Steveg's Office wall tank

[steveg]

Thanks for tagging along, I chose 18" as 24" looked very very wide in relation to the room and the wall. In retrospect it was the single biggest mistake I made in this build, still I have learned a lot and will be putting this in to use next time, assuming there is a next time of course.

If I did it all over again it would be at least 24" wide and perhaps even 30" wide, still I am nonetheless very pleased with how things have been going lately. I will post more pictures in the next day or 2.

Thanks

Steve

Originally Posted by andestang

This is shaping up to be a really nice build. Looks great so far ! Just curious why you went with 18" wide and not just a little wider ?

[andestang]

Sorry I just missed all those great pics you posted just before I posted. Must say your DIY light set up really lights the tank up, looks awesome Are you going to run any kind of NR system or just stick with good old water changes ?

[lastlight]

Interesting build. You've done well considering the narrow tank.

Do those bulbs have reflectors?

[steveg]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Interesting build. You've done well considering the narrow tank.

Do those bulbs have reflectors?

This is an interesting question, I was quite disappointed when I realised I could not fit an ATI unit in the wall. I went as I mentioned to EECOL with my brother, he introduced me to the lighting specialist there. I showed him the specs of the ATI modules and discussed how best I could get something similar.

He scoffed at some of the claims regarding the reflectors and stated that the powder white finish on their standard reflectors would give almost the same results, possibly a few percent less and then defied anyone to point out the difference except perhaps by using specific measuring equipment. I guess you have to accept the "salesman" factor to a degree but I have to say I have had some pretty good growth already from a few frags I put in.

I am using the normal assortment of KZ, geisemann and aquascience bulbs, I may be tweaking the colour scheme but am very happy with the overall result. However you look at it, a difference of 4-5% on reflectors is not going to make a significant difference to my tank when I have 8 bulbs across a 10" gap. Put your shades on corals!!!!!

I am using an aquacontroller junior and each of the ballasts is controlled by the controller so it has been very easy to turn the light up as the day progresses and the down again to simulate what should occurr naturally. I have better control over this light unit than the metal halide and T5 unit I had over my last tank and I definitely prefer the colours.

I intend to put some white LED bulbs over the tank to provide the ripple effect that you dont get with T5. I saw a tank in England that had an LED strip over it and the shimmer was fantastic.

Thanks for following.

[kien]

Originally Posted by steveg

Thanks for tagging along, I chose 18" as 24" looked very very wide in relation to the room and the wall. In retrospect it was the single biggest mistake I made in this build, still I have learned a lot and will be putting this in to use next time, assuming there is a next time of course.

If I did it all over again it would be at least 24" wide and perhaps even 30" wide, still I am nonetheless very pleased with how things have been going lately. I will post more pictures in the next day or 2.

Thanks

Steve

Go 30" ! Going 24" wide on mine was the single biggest mistake of my build Wish I had gone 36"

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by steveg

Thanks for tagging along, I chose 18" as 24" looked very very wide in relation to the room and the wall. In retrospect it was the single biggest mistake I made in this build, still I have learned a lot and will be putting this in to use next time, assuming there is a next time of course.

If I did it all over again it would be at least 24" wide and perhaps even 30" wide, still I am nonetheless very pleased with how things have been going lately. I will post more pictures in the next day or 2.

Thanks

Steve

I was wondering about that, now I know. I would definatly have a wider tank over a taller tank any day. Really wish my big tanks were shorter and wider, longer would be nice too.

However that being said the tank looks good.

[steveg]

Thanks for the comments, I am kind of lazy so when I looked at either relying on water changes or going zeovit I chose the water changes. I have seen so many amazing tanks that use the old school water changes plus ca reactor and kalkwasser that it seemed like the best choice for me.

Having said that the new NP Biopellets offer a relatively maintenance free method of reducing nutrients and I will definitely be trying it out. I belive there have been some encouraging results using the pellets and the cost is far less tha zeovit.

I like feeding a tank so any additional nutrient removal system that does not involve large amonts of effort will definitley get my vote:

[steveg]

Originally Posted by kien

Go 30" ! Going 24" wide on mine was the single biggest mistake of my build Wish I had gone 36"

So when are you going to upgrade to the 36" wide tank?

[steveg]

Well it has been a little while and things have changed quite a bit now, my skimmer collection vessel that theoretically should prevent overflows did not quite do the job, something happened overnight and when I came down in the morning there was a large stinking mess of skimmate and tank water over the new carpet....

Needless to say my shares at home took a major plunge if you know what I mean!

I cleaned up as best I could and then tried to make sense of it all, cut a long story short I decided to change skimmer to something a little more conventional and ended up with a vertex 170 cone, best decision I have made in a while for sure:



The build quality is superb and within a very short period it has started pulling out some really thick skimmate.

I would like to say a big thanks to Kevin at RC for helping me through this major problem, I did not loose a single coral or fish despite the disaster with the old skimmer and a lot of that is down to the first class service that I received.

[steveg]

I have been slowly stocking the tank and now feel it is starting to show some promise:

View from the TV side:






View from the office side:




I may have to consult the section on photography so that I can get the colours right but it gives a rough idea of what has happened in the last few months.