Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - Riley's 100% DIY in wall tank (i pwn) :D

Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/index.php)

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

- - Riley's 100% DIY in wall tank (i pwn) :D (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=97962)

Quote:

Originally Posted by asylumdown (Post 829146)

Are you going to close in the top or leave it open like that? My vote... leave it open and have some super slick LED fixtures hanging from super low profile wires. I think that would look SICK. It will also keep a sense of openness between your kitchen and your living space. I know they're hard to swallow cost wise, but the fact that you can program them to mimic a real sunrise to sunset will be another amazing dynamic addition to the room.

Also, I have my skimmer in a chamber that is twice as deep as it should be, so it's on a PVC and egg crate stand and it works fine. My major mistake, I bought PVC legs that float. Find something that doesn't float.

Thanks for the advice on that! Everyone seems to be telling me its wrong.. I tried raising it up but everything i seem to do makes it not work properly! now i have it sitting at the base of the tank and even with the "recommended" pump its barely skimming. I'm still pretty new with skimmers but i have a feeling its because the water is all clean and new? the morning after i added all the sand there was a tonne of brown foam in the skimmer cup so.. i think its working? any input on that would be great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by benzzz (Post 829056)

Looks very nice so far. Clean build. I would get rid of that metal hangers though and go to lowes and buy plastic hangers. It wont take long before they rust up real good. Just speaking from experience.

thanks man i think i did well for my very first build :)

i did buy galvanized hangers but apparently even those arent a good idea.. haha just another small mistake made! i'll look into plastic but there arent any lowes near me! besides i work at rona that would be a sin to shop there! ;)

And i do plan on leaving the top open.. i do REALLY want LEDs but lets face it i'd need two fixtures.. at least 900 bucks a pop. who has that kind of money these days!

that being said if anyone has some LED fixtures they'd like to get rid of and/or knows where i can get a good deal on a couple im seriously interested

So I finally decided on my lighting for the build. I went with the Maxspect razor. For now I just bought one to try it out but I will be getting a second and hanging them both instead of using the arms.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps3067ef02.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps98f071b2.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps98518a99.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps3dd990ba.jpg

It's a beautiful light! Very bright and nice design. There seems to be a lot of "disco" going on though because I have a pretty strong current. Thoughts on how to get rid of this?

Disco fever will diminish the higher up you go as colors spread wider and converge. I have mine 14" above the surface and peak at 90%.

awesome lol so when i eventually hang it ill put it higher. thanks! :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickcasa (Post 838534)

Disco fever will diminish the higher up you go as colors spread wider and converge. I have mine 14" above the surface and peak at 90%.

:lol:

Nice build so far. I can't wait to see the livestock part start to come together.

As for your skimmer troubles, any closer photos you can provide us? The other thing is maybe your skimmer isn't skimming anything because there is nothing to skim.

so i came upon new skimmer issues.. well i guess i should say pump issues. my danner mag 7 pump keeped tripping my gfi.. so rather than trying to fix things i resolved everything by purchasing this:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps256727f2.jpg
This thing works like a hot damn! special thanks to paul and albert at oceanic for getting it to me so quickly!

i decided to get two smaller 120w maxspect razor lights rather than the 160w. fits much better and couldnt be happier with their performance. heres what the tank looks like now!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps56ca45ac.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...psfc84ad88.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps22d88522.jpg

still have a bit of wiring to clean up but i'm loving it! cant wait to get some more livestock in there now :)

Update? Pics? Show us what we want or we riot, Lol!

Hahaha alright alright dont do it!

These are probably around 4 months old and a lot has change since then.. I'll take some more once I clean it this weekend :p

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps82314415.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...psde5a987e.jpg

I also have a 20G tank with reidi sea horses and pipe fish. And I am working on setting up for breeding! So excited to try it out :D