Custom 160 Build Thread - Finally!!

ok...I lied....i didnt go to bed because I stared at the tank for a while.....lights are awesome.

anyway...photobucket is back.....

OK, so first, the fan holder I had made at Faulkner plastics.....they are great, always do a top notch job and are the cheapest acrylic seller I've come across south of the Broward line.

I ended up going with 6 120mm computer fans. They blow a ton of air at a virtually inaudible noise level. In fact, once the lights were on, the amount of heat that was rising from the vent holes in the canopy was insane.....once i turned the fans on, that air was actually quite cool. Still, Ill have to wait and see what it does to the water temp.

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Acrylic fan holder

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Acrylic fan holder - no film

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Fans mounted on holder

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Fans mounted onto canopy

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Vent Holes

And now the lights.....

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It was a ridiculously tight fit but it all went in with a little good thinking from carlos. we had to lower the center reflector a bit.

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Light on!!!

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And then there she was.....
 
Nice Jorge, you are right............. then on the 192nd day of the third year of progress there was light on Jorges tank holy cow.......
now all you need is some big fish to splash and spot up those pretty reflectors.......
 
Lol....yeah, it took me a little while.... ;)

David, all the fans are blowing in. After doing some reading, the general conclusion was that this would cool better since obviously hot air rises and escapes through the vent holes. Any new air replacing it is therefore cool. It's convenient because I have an air vent pretty close to the tank that helps as well.

W/ out lights the tank was running at a steady 77-78. Yesterday the lights were on for 2hrs w/out fans and the temp went up to 80.6. I turned the fans on and when I checked 4hrs later the temp was at 79.2 so thats not too bad. I'm probably going to put one more fan over my sump to aid with more evaporative cooling. I am a big fan of evaporative cooling because if you think about it, it's a constant water change (not saying it replaces SW changes but it does keep a nice cycle of new water in the tank). I think with the sump fan, I'll avoid needing a chiller.

As for the Halide Lighting, its 3 LumenBright Wide reflectors, 3 Coralvue 250w ballasts, 3 Reeflux 12ks. The T5s are some prewired fixtures I picked up from NYVP. They are 4 80w bulbs, two Geissman actinic and two aquablue's. I am going to change out the aquablues to actinic as well to have that actinic look for a couple hours a day.

The only lighting I haven't put on yet is the moonlights. I couldn't figure out a good place for them. I think I'm going to have to rig it like Rogger did with the loc line.

Overall (and this comes after only one day so it's unfair), I love the Halides but they are almost too bright. I feel like I need sunglasses to look at the tank! The color temp is awesome but Im just not used to the brightness. Im sure once I get used to it Ill love it. The shimmer is incredible! If after a while I don't like them, ATI here I come.

I am little worried that the reflectors are a bit to close to the water. I looked for shields but they don't sell them for these reflectors. If water splashes on the bulb can they break?
 
Btw, Matt.....there are 6 fish in the tank but I think they freaked out when the lights came on....the 3 chromis' and the gramma went into hiding....the clowns thought they were dying because they started swimming straight towards the light.

If you look at the picture, you'll see that both clowns are looking straight up at the light. One in the front right corner and the other in the back left corner. It was pretty funny. By the end of the night, after the lights had been on a while, I think they realized they weren't dying and finally started swimming around.

As for big fish, I eventually want to get 1 small Blonde Naso, maybe one other tang....but mostly, I think I'll be doing wrasses.
 
J....they are Noctua. I found them through a guy here on RC, GlassReef....his build thread very much inspired my tank design. In fact, I pretty much copied it save dimensions, his is much bigger!

By far, his is one of the nicest threads i have ever seen in everything from planning to organization of equipment. He used the Noctua's as they blow by far the most air at the quietest level. You really cant tell they are on.

Here is a link to the fans....
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/noctua-nf-s12-1200-ultra-silent-120mm-fan-p-16585.html
 
Very impressive build, Jorge! I especially like what you did designing and building your stand! Nice workmanship! Light rack/canopy looks real good. The Noctua fan setup turned out great! :)
 
i really dont like you anymore Jorge :mad: ive been looking around all morning for prices on different things in order to upgrade my tank lol
 
lol....it has begun....

Tom, thanks for the kind words......though to not mislead here, I didnt do any of the carpentry, a family friend who is a carpenter did......but yeah, he did great work.
 
Should have gone with the 175's.....do you learn nothing from me??? lol. Just messin. Tank looks great man!
 
Thanks Lee....yeah man...really thought about it but too few options if i didnt like them...thats what i like about the 250s...if i dont like them switching color temps is easy.
 
Actually, I'm not running the halides right now since I don't have timer set up. Gonna do that tomorrow hopefully.
 
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