320g build/journey/experiment DIY :-)

[Nebthet]

Very nice.. I love the LED set up. How many are on that?

[Greenmaster]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Very nice.. I love the LED set up. How many are on that?

There are 15 Warm White, 20 Cool White, and 25 Blue for a total of 60 20W LED's or 1200W of LED's (basicly the same as 3 400w MH without the heat.)

On a side note my tank electrocuted me for the first time... I got home and was putting some stuff in my tank... my arm was grounded on the aluminum as my hand touched the water... made me jump... I almost fell off the ladder lol. Didn't take me long to find it... I only had two things not plugged into the GFI socket... a couple of heaters (that I installed today) ... and one was cracked... it's in the garbage now

[Nebthet]

Glad you are still alive after the jolt.

That is a lot of watts of lighting. Would love to see the par readings on that and see how well it reaches the bottom of your tank.
Do you have optics on the leds and if so what degree?

[Greenmaster]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Glad you are still alive after the jolt.

That is a lot of watts of lighting. Would love to see the par readings on that and see how well it reaches the bottom of your tank.
Do you have optics on the leds and if so what degree?

Ya just went through the arm... across the chest would have possibly killed...
I need to rent a par meter.
No optics, I believe they are 140 degrees... hence the aluminum foil all around... I wouldn't want optics because I have 3 different colors of LED's and I wanted the light to be spread uniformly throughout the tank.

[Greenmaster]

I may not have any real updates for a week or more as I am working for 12 days strait starting tomorrow... But I'll try to continue to answer questions and comments.

[Greenmaster]

Basically my tank tried to kill me a week or so ago... got electrocuted... luckily it was only my arm and didn't ark across my chest, if it had I would have probably gone to the ER or morgue. Then just this last Saturday my dad comes home (he's been gone for over a month) He's in the basement cleaning up and he plugs back in one of his things... but to do that he unplugs an extension cord. The cord was powering my water pump for the cooling of my LED's... So I get home from work and I reach up to test the temperature of my pipes (to make sure that it is dissipating well and not starting to warm up.) and of course my pump is off, so I burn my hand pretty bad... I unplug my LED's. 50% are burnt out, after they cooled some came back on... but I'm sure my whole set-up of 60 LED's has greatly shortened it's life. So I take the lights down replace the 21 that are not working and put it back up... while I am plugging my LED's back into the power bar I slip and get a valve in the eye. Now it looks like I lost a fight, right around my eye is a little cut up and all black and blue. Also I didn't let my rocks cure long enough in the ocean... (3 weeks wasn't enough) so my PH is a little high... I'll have to continue to work it down till I have stabilized it. I was in such a rush in setting up I forgot to check the rock to see if it was done leaching prior to putting it in my tank. It looks like maybe no fish till... Christmas? I hope I don't have to wait that long but I need to step back and learn some things from this... like; I need a controller for my LED's with a thermometer to tell them to shut off past a certain temp, people were not kidding when they said "The only thing that happens quickly in a reef tank is failure." I will continue to answer questions and such but I'm guessing between 2-6 weeks for my rock to finish leaching... so I won't be able to do anything until then... so I just have to wait it out.

[Scubasteve23]

sorry to hear about your lights, and good luck with the rock..cant wait for it to all start coming together for ya..looks great though

[Lego]

WOW!! Good on you for taking on this tank setup! Next to a complete DIY eh! I was just searching DIY LED and your build came up.

I just read all the posts or more less scanned as fast as my little mind could think. When I saw the post about the tank bottom broke, I almost had something touching cloth thinking it was the display tank! But at least it was your sump... crappy for sure but it could have been your tank.

Then you shocked yourself!! WOW lucky lucky lucky lucky eh!

Then dad unplugs the cooling pump!! WOW

THEN you slip and fall and hit your eye on a valve sorry but WTF!!

Bud usally things happen in 3’s LOL

It kinda like a higher power saying "YO CHILL BUD HAVE A MARLEY let this process take some time " LOL I’m sooo impatient I have to ask the wife to go feed the “fish” not the fishes. I want lots all at once but I have killed too many to repeat this cycle over and over; especially after a lighting fire…

This is really awesome! If I ever travel your way it would sure be neat to stop by and check your tank out! Keep going with this setup! Pretty neat!

[Inedaan]

How is the tank going? Anymore near electrocutions or charred flesh?

[Greenmaster]

Lego, You are welcome to stop by if your in the neighborhood... but if I were you I would wait till after the new year cause I still don't have fish...

Inedaan, nothing new... just waiting. I'll be doing a 200% water change on Thursday and then see where I am at.