It's what's inside that counts. . .

Ok, a couple of people have been asking how the tank is coming. I haven't updated the pictures in a while, because it doesn't look that different on the outside. Inside however, I have been doing quite a bit of work. I had a small delay while I was waiting for my diamond coated drill bit (for cutting inch and a quarter holes through aquarium glass) to arrive from Hong Kong--eBay is a wonderful thing. Most of the plumbing is hooked up. I just need to get a couple more PVC elbows from the Depot, and I should have the plumbing up and running. I need to sort out a few electrical issues (so that it doesn't look like Chevy Chase's Christmas lights all plugged into one socket in Christmas Vacation).


The 20-gallon tank which is divided into three sections will hold the refugium (houses plants which pull phosphates out of the water, but don't look real pretty; heaters, which also don't look pretty; and other small critters that swim to the display tank and get eaten), and the skimmer (filters out organic materials from the water by creating massive amounts of small bubbles--the junk in the water sticks to the surface tension on the little bubbles). The Homer bucket will be full of sand. In an anaerobic environment, there are bacteria whose metabolic processes break down nitrates (harmful) into nitrogen (harmless). The clear bucket on the bottom will hold the return pump, which will push the water back up to the main tank.