Jumping the gun. 45g LED NPS build

SWINGRRRR

SWINGRRRR

Premium Member
I know this is really really premature, but I'm just so excited since I finally for the tank in. This tank was quite the venture. I knew what I wanted in my head, but I couldn't find it locally. I wanted a 24X24X18, rimless, with external overflows. I know that's a pretty steep offer, but this will probably be the last tank I build. My current 135 is nice, but it was kinda thrown together on a whim. I went to a friends house to buy some frags, and ended up buying his tank!!
I found a tank similar what I wanted for sale in Tennessee, about 8 hours from me. I was going to settle for that, but the seller emailed me and stated he had some issues. Well in that time I contact my LFS about building a stand for the yet to be purchased tank. My LFS owner is a woodworker as a hobby and has built stuff for me in the past. Anyway, he gladly accepted and the course was set. So I go off looking for a tank. A friend told me about glass cages and I started researching. I saw all the bad reviews, but they were all dated years ago. I called them and the lady was very nice on the phone, and even called me back when she said she would. So I pulled the trigger and picked the tank up on Thursday. This is really the only pic I have of it. Please excuse my messy garage. Everything was thrown to the side to fit the tank.
Cube.jpg
 
Some of my plans.
First and foremost, no equipment visible in the tank. I am going to cut the back glass to that I can install an external overflow. I plan to attach black acrylic to the back of the tank, on the inside, so that you will not see any of the plumbing. The tank is going in a corner so 2 side will be blacked out. Inside the overflow I will use the Herbie method and a single return. Im going to use one of the "fan/wide" LocLine nozzles. I'm going to position it right up to the edge of the overflow, so it wont be visible. No for pumps. I currently have 1 MP10W, and I will get another. I'm going to cut some 4" PVC about 4-5" tall. I will silicone that to the bottom of the tank to keep the sand bed out. Then the MP10 will be positioned on the bottom of the tank, blowing up, if that makes sense. Ill then epoxy the rocks around this to hide it. I'm going to build the rocks in rings so that they can be removed easily for cleaning/maintenance. I'm going to glue sand to the PVC so that you do not see it as easy.
Lights: I have some great experience with LEDs so Ill be cannibalizing my current fixture, or go with all new stuff. I am planning 18 or 24 LED to cover the tank. For now Ill probably just use ON/OFF, but will upgrade to an APEX later. I don't plan to re-use the Arduino. While it is great and cool toy, its a huge PITA to do. The programing is easy, but the user interface is a hurdle. I have to drag out my laptop anytime I want to "play" with it.
Ive already ordered the Acrylic for a DIY feeder, ala DFason's. I'm still looking for an Ice Probe chiller though if anyone has one. Ill detail this build as I go also. I'm also talked to my LFS about getting in some of the foods Ive been reading about. He said he needs a list of what I want, and he will look into it. Same with livestock in the future.
I am going to run RO/DI lines from my garage through the attic and to the tank for water changes and top off. I already keep 80 gallons of water on hand so hopefully my plan will just eliminate the need for buckets. I am going to run wires from the tank back to the garage. Put the pumps in the Brute, but plug them in by the tank. So that way, I can flip a switch at the tank, and be right there as it refills.
Im going to use a simple 15 gallon as a sump. I already have a SWC 150BMK that is currently breaking in. I will also reuse a Quite One 3000 as a return.
well that's about all I can think of now. Ill have more pics and progress as parts start arriving. Hope y'all are ready for all the newb questions!!
 
Congratulations on the tank purchase and looking forward to seeing your non-photosynthetic aquarium journey.

Mike

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
 
Welp, all I have left of my old tank is fish and rocks. All the corals and LED's are gone. I went to a wood place today to try to find something with a Burl or a Birds eye maple for the stand. They were closed. Ill have to check back on Monday.

Thanks for the interest so far.
I am looking for an Ice Probe if anyone has one to sell.
 
Welcome!

If you went looking for Burl & Birds eye, you must do some woodworking? Besides being some what obsessed with my tanks I do wood sculpted bowls. Started out doing turned ones, kinda evolved into sculpture.
 
Unfortunately I am not the woodworker. I wish I had the space for the tools, then I would be.

I think Ive finally made up my mind on the stand though. I just got to pick a wood. I plan to have a 30X30X42 stand. The extra inches around the side are to accommodate the external overflow, and make the inside bigger. The tank will be recessed and the doors will close right up to the top piece if that makes sense. There will be 2 doors on each side of the corner. That way I have full acess to the sump, food reactor, etc. I also snagged a Mag 9.5 for my water change idea. Jut got to find one more.
Im also exploring lighting. I was going to DIY another LED set-up, but I got to thinking, the lights are for us, not the livestock. So I think a super huge LED set-up would be overkill. Right now Im looking for something off the shelf.

Mike U. I saw parts of your track lighting using the PAR38's. Is there anyway you can send me some pics of the final design/mount? Or point me in the right direction to find them. With 3K post, it was alot to sort through. Thanks.
 
I bought some lights online last night. I went with two PAR30 bulbs, 4 blue and 1 white in each, I think. I got them from the classified's section. I was going to DIY something, but it was much easier to get something off the shelf. I am still going to build a canopy for them. I was inspired by two of the big guns on here running something similar, Mike and Mike. I like the idea of the two bulbs. I wish Mike U. would post better pics of the track lighting set-up hes using. I am sure they are out there, I just cant find them.
Im either going to use the track lighting and surround it with wood, or just use some E26 sockets mounted to flat AL and surrounded it with wood.
I also cut apart a broken 110gal I got at the LFS. I thought it would take hours, but it only took about 20 minutes and that was wasting 10 minutes looking for my good leather gloves. Now I have to take it and get the pieces cut for the external overflow. I picked up a tube of RTV108 today as well. I have to teach all day tomorrow, so there wont be any progress until Monday or so. Unless I come across an Ice Probe for sale. I am still waiting on my AVAST shipment. And the bits to cut the overflows. Waiting. Waiting. I hate ordering stuff online.
 
Im back at square 1 with the stand. I cannot find any good wood in my city. I called 1 place that does have Birds Eye Maple, but the minimum order is $1000 for that wood. I think I am going to be stuck with Birch.

I got a lot of stuff in the mail today. I got the diamond bits to cut the external overflow, a Mag 9.5 for WC's, and the volute for my old skimmer so I can sell it.

Anyone that has cut glass like this before (3/8",) with the tile style cutting bit, did you use a fast speed or slower? I know the water is a must, but just trying to find a good tool to use.
 
SWINGRRRR said:
I bought some lights online last night. I went with two PAR30 bulbs, 4 blue and 1 white in each, I think. I got them from the classified's section. I was going to DIY something, but it was much easier to get something off the shelf. I am still going to build a canopy for them. I was inspired by two of the big guns on here running something similar, Mike and Mike. I like the idea of the two bulbs. I wish Mike U. would post better pics of the track lighting set-up hes using. I am sure they are out there, I just cant find them.
Im either going to use the track lighting and surround it with wood, or just use some E26 sockets mounted to flat AL and surrounded it with wood.
I also cut apart a broken 110gal I got at the LFS. I thought it would take hours, but it only took about 20 minutes and that was wasting 10 minutes looking for my good leather gloves. Now I have to take it and get the pieces cut for the external overflow. I picked up a tube of RTV108 today as well. I have to teach all day tomorrow, so there wont be any progress until Monday or so. Unless I come across an Ice Probe for sale. I am still waiting on my AVAST shipment. And the bits to cut the overflows. Waiting. Waiting. I hate ordering stuff online.
Click to expand...

Not sure if you were referring to my lighting, but I used a track lighting setup from Lowes. It was a modular design so you could add different parts as you wanted. I no longer use that though since I moved my tank. I now use a Neo LED arm just as Aquabacs uses. For the ADA I'm using T5's. I do prefer the LED's and might switch to 2 or 3 spotlights on the ADA in the next few months. The lighting is more dramatic and allows for darker shadows. T5 is great for lighting everything evenly but you lose the dramatic effect of the shadows.
 
Yelp, it was yours. I have read yours and the other Mikes build thread about 100 times, in addition to others I have ran across.
I think I am just going to make something out of angle AL and then skin it with 1/4" wood to hold my lights. I found some "arm" thingys at Lowes that will allow me to aim the lights where I want. The arms are like what you would find on an outdoor security light.
 
I got the PAR30 Bulbs in today. They look pretty sweet. Ive got the idea in my head for the fixture. I found some 1/4" popular at Lowes today that I will use to skin the surround. I'm going to use just a simple satin poly so hopefully it wont darken the light Birch to much.

I also got my shipment from AVAST. I'm pretty stoked. I need to still find the Ice Probe and plan out how I am going to plumb it. I plan to pump water from the fresh water container for ATO through the reactor and into the tank. No per the ATO, just using the same water source. I want to put a small Maxi-Jet on the side to keep the food stirred, but Ill have to get one first and figure out the nuts and bolts of the plumbing. The tube is 6" and its 8" tall, BTW. I also got the MR5 reactor for the EcoBak pellets as well.
Food.jpg
 
Excellent! A magnetic stirrer would be more gentle on larger foods and less likely to clog, but not sure how you would make that work if you are plumbing the icecap in through the bottom. TLF has a cool stirrer for their kalk reactor you might look into. Just thinking out loud! A maxijet should work fine just make sure you can remove it easily for cleaning :)
 
I tried to work on the lighting today but had to stop. A couple of days ago I bought 2 fixtures to hold the lamps. Kinda like the arms of a outside security light. Now I cant find them. Ive got it all in my head how I want it, just cant find the dang parts in my garage.

Ive also got just about everything planned in my head for the food reactor. I'm going to have everything in the top. That will make it easier to just pull out the tube for cleaning. I'm going to use 1/4" RODI line and an aqulifter to pump water into the reactor then just run 1/2" line into my return piping, quasi- venturi like Ive seen a couple do. I'm still debating on a magnetic stirrer, or the kalk reactor style. I cant find any info on the TLF kalk reactor so if anyone has a link or anything, I would appreciate the heads up.
 
I did some thing like that & found that the ice probe is not strong enough to chill water that is passing through, even if it's not allot of volume. If you can do some kind of mockup to see if it will chill the turn over your thinking of before you drill holes in your reactor it would pay off in the long run. IMO
Jim
 
Both great points. Ill figure something out.

Monti-Whats the cooling like on the Ice Probe? Does it take a long time? I'm not sure what kinda of turn over rate I plan to have. Of course I will start with a few corals and move up from there. All this is really ahead of myself as I haven't even started on the tank really yet. I did purchase the Ice Probe earlier today.
 
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