Doing it yourself - a few sources of information and some tips

The next most popular item to build for one's aquarium is the filtration system. Plans for building your own wet/dry trickle filter can be found at "http://www.actwin.com/fish/plans". You can find a complete description of the design and dimensions of the filtering system along with a complete list of parts. The site contains all the information that one might need, even down to the selection of the proper adhesive for the materials (for those of you familiar with PVC, you know that this is a big issue when dealing with sheets). In the book at the other site listed above, "http://www.connix.com/~reefkeep/" - Simplified Reef Keeping, you will find a complete description of the sump filtering system that the author has manufactured for his own reef aquariums. This filtering systems contains all of the necessary details of the parts that you will need and the proper steps to successfully constructing your own complete filtering system. In fact, the book even contains information about manufacturing your own lighting systems. I highly recommend the book to any reef aquarist, regardless of whether her or she is interested in constructing their own components.

The key to doing it yourself is proper planning and a good design. Typically, aquarium components are mass-produced by manufacturers, keeping costs within reason. As a result, if you are interested in trying to save money, you will have to avoid failure since the costs of the supplies can easily begin to add up. Since your aquarium is an individual work of art, you can gain a great deal of satisfaction by making your own components such as protein skimmers or filtration systems. My recommendation to those out there that are thinking of making their own components is to take the time to carefully plan out the construction, and to use a design from a resource such as the ones listed in this article - remember that experience gained from failure of others is a great source of information.

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