My 47G Rimless T5/LED Hybrid SPS Tank

[sahin]

My new tank arrived today. The tank stats are as follows:

Tank is 47G "Rimless" with 12mm Optiwhite glass and double base. This is my first ever sumped tank; all 3 of my previous reef tanks were sumpless.

I opted for a single durso and return. The tank is in the living room and I am not too bothered about noise etc from the overflow. The sump is fairly large and will accomodate about 25G of water, but is designed to run with about half of that.

Here are the first photos of the tank:

Side shot:

A closeup shot of the "Rimless" glass and the smoothed edges:

A shot of the sump area:

The cabinet has lots of height. I can easily lift the skimmer out of the cabinet whilst it is still in one piece. Plus there is space to build a shelf above the sump to place my Doser and other equipment. I have also fitted a strip light inside the cabinet to assist when working inside the sump.

Skimmer: from the photo above you can see a Bubble Magus NAC6 Skimmer. I went with this skimmer due to its value for money and performance.

Lights: ATI Sunpower: 5xT5 + 24xCree 3W LED

I bought a practically new ATI Sunpower 6x24watt T5 unit (with non working fans) and have modified this to include high power LED's. The LED's consist of 20 Cree Royal Blue LED's and 4 Cree Blue LED's. I am going to run them at 700mA. In total the unit now runs 178watts of T5 and LED. From my past experiance with T5's/250w+150wMetal halide/LED's, I estimate PAR to be well above that given by a 250w halide. There is a combination of 40, 60 and 80 degree lens on the LED's.

My reasoning for going with such a light unit is due to the good experiance with LED's in my previous build, and because T5's are known for thier ability to colour SPS corals really well.

Dosing: I am going to either purchase a Fauna Marine or GHL triple doser.

Water flow: Most likely Vortech pumps, but may go with Tunze Streams.

Topoff: Tunze Osmolator. This unit has so far proven to be 100% reliable and accurate.

Controller/Cooling: TC10 Temperature Controller. This unit has also proven to be extremely reliable and trouble free. This unit will control the switching of fans to achieve cooling via evaporative cooling.

I will keep the thread updated and add more info when appropriate.

 

[iap]

Good start

 

[dez]

That's a very clean look to your tank. I like it.

 

[Dustin1300]

Beautiful tank. Very nice and clean looking. Where's the SPS though?

 

[sahin]

Beautiful tank. Very nice and clean looking. Where's the SPS though?

Thanks guys.

Dustin, the SPS are in my current tank, and more waiting as frags from another reefkeeper. It will be a basic swap over at some point. Just need to get this tank in the best state as possible in terms of water chemistry and equipment setup.

I'll be using most of the water and all of the rocks from my current tank. Only the sand will be new.

I am sure the SPS will love my T5/LED hybrid light.

 

[Dustin1300]

I was just kidding about the SPS. Is this going to be open top or will it have a canopy?

 

[sahin]

With a Rimless, I'd be crazy to go have a canopy. LOL. Plus the ATI Sunpower looks so nice, its going to be open top.

 

[Bello]

Looking good.... Just wondering if the LEDs will look too blue... but then again it isn't that difficult to swap 'em out for whites. Good job on the light unit though!

 

[sahin]

Looking good.... Just wondering if the LEDs will look too blue... but then again it isn't that difficult to swap 'em out for whites. Good job on the light unit though!

Its not too blue. At least not for me. But I will only know for sure once its over the tank and some corals. If its too blue I can replace 1 of the 3 Blue + tubes with a white tube or a fiji purple tube.

 

[Dex]

Lookin' good! Do you happen to have anymore pictures of your modded light fixture? Thanks

 

[sahin]

Thanks. I dont have anymore photos of the lights. I will take more now that I have my DSLR back.

 

[Chrisrush]

Looks great. Glad to see you got the modifications done.

 

[Rodrigo_BG]

Nice display & stand Sahin, wish you the best on your new project.

 

[sahin]

Have now finished the plumbing on the tank. I have also tested the sump today for leakage etc and its fine. Started to fill the tank with water and its a slow process-especially as its so cold outside.

Here is a shot of the skimmer in place and the plumbing done. Not much to show in the sump yet though:

I have also fitted a cabinet lock on the cabinet. With a 2 babies around the place I am not taking any chances:

Not much else done. All my SPS are dead now because of the Acro eating flatworms. I discovered the problem too late. I have less than 5 frags (had over 25+) now and they dont look too good. With only 5 frags left in a very sorry state, I just feel its not worth the risk putting them in the new tank. Plus, I am taking up my childrens tiny library area having setup a quarantine tank for the AEFW affected corals...and I just feel that I might as well bin the remaining frags and start again.

I will have to think about long term plans in terms of quarantine of any new SPS frags I buy in the future.

 

[DML08]

awesome looking tank man.. nice and clean..

 

[sahin]

Nice display & stand Sahin, wish you the best on your new project.

Looks great. Glad to see you got the modifications done.

awesome looking tank man.. nice and clean..

Thanks guys. You guys have such beautiful tanks with healthy and colourful SPS corals. I have based my new tank with inspiration from what you have done with your tanks.

 

[smoyer]

Nice tank! Where did you buy it?

 

[allsps40]

Looking good keep it up.

 

[VITARTE]

Is that an ELOS?

 

[sahin]

Nice tank! Where did you buy it?

I live in the UK; I bought it from ND Aquatics - they normally sell and build for the trade.

Looking good keep it up.

Thanks.

Is that an ELOS?

You know, your questions just made my day haha! And I just looked at my tank again and thought, yeah it kind of looks like an Elos. :lol2: The shape of the tank is similar, the cabinet is white and is tallish like the Elos cabinets...hehehe, its not an Elos, its a custom built to my own specification.