Mhucasey's SPS obsession

nemodan said:
Oh men....that wasn't fun at all. Good that you where there when the light fall and also that you had the tools at hand to solve and rescue the fixture.

Daniel
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markalot said:
Glad it wasn't worse, sorry to hear that.
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slavetonet said:
Far out.. Lucky you didnt get toasted.
You will find the washer, look out for mysterious STN or RTN if it has fallen into the tank.
That made me think I should put extra anchor before mounting the retrofit T5s lighting.
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Thanks guys, lesson learned for me for sure. I'm watching the tank very carefully for any signs of metal poisoning:uhoh2:
 
Maxxingout said:
Darn you people and your T5 results! I was wishing that led would have come up with a solution by now. Your corals are just awesome and this was the last post I visited that has made my decision on getting T5's next, thanks a lot :)!

Just awesome work and thanks for sharing such beautiful pieces that you've grown out.
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Thanks, and I certainly would suggest T5 without reservation- my decision to use them was all about the corals and in the end that's why I do it. I like to save money when I can but if it means poor results than what's the point?
 
Matt:

I noticed that you have three sets of T5 fixtures on your tank specs (1 x 8 bulb and 2 x 6 bulb). i suspect you must give you significantly more output than 1 48" fixture on your 120? Did you just build up to this arrangement, trade out a 48" fixture or go with the three from the start? Do you have a center brace on your 120 and if so, how do you deal with that?

Thanks for your response.
 
Quiverfull said:
Matt:

I noticed that you have three sets of T5 fixtures on your tank specs (1 x 8 bulb and 2 x 6 bulb). i suspect you must give you significantly more output than 1 48" fixture on your 120? Did you just build up to this arrangement, trade out a 48" fixture or go with the three from the start? Do you have a center brace on your 120 and if so, how do you deal with that?

Thanks for your response.
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Hi, there are two tanks linked together, the 120 has two 6bulb sunpowers while the 96 has 1 8 bulb sunpower, you can see the arrangement here:
image_zpse05o0tmu.jpeg

I added the 120 to the system(96 gallon tank was the original tank) and decided to continue using 3ft fixtures since I already had the 8 bulb. Since they are all 3 footers I can use bulbs on any of them interchangeably. Yes, 2 6 bulb fixtures give more spread than one 8 bulb which was why I went that way. Both tanks are rimless:)
 
mhucasey said:
Hi, there are two tanks linked together, the 120 has two 6bulb sunpowers while the 96 has 1 8 bulb sunpower, you can see the arrangement here:
image_zpse05o0tmu.jpeg

I added the 120 to the system(96 gallon tank was the original tank) and decided to continue using 3ft fixtures since I already had the 8 bulb. Since they are all 3 footers I can use bulbs on any of them interchangeably. Yes, 2 6 bulb fixtures give more spread than one 8 bulb which was why I went that way. Both tanks are rimless:)
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Amazing set up Matt !!!

How do you have them connected ?

Years ago I had a fuge beside my tank connected by 2 U tubes. The pump was in the fuge sending water to the main tank and returning through the U tubes.

Thanks
Daniel
 
Thanks, it works really well:). Both sets of overflow lines flow to a common sump, one system pump splits into two supply lines. It's simpler than it looks.:lolspin:

image_zps31ayzec8.jpeg
 
mhucasey said:
Thanks, it works really well:). Both sets of overflow lines flow to a common sump, one system pump splits into two supply lines. It's simpler than it looks.:lolspin:

image_zps31ayzec8.jpeg
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Wow.... simple and neat. The black external pump (front of the dump) with the split, that will be the return pump, correct ?

The water mix occurs at the sump.... smart !!

All your dosings occurs also in the sump ? In that way all what you add are a ready mixed by the time the water pass to the return chamber. Is that correct ?

Nice....nice !!!

Daniel
 
You sure have a lot of light between the two tanks. I was wondering what your bulb combo is on your 8 bulb fixture.
 
mhucasey said:
I was very impressed by the video as well, the fan speed tests really made me think as well. I have been running mine at 6v, since a professional Fluke temperature RTD placed on the cold spot showed 96F. I did have lower par on the side where the vent was, so I've been thinking that going up a notch to 7.5v might increase par on that end a bit.
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I did a similar (non-scientific) experiment using my old ATI sunpower a while ago and concluded that given the ambient temperatures in my fish room, 9V is the most ideal fan speed setting. 7.5V made my tubes produce more PAR and made them look a lot brighter. They looked as if they were overdriven. If you look at the The long T5 thread, The Grim Reefer always advised people to use 9V (If remember correctly).
 
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nemodan said:
Wow.... simple and neat. The black external pump (front of the dump) with the split, that will be the return pump, correct ?

The water mix occurs at the sump.... smart !!

All your dosings occurs also in the sump ? In that way all what you add are a ready mixed by the time the water pass to the return chamber. Is that correct ?

Nice....nice !!!

Daniel
Click to expand...

You are correct, I labeled a pic for you for more detail. Two more dosing pumps are behind the skimmer and all dosing pumps drip where the overflow lines enter the sump.

Sump%20Layout_zpszdhxdyle.jpg
 
DiscusHeckel said:
I did a similar (non-scientific) experiment using my old ATI sunpower a while ago and concluded that given the ambient temperatures in my fish room, 9V is the most ideal fan speed setting. 7.5V made my tubes produce more PAR and made them look a lot brighter. They looked as if they were overdriven. If you look at the The long T5 thread, The Grim Reefer always advised people to use 9V (If remember correctly).
Click to expand...

You are correct, Grim did suggest 9V, I used that setting on the original tank because of that recommendation. I found out that between the ambient temp and because of a vent that blows down on the fixtures, 9V didn't get me any more par than 7.5 so i opted for the quieter setting.
 
mhucasey said:
Yep, lots of bulbs burning:) The 8 bulb fixture has 3 Superblue, 3 Blue Plus, 1 Fiji Purple and one Aquapink.
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Thanks Matt, I just ordered a new ATI fixture so i was wondering what you were running. I did it in a rush to take advantage of a sale, and went with 3 B+ 3 C+ and 1 AB. Hope that works.
 
mhucasey said:
You are correct, I labeled a pic for you for more detail. Two more dosing pumps are behind the skimmer and all dosing pumps drip where the overflow lines enter the sump.

Sump%20Layout_zpszdhxdyle.jpg
Click to expand...


TANK YOU VERY MUCH MATT !!!! For taking the time to do all that drawing.

I love the " Wiener dog " , that is an important piece of equipment ... LOL... I have 3 of those pieces .

I have never seen those plastic hooks you have to provide support to the pipes. Nice !!!

Another question: I can see that the valves are equally open in both return pipes. Do you know if the same flow/amount of water returns to each tank ? How do you manage that ? Or you don't care ?

Your system is working flowlessly so I like to know those details because, you never know, when I will need to do something similar.

Thanks for your time in answering all my questions.

Cheers
Daniel

One more : you have a line from your skimmer cup to the sump, correct ? Are you feeding skimmate?
 
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