faded1004 250g build, first timer...

[faded1004]

okay, so i got all my t5 stuff in... and a few other things... so now it is time to work on my canopy thingy... hahaha...

basially i will be running 2 x T12 VHO and 4 x T5 VHO and 10 x 440nm spot led's...



so all in all, i will have enough light i think, just need to keep my sps and clams close to the metal halides... and i still need to calculate the power of the leds, so i can get the power supply...

i started by making a basic rectangle for the top of the canopy. i am using 2 x 2 x 8 so that the top (where are the lights will be mounted) will be strong and wont' flex. atleast i hope not...



if you notice, i had to put on 2 panels on the top, it kept on folding in like an accordian. i have the rest of the panels kinda cut, just want to finisht the frame before i put the panels on. after finishing the basic top of the canopy, i move to the legs. for my canopy, i will be making it only 6 -8 inches tall... pretty short, because i will be utilixing my old MH hood and it will be popping out the top and other then that i will not need any more space...



after that, i finished teh basic bottom, where the canopy will be resting on the tank. you can see from the picture, i put the t12 end caps on because i got impatient... hahaha, i wanted to see hwo they fit... PERFECT! you can see that the middle cut out will be where my MH hood will sit. i put the canopy over, and i was able to stand on the top of it! which shoudl be able to hold the aluminum MH hood i have... alittle over engineered... but better to be safe then sorry!

i have to stop there (my drill is making too much noise! well just too loud for it being 1am), tomorrow i will finish up the panels, and start on wiring! and then, to the tank it goes for testing and adjustments!

have a good night everyone!

 

[faded1004]

i started the day by finishing up the canopy skeleton... good start to a fun day!



so lining up the t5 end caps... there is a problem... when i put the bulbs in a row, i barely have enough room for put them in. it hangs over the edges about an inch... and i dont' want to flip the end cap stands...



so i basically marked it and decided to just shave off a bit of the end... mounting it to a larger piece of wood so i can hold on to it firmly, i just sawed off the end of the stand... and as you can see, it turned out perfect!



here is a comparison of the before and after pics of the standoffs...




after doing both, they look great!

 

[faded1004]

after finishing all the endcaps i moved to putting on the panels on to the sides of the canopy. i will make the rear solid, top will be doored, sides will hold fans, and front will be faced by professional...

so basic steps, cut, clamp, screw, check, glue... not to bad, nice looking rear of the canopy!



when i finished that, i checked the weight capacity of the canopy. i knew alot of lights would need to go into the canopy so i decided that it woudl be a good test, if i can stand on top of it, then it woudl hold all the lights i woudl ever need... and it passed!

hahahaha... needless to say, i still decided to beef up the main uprights, that way i would have no problems EVER!



so after all that, i moved to putting in the wood preservative so that it will be protected against alot of things nature and i will throw at it!



after that i painted it with sealant, and made sure that you couldn't see any more of the green!

 

[faded1004]

so, after i wait for the paint to dry... i move to electronics! thinking it wouldn't be hard, i took my time and planned out my wiring paths... i started with my icecap ballast and mounted it to the rear back of my canopy... carefully mounting it and cleanly wrappin all the wires. i split them in to "right side connections" and "left side connections"...



after the icecap, i moved to the aro ballast... which was alot easier to work with... damn, that icecap has alot of wires! my main goal was to try to make it simple and clean... i wrapped the wires enough to where it was protected, but still i can see the colors of the wires inside... clean, held together, and functional!



and after all the wrapping and stuff... man... we have light!



last few notes... the 85w t5 VHO's are super bright! man, they make my t12 VHO's look like they are barely on!

 

[WhiskeyReefer]

Nice work, gotta see some pics of it when it's done.

 

[faded1004]

yea, i went away this weekend, i will post more pics this week... i am still tweeking my ac jr programming... i set up the general light patterns... but now i am putting in the safety stuff, like turning off the metal halides when it gets up to 80 degrees, tuning off the t5's when it gets to 82 and turning off the T12's when it gets to 83...

my setup is doing great... i am getting alittle... wishy washy about the canopy doors, not sure how i want to set it up... i will try to post pics so you guys can see what i am thinking about...

 

[nss9400]

awsome!

 

[faded1004]

awww man, i need to get my wide angle lens... until then no full tank shots...

anyways, i just had my 50mm... and took a quick shot of my zoo and stuff...

 

[faded1004]

i just built my temporary fuge light... has my sunset and sunrise lamps... i haven't setup my 150w hps light... need to get another power cord to butcher... hahaha...

 

[JGermanow]

tank is looking great.. How long is your light cycle? nice temp fuge light. keep up the great work

 

[faded1004]

well, i am running lights (anything on) for about 10 hours... not all lights on all the time... there is a 4 hour overlap? i wanted to gradually go up in intesity and then drop off... my whole sunset and sunrise "thing" i was tryign to do...

i just recieved my new hps bulb in... so i will be putting that in tonight... hehehee.... i will take pics when i am done...

thanks for the compliment!

 

[faded1004]

okay, i know i haven't posted in a long time. but since i have been so busy and the tank is running on its own. i have slowed down in fixing up the tank. sorry... alot of people have been asking about how the tank looks and what i have gotten... so to start off, here is a picture of the full tank and how it is so far.

so much corraline! crazy huh, it took a full afternoon to get all the pieces off the front cause it was just crazy over everything! you can see some new rocks. cause they totally stand out from all the others. i got some new ones cause i am getting into sps so bought some new rocks and drilled some frag plug holes.

this picture is no flash, all lights on, and no photoshop editing. except to make it merged and smaller. i know my glass is scratcheed alittle... but hey... i got the tank for 250 bucks! good enough for me!

give me alittle time and let me upload some closeups of my frags... i am so happy with theones i got. these are my starter frags i got and they are doing well. i think in a few months, if these guys do well... i am goign to invest in a nice huge colony!

i had to take 2 shots to cover the 8 feet of my tank. i only have my 50mm lens so i had to make do. stay tuned for some closeups!

 

[faded1004]

close up of my baby blue tang... so colorful! the spectrum food and fresh food mix i make give it a nice blue color. none of my pictures are edited...

small frog spawn... love the light pink...

here is my newest member... a very small rbta... it is about 2 inches in diameter? very pretty... so pink... i am sure it will color up very nice!

came out alittle blurry, but 1 of 2 new zoo's i got... this one is so colorful... the tentacles are so curly!

here is the second zoo i got... sooo many thin long tentacles!

here is my only yuma? i don't think it is a ric... but still very nice... i got alot of heads now... they grew so much!

 

[faded1004]

and now to show off my sps start up family! hahahaha... these are the first ones... and i am so into sps now. i can't wait to get colonies! so i started getting frags a week or two ago? seems like they are happy so i am going to stop here and then if all goes well... it is off to see the wizard for some nice large colonies!

so here is my general picture! i have really gotten into milliporas. they are just amazing with their long tenticles.

and the focus on the rear frags.

here is another set near the back of the main pack of frags...

hope you guys like the pics... i am soooooo enjoying it every day! i will try to post more...


my current specs:
calcium about 380
alk about 7
mag about 1100
ph about 8.23
salt about 1.021

using 95% scripps water... topoff and raising salinity with tropic marin pro salts (next bag will use red sea, no more bags of tropic)

supps, i use purple up occasionally, tropic mag, tropic calcium, kent alk buff

feeding now with coral frenzy, dt's oyster eggs, my own fresh seafood mix, spectrum pellets, and also some seaweed

 

[faded1004]

okay, it has been a long time since my tank has been running. and finally i got my parts to upgrade my sump.

my plans are to:
add to total water volume
add to total live rock
add a permanant frag rack to lower tank
move to dual sock filter setup
move to horizontal cheato area
change HPS and PC fuge lights to T5HO
40w t5 uv
aqua c 240 skimmer
redsea ozone

since i am on a budget, it has taken so long to get the parts and plan this out right! i started by visiting acrylic stores for scraps and picking up used parts over the couple years.

i finished building and modifying the bottom tanks and i am ready to check the parts and drill the final holes. i had to build a wood riser for one of the tanks and an extension on the rear of my stand for the other tank.

had to run into work so no pics right now, but wanted to start on my thread as i had am so excited about this upgrade.

 

[faded1004]

dang... major issues... seem to constanly be missing 1 last plumbing part... but got that all settled... and just when i put the skimmer tubign together and stuff... broke the skimmer cup...

there is a hose coming from the cup to external tank, and the connection i put in... on the side i guess tweeked when i was putting it in... and cracked the side because i think it was cross threading on accident...

it is coated in glue... i hope to get the system up and running by tomorrow morning... i hope... took a couple of pics... but too tired to upload. i did post come pics of my corals...

 

[faded1004]

even more issues! wow... leak after leak... nothing big, just drips here and there...

finally it is 1am and i got it stable... new skimmer is running but not set to skim yet... as i need to sleep cause my feet hurt. damn early meetings with work...

will take some pics tomorrow in the day light. so far:

aquac ev-240 setup and running
40w UV setup and running
primary sump up and running
fuge in place, but still dry
both drains now have 45 degree average slope. drains are super quiet.
installed 1 of 2 socks. i am not sure if it is cause i am running too much flow in the single sock, but it is loud right now.

man, the skimmer is kinda loud... may be i am used to an internal smal G3, but yea... i am hoping i can tune it a bit better and get it quieter...

1 of 2 drains opperational
retun line is running about 50% flow right now
tested no power status and no flood danger, now i can sleep sound.

the flow inside the tank is better... the tunzes are now working better since i moved the return to the side of the tank, instead of center return. i get a nice, strong-weak current motion (not wave, but talking about turbulance). i love it...

 

[faded1004]

NOTE* i have from the start worked on this tank by my self! my own 2 hands and no other. that is why i work slow, but all done by me!

okay guys, finally some initial pics... this was how i left it last night, so sorry for the mess. i still have lots to work on... you can see the fresh 100g of water standing by... alittle too close... but too late to try to move it on my own... : )

Fuge is on the right side, and includes a frag tray that i have been wanting for a long time. should hold plenty of frags to get them ready for display mounting.

i am hoping to get the FUGE up and running tonight. but not sure how much energy i will have by the end of my work day. stayed up way too late last night solving small things on the sump side. inside the fuge will be a spray bar that will minimize cryptic zones. that is the top pipe of the 2 that lay on the bottom. it is just simple and will hook up to a small mag2 and has slits across the whole length to circulate the water underneath. i plan on covering the whole bottom with about 50-100 pounds of live rock and grow cheato above it. the bottom pipe is for my over flow, cheap method. needed to pipe to left, but wanted water to exit from right. easiest was to just lay down a pipe since i bought a full length of 1.5" pvc. my frag tray is mounted to the back of the fuge area.

here is a pic of the sump area. basic, just has 1 sock installed as i am still working on my dual sock mounting. i put in 1 baffle for the sock bubbles, and will have to work on the drains from the skimmer and the fuge. dont' mind the bulkhead facing you... hahaha... that was from my old setup, and i am going to just plug that up... not sure if i want to try to use it in the future, so i just put an old bulkhead and plugged it.

i started by rotating the tank 90 degrees to utilize the room i had behind the tank. i made a simple step behind the stand that is goign to brace the tank and also raise the skimmer.

dont' mind all the wires, i will be cleaning that up soon, i had to check individual connnections one at a time, so i used a power strip and put things in 1 at a time. also, i want to move around my ac jr plugs so i will have to reprogram the sockets again. which isn't bad... just more time needed...

now compared to my last setup... i have now turned my return pump 90 degrees. look, i have room to put stuff inside my stand now! hahaha, before the 2 tanks just dominated the stand, and i couldn't put anythign under there. you can also see the UV filter behind against the back wall. i used clear on 2 parts so i can see that it is on. the window to the bulb is on the left side and is hard to see. so i thought this might help out alot.

here is my faithful reeflo super dart... still clean and kicking butt.

and now my new skimmer. it should be good to me and is my first external skimmer. and now i introduce the EV-240. common i know... but super to me! i ran it for a night and will start tuning it tonight. for now i left the bubble level low. in the morning all i got was humidity in the collection cup...

my first posted video! okay, i haven't learn how to embed the videos yet. so here is the link to my skimmer working...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJQ7whRjgc