2300G Cylinder - Preview

[Diablo]

I would really love to hear your thoughts on the Orphek pendant. How's the color, penetration, and spread? Orphek is saying that it can replace a 400w halide and I'm wondering if that is true.

They look nice and seem to work well. I will be doing a trial this week to see if I can reasonably replace 1 x 1000W MH with 4 x 100W LED. This will require me to achieve an objective of PAR 300-400 umol/m^2/s at 4.5' distance across a diameter of ~3'. If this can be achieved then I can switch out MH for LED.

The "100W can replace 400W" claim is not one I am banking on, nor does it make much sense (the most efficient LEDs currently on the market are 45%. Bluish MH are 25% - 30%, so one should expect at best 1W LED to replace 45/25 = 1.8W MH. It could be argued that the directionality of LEDs improves the ratio (less light wasted) but I believe 2-2.5 much more than 4 (i.e. 100W replaces 400W).

Anyway, I will post details of my trial next weekend.

 

[Diablo]

I can tell you know very well what you are doing. One thought though, you may consider replacing those isolation valves you have for your pumps with something a little more reliable.

Will keep that in mind and swap them out when they sieze. Will also try to source better valves for future work.

I would cut these out and replace with schedule 80 dual union valves. I know it's a PITA, but better now than when there's a problem, and the system is full of water.

I can relatively easily cap the sump outlets from the inside, so replacing in the future is less of a problem than you might usually expect. I need to get water in and the system aging ASAP, so I will leave it until later on. But I do appreciate the advice and acknowledge its wisdom.

 

[Diablo]

So you lined the sumps with PVC sheet? It looks like in places it's not adhered to the concrete?

Yes. The approach I took was to build water tight PVC shells and then pour the concrete around them. In some places the pvc has not stuck very well. On the one hand, it is not that imortant because the PVC shell itself is watertight and the concrete just provides physical support, but on the other hand, from a cosmetic perspective, its not da bomb... I will glue it back shortly (I have discovered that if you paint concrete with clear pressure pipe cement, leave dry and then coat the pvc with pvc cement and push it against the pre-coated concrete, it sticks pretty well).

 

[Diablo]

how much rock do you plan on using?

About 2000 lbs. (960kg)

looks good mark, i drove past (stalked) a couple of weeks ago, the solatubes are massive!!!

When its wet you can come around and have a propper look.

One question about the solatubes: are you planning any kind of colour correction. The naked sunlight can be a little on the warmer side of the colour spectrum, which can feed algae. I've seen several discussions about using some sort of bluish film to tweak a higher kelvin spectrum (more reflective of the depth these corals have adapted to). Perhaps you can find a translucent or slightly tinted film to filter the yellow/red out of the sunlight to achieve a similar effect of 20-30 feet of ocean water depth... could save you a lot of algae related headaches in the future..

No plans to do so... infact, the solatubes are for "color correction" of the 14K lighting I will be using. I prefer the 2m - 5m of water look. Sunlight should give me much better color rendering index of reds and yellows. I have researched this quite a bit. One problem with filters is that in order to work, they capture the light as heat. This then gets reradiated as infrared which can also stimulate algae. One novel appraoch would be to use a tank containing a solution of copper sulphate that could then be chilled... would neet to be pretty confident about the containment of the copper though.

 

[dave.m]

There are several large tanks right here on RC using Solatubes and none of them has reported algae problems or ever suggested the need for filtering the colour. I think your idea of matching the Solatubes with bluer lights is pretty smart and will probably come off looking quite good. There are some who think that when everything in their tank looks very blue and the colours somewhat washed out that it is more authentic. I believe this is more a matter of personal taste than necessarily being "correct".

Great to see so much progress. Can't wait to see it all wet.

Cheers!

Dave.M

 

[Scej12]

Very thoughtful approach... I will be looking and learning for sure.

I agree with Dave - Excited to see the development of all these great ideas...!

Good luck with the continued journey.

Sheldon

 

[lucidheights]

do you have any specific plans for the aquascape?

 

[brianp626]

Woah... Nice S15 Silvia!! Also love the tank lol :thumbsup:

 

[Mrs. Music]

The update was wonderful! I have loved following this thread. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Diablo]

We have water:

2 of 6 1000W Metal Halides on:

Circulation pumps at 25%. One of two hydro wizards on. Wave mode: 5 second cycle, 20% of cycle is pulse; non-pulse speed: 25%; pulse speed 40%

 

[atreis]

Impressive surface agitation. Very cool.

 

[Elliott]

nice to finally see water, it all starts now :thumbsup:

 

[RoWall]

Congrats, I'm excited to see water in the tank. Your years - long effort starts to pay back!

 

[dave.m]

Great to see it finally up and running. Can a full blown reef be far away?

Dave.M

 

[dca22anderson]

Now that is a sweet set up! Can't wait to see your aquarium full of livestock!

 

[apayan]

Great!

 

[sarmo]

wow! i bet you are happy to fianally have water in the tank. looks like nice water movement for only 20%

 

[Outerbank]

Great to see the tank coming alive!! I look forward to more pictures as you progress along!

 

[Reefun]

Just seeing that tank with water in it made my day

 

[Marc]

This tank would have made an awesome shark tank with a couple leapord sharks and some large show size angels!!!
Marc