bennerkla's 5.5 AGA Nano Reef Diary (Lots of PICS!!!)

[bennerkla]

Sure thing. Do you want everything directly, so you don't have to DIY wire anything? PM me if you'd like.

 

[bennerkla]

Hey guys.

Got my hellolights.com shipment in today, very pleased with the order. Everything looks very high quality.



Here is the 6700 bulb I ordered. This should help the chaeto grow better. The newer one is on the bottom.

Here are the sockets. Look pretty standard, hopefully they will work tomorrow when I set this all up.

Here is the DIY retrofit kit for the 13 watt actinic. Hopefully I can figure this out, looks like the reflector might interfere with the MH light and cast a shadow. Hopefully the tank is small enough where it won't matter.

The stripping begins.....

Here it is now. I'm thinking about putting the MH on the top of the canopy, and having the actinic bulb be on the front, like where my 2 20 watt bulbs were. I would put them both on the top but I'm worried that there will be a shadow from how big the ballast is on the actinic, or one side of the tank will be more "lit up" than another.

I'm going to construct this tomorrow, any thoughts about what to do until then? I'm a little bummed on how deep the actinic's socket is...

Otherwise, this should all be done by tomorrow!

Cya guys,

Ben

 

[Taikimoto]

Your lighting looks like something I did for my 2.5, just with a halide. I origianlly did it with just some electrical connectors on the PCs, but they had a tendancy to come off, so I got some sockets from a W.W.Grainger store nearby and its cleaned up the setup alot.

Old:

New:

You can see the rest of the tank here (it has a overflow/refugium on it also)

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=775300

 

[banditfl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7416263#post7416263 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bennerkla
Okay I got a little impatient.....

But before the order, here is the ballast I got today. Won on Friday night, and it was here by Monday afternoon! From Florida! Didn't expect that...

Have a good day,

Bennerkla

Nice Ballast. I knew the ID (name) was familiar when you asked the question on E-bay and proceeded to win the auction.

 

[Kigs]

Hey Ben, glad to see your tank coming back to life. Same tank size as last time?

 

[bennerkla]

Yup, same size tank! Some family is coming in today for my graduation, so hopefully I'll still be able to make it over to set up the lights. I have to play golf at 11:30

 

[mr pink floyd]

where did yo uget all those floyd posters????

pulse, wish you were here...

my friends bro has an original dark side on vinyl, with the posters in it

 

[slave-of-rock]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7419437#post7419437 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bennerkla
Here are some snapshots of the new tank placement.


Any Pink Floyd fans out there?????

I love floyd! I have there DSOTM record, Wish You Were Here and Animals on vynal. I collect records and those are some of my prizes . Nice posters, gotta love them!

 

[mr pink floyd]

the memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime

gotta love obscured, dark side, meddle was ight, wish you were here, animals... big man pig man, haha charade you are...

 

[bennerkla]

You...****ed up, old, hag, hahaaaaa charade you are......

I got most of them online, but a few in a going out of business sale from a local record store.

I own every, single, Pink Floyd album, except Delicate sound of thunder. Here is my top 10...

1-DSOTM
2-Animals
3-Wish
4-Wall
5-Obscurred
6-Piper
7-Meddle
8-Division Bell
9-MLOR
10-Final Cut



Anyway, back on topic, I'm heading over to my friends house right now to install my lights. Should be done in a couple of hours. I'll post pics!

Cya Floyd fans,

Ben

 

[mr pink floyd]

see, i think obscured is as good, if not better than Dark side, the thing is, it got completely trashed


it came out what, 3 -4 months before dark side?

the only song on it i dont like is absolutely curtains

 

[bennerkla]

Yay, I've got metal halide lighting!!!!!!!!

Here is just the actinics...

Here it is with the MH and actinics!!

Here is a shot of the setup. I can't really lift up the hood, because of how tightly everything is packed, but you can kind of get an idea from this shot. The actinic is on the right, and the MH is on the left. Both share the same large reflector. The wiring and the actinic's ballast are hidden beneath the reflector.

And, my tank with the legends...

Look at how bright this little tank is! It is really hard to tell from the pictures, but the shimmer effect from the MH lamp is absolutely stunning. Worth it, even if I don't have SPS. Hope you guys like! My friend Doug helped me out big time, without him I could have never done this myself. Thanks Doug! Also, I'll be getting some corals soon, along with possibly a small fish. I'm going to test the water soon to see what it is, but the rock is all from tanks so I shouldn't have a cycle.

Let me know what you think!

Ben

 

[bennerkla]

This is a horrible video, but you can at least can an idea of what the shimmer effect is.

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/bennerkla/?action=view&current=MH.flv

 

[bennerkla]

I went to Phishy Business today and bought some livestock. I decided to go with a baby clown, I think it is a cinnamon clown. He is tiny, hopefully I can get him to feed and maybe host in one of my corals. He is hiding in the way back of my tank right now. Here are some pics of the new setup, every new coral is closed so I'll take another picture tomorrow when they will hopefully be open. Will probably move some stuff around and will get more corals on Wednesday.

Cya guys,

Ben

 

[Jordan55]

Hey Ben.

Looks good! I like the little clown. I remember catching him and putting him in the tank you found him in. He is like .5 inches.

I like the lights.... seems like you did a good job. Is there any heat problems?

Only thing that needa little work is more rock IMO. But hey thats up to you.

Keep it up!

 

[bennerkla]

Thanks Jordan. I was planning on adding more rock today, but the fish is breathing heavily in the back of my tank behind rocks, so I want to try to calm him down as much as possible. I'll try to get him to eat before I add more rock from my 75 gallon.

Was the clown eating when you saw him at Phishy?

Do you remember those 5 dollar mushrooms? I got that huge green one, great deal.

I'll post more pics tomorrow, cya guys,

Ben

 

[leeweber85]

Do you have a glass cover to protect the inhabitants from the UV rays?

 

[bennerkla]

Lee,

Yes, I do. Thanks for the heads up, though.

 

[bennerkla]

My baby clown is out He is hanging around my frogspawn, but the frogspawn seems to be upset as he has closed up a bit. I'm glad to see the little guy out, hopefully he'll eat tomorrow. My mushroom is starting to grab ahold of some rock, and the MH will get fired up tomorrow. I have still got to get my auto top off set up, my timers, a lot of stuff. So hopefully tomorrow I can figure it all out.

Lots goin on, I'll take some more pics tomorrow.

Cya guys,

Ben

 

[bennerkla]

Hey guys, here are some updated pictures of my tank. My mushroom is HUGE, and my clownfish hosts in it a lot, but for these pics he was hosting in my frogspawn. Both the mushroom and frogspawn seem to love my tank, but the [id please] does not. I've tried him in a couple of positions, might try a new one tomorrow.

My clownfish is eating! So everything looks good so far. I'm in the process of setting up my auto top off and installing moonlights.

Any comments or suggestions? Other than more live rock? (Will get more within a week)

Thanks guys,

Ben