crvz's hole in the wall

[crvz]

Mounting to the frame will probably still be fine - what are the dimensions of the stock the frame is made from? If it's beefy enough to rigidly support your light rig, it's probably enough. Worst case, put a fan up there. Once air starts moving, things change for the better VERY quickly.

My plan is to use 1" square aluminum tubing with a flange. I think I saw someone in the main DIY thread make some strip lights out of similar material, spacing the LEDs every 8" apart and keeping temps under 100F. Fans are certainly an option, though, and I've got plenty of them on hand. One variable is that, in the picture I posted earlier, there are nylon connectors at each joint (represented in black). Heat transfer through those would be non-existent, so I would have to consider LED placement to ensure there's good surface area for heat dissipation.

One thing we havent broached here is optics. Would I bother with optics being that these would be solely for aesthetic purposes?

 

[Taqpol]

My plan is to use 1" square aluminum tubing with a flange. I think I saw someone in the main DIY thread make some strip lights out of similar material, spacing the LEDs every 8" apart and keeping temps under 100F. Fans are certainly an option, though, and I've got plenty of them on hand. One variable is that, in the picture I posted earlier, there are nylon connectors at each joint (represented in black). Heat transfer through those would be non-existent, so I would have to consider LED placement to ensure there's good surface area for heat dissipation.

One thing we havent broached here is optics. Would I bother with optics being that these would be solely for aesthetic purposes?

I was going to mention the nylon connectors! It seems like it would work fine if you evenly spread the LEDs over the entire fixture because you would have to think of each individual strut as an individual heatsink.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

My plan is to use 1" square aluminum tubing with a flange. I think I saw someone in the main DIY thread make some strip lights out of similar material, spacing the LEDs every 8" apart and keeping temps under 100F. Fans are certainly an option, though, and I've got plenty of them on hand. One variable is that, in the picture I posted earlier, there are nylon connectors at each joint (represented in black). Heat transfer through those would be non-existent, so I would have to consider LED placement to ensure there's good surface area for heat dissipation.

That'll work fine. If you build it and measure temps higher than you want, the fan will take care of things.

One thing we havent broached here is optics. Would I bother with optics being that these would be solely for aesthetic purposes?

No optics desired on a build this "sparse." Optics don't change overall intensity, they just change where the light goes. When you have few LEDs spread far apart, you want the light at a wide angle to get good coverage - hence, you don't want optics.

 

[110galreef]

tagging along......awesome build!

 

[prop-frags]

Looking great Chris!!
I love the light rig drawing. I tried sketchup for a few hours, but man, I must be dense. Can't really get it to do what I want.

 

[crvz]

Looking great Chris!!
I love the light rig drawing. I tried sketchup for a few hours, but man, I must be dense. Can't really get it to do what I want.

I remember freshman year of engineering whizzing through autocad, so it saddens me how I struggle mightily to fumble through sketch-up. I stick with it just out of stubborn pride. Reminds me how two years ago I could speak Russian... now I have about a 75 word vocabulary.

In other new, I got my PAR meter back and measured my new light. With two layers of screen between the light and the tank, it's the same as my 150W MH setup. I pulled the screen back and we were about 3 times as much PAR, so I'll be slow to make that adjustment.

 

[thenewone]

nice hopefully you can invite me to check it out in person when ur done so i can get some ideas for mine

 

[Padrino]

Chris,
Your plans look great so far. Thanks to your help a year a go when i was building my 90 along with others, it went extremely well. As i should have anticipated, the urge to upgrade is already here. I got married in October and my wife and i are looking for a house so we both are in the same boat at the moment. Only this time, maybe i can help you! I m not sure what size i will upgrade too but it will definately be over 300 gallons display and close to 500 gallons total.

One thing that i've noticed in Canada. Everyone that has a huge tank has a Heat ventilator recovery unit installed in their central air to help with the humidity and prevnt the windows from sweating.

Definitely tagging along!
Rob

 

[crvz]

One thing that i've noticed in Canada. Everyone that has a huge tank has a Heat ventilator recovery unit installed in their central air to help with the humidity and prevnt the windows from sweating.

Definitely tagging along!
Rob

Ah, to have that problem. Fortunately, this room is isolated, has no windows, and will have it's own AC (most of which have the capability to remove at least 5 gallons a day), which I'm presuming will be adequate. Nice to have you along!

Witnessed the kole tang mowing down some green nori yesterday (stuff from the supermarket, which is cheap and usually a bit harder to get them acclimated to). So both new fish are eating, though the naso is hiding somewhere. I couldnt find it this morning, but I did see it eating last night so I guess I shouldnt worry too much.

 

[Padrino]

Good point, im really looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

[crvz]

Good news and bad news. Bad news is the naso tang died. It was always small and thin, but it ate, so I had good hope. I don't know if it wasnt getting enough food, or what, but it was stuck to my tunze powerhead intake for I don't know how many hours. It actually lived 2 days after that, but it clearly suffered and it passed away yesterday. That's the worst part about this stupid hobby.

Good news, I got the bottom plate and top plate installed for walling off the fish room. I've got the lumber to finish framing everything out, but I still need to buy a door so I'm going to hold off for a little while.

 

[MTH]

I agree with this. I have a Neon Dottyback that is such a punk when it comes to introducing new fish. He even tries to flex on the tangs. I think he made my Firefish jump out of the tank. Only way he will stay is if I get a large enough tank that all fish can steer clear of him. Otherwise he may be banished to the sump/refuge.

[/QUOTE]I now have four fish (that I speak of... the springer's dottyback is a craphead who won't be making any future transitions).[/QUOTE]

 

[crvz]

To elaborate more on the status of my current crop of coral, about 9 months ago I tore down my 150 gallon to get ready for a move. I had built a nice large stock tank to keep everything in at a friends house, but for whatever reason everything started to die (I suspect it had to do with very depleted pH and the fact I couldnt deal with it on a daily basis). I hated to lose the coral, but what was the worst was losing the achilles tang and sargassum trigger. I went through and salvaged that which I could, took frags of some of my favorite pieces, and brought things home to my garage in a 30 gallon tank I used just for frags of a few sps and other lps pieces I really liked. That tank hopped around a few places, and few acros did well, but I didnt want to give everything up. When we moved in to this place (which was when this thread was started), I set up that stock tank again and moved everything home. This week, I finally started to see new growth on a few acros. I was rather surprisingly excited. I presume this has to do with the quality of the new light plus the calcium reactor (which I hadnt used in months). So I broke out the camera, and now I have a few pictures.

This is not a great piece anymore, and I imagine a lot of people would have given up on it. But it's rare, and it's been through a lot, so I'm excited to see new polyps and growth on dead skeleton. The infamous ORA Blue Polyp Acro (and a picture of it a year ago).

And the piece that is started to show new growth in the last week. I dubbed in Blue Steel, some unknown branching acro (and again, a shot from a year ago).

Here are a few shots of other corals that didnt suffer near as badly through all the trials I put them through. A couple blastos.

And some zoas.

 

[TotalVapor]

Your corals look great, cant wait for you to get that in wall going

 

[Padrino]

looks good Chris!

 

[veloboy]

The 150 was sweet. Can't wait to see what you do with the next one.

Blue Steel looks a little like ORA purple plasma, only better because it isn't as shaggy!

 

[prop-frags]

Looking forward to seeing the progress Chris!

 

[crvz]

Thanks, everybody! Picked up a few things today to start closing the room in... a door (I went for one with a window, just so I wouldnt feel like I'm in a cave!), sheetrock, got the studs already (still have to cut them and nail them into the top and bottom plate), some romex. I also ordered two sheets of 3/8" acrylic to pick up on Monday, so I'll have a number of projects running at the same time (not to mention the ones I've got going for the wife). It's spring break this week here, so I'll take a few days off just because no one will be in the office. I expect at least a little progress to occur.

 

[crvz]

Had more time than I expected today, and a little help, so I jumped the gun and started framing. Maybe not quite to code, but plenty for my purposes.

 

[gotfrogs]

Looks good but what is the AC plan? It will be hot before we know it!