fowlr2reef?'s build

fowlr2reef?

fowlr2reef?

New member
i have no bad anenome's or bristleworms or any bad hitchhikers. not reef yet. so have not been "contaminated" yet. looking forward to it tho. just copeipods and algea, cuc and 6 fish in a 80 gallon,wide reef tank. with no reef in it. not gonna rush it tho. i got a little put back to start but dont wanna go crazy yet. heck my tanks only been up for a little over 2months. it is well seeded tho. it has all color algea even a little red. little high in nitrates as not r/o at the moment. water is real good where i'm at tho if u ever need to fill up. good ol mtn well water. just restarted quarantine tank . 10 gallon with 6 inches of crushed coral on the bottom. gonna put some seeded lava rock in today prolly.
this is just to break the ice on the build thread. most of it is copy&paste from a p.m. if i dont start doin stuff i never will. yall get together and give me a collective kick in the a__.
 
this computin stuff is quite addictive still havn't broken loose from it. lol. had somewhat of a brain storm. HEY PICKUPMAN66 i know your rock is prolly dead from the move.:(. got2 thinkin my setup is 2 months old but lookin real good. i have a 55 gallon tank under the house. was thinkin bout plumbin my sump under there anyway. have all the pipe and fittings prolly bout 400 bones worth of pvc under here. i could plumb it inline and have your rock ready 4 u when ur ready to start. that is if it will fit in a 55 gallon tank. we could even do a group buy of lava rock and throw some in 2 start ppl up if they need some. just an idea anyway. i myself have enough rock for my tank so you wouldn't have to worry bout any "wandering" getting lost. thought that posting this in the public forum would be good as it tends to keep an honest man honest, so to speak. you can buy lava rock cheap by the truckload for land scaping so that is an inexpensive alternative to pricey live rock for sum ppl. just and idea. back 2 work.
 
anyone know of a place to aquire a reasonably priced reefkeeper elite with ethernet. any info would be appreciated. thanks in advance. still aint off puter. lol
 
one more cup of coffee and thats it i swear. i been researching led stuff wanna put 2gether a diy led hood that is reasonably priced. got sum info. feel free to critique and shoot it down if it looks completely unfeasable tho.
 
Those dimmers are pretty cool.

I would be careful using a computer PSU without any load on the 12v rail. They can malfunction and cause a fire. LEDs do not add a lot of load to the units.
 
mixer911 said:
Those dimmers are pretty cool.

I would be careful using a computer PSU without any load on the 12v rail. They can malfunction and cause a fire. LEDs do not add a lot of load to the units.
Click to expand...

may eventually go to a meanwell. just playing at the moment. just trying to get some input i know most go with cree's and i'm just trying to bounce it off some knowledgable ppl. there is 1 or 2 of those around here.:thumbsup:

any constuctive critisisim is greatly apprecated. if i dont get par info from suppliers i may get some anyway and if any1 local 2 me has the equip to test rating that would be nice. this is all conjecture at this point.
 
Last edited:
I would hesitate on the color spectrum of these lights. Most of your light spectrum in reef bulbs are in the 10,000k to 20,000k Range. the link below references the manufacturer of VHO Aquarium lights I have used for many many years.

http://www.uvlco.com/AquariumT12VHO.html

the LED you referenced has the below spectrum and in my opinion will not suffice for coral growth. in regards to a reef, the below are more one the yellow end of what I would use.

Cool White (6500K)
Natural White (5000K)
Warm White (3000K)
Incandescent WW (2700K)

I love where you are going with this and there is some potential. I just bought some small 12v LED's for my boat this past week. they are mega bright red white and blue, but that spectrum I dont think will work as well.
 
fowlr2reef? said:
http://www.arraylighting.com/images/ProductPageSplashG4.png

no par rating have inquired 1 watt 12v 5600k

http://www.superbrightleds.com/pdfs/LDB-8A.pdf
or
http://www.superbrightleds.com/pdfs/LDRF-8A.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/im...1&s=musical-instruments&qid=1274663442&sr=1-1

using an old computer power supply no cost.

will edit later and put pricing info if that is cool.

these are availible from all different sources. i do not own any stock in any of these company's. lol
Click to expand...


I would greatly recommend that you not try to break new ground with that first item. They tend to cost a lot, possibly won't be on the market long so would be hard to replace, if one element fails the entire unit is toast. And that scheme gives little or no ability to change color.

As for those dimmers... After reading the absolutely horrible data sheets I would steer clear.
 
Quite frankly, I would not go for a cheap LED build. If you're going to do it, I would go ahead and do it right. Do it with Meanwell drivers, Cree or Luxeon LEDs, and optics on a good heatsink. :)

Oh, and listen to kcress... he knows what he's talking about. :)

Brandon
 
NeveSSL said:
Oh, and listen to kcress... he knows what he's talking about. :)

Brandon
Click to expand...

^^^^ i agree. ive read his diy thread, he is very knowledgable. i was just trying to think outside the box, and will continue to do so. i thrive on constructive critisisim. lol. :)
 
Pickupman66 said:
the LED you referenced has the below spectrum and in my opinion will not suffice for coral growth. in regards to a reef, the below are more one the yellow end of what I would use.

Cool White (6500K)
Natural White (5000K)
Warm White (3000K)
Incandescent WW (2700K)
Click to expand...

i transposed some numbers i wrote 5600k and meant 6500k refering to the cool white array. thanks for the bulb link. saved that1. holler next time some of your fishy friends are around wanna meet'em, or the next local meeting.
 
Pickupman66 said:
The club is all in Nashville metro area for the most part. Check out the forum for the meetings or MTRC.org.
Click to expand...
maybe we need to form us a local branch. lol. we do need to get together you and the other1 forget his name the one who said he was 5minutes away from u.

call me sumtime. i sent you a text a few days back so my# should be on ur phone. a apologize 2 the other1. bad with names will search your move thread and edit this in a few. some ppl's kids. rude and all. 4gitin names and such.
 
fowlr2reef? said:
anyone know of a place to aquire a reasonably priced reefkeeper elite with ethernet. any info would be appreciated. thanks in advance. still aint off puter. lol
Click to expand...


You can purchase from aquacave and the code RC5 gets youan additional 5% off. They are already reasonably priced...you can also scour the for sale boards as they occasionally pop up.
 
andywe said:
You can purchase from aquacave and the code RC5 gets youan additional 5% off. They are already reasonably priced...you can also scour the for sale boards as they occasionally pop up.
Click to expand...
we like this andywe guy already. will add to friends list.:wavehand: among others. this reefcentral place is cool. i think i may have to advanced and add a rc to my avatar. you ppl r gonna have to put up with me so be prepared. WARNING
 
sum1 thinks i need2 go advanced as well. as soon as i hit enter on that last. guess what. screen change, lol. i will be an asset to this community, this i know if i know nothing else. thanks ppl 4 your help. the sleeper has awoken.
 
tank emergency. 10 gallon quarantine tank had some type of contaminent in it. lost all 3 fish in it. pretty sure of what happened. will not say what it was tho as it is just heresay. if it is not fact i will not post it in this forum. well i should say if i do not believe it to be factual i will not post it in this forum. that sounds more acurate. i was trying to balance my parameters in the quarantine tank with my 80 gal wide acrylic reef tank that is not reef yet. so i think i may have somewhat contaminated my money tank. so far everything looks good. i will implement a water change procedure. small daily water changes 4 a while and hold off on corals 4 a while. i was talking with a somewhat local to me LFS he is very knowledgeable one of the goodun's if you will gave me some very good advice. have become religeous about tank parameters. somewhat expensive hobby. untill recently i never had a fish go down recent events have just awoken my "fishy senses" spider senses if you catch my analogy. good look out ppl. these are the ppl i will surround myself with, good ppl. thanks for takin the time for a crazy ol man. u ppl are alright no matter what kcress says about you..... j.k.
 
Last edited:
shout out to kcress. i think that i'm still gonna buy some of those array lights. this is not because i dont believe you. you do you strike me as the type of person that knows what they r talking about it's just that the led build had reached epic status in my head. i have not bought one single part. ive designed and built and revised the led project in my head a bunch of times and it has aquired mythic proportions in my mind. i will try to build a nano hood and if i ever find sum1 who has a par meter i will get them to test it. not because i dont believe you. i have a somewhat sentimental thing for the project now. your thread struck the spark tho so it's all your fault. lol. j.k. bang on kcress day is in full effect. thanks for taking the time with me. i still intend on making a large hood for my 80 gallon. i will use leds that are proven with it tho. i'm definatley not trying to reinvent the wheel on this 1.
 
Last edited:
gonna start cleaning up this thread a little, post a few not so good pics of tank progression. sorry ppl not a high doller camera and i'm not a photographer either. so bear with me i will improve. poke @ pickupman66 i dont know if i would trust that fowlr2reef? with with my rock just yet. i had a bit of a quarantine tank malfuction. i believe the culprit to be a bucket of crushed coral substrate. i had 2 buckets of substate sitting in my workshop at my other house hr&1/2 away from where i live now. one bucket went into the main 80gallon tank which is running flawlessly. the other was stuck under the house for future use. both of these buckets were covered. but the ambient environment. i.e. carparts chemicals so on and so forth might not have been ideal conditions to put substrate into. live and learn eh? but the quarantine was used twice for other fish. since then its been drained. something could have been set into it unintentionally. either theory could be sound. i dunno. i will be setting up a small pool at my girlfriends house any day now. i was thinking of throwing the coral substrate in the bottom and letting it flush out with the chorine for a bit and the rinsing it with fresh and seeing what happens by setting up a 10gallon substrate quarantine tank. be very wary tho if that fowlr2reef tries 2 sell u any crushed coral substrate tho..............lol any1 else have 2 quarantine their substrate? or is it just me? better to laugh than cry about it i guess. i even thought about not tellin mama cause i dint wanna upset her. even went to the store to buy the same fish tho. forgot my wallet tho, a sign eh? not a heres your sign, sign. did tell her tho. honesty is the best policy in my opinion. she dint hurt me 2 badly. i should be able to move around in a few days or so..... maybe. ;p
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Clownfish in a small tank
Replies
13
Views
726
Reefing102
Reefing102
C
RSM Max Nano XL Plan / Build
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
griss
griss
T
Returning to the hobby
Replies
13
Views
776
griss
griss
D
New tank nutrients bottoming out!
Replies
2
Views
906
SantaMonica
S
Guygettnby
If not for bad luck...
2
Replies
21
Views
835
leebca
L
Back
Top