dmorel's 220 Round & Shallow reef build

[dmorel]

And just when I thought I was done buying lighting.. I ordered more.

Seriously.


But this time, just some cheap LED Spotlights from a guy on ebay

these red LED spotlights should sit in some simple fixtures to spot highlight some corals. This is going to be an experiment really but I understand that you can really get the corals colors to pop with a little extra color outside of the normal spectrum's we use in our tanks here.
I've ordered a few blue and green spots as well, but I'm not sure how much more blue I can have, and I doubt green is going to work well,but for a few bucks figured it was worth playing with them... I'm pretty sure the red's will be useful though from what I've read.

 

[Giga]

cool

 

[dmorel]

Well the rock is here.
140 Lbs of live rock. This stuff is fully cured and ready to go. I should have a pretty minimal cycle at most. Huge thanks to Scott for holding onto it for so long and for letting me borrow his tub until it's in the tank.

I hooked up the RKE to control the main lighting and the frag tank lighting which is currently on top of the tub of live rock. Starting to get the hang of the RKE, it's actually drop dead simple know that I know how it wants me to interact with it.
Have to figure out how to run the Bus cable to the light rack though, not cool the way it is right now

Shots of the new lighting config and the live rock below.

Rock

More lighting shots can't help myself

 

[woodwrangler]

:dance: I got a Fat Tire in the can :celeb3:

This is going to be one Super Cool & Classy system.
The pictures don't give the spots any justice at all, they are very P.I.M.P. in person. :thumbsup:

Like we talked about, I don't believe the Orca skimmer pump seals to be ozone safe. My Reeflo skimmer is part of the 1st production batch, so I'm not sure how/if things have changed, but, here's a link to the Replacement Seal Kit
Here's a post from the Premium Aquatics Forum area of RC , "The Orca skimmer is ozone safe, but the seals in the Orca pump are not. So you would want to upgrade your seals to an ozone safe seal."

Nevertheless, the 250 is a MONSTER and should be perfect for your volume/setup.

Have Fun - and, no problem on the rock and tub. I'll just expect an invite to see the tank when it's complete.

 

[CORALFISHG]

i looked but did not see it anywhere.. did you say where you got the track for the light rack?.. I have a traditional rack that i need to pull out of the way just the way that you have yours set up.

thanks

jason

 

[dmorel]

It was good hanging out Scott, you bet you've got a visit or two coming once the tank is done, there is more Fat Tire to be had!

I'll make sure to get the seals replaced immediately since I will be running Ozone, really appreciate the heads up on that.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14505081#post14505081 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CORALFISHG
i looked but did not see it anywhere.. did you say where you got the track for the light rack?.. I have a traditional rack that i need to pull out of the way just the way that you have yours set up.

thanks

jason

Jason, nothing to this, it's just a garage door track. Not the sexiest thing in the world but the aesthetic of this tank allows me to go for the industrial look without problem.

 

[dmorel]

Spent a couple of hours dealing with some cords and and getting all the RKE modules online today.
Temporarily mounted the RKE to the wall just outside the sump room. Eventually it will be flush mounted right around that spot and the cables run through the back of the wall. Put a few of the modules on the wall behind the sump but waiting to screw the rest into their final spots after we are done with the rest of the setup tomorrow.

Also got some Home Depot fuge lighting 3 6500K CF bulbs hung on my extra PVC rack

Pics below.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a big day!

Don't mind the crazy lithograph in this photo, my wife tells me it's important so I don't ask questions...

 

[SeaIsle]

Wow very nice. I really like what you are doing with the lighting, different and should be awesome.

 

[Giga]

do you know what inch diameter the spot give at that height for the 150watts?

 

[dmorel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14521200#post14521200 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Giga
do you know what inch diameter the spot give at that height for the 150watts?

Giga, which spot? The Won's through a large area and don't really function as true spots. The Superkaru's throw about a 6" true spot at the bottom of the tank from the height they are now which is 24" off the water, plus 16" tank height. Or at least that's about what I recall, but that's just from memory looking at it today during the water test.

Posting photos of today's progress in just a minute with water testing included.

 

[dmorel]

Well today we put water in the tank!
Well fresh water.

First, Skip had to do some plumbing in the tank, good thing that light rack moves out of the way, yeah, we left the ceiling fan on in hopes of whacking him in the head. It didn't happen, but later I hit myself in the head with it:

Next, time to drill a hole in the wall. This proved to be a LOT harder than anyone expected as it turns out there was about 4" of wood to go through.

This hole will be covered by the false floor, so it's not neat, but it works

Next up, skimmer time. This thing is just a beast, an absolute beast...

I had a super busy day of work, so I missed most of the day, but finally after business hours the plumbing was done, I was off the computer and phone and it was time to fill this baby up! Fresh water test...

the sump room filling up:

the tank is full!

Two very minor leaks, one just a bulkhead to be tightened up a bit and another a little patch of aquamend took care of.

We ran the recirc on the skimmer, Skip HAD to see it running with some salt water so we just dumped a cup of IO in.
After 15 minutes of running it had actually pulled some gunk!

After a last look...

we drained the tank.


Unfortunately we're not done, we're dangerously close but there are some odds and ends to tie up.
Skip is hoping to come back tomorrow night after the shop closes and see what we can do about getting things all the way buttoned up.

I hate to admit it, I was a bit concerned about how much magnification the round tank creates. I think once I see some livestock in there I should feel better. The sooner I get rock in the tank, the better I think.

Until next time....

 

[Giga]

 

[Crazy One]

Everything looks to be coming together really nicely.
I couldn't see it but, does the return come up throught the overflow?
Also do you think that having the ballasts above the tank poses a risk of humidity and possibly having salt residue accumulate on them?
Other than that this is a great build.

 

[Crazy One]

Everything looks to be coming together really nicely.
I couldn't see it but, does the return come up throught the overflow?
Also do you think that having the ballasts above the tank poses a risk of humidity and possibly having salt residue accumulate on them?
Other than that this is a great build.

 

[woodwrangler]

Looks like some great progress was made
Tell Skip he needs to call in sick and get this thing full of SW.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14522037#post14522037 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dmorel

I hate to admit it, I was a bit concerned about how much magnification the round tank creates.

That picture really shows the magnification of the tank. Once you get rock and livestock in there, you won't notice it anymore.

Nice skimmer

 

[Pyrrhus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14524314#post14524314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by woodwrangler
Looks like some great progress was made
Tell Skip he needs to call in sick and get this thing full of SW.

Can I just call in sick and stay home instead? :lol:

 

[Absolute Reef]

Sweet, I love this, very nice setup !

 

[Johan Susanto]

Hi Dmorel,
with water level so close to the edge,will you get any issue the fish jump out?

 

[ADA33]

Looks really good so far and very clean. I think the only reason I would shy away from a tank like this is it will be really hard to get photos from the side. But top down photos will be amazing.

Did you decide on the type of power heads you are going to use?
I think it would be cool to mount Tunzes 6201 on acrylic rods in the center. Two going one direction and two going the other direction and have them on a multi controller turning two on and two off every half hour.

 

[dmorel]

I'll answers questions and comments tomorrow, at the moment I'm going to bed. Skip just left at 12:49 AM and...

the tank is online!

Rock stacking to commence tomorrow after work.