My new tank w/ some ?

nIx_tank

nIx_tank

New member
Hello all,

Well, I believe that I am going to get back into the fishy world. I finally have a little bit of time since the twins have been born, so decided to get back into this hobby.

I broke down my 100 gal DAS system when I moved, which will no longer fit in my new house, unfortunately. Still have all my rock and equipement, but just don't have space for that tank.

So, in the interim, I decided to take on a new project. 100 gallon cube, with a central overflow.

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Sorry about the shots, iphone.

I have started on the sanding of the frame, need to replace all the hinges and reseal the sump area.

The biggest question that I am going to have is, the lighting. Right now, I have 4 2' SO bulbs on it, which just will not do. I am looking to do a bit of a DIY of LED lights, but the question that I have is...

Will LED have enough power to get adequate light to the bottom of this tank? The tank depth is about 3 feet, which I would figure without optics on the LEDs might get to the bottom.

Just looking for ideas on this one, as it will probably be a LPS / softies tank with maybe a SPS or two.

I am planning on building my rock all around the overflow with maybe a small pillar or two on one of the corners of the bottom.

Once again, open for any ideas that people may have!

Thanks!
 
I'm not an LED guy, so I have no info on them.

But, what are the dimensions on the tank? Looks like so many possibilities with that tank. Should be an interesting build.
 
Without optics LEDs would probably be fine to the bottom of the tank. What might be a good suggestion is to pick up a par meter. Rig up a small test light fixture with a few LEDs and check the par at the different levels and determine if you need to buy optics for them or not.
 
It is roughly a 3' cube.

The original design of this tank had the return from the sump through the center and then flowed via PVC down to the bottom of the tank. At the bottom of the tank was a grid of PVC in which had holes through them to allow the flow out everywhere along the bottom.

The problem that I saw with that particular design, was that it had CC on the bottom on top of that PVC grid, which really allowed a bunch of detritus buildup ( I bet due to too much pressure loss from head pressure). So I yanked that grid out and just let the flow exit from the top of the overflow.

Also, how easy is it to rinse out old sand? This tank had about a 3"-4" SB but is pretty dirty.

Might almost be worth to toss it and get some new sand.

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to put on a PAR, as from all the research I have done so far is that without the optics, the LED does well in a very small area of penetration.

That would lead me to believe that I would have to have many more LEDs in which to make sure that I had good light coverage for the bottom.

*shrug*

I will probably be looking at LED designs next, as I have already built my sump out.
 
You would probably have to have a lot of LEDs to get full coverage. When I was looking at LEDs for m 18" cube, a 6x4 array was suggested. So I cant imagine how many it would take for a 3 foot cube.

I'm very jealous of that tank by the way. I love cube tanks.
 
You may have addressed this. Are you going to keep it next to the pool table ? If so I see flying cue balls in your future.
 
Some of that light diffuser grid around that overflow would work well to stitch rock to. That tank is going to look pretty sweet when its up and mature.
 
InsideJoke said:
You would probably have to have a lot of LEDs to get full coverage. When I was looking at LEDs for m 18" cube, a 6x4 array was suggested. So I cant imagine how many it would take for a 3 foot cube.

I'm very jealous of that tank by the way. I love cube tanks.
Click to expand...

6x4, which I assume was 6 rows of 4, or vice versa? Yeah, I figure that I am going to have to build a square with a 'donut' out of the middle to suspend over this tank.

I initially was thinking to do 6 rows per side, so 24 rows with (8 per row?). I honestly have no idea how many actually, but I think that I am still going to go the LED route.

I don't have the clearance to the ceiling for a MH setup (this is in my basement), coupled with then still trying to place the supplemental bulbs.

So definitely going to have to do some research and planning on this one..lol.

chaderic26 said:
You may have addressed this. Are you going to keep it next to the pool table ? If so I see flying cue balls in your future.
Click to expand...

lol, actually, I have windows like the one in the second pic at the back of the pool table. One of the house rules is that you break towards the books and no cue jump shots.

That said, I was still planning on putting a plexiglass 'front' on two of the sides so as the twins get older and decide to play 'lightsabers' they don't hit Daddy's tank...lol

That will also double as a bit of a pool ball protector. The tank in the pics right now is slid out a bit from the wall, so when it is back against the wall it is about 6 feet from the table.

Still...I believe in Murphy's law.

chaderic26 said:
Some of that light diffuser grid around that overflow would work well to stitch rock to. That tank is going to look pretty sweet when its up and mature.
Click to expand...

I thought about that as I just don't like the idea of 'stacking' all that rock. I also saw a while back somebody on the board had created a back on their tank with the rock and sand, etc. expand a foam or something of that sort on that diffuser board. Might look into that idea.

I think no matter what though, I will probably have excess rock from my old tank. I just don't think I can fit ~150 lbs. of rock into this one...lol.

Lytehouse said:
Several guys in the club have DIY leds and will probably chime in. Should be no problem with them reaching the bottom. All websites seem to be very helpful if you call.

This guy just brought in led fixtures for his 240:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1936759

Good to see you back on the forum
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks for the links! Definitely have to do some more research.

Yeah, the last year or two I just dropped off the map as I have had too many irons in the fire (twins do that...lol).

Hell, I really think the last meeting I went to was at Paul's when he just recently set up his in wall ocean...or when the club fragged all those blastos and did a presentation on the mag mods.

Sooo...it may have been a bit. lol
 
I would recommend optics you will need them to penetrate to the depth of this tank. I would start off as stated above with a small led rig and play with different optics. Optics are about $1 each so I would try a few out to perfect your led design. Drive current will also be a factor i would suggest dimmable drivers. this will also allow you to create sunrise and sunset effects.
 
6 rows of 4 LEDs. Theres a ton of research to be had with DIY LEDs. Just make sure you use good LEDs and do tons of research and testing. I'm sure you'll find something you like for the tank.

The donut might be a good idea as well. Just make sure you get close enough to the center to prevent a large "dark spot" in the center of the tank.
 
Excuse my ignorance here, but I thought that optics would defuse the light from the LEDs, leading to less water pentration?

I know that when I was looking at optics, I was thinking about trying to go with 60 degree to allow me to not to have so many LEDs. I thought about a 80 degree optic, but then I thought that would really limit the water penetration.

I was trying to think if there was any reason that I would want to allow the lights over the overflow, as it would allow the light to travel deeper into the tank before it may hit water. Then again, since I am planning to put rock around the overflow, probably wouldn't do any good anyways.

Thanks again everybody for their input!
 
rhoades said:
i found that the leds i use work really well and so much cheaper the regular lighting i have a string of rgb lights and am going to be adding supper nova lights here is where i found them

http://www.ecolightled.com/category/led_products_eco-light
Click to expand...

These leds are neat for accent light but will not be enough for corals. I have used similar leds for moon lights. But these simply can't even begin to compair to the lumen output of HP leds.

As for cheap accent leds I also use WWW.superbrightleds.com
 
Update, well I have gotten the painting of the tank done, resealed the wood underneath the tank for the sump.

(pics forthcoming)

Tomorrow is rinse the sand day, then drop in the rock around the center overflow and get the water and dried sand back in.


So...on to lighting.

I think that I am going to go the LED route, potentially. He are my measurements. Tank is 36" deep, with a glass top cover.

FT.jpg



My thought is that the 2 long LED fixtures (green boxes), I am probably going with 2 rows of 10-12 LEDs. The two smaller fixtures I was thinking of 10 LEDS on each.

Going with the 3W Crees, cool white and royal blue. 60/40 mix potentially.

Does this seem like too few LEDs? As this is mostly going to be a softy / LFS tank, I was curious if this would work, or do I need to add another string to each side (another 10-12)?

I figure that I potentially will need some tighter optics on them (40-60 degree) to make sure I get the light towards the bottom of the tank. Afraid though that this will probably leave too many shadows. Just afraid that a 80 degree optic would not focus the light deep enough in the water column.

I thought about also putting right over the overflow 3-5 royal blues for nightlights, so with those on and the others off, the light would stream out from between the rocks.

*Shrug*

Also, the dotted line on the 'south' part of the design is where the glass lid has a split to lift up to feed, etc. Figure my design is going to have to take that into account.

Open for input and thanks for looking!
 
Hey...we missed you...everything is looking good...when those twins get about 3, you may want to empty that tank and use it to corral them in...come on back to the meetings...............Mike
 
UPDATE!

Well, I finally found some time this past weekend to put everything together, much to the chagrin I am sure of my wife. I had my fish 'stuff' spread all out through the basement, so I am sure she is happy that you can actually walk around down there now.

Sorry about the crappy iPhone pics, just going to have break out my good camera...lol.

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Since the rock and sand had been sitting in this tank without water movement or heat for about 3 weeks, I am kind of surprised that my skimmer has not been going off.

Of course, I have not had my skimmer going in about a year or two, so I am sure it needs to break back in before it starts to skim heavy.

I used some of the water in which was still in the tank on setup, with new water of about 35 gals (So about a 30% water change). I still have a 3 lb. bucket full of additional sand to rinse, but that is probably going to wait until another warm sunny day.

Still working on the light project...have a friend that does LED work professionally, so I might be able to get a deal on LEDs.

I believe I am going to build a 30" square heatsink to mount all the LEDs on, at a spacing of 3" apart. I thought at first of focusing my LEDs more along the outside of the overflow in the center, but I think just for uniform light I am going to go across the whole tank.

Today I am going to take some rock from my little 10 here at work home to this tank, to start the reseeding of all the LR / LS with the goodies needed. Then in maybe a month or so, fish.

So look forward to that day.

Thanks all for looking!

Nick
 
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