Number one rule of reefing - “The only thing that comes quickly is failure"

。。。patience what the heck is that? anyways anyone going to be in the Comox Valley on Saturday the 31st at 5:00PM? and want to help with a tank moving project? I believe I have 4 spots open :D (cause you know there is high demand for people wanting to do work for pizza :lol:)

Tank goes on the stand tomorrow :D

Take lots of pics...I'm looking forward to seeing this bad boy up on the stand.

Where is it now? In the ocean? You've done things a little differently so far...thought I'd ask!

Submerged up to the rim to test for leaks... :mrgreen:

lol @ Reverse leak testing!

Looks like a cool build. I'm would keep a close eye on your LED setup though. Those high wattage LEDS may look nice on paper but they are much more inefficient then good quality 3W LEDs (i.e fewer lumens per watt and more heat per watt). Given the higher heat you will experience with them your cooling may not be up to the task. It's a neat idea but I think you would have to run very cold water through those pipes to make it work. The reason most people use heatsinks and fans is to maximize surface area for heat dissipation and having the fans running air over that large surface area to cool it.

Good luck and I'll be along for the ride now.

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x.../Installed.jpg[/quote]

I love your cover!! - Any chance you have left over materials?

- Brad

Not as much as I am... Then I can start to work on the plumbing :D

I took a picture of it in the alcove where I have been gluing things... it's too heavy to put in the ocean... I would have to brake it into pieces to get it up the beach.

LOL that's a good idea... oh well too late for that one... or no nm not a good idea... the water would be pushing in helping to seal any leaks that may be present... then when you go to fill it you may have a sieve... LOL

WARNING THIS POST IS ABOUT COOLING OF ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS...
aka... boring :D


Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy and learn a thing or two... (I'm learning lots... Thanks everyone for your impute)
I realize that they are less efficient but they are still better then MH IMO, Plus the cost per watt and/or per lumen is extremely high on the 3W with only slightly better efficiency. As for cooling water cooling is far superior to air cooling. The water that goes through the pipes will be colder then the air around the tank. If you want to look at cooling performance just look at high end computers... you will learn all the ways to cool a silicon chip. The chips work better and longer if they are kept at cooler temperatures (under 30 to 50 degrees)

1. Ambient air (Silent and uses no extra electricity, but requires a large heatsink and cannot cool very well... used on northbridge southbridge and on some older CPU's/GPU's)
2. Forced air (Often they are loud but they have worked hard on making quieter fans and more efficient designs works well for cooling and is fairly energy efficient, as computer components started to heat up the Ambient cooling was not good enough so they added fans to help move the heated air away and new air could absorb the heat. This is also a limited technology and it can never cool the heatsink colder then the surrounding air and usually about 10-20 degrees higher.)
3. Water cooling (Can be loud or quiet/silent depending on the type/location and type/location of pump. In small scales they are not very efficient but they can get things a lot cooler then forced air. Water cooling is generally setup with water going over a heatsink because water is such a good carrier of heat (in comparison to air) it can often get the heat sink within 5 degrees of the "radiator" you can have the radiator in several different styles generally they use the styles in example 1 or 2 but the radiator can be much larger than most heatsinks and can put in a colder location... like a basement, a fridge/freezer, outside, or just a colder room.
4. Peltier Cooler also known as Thermoelectric Cooling (Silent, Extremely inefficient and not commonly used in stationary applications... Used a lot in mobile electronics and things where space is limited.)
5. Phase Change (Depending on location and size/type can be quite loud. Best at cooling... can get the heatsink down to -40 degrees in ideal conditions. Expensive and not extremely popular for the cooling of electronics. Used in industrial applications, testing facility's and hardcore computer enthusiasts.
6. Liquid Nitrogen... (Silent... Expensive... Dangerous. Used in industrial applications, testing facility's and some hardcore computer enthusiasts with more money then brains)

Using water is far better then trying to do forced air in my application there is too much heat to disperse in this size of an area.

Hmmm...
Nope!

+1 (I wish I had a bike... especially with the nice weather we have been having... even with my life insurance my wife still thinks I'm worth more alive then dead :(... when she changes her mind she will let me get a bike :lol:)

Not really I got the mesh from a guy on another forum... was cheep only like 10-15 bucks
http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f60/...ene-29899.html
with directions here
http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f30/...ver-29897.html

That's not how I did it though.

YAY! I had 9 people come over yesterday and help me to put my tank on the stand and move it into place :D we also had 2 beam lifters to get the tank to the proper height so we didn't kill anyone or brake anything (then I would have been killing people...) so the tank is in place and I spent about 2 hours putting the rock in place, the sand and I also put 10" of water in the tank to help me to get the sand into the crevices (it didn't work too well though cause now I can't see where the sand needs to go :surprise: oh well)
I would have taken some pictures but my batteries died... will post pics this afternoon though (I hope).

PS thanks delo978 for coming and helping. Also thanks to all those who came to help and are following along.

So I have some other pictures of the rock going in... after my brother and a bunch of others helped me move the tank he got out his camera and took some pictures as I was putting the rock in... anyways here is the tank ready for plumbing :D

The left side

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...e/LeftHalf.jpg

The right side

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x.../RightHalf.jpg

FTS with the bottom tank in the mix as well.

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...TSwithsump.jpg

Some pics that my brother took

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...e/P1000340.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...e/P1000347.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...e/P1000349.jpg

looks great man. those angelfish are looking mighty hungry thou.......:lol:

Looking great! I love the rock work. How are you attaching the rock together?

:thumb::thumb::thumb:

I'm in luck they eat pizza so it won't cost me that much too feed angels that size :D

The rock is DIY rock and the oyster shell really grabs together... they are not attached.

:D :D :D

never been a huge fan of the man made Live rock, but i really like how yours is coming together...i cant wait to see it all done....and were u standing in the tank moving rock around???that pic is crazy..haha..lookn good though

Well I decided that while I waited for some of my stuff to dry I would work on the lights a bit... I'm just soldering away... I have done 48 out of 360 solder points... still got a ways to go.

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...illworking.jpg

Damn... is that where my old couch went too? Looks identical. :lol::lol:

Haha did you get the kids into the sump and then slide the tank into place?!

Things are moving along! When are you doing your water test?

hey there Green get use to that place on the couch once you start stocking that beast you will be spending alot of nights there ....LOL:biggrin:

Kids were not in the room till the tank was in place...
Water test?... 26th of august... maybe the 18th or 19th.

I like your tank build but the last picture made me LOL. Soldering on a fabric couch next to some tinder dry grass/brush.There wouldn't happen to be a 5 gallon jerry can of gas behind the couch? Hopefully you don't end up on tonights News hour.

It's an electric soldering iron... and I have a bottle of propane and 2 bottles of propylene that you can sorta see on the left of the pic :D

That's what I like to see! ...a person that has all bases covered and prepares for the worst case scenario.Looking forward to seeing pics of the light.

So, you were working on your plumbing the other day. Any progress? Any challanges?

- Brad

Okay here is the thing... my dad is living with me and he has chemical sensitivities (in other words he gets some horrible migraines from glues and such) so I have done what I can outside... My dad is going to visit my sister for a month and he is leaving on the Sunday so I will be able to finish gluing the pipes when I get home on Sunday if I get back from Victoria in time. So far everything looks good and I hope to have fish in the tank by the first week of September... but I'm not going to rush it... so if it's not ready then the fish have to wait... I'm shooting for the first week because the 12th there is a Frag Swap that I'm going to and I would like to be able to buy something :D

I'm going away for the weekend so there will be no updates past 2:00pm PST on Friday... I'll be back Sunday evening and hope to update with some pics/info on how the plumbing went... if I have the time/energy.

Hi, looking good so far, so is the couch is used to be where the tank is now? How do you find so much time on your hands with 2 kids and a wife? I barely have enough time myself. Here's cheering you on. Regards Ken

Thanks... Ya the love seat couch thing used to be where the tank is :D I didn't like the couch. About the time... I work 40-60 hours a week, I also run a small business with 7 people on the payroll (I don't seem to make much though it all goes to my employees.. oh well) I also have 2 dogs... that's why I'm going to Victoria, there is a dog show and my golden is competing... But the solution I found is only sleep like 2-4 hours a night... one of my favorite sayings "You can sleep when your dead" :D

It was my pleasure to come and help out. Can't wait to see it in a few months full of life. Give me a shout anytime if you need help and next time I'll bring the family down.

Sounds good. I probably won't need much help unless there is a crash... but your welcome to take the family down at some point... when there is something to look at.

Well one more major step along the way... Plumbing is 90% complete... I just have to wait for the nozzles to show up for final completion. But in my mind the plumbing is done... and if I had to I could run it without the nozzles. Now less than 2 weeks till I can start my cycle :D... and if the parameters are right I will add fish on September 6th.

Anyways an update isn't an update without pics...
Looking at it from the outside.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...romoutside.jpg

Looking at it from the inside
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...umbingdone.jpg

A slightly closer look at the refuge.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...mpplumbing.jpg

It's looking real good, your lights all done yet?

Working on it today and over the next few days :D

Some updates on my LED's

This is me feeding the wires through and my daughter grabbing them and pulling them tight.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...edingwires.jpg

All the LED's soldered to the drivers an almost ready to go.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Dsfinished.jpg

The test of 3 of the LED's.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...noperation.jpg