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150 Gal SPS Tank Journal *Pics of New Lighting*
Well here I go again. I figured after umpteen tank builds I should start a build journal, just as a means to track progress. For starters I currently have a new custom tank ordered from my buddy Kevin at Red Coral which should be done today or tomorrow. The dimensions of the new tank are 48"x30"x24"high. It's going to have eurobracing, herbie, drilled returns, yada yada, more detail when the tank comes.
This is the tank I am replacing, this had been a good tank but I outgrew it very quickly and between Zeo and dosing two part, my growth has taken right off, hence the need for the real estate. I am putting this tank up for sale this week. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0103.jpg Right now I'm going to use as much hardware from my 90 as I can but we'll see about that as the build moves along. Here is the plan as of right now: Lighting: I currently have 2 x 250 Watt AquaMedic Oceanlight MH Pendants with Phoenix 14K bulbs on my 90. Options for the new tank are #1 Add a third pendant (already have it) in a triangular pattern to cover the 48x30" area. #2 Maristar MH + T5 250W with tank legs to get rid of the pendants. #3 There was no option 3 until I spotted the new TEK Elite fixture, but I'm thinking that myght be the answer. Skimmer: Going to use my Eshopps PSK-200 Gen II for now, I will upgrade fairly quickly but haven't made a decision. I'll probably end up grabbing an Eshopps Snow Cone or jump on that Bubble Magus bandwagon. Sump: Eshopps RS 300 acrylic sump Return Pump: AquaMedic OR 6500 currently. Might go with external for this build. Controller: Neptune Apex Lite(should be here this week) with temp and PH. Reactors: 1 TLF for carbon and 2 TLF for biopellets, this is the configuration I have now but I'm going to pick up one of those cool Nextreef ones from Oceanic. Flow Inside Tank: 4 Koralia Evo's set up as a wavemaker through the Apex. Return lines will have Loc Line for control of return flow. Dosing: Bulk two part by means of two Drew's Dosers connected to my Apex. Also Zeo Amino Acid, Coral Vitalizer, Marine Snow, Pohl's Extra. That's about it for the plan, let's see how much all of this changes! |
I just finished the basic frame for the cabinet. I know its a little premature since I don't even have the tank yet so let's hope the measurements are bang on! My original plan was to build the basic box, slap a bunch of trim on there and done like dinner, well that's not so easy when every dimension is about the same width as a door. I decided to pull out my router and finish the edges of the 2x6 and 2x4's, I am still going to add trim but it will be in removable pieces. Oh well its a start. I don't want to get too cocky and build too much until the tank arrives. I did leave some clearance just in case.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0095.jpg |
:popcorn:
taggin along! |
I skipped a few posts on the stand build but all went well and it's finally done. Thanks Rick for helping me move this sucker, I swear the stand weighs almost as much as the tank! One thing to keep in mind on a deep tank build is the doorway it has to go through. I had a totally different plan for this stand until I realized the space limitations of the doorway and things had to change. Well here it is moved into place in the living room.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0105.jpg I had one of the Welders at work fab up a couple of hangers for the lights out of HSS steel tubing. I acouple of coats of Tremclad and they're good to go. Instead of doors I had black acrylic cut to size and used 3/8" aluminum C channel and magnets to hold them in place. I didn't want to drill into the steel hangers to hang the lights because of humidity and rust so I built a slide on hanger made from oak and HSS sleeves so I could screw into the wood instead. This also gives me room for adjustment, and pulling the entire assembly down is that much easier. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0111.jpg |
Time to hang the lights. My light fixtures of choice are the Aqua Medic 48" 2 x 250w, 1 x 150w hanging fixture, and the Aqua Medic 4 x HO T5 Oceanlight.
First one to hang is the T5. I chose this fixture because the MH will barely cover the 30" front to back, if I threw more metal halides at it I would need a chiller so I opted for the T5's in the front and I'll place my less demanding corals there. here are some pics of the T5 fixture. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0107.jpg Individual contoured reflectors with moonlights! http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0113.jpg The splash guard slides in and out without having to remove any screws. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0116.jpg Actinic http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0115.jpg Daylight http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0114.jpg Here is the hanging kit, it has the ratcheting style fitting and safety screw at the base. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0117.jpg Here is a shot of the metal halides and HO T5's mounted. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0122.jpg |
Plumbing is as complete as I can get it for now. Simple Herbie overflow and inlet through two 3/4" bulkheads with Loc Line. Hopefully tomorrow I can start the big move.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0123.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0125.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0124.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0127.jpg For this build my Wife wanted me to leave the back clear. I am very skeptical but what the heck, considering her tolerance for my obsession with this, I'll humor her with one request. It has created quite a challenge with plumbing and wires. Worst thing is if I don't like it I'm going to have one heck of a time covering the back with everything in place. Oh well, we'll see how it looks when it's all done. |
A bit of a change of plans. The location I had my tank in was a little too unstable for my liking. I had the tank about 3/4 full of water and there seemed to be too much deflection in the floor so I decided to move it to the opposite corner where I had an exterior wall and main beam intersecting. My living room was full of salt buckets and one large rain barrel, not winning any points with the Wife for sure. I also decided to paint the back. It was bugging me not having everything hidden so out comes the Krylon. The rest of the setup went fine. Here are some pics of the progress to date. I still need to set up my dosing pumps and water change tank but everything else is fully functional.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0132.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0133.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0134.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0135.jpg |
Looking good Rod! I like how the sump looks so clean and clearly well set up. I can see this tank is going to be great, and hard to imagine, nicer than your 90.
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Wow..looks Great Rod, cant wait to come over and check it out when its almost done..or done..lol
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Your build is coming along nicely. I really like the dimensions of your display tank.
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[quote=medhatreefguy;519275]Plumbing is as complete as I can get it for now. Simple Herbie overflow and inlet through two 3/4" bulkheads with Loc Line. Hopefully tomorrow I can start the big move.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0124.jpg The emergency and the( overflow with the gate-valve) need to drain separately. You will get a loud gurgling sound. Kevin |
Believe it or not it works like a dream, dead silent. All I hear is a slight trickle of the water running into the overflow. I tried closing the gate valve until the emergency line kicked in and it does make a gurgling sound then. Whatever the logic it works fine. By the way Kevin, I'm very impressed with the tank. Nicely done.
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The Tank looks awesome Rod!
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Tank and stand look great man.......I agree with Kevin......I would seriously consider re-vamping the drain plumbing.....having the primary and emergency plumbed into one defeats the purpose of the emergency.....if anything gets stuck where you have the drain reduced(after the emergency) your tank will flood:wink:.....
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Everything is in, finally! I still have to shift a few corals around but for now I left them on the rocks they were on before.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/DSC_2050.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/DSC_2053.jpg |
Tank looks fabulous! Love the rock work!
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[quote=Red Coral Aquariums;519917]
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http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/DSC_2074.jpg |
Glad you switched things.......not only for the noise but for the accident that was waiting to happen:wink:
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Well it's been a whole year since I last posted on this tank journal. Tons of stuff has happened, a tank crash, lots of dead coral, and while I kept chugging along with the tank I didn't feel much like updates. I have changed pretty much all the hardware out, a new SWC 230 skimmer, new sump, the Koralias were replaced with Tunze and Vortech, all in an attempt to not repeat the previous crash.
One of the challenges with a 30" deep tank is good light coverage. I tried a combo of T5HO and MH fixtures, then on to a T5H0/MH combo fixture but the main problem was getting a reflector large enough to provide the coverage and to the best of my knowledge there is no combo fixture with large enough reflectors (not even Geisemann). My solution was extensive research and I came to the conclusion (and had some advice from a couple of buddies) that Sunlight Supply Lumenmax 3 was the best choice. For ballasts the obvious choice was the Galaxy Select-A-Watt electronic, I like the overdrive that exists in magnetic ballasts and these have the HQI setting which gives me the extra punch that I like. For supplemental lighting I chose the Vertex Illumina Marino Blu 48" fixture with the Cree 3 watt LED. I really love the blue look so I figured I would try one for starters and tweak the colour with a second fixture if needed. I ordered all the hardware from Craig at Red Coral in Lethbridge, he was so helpful and turn around time was amazingly fast! The second challenge was mounting these pendants. One thing I was used to with the combo fixture was one fixture meant one set of mounting brackets, now I have three sets, and I'm a little particular how things look so the neat look was a challenge. To make matters worst the Illumilux doesn't ship with a mounting kit, a bit of a disappointment for a $500 light fixture. All in all I couldn't be happier with the change. I finally have tons of light coverage, less heat input, and a much crisper look than supplementing with T5. I do have to say the Marino Blu fixture is way too blue by itself, there is definitely a Marino Bianco in the near future as a second LED just to whiten the colour temp just a bit. I do love the freakish blacklight look that makes my coral glow like they're radioactive, but I prefer something a little more natural. Well on to the pictures... http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2002.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2003.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2004.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2005.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2006.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2007.jpg Here are a couple with the Illumilux only... http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2008.jpg http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2010.jpg Hopefully the next update will be quicker than this one, ha ha! |
Looks great Rod! You are right the blues are crazy! When our Illumina is all blue things glow like no other! I like the clean look!
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Just a few comments on the moonlights. I picked up the Hamilton 36" LED strip to use as moonlights. Two major problems to overcome with these, first they are too bright if placed near the surface of the water, secondly you would think they are easy to mount but that's not the case when using pendants. My solution was to go high for less intensity and I could use the mounting arms with some aluminum channel to make it look neat. I was afraid of casting shadows from the pendants but it worked out quite well with no shadows. I have to say these LED are very cool, they can be bent in any shape and attach easily with the adhesive backing. Here is a pic of the light in action:
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2016.jpg |
Looks Great!,
Love the Clean LOOK |
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