An unforseen fork in the road

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12110315#post12110315 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
So there IS another side to that tank, eh? ;)

Ummm... maybe :)


I'll be there on Wednesday April 2nd until Sunday the 6th, but the 5th and 6th is the MAX event so I'm thinking Thursday or Friday perhaps.

I'm off both the 2nd & 3rd.

Brett
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12109285#post12109285 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by matt & pam
Brett,
How long have you been running the tank now? How is the maintenance/finickyness compared to your eco-wheel system?

I finally plumbed in a skimmer onto my eco-wheel tank.

Thanks. Matt
Click to expand...

Hey Matt,

It's really hard to compare right now since the new tank has only been up since January so it isn't good and seasoned yet. I also only have 3 relatively small fish in there right now so my feeding has been incredibly light. So much so that it takes almost a full week to fill the collection cup on the Deltec AP702

However, I've already noticed a big difference in temperature from one to the other. That air injection in the uplift is the bomb at bleeding off heat. My ambient air runs 77-78 and the EcoWheel chuggs along at a pretty constant 77 degrees. The new tank is a respectable 79-80 degrees. However, if I open up the sliding door in the evening all that incoming cool air hugs the floor where it's picked up by the air pump for the airlift. I can burn off a full degree from the EcoWheel tank in less than an hour with a 4-5 degree ambient temp differential. The new tank on the other hand, takes a good hour to knock off a couple tenths. And that's WITH that big old box fan sitting up on the tank rim.

Another plus with the new tank, is that with the EcoWheel having no mechanical filtration I was forever hydrovac'ing the sandbed, which, with that big old canopy up on top and all that retrofit lighting just royally sucked. (no pun intended) Having the open top tank is really refreshing. Even more now with the sliding light rail.

Sadly, the Ecowheel is looking horrible right now as I have just been doing the bare basics since it's been torn down to pretty much the original base rock along with a few fish waiting to be transferred over. It's soooo bad that I stopped cleaning the front acrylic months ago and just handed a metal scraper to the wife and said "have at it.".

One thing that's interesting is most of the rock that I transferred over was pretty loaded with sponges and such and a good deal of that is still alive and kicking after several months in the newer, considerably more sterile tank. It's got me thinking that when I fully shut the old tank down I might pull out that eggcrate from the lower portion of the filter and modify it to fit in my new sump.

Overall, I think the EcoWheel was pretty cutting edge when it was originally designed, but you have to remember it's like what? a 15-20 year old design now? And back then thoughts on water movement were a bit different than they are today. I think if I was to do it all over again I would run the EcoWheel piggybacked on a sumped/lightly skimmed setup. Maybe even something like a big prop system that had just a few fish.

I really will miss that tank when it's finally gone. It has a certain 'coolness' factor about it that I'm unable to duplicate with the new tank.

Brett
 
That's interesting about the temp. I've not been able to pull in cooler air into my system in the basement. I finally plumbed in a chiller this fall, what a relief. I don't know why I didn't do that when I first had heat issues. Maybe if the LED technology/cost optimize, I can toss my MHs and really reduce the heat burden.

Thanks for sharing your new tank. What do you estimate is your flow (GPH) in you tank now? Is there any true circular flow or is it just laminar from one side to the other?
 
Flow would be 4 Vortech's at 50% + 2 Eheim 1262's with about 6' of head +/- (all pointed in the same direction)

I'm getting great circular flow down both sides with even more back up the middle. Crank the flow up much past 50% and my gorgonians start laying over at a 45 degree angles and all the polyps close up.

It also looks like I did a good job designing the rockwork as I can watch food shoot down the length of the tank, turn downwards at the other end, and then reverse direction as it gets pulled into the caves by the undertow heading back towards the other end.

Brett
 
Brett,
Nice to see some tank shots! Awesome job on the cabinets as well!
Hope your equipment issues get resolved soon.
Chris
 
Brett, did you ever get your light problem solved? Any more of your equipment set up and running?
 
Ken,

When it got to the point that Sfiligoi had the freaking nerve to ask me to open up the case again and take a voltmeter to the output of the 220v transformers I had finally had enough and informed them that I was done moonlighting as their repair tech. I figure any company that thinks nothing of having one of it's customer's crack open a transformer box to play around with live voltage is not someone I want to be taking directions from. It also didn't hurt that their instructional email contained a big, bold faced warning about using caution when I touched the output leads as they were 220v and not 120v.

A half hour later I was on the phone with Will at Aquarium Obsessed telling him it was time for Sfiligoi to ship a brand new fixture. At first Sfiligoi hesitated, wanting me to return this one first so Aquarium Obsessed could repair it. Obviously, that wasn't an option as I've grown kind of fond of the stuff in my tank and have no intentions of letting everything die while A.O. dinks around trying to repair it. Especially, since Sfiligoi has already proven that they think little of making an already unhappy customer wait 30 days to get a $5.00 cable.

So after a phone call or two as well as multiple emails, Sfiligoi finally agreed to send a new fixture. However, they said it would be mid April at the soonest before it would ship as they are waiting for a shipment of 120w ballasts to arrive. So, it appears I might very well be getting the ballasts that should have been in there in the first place, but at the expense of an unknown ship date.

Of course talk is cheap so I'm reserving judgement until I see a new unit above my tank.

On thing is for certain, Will lat A.O. is none too thrilled that I also informed him I have no intentions of paying for shipping on either the new fixture or the return of the old, so if he wants it back it's on his dime.

So we'll see...

Brett
 
That's the way to go Brett, especially after forking out so much $$ for the fixture... u definitely have much more patience than me...
 
Hey Brett, let me know when you have that product review done for Reefkeeping, okay? :lol: Man-oh-man, you've really had a tough time with this particular purchase.
 
what horrible customer service. i considered AO for my new tank and the hype about those lights was impressive. i'm glad i didn't, although i would like a starfire tank.

in the end though the fact that i couldn't lie on the top of it for maintenance and Will was not very convincing how easy it would be to put a 1,600 pound tank in place about 12 feet above street level.

then i thought about how far it is to Canada and a new product like the lights and decided to go with a local tank builder. they have since closed up shop but my tank is great and holding water so far, (three months).

Carl
 
Rgibson They're Pro Werks mounts which originally came from a place called The Chassis Shop but now I'm not seeing them listed on their website.

But a quick Google search shows them listed from these folks. Never ordered from them though.
http://www.bsrproducts.com/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=742

Ken Wow, that's a pretty cool surprise. Seems like I'm in some great company. So many people are pushing the bar higher and higher it's definitely a great time to be in the hobby.

Brett
 
I'm working on getting another update together along with some new pics of the tank. And I promise to include pictures of both side of the tank :)

Right now I'm coming off a three day demo of the old tank and I can't smell anything but the stank from semi dried muck and algae. Beyond that, it's been a great week.

Brett
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12106140#post12106140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Putawaywet
OK, here's a little something I've been working off and on for a while now. Just finished it up this afternoon. This is the hallway on the other side of the wall from the tank. The cabinets are from the same company as my bar cabinets and recess into the wall between the 2x4" studs.

23770Hall-Cab-01.jpg


The cabinets weren't in the original game plan but after doing the ones for the bar I realized how nice it would be to not have to get on my hands and knees and stick my head into my stand to dink with my VorTech settings.

23770Hall-Cab-04.jpg


There was a massive load of wires that needed to be routed and hidden but I somehow managed to cram them all in there.

23770Hall-Cab-03.jpg


Brett
Click to expand...

OK I have to admit that this is one of the best ideas that I have seen for "what to do with the stupid controllers and crud". Very sleek and functional and hides the leds which I find are very bright.

Great build!
 
Hi Brett,

Just put my vote in for you on the thread of the month :D .

Looking forward to the update. Seeing we are past mid April it will be nice to see what changes have been made to the new fixture vs the old one.

You must have been very convincing after all my problems w/ my Sfiligoi XR4 3x400w 8-T-5 fixture all I got out of Sfiligoi was 2 capacitors. Will finally bought me new IC ballasts but it basically turned into a DIY project to correct all the problems and who knows what kind of warranty there is. I have a feeling I know the answer :(

Chad
 
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