Apartment Reefer

Hi mate, thanks for showing me those reflectors - very bloody fancy. Can you take the film off and take a flash shot of one direct on for me...............:p
Can't have a sump too big, the bigger they are the more man reef man stuff you can fit in there :thumbsup: My sump is 40x20x14" with a 20x20" section i can use as a frag tank, refuge or remote DSB - prob all of them at once in the end lol.
Bloody MACNA...... one of my Aus online suppliers has taken off for a two month US 'reef equipment fact finding' mission........bet he doesn't find much reef gear at bloody Disneyland.........:rolleye1:

Looking at those radium bulbs and your equipment list (inc the rocket) i think you're going to have a cool SPS tank mate. Could you squeeze a blue LED light bar across the front or back so you can see the funky colors at night, i love the blue time before lights out. Just a thought in case you wanted the dusk viewing :)

You sure are demanding with the pics! :spin1: I should have the film off this weekend when I get them mounted. Are you looking for a top down shot with flash? My refug section won't be as big as yours but it will still be a nice chunk of space for a nice refug. I think my section will be 14x22. I am thinking about using my current Nuvo16 tank as a frag tank but am not sure. I really don't like the AIO tanks too much anymore. It's so hard to clean the back sections and it annoys me, lol.

Yes, I am excited about the tank and can't wait to get the SPS flowin. I think I have some decent equipment, and should with some help from you and others be on my way to SPS glory. I have been thinking about adding some blue, royal blue and violet leds for supp and dusk/dawn viewing. I'll have to wait and see how much space I have once I have the pendants over the tank. I really like the buildmyled fixtures, but I will need to see if I can squeeze them in.
 
I just wanted to see you do what i did once - blind myself with the flash rebound off the reflector lol......... that was bloody bright.
The sump section plans sound great, my 'frag' section is more of a refuge and the display has heaps of critters living in it so i'm sure this all contributes to feeding the corals.
You could run a bar across the back of the halide reflectors and have three bars coming off it that you mount the LED's on that way it would not be obtrusive from the front. I spent a couple of hours doing a CAD drawing to illustrate the design cause i know you like them........:p

h_zpsc6234c7b.png~original
 
I just wanted to see you do what i did once - blind myself with the flash rebound off the reflector lol......... that was bloody bright.
The sump section plans sound great, my 'frag' section is more of a refuge and the display has heaps of critters living in it so i'm sure this all contributes to feeding the corals.
You could run a bar across the back of the halide reflectors and have three bars coming off it that you mount the LED's on that way it would not be obtrusive from the front. I spent a couple of hours doing a CAD drawing to illustrate the design cause i know you like them........:p

h_zpsc6234c7b.png~original


Lmao...trying to blind me, that's dirty man. Wow, I don't know what you do for a career but I think you have a future in the CNC field with CAD skills like that. Once I get the pendants up I will be able to see how much space I have to work with. I'm using 80/20 extrusions to hang the lights from and they make all kinds of cool stuff, so they may have something I could use to hang some leds from.
 
I just wanted to see you do what i did once - blind myself with the flash rebound off the reflector lol......... that was bloody bright.
The sump section plans sound great, my 'frag' section is more of a refuge and the display has heaps of critters living in it so i'm sure this all contributes to feeding the corals.
You could run a bar across the back of the halide reflectors and have three bars coming off it that you mount the LED's on that way it would not be obtrusive from the front. I spent a couple of hours doing a CAD drawing to illustrate the design cause i know you like them........:p

h_zpsc6234c7b.png~original

I like this! makes me want to work on my CAD skills...
 
Hi Quintis, I'm liking the tank build! I love running Radiums in lumenbrites. I received an order of the tonga shelf rock yesterday - I ordered it after seeing yours and wishing I had more coral placement sites.

What part of town are you in? Are you on MARSH?
 
Great build thread so far!! Following!

I like the look of your stand. And I am excited to check out this custom sump. Since you are going to run a fuge (at least that is what I thought I had read). Will you be running BP's or carbon dosing?? I am just curious, I run a large fuge and don't carbon dose, but I feed on the light side. I am starting to feed corals more so I hope the fuge will keep up.

Darn MACNA, screwing up everybody's builds. LOL.

Biggles, I love that CAD drawing and your sense of humor!!
 
Hi Quintis, I'm liking the tank build! I love running Radiums in lumenbrites. I received an order of the tonga shelf rock yesterday - I ordered it after seeing yours and wishing I had more coral placement sites.

What part of town are you in? Are you on MARSH?


Thanks! I am excited to see how these lights look, as I've heard nothing but great things. Glad you got some of the Tonga shelf rock, it's some great stuff. I in the Copperfield area and I am a member on MARSH but don't post there very often.

Great build thread so far!! Following!

I like the look of your stand. And I am excited to check out this custom sump. Since you are going to run a fuge (at least that is what I thought I had read). Will you be running BP's or carbon dosing?? I am just curious, I run a large fuge and don't carbon dose, but I feed on the light side. I am starting to feed corals more so I hope the fuge will keep up.

Darn MACNA, screwing up everybody's builds. LOL.

Biggles, I love that CAD drawing and your sense of humor!!


Thanks Sweatervest13, I surprised myself on the stand. I didn't think it would turn out so well. I will have some more closer to finished pics of that coming this weekend. The sump is going to be well worth the wait, trust me. I've thought about running BioPellets, but I'm not sure if I will. I would rather not and just let the fug take care of things, but I will have to see how things go once I'm up and running.
 
This is going to be epic once you have it all settled in. Glad to see someone still has faith in MH.

Thanks. This will be my first time using MH's but you can't deny the results they produce in SPS. With heat, bulb cost and power consumption not being an issue for me it really was a no-brainer.


Small update time!


I just finished up getting the lights ready. I spliced the connections on. I soldered them and used heat shrink. I removed the blue film and put the bulbs and everything in. I plugged them into the ballasts to make sure they didn't blow up due to my splice job and WOW! I've seen MH's before but I've never used them myself. I am super impressed with the color of the bulbs with these ballasts..looks perfect for me.

I spent a lot of time in the garage this week working on the stand. I got all my holes drilled. I sanded down everything and got one coat of stain on. I will finish up on the stand this weekend. Be looking for pics, it's gonna be really nice! :lol2:

Couple cell phone pics of the lights looking all bossy.



 
Oh yeah that's the business mate. Don't leave that on too long or you'll have acros knocking at your door wanting to get in....... radiums are that good........:p


Lol, that's what I hoping for! I pretty much got the stand wrapped up this weekend. You can tell it's a DYI project and I'm most likely being over critical of my work, but it just came out ok to me. Everyone else that sees it, loves it so eh. Just going to get all my equipment in and start the cable management. Here are some pics. Right now I'm playing around with an LED strip I bought for something else and never used.














Video of the LED's

 
Thanks Miyagi570. I see you use two 250w MH's on your tank. I'm thinking about running two 250w over this tank instead of T5's but can't decide since I'm not sure if I would need a chiller or not. The air temp of the apartment is always around 70-72. Do you run a chiller on your set-up?

Yes I'm using a chiller. But try on fan if the apartment is gonna stay around 70-72. I was using a fan on my apex but my fish room would get into the 80s on hot days so i found a used chiller on CL.
 
Set up looks good, need an update! Also if I can ask, what bulkheads did you use for your mixing station. I have had one bulkhead crack on me (the nut) and I replaced with another bulkhead that leaked too. Any advice? Hows that skimmer? Looks awesome!
 
Set up looks good, need an update! Also if I can ask, what bulkheads did you use for your mixing station. I have had one bulkhead crack on me (the nut) and I replaced with another bulkhead that leaked too. Any advice? Hows that skimmer? Looks awesome!

Thanks for the comments. I used some schedule 80 bulkheads I got from McMasterCarr. I think they are call "through-wall fittings" on their site. The schedule 80's are overkill but I've seen the black ABS bulkheads crack and I have never read about a schedule 80 cracking. They also come with thicker gaskets. I'm still waiting on my custom tank and sump top arrive. It should only be another week or two max on both. Once I have those, water will be in the tank within hours. The skimmer hasn't been used yet but I continue to read nothing but great things about them.
 
Looking good mate, you guys and your LED giggle lights.......... bloody aircraft will prob try and land on your house when you light that strip up at night i reckon.....:p
Keep the updates and pics flowing my friend :thumbsup:
 
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