crvz's hole in the wall

[drummereef]

Christmas?

Halloween. :beer: Better yet, Labor Day. :lol:

 

[mmedley]

tagging along

 

[Soferik]

Tagging along as well, also wanted to send along a big Thank You for providing inspiration for my 150 DD build. I just received my light rack from Esto Connectors yesterday (Great quality, Great price!), and am already plotting out spacing on it for LED supplementation! Keep the build progress coming! :beer:

 

[crvz]

Halloween. :beer: Better yet, Labor Day. :lol:

Yeah. You stop by tomorrow and we'll knock it all out.

tagging along

Tagging along as well, also wanted to send along a big Thank You for providing inspiration for my 150 DD build. I just received my light rack from Esto Connectors yesterday (Great quality, Great price!), and am already plotting out spacing on it for LED supplementation! Keep the build progress coming! :beer:

Thanks guys. Soferik, make sure you leave us a link to a build thread too. We'll need to participate!

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In today news, I bought a drywall saw. I couldnt find mine.

Those two studs in the middle of the empty hole where not supposed to be there. They arent nailed in to structure, they just have drywall screwed into them, so they'll be easy to remove. Unfortunately, that'll mean damage to the finished side of the wall, so we'll wait on that. I pulled the drywall off down to the floor so that I could replace it with plywood (3/4"), but also so that I could be certain what was in the wall right there.

This should help when it comes to mounting stuff, and I felt a well painted piece of plywood would tolerate water splashing over drywall (though maybe not). Next two obstacles include;

- Finding the best way to put a vapor barrier (or other solution) under the legs of the stand to avoid any moisture collection (you can see one of the legs sitting against the plywood in the above picture).
- Ensuring that the stand is level. The horizontal beam in the wall is 38" off the floor consistently, but the floor slopes ever so slightly, so I'll have to shim that to make it perfect.

 

[Soferik]

Here is a link to my build thread , thanks for the interest! Any participation would be welcomed. :

www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1879479

Looks like you've got your hole in the wall, no turning back now!

 

[drummereef]

If you aren't comfortable painting the plywood, laminate a 4x8 sheet of FRP over it. Easy to install and makes a finished/waterproof surface in minutes. It's what I used over my drywall behind my sump. Sooooooo glad I did.

 

[crvz]

I mounted the light panel. I built this twice, the second time with 1/2" plywood. That was a much better solution. This has to bear a lot more weight than just the electrical panel, so I needed a sturdier board. Here it is in place with the ballasts in place. It hinges open to the right (against that wall).

Hopefully it will stay that clean, with all the wires tucked behind the panel. You can see both panels in this image, and I'll admit that they need a lot of work to finish them out.

 

[drummereef]

Looking good! I'm liking the Sketchup on the tank wall.

 

[Bigez]

Looking good, I hate cutting into existing drywall for the same reason you had with the 2 stray studs. You never can tell how well or shabby the original builder put things together until your standing there wondering what in the hell they were thinking.

Keep up the good work, tagging along.

 

[crvz]

Looking good, I hate cutting into existing drywall for the same reason you had with the 2 stray studs. You never can tell how well or shabby the original builder put things together until your standing there wondering what in the hell they were thinking.

Keep up the good work, tagging along.

Thanks! I actually have pictures and video of this house about a week before they put up drywall, but they still left me some surprises. Fortunately, they'll have to fix these nail holes which I'll leave when I remove those studs, as it was agreed before we built the place that they'd leave that hole open. So I have documentation and a warranty yet (well, for about three more months).

 

[miwoodar]

Mmmmm, looking good. Nice dimensions on the new tank!

 

[crvz]

Mmmmm, looking good. Nice dimensions on the new tank!

Thanks, Mike! I've been busy this last couple days. The family is out of town until tomorrow afternoon, so I've just been trying to get ahead on a few of the projects. I redid my electrical panel once more (I rebuilt it out of 1/2" plywood for more strength), ran all the wiring for my lighting panel, painted the cabinets, cut and painted doors for the cabinets, finished mounting all the LEDs on the light rack (I'll have pictures of that soon). Seems like there was more. Who knows. I'm running out of productive things to do before building the stand, so that may be happening soon. I wanted to talk to my woodworking pro (father-in-law) before moving forward on that, but he's been in Europe. Must be rough being retired.

 

[crvz]

So here's the light rack finished. I have 36 Cree LEDs on it, 6 white and 30 royal blue. I was going to go with more of a 14kK look, but my wife really liked how my current LED setup (over the stock tank, the icecap reef illuminations fixtures) makes the coral fluoresce, so I decided to run more blues. Here's the final product (minus a bit of wiring on the drivers, which will get cleaned up once they're mounted on the wall).

And lit up with the dimmer at about 3V. This draws 50W, and it's nearly as bright as with the dimmer at 9V in terms of visible light (at that voltage, it was drawing about 150W). Since this is only aesthetics, I plan on just running it when operational at the 3V dim.

 

[drummereef]

Sick! What are the short posts that are pointing up on each corner for?

 

[gpkozmp]

Okay those lights are just sick looking I wish I were able to do that...If you don't mind me asking how much did that cost you? I am thinking of some LED's but I am not sure how much that is going to cost me.

 

[crvz]

Sick! What are the short posts that are pointing up on each corner for?

I wanted some feet so that if I ever set it down on the ground it would not crush the LEDs. The easiest solution was just to buy connectors that had the extra end to use for feet.

Okay those lights are just sick looking I wish I were able to do that...If you don't mind me asking how much did that cost you? I am thinking of some LED's but I am not sure how much that is going to cost me.

LEDs arent cheap, but I had a number of parts laying around. Including the aluminum, it was probably put out about $300 to get it running. If I had to buy everything new, I would expect it to be more expensive.

 

[Padrino]

Looks great man. Im sorry i have been away from RC for the most part of 3 months only getting on here and there. Ive been doing some major renos at my new house some of which is in preparation for the new reef. I hope to start a new build thread for the new 220 peninsula

 

[gpkozmp]

I might just stick with what I have so far which is going to be 6x T5's and then collect pieces here and there just to see if finally pay off.

If this going to be your main lighting for your tank?

 

[crvz]

Padrino, let's see it!

I might just stick with what I have so far which is going to be 6x T5's and then collect pieces here and there just to see if finally pay off.

If this going to be your main lighting for your tank?

those LEDs are only for supplemental lighting with the main lighting (250W radium bulbs) is not on. But yes, it is for the display tank.

 

[ojafri]

Very Nice and impessive work there on the LED's....your tank dimensions are awesome but do you think the Lumenbrights will give you a full front to back coverage ??