How not to build a 750/1500 gallon build thread-Khaosinc 3/5/71-8/30/11

[robot2222]

mangrove tank is very cool ........ the softies are taking off . were you able to get some help lifting the leds on top of the tank yet ?

 

[khaosinc]

Looks like its doing great! Many people cant achieve what you have by doing hours of stuff daily....

Considering this tank has never really had regular maintaince I suppose its adapted to it well. I bet if I ever tried proper testing and regular water changes the whole thing would crash. The water cleared up quite well after those pics were taken... amazing how much junk was on the front of the tank.

mangrove tank is very cool ........ the softies are taking off . were you able to get some help lifting the leds on top of the tank yet ?

One of these days I hope.. Having a 10' fixture in the middle of ones living room for a month or so is getting old.. I'm hoping that I can risk the electric bill once I get all the LEDs over the tank and put a couple 400W+ T-5 fixtures over it. Even if they don't spend much time at full power I suspect it will be much nicer light for the tank... not to mention I still have like 50 t-5 bulbs to use up.

 

[RoWall]

The tank looks nice, hope someone will help you soon!

 

[khaosinc]

Teaser pics...

My neiibours kids car broke down, and I hauled it for em... my payment... its up...

going to take me a few hours to be happy with the angles and cover the whole tank..

The whites are 12x3w each, and the royal blues are 12x1w each. The little ones are my moon lights.

Tanks already dropped almost 1 degree I hope I have enough heaters to make up for it... LOL

Suppose I should actually clean the top of the tank as well...

 

[Fishfish0001]

Now thats a tease! Shot of the tank?

 

[muttley000]

Great to hear from you K! Sorry your not feeling well again. Thanks for posting the pictures, and keep em coming if and when you can!

 

[CoralFiend]

Yep, a lot of awesomeness going on in that tank. The aquascape looks very natural. I bet that is an pretty cool view in person. I could drink lots of beer there. LOL! Anxious to see what the tank looks like lighted by the LEDs.

 

[khaosinc]

Well, after a couple of days of tinkering with it, I must say I'm not overly happy with the PAR 38's. My issue is that I didn't get wide enough optics I suspect. (60 I think). While I suspect I have more than enough light, its quite focused no matter how I adjust it even though its 2' over the top of the tank and there are 30 of them. The 'Nem also appears not to like the LED light, its hiding, but hasn't gone for a walk yet.

I gave up and put two of the T-5 fixtures with all 10 and 12K bulbs back on the tank to make up for the gaps.I do have the shimmer effect like having MH so that is a plus. I'm still saving 1000w so I hope that cuts the electric bill. The other problem was that its dropped my temp pretty badly. Every heater I have it in the tank and its not getting over 77 degrees. No money to get any more. I may try and put a couple other fixtures up and have them w/ all blue's so I can turn them on for viewing and keep the cats out of the hood.

 

[khaosinc]

I think it was LEDwholesale or something. I found them through Ebay, and contacted them directly to buy them in bulk. Cheap to get them, but shipping took over a month. I really like the color, but needed a much wider lens on them. I suspect they can be switched out, but I haven't looked in to it.

 

[robot2222]

i know with the leds some of the corals are going to have to adjust . i tell you the tank looks alot brighter from the last pic with the leds on . i bet you get alot better growth out of the corals in the long run .

 

[khaosinc]

none of the corals seem to care, the RBTA still hasn't come out yet... might be to bright for him there.

 

[Reefski's]

instead of using the heaters why not use the halides to both light and heat the tank in the cold months? include them and keep the heat in the tank. heaters are just wasted electricity if you can do it another way.

you have been an inspiration to many. thanks for that.


Carl

 

[khaosinc]

mostly because I don't have any halides.... and heaters are far more efficiant and not on all the time.

 

[PaPa_Johnny]

Hope everything is ok, 4 days with no posts? Kind of scary

 

[khaosinc]

nothing new going on.... If I can't figure out something or the electric bill is a whole lot less than I think its going to be (I only shaved 1000w), the system is going to have to come down very soon. I can't afford the electric bill to keep this thing running any more. Trying to live on disablility w/ a $300 a month electric bill isn't cutting it. Tried to trade off the 300, but as usual the people around here are wishy washy and don't show up, and I can't tear it down by myself.

Not like I could find someone to take this thing... Can't even give it away

 

[meekz]

Holy ****! I just sat here for an hour reading this. I can't believe you might have to take it down. It's just not right...

 

[khaosinc]

I like it less than you... but I'm stuck living on what I used to make in a week. I was never rich by any stretch but I also never had many bills either. If I can figure out some way to take it down I might get to keep my house a little while longer anyway.

I live in the middle of no where, and shipping most stuff is impractable at best. I'm not on very good terms with most of the local reef community either so I really don't even know how too get rid of it.

 

[johnike]

Keep on keeping on Kevin!! The light at the end of the tunnel is NOT an oncoming train.

 

[Altpers0na]

idk how you could not be on good terms w/ the local reefers when so many non local ones have

 

[noobtothereef]

Maybe downsize to a 300 and sell of your large tank and other pieces of equipment seperately, when selling a hole system its hard to find people with that kind of cash to buy something like that and in turn you get beat down on price by dreamers, i would imagine the 750 should be pretty easy to sell by itself. That should give you some cash to pay some bills and have a much smaller system to maintain. And for shipping you are probably going to have to ship stuff, finding people local to buy stuff will only leads to not selling or selling for way too cheap.