Saturday, September 8, 2012

Up and Running

It's running and hovering at about 27.5 C, so I'm happy.

The tank scratches VERY easily, but scratches on the inside are filled by the oil, making them disappear. Unfortunately, the outside scratches just as easy and there is no solution. They are delivered dirty, and must be cleaned. Even using an all cotton baby cloth with purified water there's swirling. Once scratched on the outside, it's toast.

I tracked the problem down to the material used by the makers of the tank. In tanks there are three main materials:
1) Plexiglass or Acrylic - Expensive, very good material, hard to scratch, but brittle
2) Polycarbonate - Cheaper, less likely to break, but easier to scratch
3) Polystyrene - The cheapest material, thin, easy to use in manufacturing, scratches like crazy.

So what is the eclipse tank made of? You guessed it, polystyrene. Thankfully, Puget has amazing customer service. They use this tank because their choices are limited. There can be no silicone seams, because they say the oil will leak through it. So they found this seamless tank to be their best option for the moment. To be fair, while completing the project took much longer and dealing with the scratching issue has been a huge pain, I'm still pleased with the final result.

I tested the tank for leaks first, then installed the bubble stones/tubes, cleaned/placed the rocks, submerged the system and booted right up.

No comments:

Post a Comment