Lukinrats 75 gallon tank thread!!!
- Thread starter lukinrats
- Start date
Canarygirl
New member
Nathan, is it my imagination or is that yellow tang painfully thin? Does he/she eat lots of nori every day?
Mykel Obvious
New member
As to the crab you mentioned... fuzzy/hairy crabs are considered bad, as are crabs with blue eyes... smooth shelled crabs with bandit masks are the good Acro crabs... just an FYI
Not sure about the damaged areas... might want to post that on the SPS forum
Not sure about the damaged areas... might want to post that on the SPS forum
koyoteturtle
New member
Hey, I've got a 75 gallon that I will be drilling soon with 1 1/2 bulkheads. Anyway, I'm wondering if you can post pictures of your overflow setup, as detailed as posible. I dont quite undestand how it works like that. I want to keep as much realestate as possible for the fish and coral. Thanks, any help will be great.
lukinrats
Premium Member
Probably not... I have just put that one in the tank, and she was purchased from Vivid... I think she is very healthy, but still trying to fatten up... I don't think it will take long, as she is in my tank with plenty of live rock now... I also feed plenty of nori, and I also feed brine, mysis, and cyclopeeze 3 times a day, which she nibbles on along with the other fish.
Never fear, I feed my fish plenty... I just have not had that one for long
NathanS
koyoteturtle
New member
bump
lukinrats
Premium Member
Sorry, Koyoteturtle
I only have the pictures that you saw on the first couple of pages... However, I looked around for a while, and finally found the post that I got the idea from... This is what I went by when I built mine, and it turned out fine... It is very simple really!!!
I only have the pictures that you saw on the first couple of pages... However, I looked around for a while, and finally found the post that I got the idea from... This is what I went by when I built mine, and it turned out fine... It is very simple really!!!
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10226361#post10226361 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flyyyguy
If this is OT...sorry.......
Im sure this has been done before......but here is my ghettofied version of a near coast to coast overflow "box" using nithing but 2 bulkheads and some PVC pipe. I set up a 46 gallon tank for a friend and came up with this. I use external coast to coast overflows on my tanks, but this was a super simple way to achieve near coast to coast surface skimming, it took less than a 1/2 hour to make and install and you cant even see it in the tank.
simply put.....2 bulkheads, 4 street elbows inside the tank and a piece of pipe with a groove cut out on the table saw 3 notches wide. The overflow is removable by simply lifting it out. The street L's are water tight this way. that part kind of surprised me as i figured over the course of a night it would drain down to the bulkheads...but they didnt.
pics...this of course doesnt go the entire length of the tank, more like 2/3...but it just as easily could have, and it skims the surface great. Its also no louder than the Snapper used to power the CLS.
koyoteturtle
New member
awesome, thanks for taking your time to do that, I like what it looks like and the surface skimming potential is incredible.
lukinrats
Premium Member
I would like to give some opinion on this... I think it is great, and it seems to work just fine for my tank, however I wish I had used 1.5" pipe to plumb with so take that into account... Also, cutting those slits is harder than it would seem... I went through quite a few lengths of pipe before I could get it right... In the end, I had to hot glue the pipe to a 2 x 4, so it would stay perfectly straight... That turned out to be a really good method
The other thing that I have found to be an issue with mine, that I need to change, is the distance from the ends to start the slit... If you try to make the slit the whole length of the pipe, then the surface skimming will be minimized... I thought the more of the surface I could skim, the better... In reality it only causes water to be sucked in rapidly right where the bulkheads are, and the rest of the slit becomes useless... I don't have a certain starting point to suggest, but I would think 4" or so from the bulkheads would help
HTH!
Later,
NathanS
lukinrats
Premium Member
Sorry for the delay on answering you... If you look at the this picture you will see the ends that the Catalina comes with... I do not have the bulbs clipped into anything... I just put a reflector under them... Screwed it down, and then just put 2 bulbs over each reflector... If you are looking at that picture, and you see how they have 2 bulbs close enough to each other, so that an Icecap or Tek fixture would be under them... Then you just pull the slack on the wires, back through the hole, until the bulbs hang under the reflector like you want... Anyway, that is about all I can tell you without you actually having a fixture in your hands
Later,
NathanS
Mykel Obvious
New member
Hey N8,
Just went back and reread the first post in your thread and found this:
What I am wondering is what did you find wrong with the stock reflectors that came with the Catalina unit? I just cruised their site and they are claiming "mirror polished German reflectors" (which Icecap and Sunlight both use)... Were you able to do any PAR readings on the Catalina SLRs versus the Icecaps? I see a fixture that I might go with as the $$$ and wait time on an 8 bulb ATI Powermodule is crazy and was wondering your thoughts on the Catalina equipment now that you've had the unit for 4-5 months
Thanks
Just went back and reread the first post in your thread and found this:
What I am wondering is what did you find wrong with the stock reflectors that came with the Catalina unit? I just cruised their site and they are claiming "mirror polished German reflectors" (which Icecap and Sunlight both use)... Were you able to do any PAR readings on the Catalina SLRs versus the Icecaps? I see a fixture that I might go with as the $$$ and wait time on an 8 bulb ATI Powermodule is crazy and was wondering your thoughts on the Catalina equipment now that you've had the unit for 4-5 months
Thanks
lukinrats
Premium Member
Well, I think that the Catalina reflectors could be ok, but really are just some thin metal not that much bigger than the bulb... It may seem as though this was the case for me, because I had asked for all 8 to be crammed in there like that... However, I think if you look at the stock measurements, you will see that those are also about the same... I wish I could have gotten some par numbers with the catalina reflectors, but I didn't
All I can tell you is this... I had that fixture about 6" above my tank when it was still stock... I had no problems with that, but wanted the fixture up higher so that I could have more room... So I bought that canopy with the front doors, and then put the lights up 9" from the surface... Right before I raised them, is when I changed the reflectors and put the 2 bulbs in each one.
So.... No problems with Catalina reflectors on each bulb with the fixture 6" from the surface... With the Icecaps and 2 bulbs in each, all my coralline bleached and so did the 4-5 sps frags, and you have to keep in mind that I had just raised the lights 3" higher... That is when I started to realise that the Icecaps with 2 bulbs in each one, must be a good combo... That is when I bought the Apogee, and checked the Par, and surprised myself and (Grim and Hahn)
It is really strange, but I am pretty sure that small mod made a huge difference... I would probably have gone with Halides by now, had I not happened upon this
I think the Catalinas are really good, for what you pay... they allow you to get into higher light corals, without breaking your wallet... Then you can add some things along the way to make them better.
You probably do not have the space restrictions that I did, so all you gotta do is call them and tell them to make it to your exact measurements... Tell them to take that depth, and then make the reflectors maximum width... I do not think you will be unhappy!!!
Later,
NathanS
Mykel Obvious
New member
They've got a crazy 12 bulb unit that is 17.5" wide that would just cover my tank that caught my interest... heck, even if the reflectors are only so-so that's still a metric crap ton of light over a 65 gallon tank 
... the main reason I'm even thinking about it is that fixture would let me run 2 Super Actinic and a Pro Color as well as 6 Blue +, 1 GE 6500K, 1 AquaSun and 1 Aquablue Special... If that combo doesn't cover the spectrum for every color coral in my tank and give me some nice actinic glow in my LPS, I don't know what would... heck, 12 bulbs should let me keep SPS on the floor next to the tank :lol:
I'd hang this thing high to keep my LPS happy down on the bottom and could always do the Lukinrats 2 Bulb SLR Mod(tm) if it looked like it was warranted in my system... I could crack it open and upgrade the ballasts to IceCap at a later date as well... It comes with 6 moonlights and the "remote" (timer) system and 2 fans... I'm gonna see if they will sell me one without bulbs as it seems like they are using no-names (I'm gonna shoot them an email to see what is what)...
It might end up being at least a temorary pipe dream though, as they just cut out all overtime at work, so I'm on short rations for the near future anyway... may have to wait till this spring to do any real upgrades on my system
Thanks for your input, now get us some new photos
... the main reason I'm even thinking about it is that fixture would let me run 2 Super Actinic and a Pro Color as well as 6 Blue +, 1 GE 6500K, 1 AquaSun and 1 Aquablue Special... If that combo doesn't cover the spectrum for every color coral in my tank and give me some nice actinic glow in my LPS, I don't know what would... heck, 12 bulbs should let me keep SPS on the floor next to the tank :lol:I'd hang this thing high to keep my LPS happy down on the bottom and could always do the Lukinrats 2 Bulb SLR Mod(tm) if it looked like it was warranted in my system... I could crack it open and upgrade the ballasts to IceCap at a later date as well... It comes with 6 moonlights and the "remote" (timer) system and 2 fans... I'm gonna see if they will sell me one without bulbs as it seems like they are using no-names (I'm gonna shoot them an email to see what is what)...
It might end up being at least a temorary pipe dream though, as they just cut out all overtime at work, so I'm on short rations for the near future anyway... may have to wait till this spring to do any real upgrades on my system
Thanks for your input, now get us some new photos
I have had a 6x54watt catalina fixture for a awhile and i wanted to get slr's but 6 reflectors won't fit on my 13inch wide 55gallon so i will probably do 5 slr's and have one reflector with 2 bulbs under it. The thing i don't like about the catalina reflector's is that they hardly cover the whole bulb so a good bit of light is lost.
lukinrats
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13912592#post13912592 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mykel Obvious
They've got a crazy 12 bulb unit that is 17.5" wide that would just cover my tank that caught my interest... heck, even if the reflectors are only so-so that's still a metric crap ton of light over a 65 gallon tank
You are absolutely correct, that would be an insane amount of intensity:smokin: ... I am by no means, any sort of expert, but I would not recommend that lighting on your 65... I only say this because I have the 8 bulb over my 75 that is 30" tall, and it is really just too much light... I get upwards of 200:eek1: par on the sand, and that is just crazy... I have a really hard time placing corals when I had the lights running like I wanted... I have since resorted to 4 bulbs for the bigger part of the photoperiod, and the other 4 coming on for about 3 hours only
I personally think you could get off cheaper, and better, if you called them and just told them to put an 8 bulb in that 17.5" depth... That would give them a little over 2" per bulb, to work with... That is equivelant to my Icecap reflectors... I think that bad boy would be awesome!!!
If I had it to do all over again, I would have gone with 6 bulbs in mine, and told the to make it 12" deep, giving them the ability to make wider reflectors... I understand that you want the ability to mix a lot of bulbs in, but I can tell you from experience that you will probably only need 8 to get where you want to be... I thought I would have all kinds of different bulbs in mine, but in the end, I ended up with more Blue+ or Actinic blue(basically a B+) than any others
I hope you are able to get what you want, but don't forget that the reason I am willing to recommend Catalina is that you have the ability to request a custom light fixture
Similar threads
