W...

DIY Project - DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump with alternate switching. Or make your own so can control and dose as you see fit...

DIY Project - DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump with alternate switching.

One alternative I have seen done is replace the cannister filter pump with a magnetically coupled pump. 173903 | Xylem, 240 V Magnetic Coupling Centrifugal Water Pump, 23L/min | RS Components Whilst not cheap are apparently very quiet as the vibration/noise making motor shaft is not directly...

One of the local aquatic shops near me that made custom marine cabinets and tanks (I have a feeling they didn't survive the pandemic last time I looked) made cabinets from waterproof board, but lined the equipment section with soundproof & waterproof plasterboard. This as well as placing all...

When I acquired a dirty tank with attached dried on algae, I left it soaking in bleach (outside) and after a day or two the algae just wiped off. Also used kitchen descaler to remove limescale and "silicone eater" to remove the blobs of black silicone that attached the filter to the inside of...

It is quite easy, BUT very time consuming to remove scratches from glass tanks. You need a kit like this from here. https://glasspolishshop.com/ A certain "tat bazaar auction site" also have numerous kits, so might just be able to buy polishing disk and polish. I bought polish disk, wool...

Why would there be any issue with fire extinguishers ??? What's the problem ? We have 14 at work, non have exploded, accidentally discharged since being replaced 5 years ago. One or two have fallen off the wall due to poor fixings into plaster board. No one has died or been asphyxiated. I am on...

WRAS approved so can be used with drinking water. FloPlast 40ml Silicon Spray | Wickes.co.uk

You must trim any silicone as thin as possible, using a sharp knife first. I then wipe with IPA/meths for ensure 100% dry. Then apply remover and go for a couple of cups of tea. When you come back just use a non metal scraper, nylon pot scrubber etc to remove the now loose silicone "film"...

I use this to remove sealant. Works wonderfully well. It breaks the bond between the sealant and anything it is attached to. I always use this before doing any siliconing. No Nonsense Sealant Remover 100ml

No Nonsense Smoothing Tools Concave Joints Use these to get perfect silicone joints.

This would be no good, as the pressure from the water in the reactor would back feed along the dosing tubes and fill & overflow your fertiliser tanks. People have tried this, putting in one way valves, but found the valves slowly leak water slowly filling up the fertiliser tank. Also suffered...

Silicone is not actually a glue. Almost guaranteed to not stick, eventually, especially on most plastics. If I was adding an extra light, I would bolt it into place, either plastic, but UV resistant, bolts or stainless steel. Then seal with silicone to stop water getting in places it is not wanted.

Yes the water flowing past will draw water/air along the 4mm loop tube. A bit of experimentation may be required.

The other thing you could try, that I have seen before is a venturi air removal pipe. Connect a length of 4mm tubing as in my picture below. It relies on the "venturi" effect at the bottom connection to pull water/air through the tubing, pulling any collected air from the top of the heater...

Assuming your pump is "pulling" water through the filter, sounds like your pump is too powerful for your system and/or your filtration is causing too much flow reduction. The pull of your pump and associated "reduced flow" through the filter media is causing reduced water pressure and air to...

Of course there are compliant and safe plug adapters, that really don't cost much more that the unsafe Chinese adapters. I have used these as well, no problems. Got mine from Ebay as well as local RS pickup. These are only £2 and that is from a supplier that is not know to be cheap...

These adapters are are known as death adapters and if used incorrectly can prove fatal....Some of the numerous issues are: Earth pin has plastic collar, thus when inserted in standard 13A socket isolates the earth connection:banghead:. Adapter is not fused, thus if you stick an unfused lead eg...

As well as no fuse, to protect the cable from overloading (fire risk), it has a part insulated earth pin, meaning that when plugged more than like the earth will be disconnected o_O, thus exposing the user to potentially fatal electric shock...

You need to ask "Why do you need a pH value ?". What would you do different depending on your pH value ? How would you keep plants/fish differently depending on the unreliable pH value you got ? I have both pH papers and drop test kit, never used in anger, other than to prove how difficult it...

Yes hospitals and labs will be calibrated as accuracy and repeatability is key. As for fish keeping, +-1 'C (or more will be fine), fish won't mind. Personally I would stick with a liquid in glass thermometer designed for fish tank use. It will have been designed for limited tank water range...

This is the standard picture rolled out to indicate precision vs accuracy. Expensive and calibrated thermometers are accurate and precise(top left picture). All readings tend to indicate correct temperature and different thermometers all read virtually the same, but they cost. Cheap digital...

The best digital one I did have, was similar to the above with a remote water proof probe. Came from RS and before aquarium use, was officially supposed to be used at work, but I used it to measure cave temperatures (8'C water is bloomin cold to get into). It eventually failed as where the...

After going through numerous "digital thermometers" including some quite expensive ones, this is what generally happened them all eventually. I have used one of these for last couple of years. Doesn't cost much, doesn't need battery and works fine. This is a JBL one, about £5 odd from a...

You do need to check with these "smart plugs" their behavior after a power failure. Some can only cope with very short power cycles before forgetting their settings, some require internet access after a power failure to retrieve there settings. So just watch out.

They do weld, but if it is the wrong type of acrylic (extruded that has not been annealed) or has laser cut edges (and not annealed) or flame polished edges, MEK and acetone cause crazing due to release of stress, where as dichloromethane (and trichloromethane) tends to be more forgiving.

These do not contain dichloromethane, but if you dig around enough you will find they contain n n-dimethyl-p-toluidine and ethyl methacrylate. The reason for this is the safety issues of dichloromethane in enclosed spaces, eg nail bars !!! so an alternative safer non chlorinated solvent is used...

I have used Tensol 12 numerous times to make acrylic boxes. This is the last I used. MSDS says methyl methacrylate (Perspex) dissolved in dichloromethane...

Aren't there issues welding laser cut acrylic in that it crazes due to stress when solvent welded ? Found a link here, you need to anneal the acrylic that has been laser cut before solvent welding, to prevent cracking. https://makezine.com/2015/10/29/skill-builder-acrylic/

The problem with the two part cyanoacrylate glue activators with respect to fish tanks is this symbol on the data sheet and container. Say no more. Where as single part cyanoacrylate glues do not have this, but generally state "No aquatic ecological hazards due to rapid polymerisation with water".

Why don't you just automate it properly, lights, CO2 and ferts all from a £100 PLC..... https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/how-to-use-a-plc-to-control-your-fish-tank.42993/

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diy-dual-peristaltic-dosing-pump-with-alternate-switching.22332/

You can easily raise a cabinet by building a small plinth in a couple of ways. Get 6 of these: https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/product/wooden-furniture-leg-90x50mm-raw-beech-781271 Along with these...

Wooow. Except that this contains fungicide with is lethal to aquatic life according to MSDS paperwork. Its LD50 (lethal dose to kill 50%) is in order of 5mg/l so quite toxic, as would be expected for a mould resistant silicone. https://tec7.ie/?attachment_id=71659 Update: this is not a...

Neutral cure silicones do not give of acetic acid, generally methanol or some other alcohol type. There are many silicones available, both neutral cure and acetic acid that contain no fungicide, that may be used in a fish tank, data sheet often lists not harmful to aquatic life, but in the end...

I have used this to stick aquatic bits and pieces together. https://www.jbl.de/en/products/detail/8058/jbl-proharu-universal Works better than aquatic silicone on things like rocks and wood, as does actually appear to stick to the items, unlike silicone in my experience, where the water...

Will be fine if you have adaquate house insurance..:D I suggest either extend the cabinet at the back with a stip of 2"x1" wood (like answered above) or place tank on top of a 18mm plyboard sheet. Glass does not take kindly to being stressed.

I suspect you might be able to "fix it" your self, reasonably cheaply. Place a sheet of 18mm plywood on top of stand, maybe a cloth layer in between to stop the top getting scratched. Ensure the plywood is larger than top of stand, your local DIY store maybe able to cut a sheet to suitable...

My bet, having seen it many times before on UKAps, is your floor is not flat & even and the cabinet is just flexing to the floor levels. See this thread about ways to level a cabinet on an uneven floor. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/cabinet-and-aquarium-levelling.42823/

Your tank must be 100% supported underneath, your gaps look far to big for foam/mat to compensate for. Any twisting/bowing of the bottom pane of glass makes it prone to cracking as well as putting extreme stress on the side panels silicone joints. My mate placed his 120l tank on an old chest of...

yes you will need a base or else the tank will crack at stress points. If using two cabinets you must use a sheet of wood under the tank as well as foam sheet.

To hold 240Kg of water and maybe 100Kg of substrate you are having a laugh are you not ? You would need substantial reinforcing to support 350Kg....

Why do you need a UV unit ?

Zeus you forgot to post a link to your electrics... https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/how-to-use-a-plc-to-control-your-fish-tank.42993/page-3#post-489803

3mm is way way too thin. You will be looking at 6mm at least, maybe even 8mm acrylic. Make sure it is cell cast acrylic and you use the correct glue/solvent for cast acrylic. There are plenty of aquarium acrylic thickness calculators on the web and all agree at least 6mm. Might be able to use...

That's the type stuff many people have succeeded in their aquarium hoods. No glue involved. Screw the channel to hood job done. I have seen similar to above but square profile with transparent plastic sheet insert rather than white as in above.

Oh and bloomin dim compared to proper LEDs or even T5 HO tubes.

You can't. Been there done that and failed. I found no glue that would keep the strips attached, despite claiming they were 3M expensive adhesive. The water worked it's way in and strips came off. They need fixing with screws or clips. Don't trust any glue in presence of hot extreme moisture...

That is quite a massive @ 5000l/hr pump with matching massive price @ £170. You will have issues in pipework as its fittings are 32mm, and plumbing in 32mm is quite an undertaking, if you connect to existing 16/22 pipework on filter canister you will immediately quarter to flow rate (32mm vs...

Note really. Fine for clothes etc, but over 100Kg tank. Also not really a unit to reinforce, unlike cupboards where you can internally double up the boarding and put on a stronger back.

Two things spring to mind with your "stand". - I would not use those legs for support the unit with tank. My mate had something similar 120litre tank on set of drawers on 4 legs and one of the rear legs started collapsing, pushed through and splitting the bottom sheet of wood. The upper surface...

If really worried, put a sheet of polythene on top of your cupboard. Cover with layer of silicone black or clear ? Place your MDF sheet on it. Place foam on MDF. Place tank on foam. Fill tank with water or books to add weight. Leave 48hours for silicone to cure. Remove everything and trim...

You want to ensure there is absolutely no bowing of the tank bottom support sheet or else this will lead to excessive shearing stress on the corner silicone joints, leading to eventually the silicone tearing. Many of the YouTube videos of tanks leaking from their seams, which they blame on poor...

Oh that's a shame, I like seeing these type projects and the way people have solved many of the problems. I hope I didn't scare him off, but as working in this line of business in instrumentation and control I meet people who spec things like "pH accurate to 0.0001" which they get into a Hmmph...

What the DS18B20 is low accuracy high precision, see "standard accuracy precision" diagram below, wrong temperature read accurately. I normally run them in 8 bit mode, which does seem to give a more accurate temperature reading at the expense of precision. In the end I am sure fish don't...

Hmmm get your salt pot and large pinch ready....The DS18B20 is only accurate to ±0.5ºC and I would suspect that even that needs to be taken with a large pinch if one cannot trace the manufacturer of the assembly. Nice project.

Any more details, please ?

Sorry, don't know, as this was the only one I have taken apart. I would assume all heaters would be electronic nowadays in some form or another.

Sounds like you are unlucky. My Jewel 200W heater lasted over 10 years, before one day the temperature adjustment knob fell off as plastic shaft had degraded due to probably heat and light. Took it apart, as one does with broken things and was quite a good design, used a "standard bimetallic...

Sounds like you have electrical interference issues. The voltage levels from pH probes are in the mV range and very easily affected by interference. Try measuring pH at different places in the tank. Try measuring pH with all tank electrics off and unplugged. Try measuring pH of a cup of water...

Problem there is raising the lights even with 85' lens will be no good as most of the light will be missing the tank. Why buy massive lumens then waste the lumens not lighting the tank. Kessil (and equivalent aquatic spots) LED lights are 60-70 beam angle or less. The prismatic rainbow effect...

I would be very very weary about using these. Couple of potential issues. - Massive lumens in a small area, probably far too much for most standard depth tanks. Yes, you can dim, what is the point, you might as well buy something with less lumens in the first place. - Beam spread is liable to be...

You can, but changing water is only half the required maintenance. What about vacuuming up the settled detritus, wafting detritus off the plant leaves, trimming plants, removing dropped leaves from filter inlets etc etc. My 50% water change is very quick (20 mins for warmed water) but it is the...

Easily. I think are rated to 5m head or more. Just make sure you try and get the ones with the largest tube (3mm ?) as tube less prone to damage & blocking and has longer life.

I first built my dosing pumps in 2012 as I was going away for 3 weeks to Disney, Florida, which meant tank would probably be unattended for 5 weeks, week before, 3 weeks away and 1 week after I got back. The pumps were initially wired up to two B&Q mains timers one set for Mon, Wed and Fri and...

The proper "big boy dosing" peristaltic pumps are these. Available in a whole range of dosing rates from less than 1ml per minute to over 10ml per minute. http://www.williamson-shop.co.uk/ I used these in this...

If you want to do it "100% properly" you are supposed to use RO water so as to not add more "salts" (eg hardness), as adding tap water will increase the accumulated "salts" in the tank. However in the end, if doing frequent weekly water changes, and adding weekly say 6 litres tap water a week...

When the "marine boys" use auto-top up units, they will generally have an overflow to outside in the tank or sump. If the top off unit fails to on, excess water will overflow safely out of the tank, rather than onto the floor, as would happen to most aquascapers tank. I would be quite reluctant...

I did contemplate using an under sink water heater, to warm my water, as I have seen people do this type of thing before to simplify water changes. https://www.dafi-water-heater.com/en A 3.7K one could be connected to fused spur off a ring main and would provide warmed water directly to the...

Not quite. It needs a relay (or solid state) like this to alternately switch the polarity. Relay needs to be double pole double throw (DPDT). Or you could copy my alternate switching relay circuit, from my dosing pumps, to alternately switch reverse the polarity each time you power on your...

You could use something like this (timer relay, set switch to cnf) to reverse the polarity every hour. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/time-delay-relays/8966813/ Might find cheaper China equivalent on Ebay.

Search the forum (I didn't find it) and internet and people have attempted their own Twinstar type thing... However - You need special (platinum, titanium, palladium ?) coated electrodes or else they corrode away into the water. Stainless steel is not good enough. - The signal applied needs to...

Perfectly acceptable your readings. A typical "liquid in glass" thermometer will have ±2°C accuracy, all of those are within acceptable readings. You have to start paying a lot more and/or having greatly restricted range if you want much more accuracy than this. Mind you I would have thought...

All very nice these timers, but orders of magnitude less reliable than an industrial rated PLC. So glad I built my PLC. 100% reliable for last two years.

The 4 relay output Siemens PLC is only £130 odd, not much more than 4 of the more expensive reliable mains timers..and can do so so so so so so much more and is so so so so much more reliable. Only £132 here (UK). https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/logic-modules/1653224/ Starter kit is here, £170...

This was the only timer I had that never failed, worked 100% of the time, unlike all the other timers I have had. https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SMETU17.html Most common fault I encountered, especially with the cheaper digital ones (ie any from B&Q) was timer resetting to 00:00:00 and...

I have used sprays like this to moisture proof electronics. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electronics-varnishes-lacquers/8232646/ Need to be careful around any connectors and wire attachments as the lacquer will prevent connectors connecting and will crack and fall off around wires. To...

Many people use temperature controllers, set your heater to say a suitable safety maximum (looks like yours is any way ;)) and use the controller to turn the heater on an off at the desired temperature. If reliability and "doing it right and doing it once" is your thing then a suitable...

1. You must put some form of matting under the tank or else the bottom might crack to surface unevenness. Either use specialist aquarium mats from fish shops or section of carry/yoga mat. You must have something to protect the bottom of the tank. My mate cracked the base of his tank due to it...

My mate DIY repaired the torn seams in his tank in 1992, just asked him, and tank us still fine. Obvious one seam is different than the rest but 26 years later water is still in tank.

Just removed the old silicone, cleaned and resiliconed the split seams.

Splitting of tank seams is usually due to the tank being placed on a "bowed" surface causing tearing of the silicone in two opposite corners. Are you sure your stand/tank is on level floor ? My mates tank split down one corner (and started on opposite corner) due to one of the legs on his "chest...

End of tank dump is generally due to a cheaper/poor quality regulator. A lot of cheap regulators are in fact not regulators, but technically "flow controllers". They reduce the pressure by reducing the flow via either a pin hole or restriction or metal sponge. These work fine when the pressure...

I painted some wallpaper backing paper, rollered on emulsion paint so no brush strokes, and taped to the rear of my tank. Easy to change colour if not happy.

Go for the adapter as easier and if your have to claim under warranty you will not have "modified" it. On saying that I put have put UK plugs on some of my gear as UK plugs are often smaller than adapters, as some adapters are too wide and block adjacent sockets on 4 way extension leads. And...

Rubbish. Even cheap silicone is rate 25 years and that is normally outdoors rated, I would expect silicone when on a fish tank where it is relatively low stress, over generously applied and not exposed to UV light (though silicone is UV proof) it will last for ever. My mate has a 120 litre tank...