My Eclipse Reef Tank

The Marineland Eclipse 3 filter has functioned perfectly since September of 1997. I like it because it takes up little space and is totally self contained. There are no tubes running into the tank except the pump tube to the left.  There are no tubes running down the back to a sump. This was especially good since this tank is viewable from 3 sides.  This unit provides both mechanical and bio filtration.  I use a Coralife 10,000K bulb and an Actinic Blue bulb. They are replaced every 6 months to preserve the light levels.

 
 

From the top you can see the pump, carbon filled floss filter, a bag of nitrate remover and the biowheel. The built in dual fluorescent tubes are located below the closed flap near the bottom of the picture.  I removed the Nitrate remover bag since this picture was taken because the flow rate was too high for it to work.   See my new Nitrate Remover. In the middle you will see another fluorescent tube which I added using a transformer (See next photo), starter and light holders which I got at a local hardware store.  I use a Coralife 20,000K bulb in this holder.

 
 

The fluorescent tube transformer was mounted to the side of the Eclipse unit near the wall where it is not easily seen by the viewer.  If you want to add another tube to your tank the wiring schematic is shown below.  This is a simple upgrade and greatly increases the amount of light in the tank.  As you can see in the first picture, I taped some aluminum foil to the cover flap to help direct more light into the tank.  I can actually see the difference between when the lid is open and when it is closed.

 

The following is the circuit diagram for a typical preheat lamp:

              Power Switch    +-----------+
 Line 1 (H) o------/ ---------|  Ballast  |-----------+
                              +-----------+           |
                                                      |
                      .--------------------------.    |
 Line 2 (N) o---------|-       Fluorescent      -|----+
                      | )         Tube         ( |
                  +---|-         (bipin)        -|----+
                  |   '--------------------------'    |
                  |                                   |
                  |          +-------------+          |  
                  |          |   Starter   |          |
                  +----------| or starting |----------+
                             |   switch    |
                             +-------------+

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