cmcneil's reef savvy build thread

[amheck]

Looks like you are off to a very good start. Any idea on the pick up date for the tank?

 

[CMcNeil]

Late July/early august for tank pick up,that is if all goes well.they have a bunch of tanks ahead of mine to build.

 

[bmullikin1]

chirs, looking great as usual, do you think the plumbing pass thru needs a little vertical support

 

[CMcNeil]

chirs, looking great as usual, do you think the plumbing pass thru needs a little vertical support

nah,there is really no reason to have one.once ii skin the stand out it will be super ridgid.i plan on gorilla gluing and air nailing the plywood skin on,that will be strong enough to park a car on.

 

[CMcNeil]

you know Sam,after looking at it more i probably will add a vertical beam on each side of the plumbing pass through.

 

[jmking33]

Late July/early august for tank pick up,that is if all goes well.they have a bunch of tanks ahead of mine to build.

I spoke with Felix at the frag farmers market. He said he always has at least 40 to 50 tanks in the planning/building/delivery. They are beautiful tanks. Great choice CMcNeil

 

[CMcNeil]

Thank you,he told me the same thing about how many tanks he has on order.I can wait to get mine,it gives me time to get ready and buy or build what I need for the system.

 

[CMcNeil]

.....update time.....
I have made some changes to my lighting plan for this tank.I was going to go all LEDs again but am not 100% sold on them as a primary light source.that being said I will be running a single Lumenarc elite 250w MH with 28 LEDs for actinic and extra spread.I have figured out how to set the lighting up to give me the maximum spread for full coverage I've my tank.I will need to buy two 24"x1" heatsinks and cut my exsisting heatsink in half.I need to buy 4 more royal blue LEDs as well.once setup I should have the best of both worlds will get the growth from the MH and the pop from the LEDs.here is a few google sketchup drawings i worked on today that show how my lighting will be setup.
Top view of the lighting fixture

Bottom view

 

[CMcNeil]

I was able to get a little more work done last night on my stand.I went ahead and painted the framework with kilz,I got 3 coats on it before I tried to go to bed.I also got my ballast for the 250w MH I will be running.thank you Ty for the great deal on the ballast.

Stand all coated with kilz and ready to skin out.

 

[Typlus5]

More than welcome...you've got a great setup and is only going to get better. Test that ballast when you get a chance, it's been inactive for a while....:eek2:

 

[CMcNeil]

I will when I get a chance Ty,I'll need a reflector and bulb first.
Thanks for the compliment.

 

[mark.red]

frag

frag

again thanks for that awsome atl halloween frag! -Mark

 

[CMcNeil]

again thanks for that awsome atl halloween frag! -Mark

thank you Mark i hope its doing good for you.

..........UPDATE TIME.....

i have made some progress with my lighting system.my heatsinks,LED's,and optics are on order.i got two 24"x1.1"x1" heatsinks from rapid led.i ordered more 3w cree royal blue led's from reefledlights.com as well as more 70 degree optics.i also paid for my elite reflector and will have it later this week,so i will begin assemling it all once everything arrives.i went to lowes today and got some 1/8" thick x 1/2" wide aluminum stock to use to connect everything together for the lighting,i may get some angle stock as well but ill see how ridgid it feels before buying that.i need to cut my 12"x8.5" heatsink in half to use it for the pieces that will be on the left and right sides of the halide reflector and mill the edge to clean up the cut as well.

here are links to the parts i ordered.
heatsinks
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-138/1.1"-x-24"-Aluminum/Detail

LED's
http://reefledlights.com/shop/cree-xr-e-royal-blue-3w-led-on-star/

optics
http://reefledlights.com/shop/70-degree-optics/

elite reflector
http://www.aquacave.com/lumenmax-el...-br-reflector-by-sunlight-br-supply-2248.html

ballast
http://www.aquacave.com/coralvue-250w-single-metal-brhalide-electronic-ballast-386.html

here is what the final product will look like once i get it done.

 

[tcwayne]

Can't wait to see this badboy all together. It's going to be awesome! Nice job Chris.

Ps- when can I bring you that tub

 

[CMcNeil]

thanks Chuck,you can drop off the tub anytime you want.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Your set-up is going to be AWESOME, Chris!!

 

[CMcNeil]

Your set-up is going to be AWESOME, Chris!!

Thank you Samantha,I say you try all LEDs and then worse case you can do something similar to my lighting except you can use your T-5 mixed with the LEDs.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

Yeah, so far I'm happy with the LEDs, so we'll see...

 

[CMcNeil]

Well I had an issue with the coral vue ballast I picked up,it didn't work so I had to get a different one.I did some searching around and decided to go with a lumatek 250w MH/HPS ballast.these ballasts are digital and can run all kinds of bulbs including high pressure sodium(not that I will ever run one).they even have a switch on them to either run at 120v or 240v,kind of cool.supposedly the ballasts microprocessor can detect what kind of bulb you are running and raise or lower the voltage to run the bulb at optimum voltage for that bulb.that insures the correct color from the bulb.here is a link to the ballast if anyone wants to check them out.I also think they look cool being purple

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/lumatek-250w-120v-hpsmh-electronic-ballast-p-2104.html

 

[CichlidMan@<3]

Why you lookin at that site chris? huh? you hiding something? i know your back gives you problems all the time but come on just kidding. Your cadd looks sweet so I can't wait to see what it all looks like when its set up