Jadette's 140g Rimless Build Thread

[jadette]

Thanks SPICYcracker!

I made the light fixture myself with 1/8" thick aluminum angles. The LED bars are made from aluminum C-channels and the T5s are icecap 660 retrofits. I really, really like the flexibility of this set-up. If I didn't like a color combo, I could just remove one of the LED bars, swap out an LED and wire it up again. I originally had 2 red LEDs per bar, but it really gave such a disco effect on the water, I couldn't stand them.

Threw in more cool whites instead. I kept the violets in which add enough 'red' to the spectrum without the disco effect.

 

[gmr7494]

Looking good Shirley, looking good!

 

[kikireef]

Great looking build. I just ordered 100 lbs of reef rocks as well. Did you have any issues with phosphates? Steven's website says that they don't leach but I am curious about your experience...

 

[jadette]

Thanks Gilbert! You still have to post your build.


Thanks kikireef! No problems with phosphates so far, but I'm running GFO, carbon, and skimming. Both the rocks and sand I got from Steve were very clean. I saw things like dead leaves, etc in the BRS pukani rock, but not so much as a hair from reefrocks. I'm trying to force my tank to cycle, but after 3 weeks, I'm not seeing any algae or diatoms. I used RO/DI water with a TDS of 0, so with dead rock and sand, I needed to throw in ammonia or something to kick start my tank. I've been throwing fish food in, but perhaps I need to put more. Didn't want to cycle the tank with fish, so it's just me dumping the tank with phyto and fish food.

 

[solitude127]

Lookin good. How did the sump turn out?

 

[jadette]

Hey Mike. The sump turned out okay after all. It was a tight fit underneath, and I have to be careful when trying to get the skimmer cup out, but everything fits. There was enough room for me to fit an MP10 (hidden behind the center brace) for flow in the refugium/frag area in the center.

There's a dry side on the right side of the stand where I have the vortech drivers and where my RKL will go once I tear down my 75g.

I mounted a BRS dual reactor on the left side and will be putting the bio-pellet reactor that I got from you inside the sump some place. Probably in the return section where there's the most room.

Little messy with the wires right now, but I will be velcro-ing the wires neatly along the sides of the sump.

I heart velcro.

I'm putting in two dosers for 2-part, mag, potassium, and some random, useless vitamin supplement that will make me feel better as a person that I am dosing. I have them mounted on brackets that I got from home depot for a couple of bucks.

On the other side are the shelves with the supplements and my beloved box of velcro.

I haven't even transferred all my equipment over yet and DJ power strip is already full. Already have another on order and on the way!

 

[SoCal LowBaller]

very clean

 

[solitude127]

Nice. What are you going to put in the fuge?

 

[jadette]

Nice. What are you going to put in the fuge?

Just threw in some chaeto and a bottle of pods to seed it. I really want to be pest free (I had red planaria in my 75g), so I did not transfer any live rock or sand from my current tank over. That middle section will house all my frags. I don't want any frags on my sandbed in the main display, which is a pet peeve of mine. Figured i'll try to grow things out in the sump and wait for a proper size before transferring them to the main display.

So I tested out my parameters earlier in the week. Zero nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia. pH, Ca+, Alk levels are consistent with my 75g so I started transferring over some of my livestock over this weekend. I first thew in some sacrifice frags in the sump. They survived, so I figured my tank is good to go.

Softies and zoos in first. I'm going to wait until next week before bringing over my SPS colonies.

Zoo rock (purple deaths, nuclear greens, and lotsa lotsa mohawks)

Tyree Neon Green Toadstool

Orange Hammer

Everything looks really happy in the tank. I'm getting excellent polyp extension. Problem is, it's freakishly hard to take pics of corals under LEDs. The three above pics were taken with 42x3W LEDs only (I have my T5's and the remaining LEDs turn on later in the day). All the colors look washed out. It's a little bit better in person, but there's still this washed out look to everything.

Even with different LEDs (I have two spectrums of white LEDs, royal blues, blues, and red LEDs in my frag light fixture), there's just this "pop" that I had with my MHs that I can't seem to recreate with LEDs.

I'm going to take pics again with my T5s on later and see the difference it does to the colors.

 

[kikireef]

Looking really good. Im tagging along. I just hooked up my LED's and filled my tank with water. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress with LED's too

 

[rizon25]

Very nice tank and build. Just wondering about the pictures, did you have the flash on when you took them?

 

[kenith]

Looking good! I'm glad things are working out well! Are you contemplating going full T5 or mh/t5? I have to say, switching from led to t5, all my corals look 20 times better.

 

[jadette]

Looking really good. Im tagging along. I just hooked up my LED's and filled my tank with water. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress with LED's too

Thanks kikireef. Would love to hear about your LED setup as well. Always great to read about other people's experience with LEDs. I've learned so much from reading other reefer's build threads.

Very nice tank and build. Just wondering about the pictures, did you have the flash on when you took them?

Rizon25 - You are correct! The flash probably was a major contributor to the washed out look. I honestly didn't even notice until you mentioned it and I had to look up the photo specs.

So here's my second attempt at taking pics... This time with no flash.

Egads! My eyes burn from the blue-ness!!! Odd thing is, it looks NOTHING like this in person. The light is more of a crisp white.

I really need to learn how to take better pics of my tank under LEDs.

Here's a photo of my first non-invert tank inhabitant - a yellow tang that I picked up from marcrothschild yesterday. He's a gorgeous yellow, but in this pic here, he came out rather green. Pity too, because it's such a cute pic of him admiring his perfect pretty fins in his reflection.

Must....take...better...pictures....

 

[jadette]

Looking good! I'm glad things are working out well! Are you contemplating going full T5 or mh/t5? I have to say, switching from led to t5, all my corals look 20 times better.

Thanks Ken!

I'm going to stick with an LED/T5 combo. I think there's a bit of a learning curve with the LEDs, but I'm willing to stick with it and make it work out. The modularity of the fixture I put together will allow me to swap things in an out on the fly if something isn't working out.

My fixture is currently set up for 4 strips of LEDs and 4 strips of T5. I'll just vary that ratio to get the PAR and color that I want.

I'm glad you're happy with your T5 setup. Bet your corals look insane now.

And since I'm a big advocate of "this thread is worthless without pictures", here's another one of my recent adds to the new tank. This 'lil guy came from my non-photosynthetic nano tank that I'm breaking down. Just too much work for me. I need to find a new home for my feather star - who most likely starve in my new setup.

This chili coral still kept its brilliant red, despite the blueish tones from the LEDs. Again, hard to capture in a photo under my new fixture.

 

[kenith]

Jadette- not sure what camera you're using, but adjust the white balance. You'll be able to balance out those blue hues.

 

[jadette]

Jadette- not sure what camera you're using, but adjust the white balance. You'll be able to balance out those blue hues.

I'm using a Nikon D70. I played with the white balance setting and it seems like I get the best results when I set it to "cloudy". I think I still need to fiddle with it more, but I'm getting a little better now with the pics.

With that said, I started moving some of my smaller SPS colonies over. Aquascaping isn't the way I want it right now. My anemone wouldn't release itself from the rock it was attached to no matter what I did (ice on the foot, hanging upside down out of water, etc). I finally gave up after 30 minutes of stressing it in fear of potentially killing it. So now I have this rather large extra rock in my tank that I wasn't planning on. Also, I have yet to move any of my large colonies over, and now I'm thinking I don't really have any place to put them. I don't get it. I upgraded to a tank with ~100% more water volume in hopes of making room for new corals, yet I'm struggling to fit in what I have in my 75g.

Sigh.

So here's a pic of about 1/3 of my corals transferred over:

The coloration on my RBTA is pretty amazing under the UV LEDs. I actually had to photoshop down the redness b/c the original pic looked fake.

So far, the T5+LED combo makes the reds, pinks, and oranges really pop. My setosa never looked better.

What really got drabbed down were the greens. My green slimer which used to glow under my MHs, now looks rather pastel-y. Same goes for the toadstool.

Didn't transfer anything purple or blue over yet so the jury is still out on that one. I have my lokani that I will transfer maybe tonight to see how the blues and purples look.

 

[solitude127]

WOW, that anemone is HUGE. Is there some way you can isolate it on it's own island? I had one and it moved too much (probably only moved like 6") and stung a lot of my SPS.

 

[jadette]

WOW, that anemone is HUGE. Is there some way you can isolate it on it's own island? I had one and it moved too much (probably only moved like 6") and stung a lot of my SPS.

Yeah, I've had that anemone for 3 years now. Never split. Not even from the stress I put it through last night. I have to admit though, this is the laziest anemone I've ever seen. It has never moved from wherever I initially placed it in the tank. I thought it would move last night, but I woke up this morning to find it in the exact same spot I put it in.

That said, I am going to put it on its own island. There's just way too much rock in my tank. I just transferred more of my corals (80% complete now!), and there's just no place to put anything. I need to get rid of some rock to create an open feel to the tank.

Just spent the last 2 hours handling coral. My hands stink. Can't get the smell off no matter how many times I'm washing them.

But I'm happy b/c I just transferred my first blue coral over (ORA Hawkins) and I have to admit, the blue on it looks gorgeous under the LEDs. Better than under my 14K phoenix bulbs.

Hope to post pics tomorrow.

Must...get...some...sleep....

 

[jadette]

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I hate aquascaping. Aquascaping sucks. I hate it. Did I mention I hate aquascaping?

And what's up with moving corals from a 75g tank to a 140g tank and having to break off huge chunks of my colonies just to get things to fit? That must violate at least 3 laws of physics there.

After three hours of having my hands in saltwater, moving around coral that seem to have a mind of their own, I'm tired. I'm tired of having wrinkly fingers. Tired of having my hands smell like ...like... Oh my mocking deity... I can't describe the foul stench emanating from my finger tips. But i'm posting on a reef forum, and if you're reading this, you know what I mean. And you also know that no matter how many times I just
washed my hands (which, by the way, isn't really helping my wrinkling situation), the odor still remains.

Super glue and epoxy don't exactly earn high marks in the fragrance category either. I had little success putting corals where I want them, all while resisting the temptation to just force them through areas in the live rock where the sun don't shine. I can just hear my beloved box of velcro mocking me now. "You abandon me as your adhesion of choice and this is the price you must pay!". Believe me, if I could velcro down my corals, I would... Hmm... Googling it now...

To make matters worse, my lackadaisical anemone, who must have somehow overheard me calling him lazy (okay, who ratted me out), decided to get some exercise. The bloody ingrate. I must come up with a clever way to punish him. Perhaps pinch him in random places until he splits.

Sorry for the rant. You must be extremely bored if you made it this far into my post.

 

[gveng]

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I hate aquascaping. Aquascaping sucks. I hate it. Did I mention I hate aquascaping?

And what's up with moving corals from a 75g tank to a 140g tank and having to break off huge chunks of my colonies just to get things to fit? That must violate at least 3 laws of physics there.

After three hours of having my hands in saltwater, moving around coral that seem to have a mind of their own, I'm tired. I'm tired of having wrinkly fingers. Tired of having my hands smell like ...like... Oh my mocking deity... I can't describe the foul stench emanating from my finger tips. But i'm posting on a reef forum, and if you're reading this, you know what I mean. And you also know that no matter how many times I just
washed my hands (which, by the way, isn't really helping my wrinkling situation), the odor still remains.

Super glue and epoxy don't exactly earn high marks in the fragrance category either. I had little success putting corals where I want them, all while resisting the temptation to just force them through areas in the live rock where the sun don't shine. I can just hear my beloved box of velcro mocking me now. "You abandon me as your adhesion of choice and this is the price you must pay!". Believe me, if I could velcro down my corals, I would... Hmm... Googling it now...

To make matters worse, my lackadaisical anemone, who must have somehow overheard me calling him lazy (okay, who ratted me out), decided to get some exercise. The bloody ingrate. I must come up with a clever way to punish him. Perhaps pinch him in random places until he splits.

Sorry for the rant. You must be extremely bored if you made it this far into my post.

wow... you pretty much summarized my night right up until now, well maybe a little more cursing here and there. i absolutely hate switching tanks... i'm really contemplating making each rock island permanent using that drill/acrylic rod method so if i switch tanks in the future i can just remove the whole island all together.

i can't believe i completely forgot about your build thread!!

if you need any help, lmk! i definitely appreciate the deal on the light fixture, loving it so far!