Building an LED powered 540g tank!

[westmoorenerd]

Alright guys, I guess I'll start my own tank thread for anyone who might be interested. Please keep in mind that due to living out here in Guam, not everything is as readily available and affordable as compared to the states.

I bought a 540g (8x3x3) tank used from the previous tenant of my townhouse for $1400 with the stand.

Unfortunately the tank is 1/2" tempered glass, so I can't drill it for overflows and am stuck with the crappy HOB overflows the old owner built for it...that is until I order my LifeReef unit.

The tank is part of a wood trim and 4" eurobracing all around and 3 cross braces. For some reason he had also added 1" bracing around the bottom and sides of the tank. Instead of painting the back of the tank it has a fake foam wall.

I'm slowly pulling off the wood trim from the top of the tank since the previous owner removed the front trim...The silicone is hard as crap to get off, but some patience, a razor, and some silicone remover, and it's going ok.

The tank was loaded with about 500lbs of local LR, but any life was dead on it, so I currently remover all but about 100lbs of it. I'm in the process of removing some of the old sand too, still can't decide if I want to go BB or about a 1"-2" sandbed.

The sump area will be a ~45g sump with a 20H as a refugium. I'll be running an SRO6000EXT skimmer, and probably one of the new Water Blaster pumps as a return/manifold pump.

For flow I'm going to be using 2 MP40s and 4 Koralia Magnum 8s on a wavetimer.

For lighting he only had 2 48" actinic lights over the entire tank, and after the first month of using my MHs I quickly realized why. I was running 4x 250w Pheonix and 4x 48" VHO actinics over the tank, but my monthly bill in lighting alone was around $120 (Yay for $0.25kWh)....So out came 2 of the MHs and the VHOs, now comes the expensive upfront cost of building LED fixtures for over the tank.

I'm going to be building 4 LED fixtures like the ones here http://www.reefledlights.com/how-to-diy-led

and with 4 fixtures I should only be paying around $40 a month in lighting cost for the tank. That makes LEDs a very sensible choice for me, $120-$40=$80 a month in electrical saving cost. After a year, it'll save me pretty much $1000, so the LEDs will pay for themselves in around 2 years. I really like these that this guy has, as it will save me some time and headache with soldering the LEDs http://www.reefledlights.com/accessories/cree-led-strip-light/

 

[Dante_JoseCuerv]

Well at least you've got something to start with. Just be patient. I'm jealous that you got a tank that size as it's unfortunately out of my league! Good luck though. Subscribed.

 

[westmoorenerd]

So part of me got to thinking that instead of using 4 K8s and 2 MP40s it would be better to use 6-8 K8's on a 2 wavemaster pros... Any thoughts on this? The added space taken up in the tank is really inconsequential.

I've broken down what my current anticipated power usage is going to be:
6 K8's= 108w (probably closer to 70w or so on a wavemaker)
4 24" 48 LED fixtures= 584w (so 267 average hourly use, on 11hrs a day)
HY-7000 return pump= 100w
Skimmer= ~60w (couldn't find exact number)

So total for now is going to be around 497w an hour for a total of 357.84 kWh monthly and at $0.24 a kWh it's going to run $85 a month to run this tank out here....not too shabby for Guam even though at the national average of $.11 kWh it would only cost $39 a month.

Atleast I can get all my LR, coral, fish, and NSW for free out here.... =)

 

[Fishmonk]

Nice tank and build. I like the part about catching your own fish & corals, as well as NSW. I'm into that.

Having done it myself, though, I will say that one thing I learned is to plan for a good-looking and well-balanced tank: Researching compatibility and care for fish and corals, as well as good placement and looks so you get the best view and enjoyment from your tank. Not having a plan and not paying attention to aesthetics cost me a lot of redoing, though thankfully my project was much smaller (50g) and a lot easier to redo.

But I love it. And I say copy the local reef, biotope-style. That would be awesome!

 

[discus510]

not sure if the equipment is ok for such a big tank. a 45 gal sump for a 540 gallon tank??

 

[westmoorenerd]

Fishmonk- Thanks for the encouragement. I've aready having learned that not planning out a build is the worst way to go, so for this tank I'm just going to stay with corals and fish from a certain part of the reef out here.

discus510- The sumps main purpose is going to be to cover the evaporation from the display tank. I don't feel like I need a larger sump due to the fact that I'd really like to NOT add more water to the entire system. The more water I add the more costly everything gets. For example buying a 75g tank out here cost over $300. But anyways I feel the sump will work to hide any equipment I might need to put in there since I have an external skimmer and a 20g tank as a fuge.

 

[westmoorenerd]

Alright so I got this crazy idea today.... I'm going to try and find out if it's possible, and practical, to controller Mean Well ELN-60-48D drivers with a 10v solar panel....

 

[Troy McClure]

G'day, sounds like an ambitious project! Very similar to the tank build I am planning (8' x 2.5' x 2.5'), I already have most of my equipment including pumps, one conclusion I've come to after researching pump choice on a tank this size is that it is better to have a couple of large pumps rather than several small pumps (think 2 large hp outboards on the back of a boat as opposed to 8 small ones). For this reason, I have purchased 2 x Tunze 6302's (30,000 lph each) and 4 x 6200's (12000 lph each, which would be similar in flow to the K8's or MP40's), I will probably only need to use 2 of these in my case to maintain flow in dead spots. I've noticed most other builds over 350g seem to follow this principal with either 6301, 6302 or 6305 Tunzes, or large pump CL systems (more power consumption)
Something to consider or research maybe before you commit to buying anything, hard to take my word only as my 375g tank is still sitting in my shed collecting dust!
I will also be going led on my tank, doesn't look like I'll be getting the record for the largest led only tank!
Cheers Ben

 

[westmoorenerd]

I was thinking of getting some Tunze pumps, but they're quite expensive...I've been getting my K8's at around $90 a piece, so for 6 of them it'll cost me $540...much less than one 6305, and with over 250% more flow. Also the K8s push 3250gph at 19w= ~171gpW, while the 6305s pushes up to 7925pgh at 64w= ~123gpW, so energy efficiency wise the K8s are much better, just not as fancy (ie. controllable) as the Tunze pumps. This is the same reason I'm going to be getting rid of my MP40s, 3200gph @ 28w = ~114gpW.

 

[Troy McClure]

I must admit, I hadn't really considered the k8's when I started buying my gear, I don't think they were around back then (my build is taking a little longer than expected), although as far as efficency is concerned with the Tunze's, when used with a controller you're usually alternating maximum flow between pumps, so probably only using 70% of their total power (I did buy my 6302's new from fleabay Germany quite cheap, and it was fun trying to purchase off of people who don't speak english, risky, but I had no problems).
On the topic of energy saving, if you're not in a mad rush to get the led's over the tank, it may be worthwhile waiting until later in the year when Cree release their XM led's. More efficient than the current xre's or xpg's, and can be run at up to 2 amps (at the cost of some efficiency, but still as efficient as xre's at 350ma) which could significantly reduce your led count and possibly build costs (don't know how much these things will cost yet). Maybe a bit long to wait, you're probably not as much of a procrastinator as me.
Very keen to see this tank progress, although I follow a few of the large tank builds, it seems yours is going to be more similar to what I am trying to achieve with mine (efficiency, keeping costs down etc), although I don't think capturing some livestock off my local beach wil be a good idea, not allowed to keep leafy sea dragons or dolphins, and I don't think I'd sleep easy with a great white in my dining room!
Ben

 

[westmoorenerd]

I could wait for the new LEDs to come out, but by that time I would have already spent around $1000 in electricity with MHs and VHOs, so in my case it makes sense to buy everything right now. I'm going to be getting 4 sets of 24" 48 LED fixtures from reefledlights.com which cost a little over $500, so a years worth of electricity pays for half my lighting. I could always upgrade my LEDs in a couple years though when the've payed for themselves.

 

[westmoorenerd]

Still trying to work out the details on my led fixture....right now me and my supplier are looking at which drivers would work best for my situation since multiple ELN's would be a bad idea harmonics wise.

In the meantime though I just bought a water storage tank....payed $400 for a 500g tank.

 

[kkiel02]

Have you considered a wavebox? That's what I will be using on my new tank(should be here in July). It's a 360 8x3x2.

 

[westmoorenerd]

I've thought about it, but I don't feel like subjecting the tank seams to anymore stress than it needs too.

 

[zaheda]

Why dont you cut a hole in the roof and go solar.Few people in South Africa have tried it already and seems to work, couple hours of sunlight everyday.

 

[westmoorenerd]

I'm active duty military and renting right now... I don't think my landlord would approve of me making a few 12" holes through the floor into the bedroom and to the roof =) Don't get me wrong, if I had my own house and didn't have a job that moved me every 3 years I would.

 

[westmoorenerd]

Alright so my build is taking WAY longer than I wanted it to...my main holdup right now is my skimmer. I'm going to rant a little here:

I purchased an SRO-6000EXT from SaltySupply over a month ago, after a week or so I realize that my order is backordered. Hmmm weird, I didn't get a call or email or anything letting me know. Anyways I send a couple emails to Richard, the owner, asking how long is was on backorder for. Well a week later with no reply I submit a trouble ticket on their website. Finally a reply! Unfortunatly my skimmer won't be getting imported for atleast the next 6 months =/ So I suggest just getting me a slight upgrade (money wise) to the SRO-XP5000EXT which is only $15 more... No problem! Richard said....Sweet so I should have my new skimmer in a couple weeks with shipping....

Fast forward to yesterday. I get my skimmer, open the box all happy...only to find I had got an SRO-5000EXT shipped to me. Now I'm ****ed off, that skimmer is over $100 cheaper than the one I payed for! So once again I write Richard. His response: "They are using the same pump. The 6000 just has a tad bit large diameter"

***?! So here I am today, extremely upset by all of this. I'm ready to just send the skimmer back on my own dime and buy from someone else. As of right now, I'll never deal with SaltySupply....

 

[westmoorenerd]

Alright well little update for anyone that cares... Richard from SaltySupply is dicking me around again...The day after I asked for a refund in price, the prices on the SRO skimmers raised, so he only refunded me $50 between an SRO-5000EXT and SRO-6000EXT, even though the price difference is over $100. Guess he has a really poor sense of customer satisfaction, I see know why he's not an RC sponsor...I don't think he's ever going to make this transaction right, but nothing worth losing sleep over, even though I'm going to be stuck with a skimmer that's not up to par with what I wanted.

On a good note though, I ordered my APEX controller from Aquarium Specialty, great people to work with! Hopefully that'll get here in the next few days.

I also bought a used Korallin C-1502 calcium reactor at a great deal on the FS forums here. I know it's not rated for my sized tank, but I don't plan on growing too many SPS. Hopefully it works, from what I've read it's a great reactor.

Still trying to figure out what lighting I'm going to go with...Oprhek LEDs have my eye right now due to the nice discount they're offering for bulk sales. Still wanting to do a DIY fixture too though....Just can't make up my mind with what drivers to go with and if I should go XR-E/XR-E, XP-G/XR-E, or XP-G/XR-E for the CW/RB combo.

 

[biecacka]

why cant you drill the tank for overflows? if you want to it is something that can def be done
corey

 

[westmoorenerd]

The tank is 1/2" tempered glass all around, tempered glass tends to shatter into a million pieces when drilled. Granted some people might get lucky or have the extreme skill to be able to drill tempered, but for 99.9% of us it would just end horribly.