My new 120

[yoboyjdizz]

yeah just what i was saying... did u do the mods urself on ur asm i see on the asmskimmer.com they can do it for u but you gotta tell where you want the holes and i have no idea where to start? but anyway how do you like your anthias?

 

[yoboyjdizz]

yeah just what i was saying... did u do the mods urself on ur asm i see on the asmskimmer.com they can do it for u but you gotta tell where you want the holes and i have no idea where to start? but anyway how do you like your anthias?

 

[yoboyjdizz]

yeah just what i was saying... did u do the mods urself on ur asm i see on the asmskimmer.com they can do it for u but you gotta tell where you want the holes and i have no idea where to start? but anyway how do you like your anthias?

 

[Chrisrush]

I did it myself. The acrylic/pvc drills like butter. The cup is a little more nerve racking to drill, but if you go slow, it's not bad at all.
How is your sump setup? I had to drill mine in a certian spot or otherwise it wouldn't fit.

I like the lyretails a lot. I wish that the 4th hadn't died on me. I have some credit, but that means that I need to get more fish, which I think that I'm about at my load for fish.

Chris

 

[Chrisrush]

Just wanted to give a small update, everything is going well. I'm going to get a pair of lumenarcs this week and install those.

I'm going to be replacing my DIY calcium reactor with a larger reactor since it's not keeping up with my ca/alk demands. I think that this reactor is better suited for a smaller (90g) tank.

I started Prodibio 2 weeks ago, and I've seen some great growth in the 2 doses that I've done.

I've also been supplementing the tank with Seachem AAs and I think that this has really helped out with some of the SPS color in my tank.

I plan on putting some photos up soon.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[yoboyjdizz]

Sorry about the late reply...but my sump is big enough for it to fit fine is 50x22x18..so hows it working for you? Wheres the pictures? haha How the anthias doing? Im thinking about just going with some fairy warrase's they been catching my attention latly...

 

[thor32766]

thats a nice tank

 

[Chrisrush]

Thanks Thor.

The anthias are doing well yoboy. I did lose 2 out of the 4, but 1 didn't make it more than 48 hrs. and the other one had pop-eye from the start, so they weren't the healthiest to begin with.

I've been pretty busy making some improvements to the tank, namely adding better lumenarc reflectors and updating the aquascaping. No new pictures of the aquascaping b/c I made some of my sps corals mad.

I did this for two reasons, a) to remove any heat trapped by my old light setup and b) to move the lights so that they are not directly over the center brace.

I bought some angle iron and flat stock, a packets of rivets and washers and a rivet gun. I then laid out a frame work in my garage to decided where to put the lights, vho endcaps, etc. I ran into a few problems, but I think that it worked out pretty well. I was originally going to use the L-brackets that I hung from the ceiling with the steel rope, but I opted for a bike pulley system that Ryan, Keith and Steve all used. It was much easier, plus it allows me to raise/lower the lights without effort.

Anyways, on to the pictures:

I don't have a picture of how the old lights were hung, but here is the light hood that I sold.

Inside view:

Prior to removing the lights on Saturday:

This was one of the things that really bugged me on my old lights, I couldn't figure out how to hid the cords.

 

[Chrisrush]

Here is the riveted frame that I was working with. I ended up adding cross braces to the middle two posts and 45 degree braces to the corners. This seemed to really help out with the stability of the rack.

Here is the tank without the lights, and wood skirt.

When I was removing the old stuff from the old lights, I noticed that the led that was my center moonlight was fried, and boy do I mean fried.

You can see how large the lumenarcs are in this picture. The light rack is 46.5" x 23".

I had a little difficulty with the endcaps, mainly b/c I didn't tank into account the lenght of the endcaps, instead, I used the bulb lenghts. (Silly me). So I had to reverse the endcaps and drill out two holes to run the wires. (Sorry for the crappy picture)

Here's a top down look at the endcaps, notice how the endcap doesn't face the right direction, chalk that one up to good ol' Aggie engineering.

 

[Chrisrush]

Well, I got the lights up on top of the tank, but since the back of the lumenarcs are so heavy, I couldn't get the thing to balance out when I was using my old hangers. Here is a picture of the lights on top of the tank.

Another picture of the ghetto rack:

Once I bought the bike pulley and installed it, it was much easier. I didn't really like the wood screws that came with the setup, since I stripped most of them, so I ended up using a few more screws than was probably necessary.

Don't mind the off kilter shot, it was still working on the level. You can also see one this shot the white pvc pipe that I installed next to the tank. Hopefully this will allow me to run all the wires down to the cabinet without creating a mess.

And here is the final product with the skirt back on.

I didn't take any pictures with the MH on b/c I had to put two layers of window screen under them so that nothing would bleach. I'll take some photos in a few weeks after things have settled down.

Chris

 

[Chrisrush]

I found some sweet fans to go behind my tank. Jerone sent me to Lowes to pick up a pair of squirel type fans. They rock. My tank hasn't moved more than + / - .5 degree since I installed them. Of course, I'm evaporating about 5 gallons per day now, but that's alright. Water is cheaper then electricity.

I posted this in the propagation section but I wanted to see if anyone following this thread had any ideas.

I'm thinking about adding a frag setup (mostly SPS & zoas) to my current sump. I have a space that is roughly 18" d x 12 " l x 14" h on the left side of my sump.

Here is a current picture of my sump.

Here is a close-up of the left side and the right side:

Right side:

Left side:

I can remove the rock rubble and phosban reactor in the left side if I need too. The only problem that I might encounter with the left side of the sump is the return pump and the float switch, which you can barely see in that last picture (white pvc pipe, with float switch next to it).

I am getting a new calcium reactor to replace the DIY on the right side of the tank, so I thought about adding the frag setup to the right side and move the reactor to where the return section of the sump is, but I don't know if that will work.

If I add some eggcrate to raise the frags up, what MH ballast/bulb/wattage should I go with. I'd like to stick with 250w SE bulbs, since that's what I'm currently running, but I think that might be too much for such a small surface area.

Here's a top down view of the left side, btw.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

 

[tgunn]

Hey Chris,
Looking good! How much more light do the Lumens produce over the old wing-style reflectors? I imagine they give a nice extra punch.

The advantage of using a 250w halide for your frag growout area is you could use your old main system bulbs. A local reefer near me (LittleBlueGT) does that with his used bulbs from his tank. He's been running an old 250w bulb over his sump/frag grow out area for a while and the frags grow great.

I run 2x54w T5s over my sump and that seems more than enough for my chaeto; though I have plenty of room for frags once my corals get that big. I like the T5s because they're not as power hungry as the halides and don't add much heat to the system.

Do you think you'd have problems with heat in the stand if you used a 250w halide in there?

Tyler

 

[Chrisrush]

Not sure, that's one of the issues that I'm a little worried about. I finally got the heat issue addressed with the new reflectors and I really don't want to have to mess with it again. Plus, I'm already evaporating too much water during the summer as it is. I was thinking about running the frag system after the main tank lights go off, hopefully to extend the pH swing.

I'd like to go with a t5 setup, but I haven't looked into it enough to see what I'd need.

That's why I wanted the 250w setup, so that I could use my old bulbs, of course, I'm currently running a pair of 10k bulbs, and w/o actinics they are pretty white.

The lumenarcs produce a lot more light than my old spider reflectors. It is very concentrated as well. I hardly have any light escape, except for a little blue from the actinics.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

Hey chris any updates for us? How is that skimmer working out for you?

 

[Chrisrush]

Skimmer is working good. I can set it for wet or dry, depending on how everything is going.

Right now I'm finishing up the wood work, trying to get rid of some microbubbles and hopefully installing a pair of swirl-steins for my tunze.

 

[Mike.B]

Nice, I kinda skimmed through the thread, what actinic lights are you using because they look awesome.

 

[Chrisrush]

Subzero,
2 - 250w 10k Reeflux MH and 110w Actinic 03 VHO bulbs.

 

[Chrisrush]

Time for a short update.

I haven't added too much in the way of corals and/or fish, but I did add a small prop/frag section into my sump, which I'll add some photos soon.

Went to MACNA and learned that without proper ventilation, flourescent bulbs don't run properly at higher temps, so therefore I've turned off my actinics and I plan on removing them from my system. As of right now, I'm running my MH 10k bulbs for 6 hrs a day. When it comes time to change the bulbs (dec-jan), I'm going to look into a 12-15k bulb for a little more blue. Problem is that I like the growth associated with the 10k bulb.

After observing my tank and the flow dynamics, I've decieded to add sand and some reef ceramics to the tank, along with changing out the return pump. I bought a ehiem 1262 to replace my gen-x pump. I also bought 80 lbs. of caribsea seafloor special grade sand to put on the bottom of the tank. Along with the sand, I bought 2 pieces of reef ceramics at MACNA, a back wall piece and an outcropping. I'm planning on taking many before/after pictures this weekend when I make the switch.

 

[tgunn]

I believe T5s are even more critical for temperature than the VHOs too since they're so skinny. Did they mention anything specific about T5s? When you say "don't run proper" do you mean they don't last as long or don't emit the right spectrum?

Catch-22 with them I guess. I'd like to move to the 10ks from the 14k halides I have. I find the 14ks are nice for color, but they don't quite have the brightness of the 10ks I've seen on other reefers tanks.

Are planning on keeping the penductors/eductors? I had a helk of a time trying to get them to work with sand. I got lots of flow wrapping down the side of the tank and scouring the bottom clean.

Going for a smaller return pump for noise?

Tyler

 

[Chrisrush]

I believe T5s are even more critical for temperature than the VHOs too since they're so skinny. Did they mention anything specific about T5s? When you say "don't run proper" do you mean they don't last as long or don't emit the right spectrum?

Catch-22 with them I guess. I'd like to move to the 10ks from the 14k halides I have. I find the 14ks are nice for color, but they don't quite have the brightness of the 10ks I've seen on other reefers tanks.

Are planning on keeping the penductors/eductors? I had a helk of a time trying to get them to work with sand. I got lots of flow wrapping down the side of the tank and scouring the bottom clean.

Going for a smaller return pump for noise?

Tyler

Yea, noise, heat, and flow. I don't plan on keeping the penductors, at least for now. I guess I'll see how the ehiem does at first, and then if I need some more flow, I might add them back.

That's the problem that I'm facing. I need more blue, but I don't want to sacrifice the PAR. I hear that Iwaski is coming out with a sweet 15k MH bulb around christmas that is going to rock in terms of color and PAR.

Sanjay was talking about the amount of PAR from those fluorescent bulbs, both T5s, T8s and T12s. The optimal temperature for most of them was between 20-25 C from what I can remember. I know that inside my canopy, which is very well ventilated, it gets above that. And if the only thing that I'm running the actinics for is aesthetics, then I might as well just buy some cheap 40w tubes instead of burning 220w with the VHOs. When I turned them off, I didn't notice much of a difference in terms of my eyes. I lengthened my photoperiod by an hr. for the MH, so that should help, from 5 to 6 hrs.