Made some good progress, and also took a step back. I totally goofed on the return plumbing. I put my check valve right on top of my return pump, but I have tees above it. So if I don't break siphon up top in a power outage, the water will still flow back through the tee. So that needs some reworking to put the check valve right under the bulkhead.
Anyhoo, here are the progress pics....
Here is the ghetto canopy I made to hold the lights for the time being. I will be getting a custom one made, but not right away. This will do for now. The black box up top just brings all the fan/LED wires together.
The MH module of the fishneedit lights gets pretty warm, and people have reported the plastic warping on the sides. So I cut the grills, and mounted some fans that will blow air across the bulbs
Here's what it looks like
A few angles and top down shots of the aquascape. I used epoxy in key places to tie the rock together after my wife and I were happy with the results. We have a wall going up the overflow wil A LOT of little caves. Plus an island that has caves coming in/out from every side, and 2 little rock islands.
Filling RO water and checking for leaks as I go.
Some pics with the lights on. My wife's camera is terrible, so you can't really see the light output all that well. Let me tell you, these things are BRIGHT!
And finally finished all the electrical and cleaned it up. The 24vdc power supply stays on all the time, and runs the MH cooling fans and night LED's. One supply for both. I have 2 120v relays run by the timer that select when to fire the LED's and fans.
And finally, the T5 ballasts. Didn't want to extend the wiring, so just made a mount for them.
Plumbing should be done by end of this weekend. Hopefully she'll be up and doing a test run by Wednesday. I was also fortunate enough to score 2 controllable koralia 3's with the wavemaker 2 for $210 shipped, so that's what I'll be using for powerheads.