Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - My In Wall 150 Build

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- Tank Journal (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=18)

- - My In Wall 150 Build (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=69298)

I originally had 2x250W bulbs, one XM 10K and one XM 15K, and wanted to see the differance in growth, and general happiness on the corals. Specifically SPS since my LPS can always get moved away from the light. The SPS was doing great all over the tank, so i figured i'd try both 15K bulbs and see how they work. I like the look better. Lots of people have asked if the XM10K's look "yellow" I have a lot of atinic light, but i would definitly say that it's not yellow, it's white, a very bright white.

So with the 2 15K bulbs in for about a week now i notice significant polyp extension in my SPS. Perhaps my tank too about the same time to get the refurgium back running and rock to seed correctly. But I can see a large differance in the polyps. I"ll try the 10K again in a couple months just to see if it was the light that changed it, but as for now i'm happy, and so are my corals.

The 15K's have half the PAR rating as the 10K's, my corals might not have been placed right for their lighting needs, but as with everything i've learned about reefkeeping, I'll take my time and see. I"ll post some pictures to show, if Santa brings me a macro lense i'll hopefully have some good ones after Christmas. I've been taking pictures from about the same placement about once a week since I've got set up, it's been great to look at to see growth and how everytyings been doing.

I got a few new things for xmas, it was great! My wife got me a Bariene Tang, it's a very good looking fish. It will out grow my tank in 2-3 years, so that means i get another tank upgrade soon aswell :D. With some new corals and stuff i figured i should re-Aquascaped my tank... again again. I like the look much better now, the islands provide good focal points, and make the tank easy to view from both sides. I took some pics's today of all the new additions, and the reworked old ones:

Here's a new acan i bought, and also a large base off a SPS i got on some live rock(also covered in Ric's). I originally thought it had completly died, but it's now got polups everywhere, and starting to gain back some color.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/PC281653.jpg

My Blue Arco, thig this is loving the 10K bulbs, more and more color everyday:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/PC281654.jpg

Another Liverock with some SPS base's that are now growing arms:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/PC281655.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/PC281656.jpg

Zoo garden:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/PC281657.jpg

Softy corner
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/PC281658.jpg

Your tank looks really good

I would love to have a in-wall tank like yours, but I just don't have the right space in our current house

So.. i woke up this morning and saw that my sump was low. No biggie since i don't leave my RO unit on, i just turn it on to top off the tank. The sump was lower than normal, made me look around a bit. And i noticed a wet patch on the floor :( . So, found that one of my seals where leaking on mt DT. This normally would be VERY bad.. .well it still is. Makes me worry about the rest. This one is somewhat "easy" to fix. I turned my return flow WAY down, and pulled out my overflow tube. This dropped the water level in my overflow to about 1" from the bottom of the tank. lots of room to work. The leak is at the top, but i've sealed nearly the whole thing. I put an extra wide bead overtop of what was there, lots of glass to bond onto, so should be good. This tank had a rim put on it to protect from spashing, which was a good idea. The silicone was cut about 1" down in each corner to seal this on. This is the part that leaked. I've resealed every corner since my water levels nice and low. Hopefully no more salt creep or leaks :S.

I'll post some growth pics later on, SPS has been growing GREAT. I'm very impressed. MY issue recently has been the blue's on my SPS aren't popping like i want, so i'm thinking of going up to a 15K or even 20K bulb. I've been doing a lot of research about PAR ratings, etc. I've found that PAR is not a good measure for what we do. PAR is based on light between 400-700nm wavelengths, which is fine, however different color coral's use different amount inside of those wavelengths. So having a light that's high PAR doesn't mean that you are giving the CORRECT light to the corals, it just means that you could be giving a lot of one wavelength (like my XM10K's).Example Here. Also the methods of measuring the PAR are not always perfect Explained Here. So overall, I'm going to cut my PAR in half, and hopefully have better results. Sanjay's sight shows the full graph of PPFD, i'll look into that and see if i can find something more balanced.

I'm also looking at building an Arduino controller over the next while, hope to monitor EVERYTHING in my tank, and be under $200. I want..
Light timer
ATO
Return Pump
Skimmer power and flow detection(for if it doesn't start up, it's usually 50/50 after power outage)
PHx2(Tank and CaRx)
CaRx CO2 control, and possibly drip rate control if i can find a flow valve cheap enough)
Salinity
Auto Water Change (super saturated method and using tank salinity, drain 5gal every 4 days)
3 x light measurements(bulb replacement)
Room temp, Room humidity
Thinking about a Herbie Control based on 2 float switches, i keep mesing with my gate valve, might aswell have it automated.
Auto Feeder (this might not happen for the under $200, can't find a cheap way to do it YET)
and i have a large AC unit that i'm going to use for tank cooling and dehumidifying, so i want to tap into that and control functions.

And of course, all this logged and available online, maybe throw in a webcam too for online goodies?

Some more Pics since i got my new rock.

here's the eco-reefer rock order, 50lbs. I was very impressed with the order, nice sized rocks(includes the chunk in the sump):
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1051680.jpg

My Pocci in atinic lights:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...ild/Pocci2.jpg

More pocci(I think this is a pocci, not 100%)
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151702.jpg

The clown, slowly recovering from hosting in zoo's for a couple years, black spots almost gone:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151708.jpg

The hawkfish, keeping watch as usual
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151713.jpg

My anthia, Hard to capture the color's of this fish, it's amazing, orangish/yellow glow:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151715.jpg

Spotted Mandrin:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151729.jpg

And my Bariene Tang, this fish has color changing abilities, when it gets spooked it's nearly white.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151739.jpg

And a Full Tank shot:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/P1151782.jpg
My camera seems to pick up the specs in my tank really well, i don't notice them looking at it, maybe they're micro bubbles and the camera catches the reflection better. Odd, but might make the tank look better if i find a wy to get rid of them.

Great looking tank.
I love in wall setup.
Must say very clean job.

that's it where is the current picture of the tank come on lets see what is going on. I have an extra 250 ballast and mogul and lumenarc reflector if you wanna buy it

Wow tank is looking great Mike!