Notice!

On December 20th I lost the hard drive on my notebook computer (which I use for all of my personal email). When this happened, I lost a bunch of unanswered emails - If you have asked for assistance and have not received a response from me, I appologize - please resend the question and I will answer it as soon as possible.

Regards,
Ted G.

DO IT YOURSELF!

Welcome to Ted's Do-It-Yourself page.

Because I can't do anything the way normal people do, I love projects. Sometimes it's because I want to save the money, sometimes I just have a cool idea that I want to experiment with and sometimes I want to do something that hasn't been done yet. My wife probably thinks that this is a disability - she's would probably be right. In many cases, by the time I get a particular project right, it has cost me more than something commercially available. In those cases, I hope that passing along my experience will help others - hence the DIY page.

Here is a list of the items that I have designed, built or (in my opinion) improved upon. Some of them are not documented yet, so you will need to return in the future or email me if you want information on them.

Chiller From Dehumidifier This chiller cost about $100 inculding the dehumidifier. It operates at about 1/6HP. As a rule of thumb, it should be adaquate for a 250+ gallon tank - but there are so many variables that it is impossible to say what this will do for your tank. Roughly speaking, it will reduce 250 gallons1 degree F. per hour if there is no other heating or cooling happening.
Surge System (Wave Maker) After I built these wave makers, I found that there are plenty of surge devices on other DIY pages. Go here for some good ideas until I get my page completed. My system cost about $35 to assemble (not including the pump), but it took me the better part of a weekend to figure it out and get it tuned up. If I had looked around on the net a little bit, I probably would have tried something else, but mine is working great for now.
Web Cam This was another fun project. I had an old PC Camera sitting around, so I decided to hook it up. I've got a pretty extensive network in my home - including a dedicated 1.5Mbs Internet connection - so bandwidth is no problem, but getting it to operate properly through my firewall took a little work. The Picture to the right should update every 30 seconds or so. Go to my WebCam page for more info. I will document this soon because I have received several emails asking how to do it. It's not hard - you just need the right software.
Modified "Durso" Standpipe The standpipe is made to raise the water level in the overflows to quite them down. The standard equipment that comes with a "Reef-Ready" aquarium with corner overflows leaves a little to be desired. The water spilling over the top of the overflow and down into the drain sounds like a waterfall. In living spaces it can be VERY annoying. My standpipe is adapted from an idea on Rich Durso's page. I had to improvise a little because the surge from the wave maker will overwhelm a standard Durso. Plans comming soon!
Small Tank overflow This is a design for a small overflow that can be made completely from PVC Pipe and fittings. The design is totally silent, easy to prime and will always restart after a power failure. I made this to get me out of a bind when I wanted to set up the refugium. It works so well that I decided to leave it. Plans are here!!
Level Control System Much of this can be seen on the equipment pages. I am using a number of level switches in the sump and in two 55 gallon storage tanks to control evaporation top-off, water changes and RO/DI water production. The two 55 gallon drums contain RO/DI water and new Salt-Water. There are enough transfer pumps to move the water supplies in any direction I need to. I have been asked several times for schematics, so I will post them soon.