New tank build!

[AZBigJohn]

Nah. Just the usual stuff where I have one hand in my tank while holding onto a hot MH fixture. My wife used to watch me work on the tank. Basically, I'd either electrocute myself, burn myself, get stung by something, fall off a ladder, or spill a bunch of water. Always ended with me cursing and her laughing (rightfully so). Basically, she had dinner and a show at least twice a week.

Oh, Stoli,

It sounds like your wife and my wife should get together and share some stories!

We probably wouldn't enjoy it, but I'm sure they would!

Okay, post hijack done!

Tank is looking good so far! I am very jealous of your electrical skills, that is one area (building my own controllers) I have never ventured into. I will wire anything, (usually stupidly, and half the time (unknowingly) hot but if it involves circuits and relays, I'm lost)

 

[arthurdent510]

And finally some rock and sand! It's amazing how much the water cleared up overnight... was expecting cloudy water till I started running my skimmer... Should get the rest of the sand from my 40 gallon transferred over today, and the rest of my rock scrubbed down and added in as well. Maybe move fish over as well, we'll see how it goes

 

[Weyrman]

Great progress Dave!

 

[m-six hundred]

wow now I really feel like mine is taking forever. lol Good job Dave!

 

[arthurdent510]

Yea, I'm trying to get my old tank down... running 2 tanks takes up too much room, so I'm trying to keep things moving along!

 

[Stolireef]

wow now I really feel like mine is taking forever. lol Good job Dave!

Don't feel too bad. It took me a solid three months to finish my rebuild. Final tweaking didn't really end until early May so nearly four months start to finish and I already had all of the equipment and stand in place.

 

[arthurdent510]

So some more progress! Finally found my spool of led's, got a couple strips mounted under the cabinet. Eventually I'll have these wired to a magnetic switch so that when I open the door on the cabinet, it'll turn the light on. Gotta build the skins first... but for the time being, I'll probably just mount a switch under there somewhere..

 

[Stolireef]

I like the clean plumbing but I do have a question. How will you prevent microbubbles from getting into your return. It doesn't look like you have any baffles in the sump.

 

[arthurdent510]

the drain line is just temporary... I have a g3 skimmer on my 40 gallon that will be brought over, and it's setup for direct feed. So when it's up and running, there will be a bit of flexible line from the bulkhead on the bottom of the tank that will go directly to the input port on the skimmer. I just wanted to put something there for now so I can run the system

 

[arthurdent510]

And the rock in place, for the most part.... I still have the rock from my 40g that will come over. Still waiting for the tank to cycle, plenty of ammonia in there, so hopefully it'll start cycling soon...

 

[Stolireef]

What lights are you planning on? With your skills, I see an LED build in your future.

 

[m-six hundred]

updates?

 

[arthurdent510]

It's cycling! Levels are almost down to 0, if it keeps going this way I'm looking to transfer livestock to it over the weekend

 

[arthurdent510]

So updates! Finally moved everything over! Only have half the tank lit so far, I have led's to build out the rest of the lights, should be able to get them the rest of it up and running in a week or two. Till now, all my coral is living on that side of the tank.

 

[arthurdent510]

So I'm finally assembling my lights! Went with the makers led heat sinks, and I have to say they are pretty darn cool. I have 2 12" bars now, I'll eventually add in a 3rd one I think. Leds (on this bar) are 10 cool white, 10 royal blue, 4 blue, 2 uv, 1 red, and 1 green. Each bar will be running on 2 meanwelll 60-24d's, not sure how I'll split the channels yet... Everything is positioned at this point, just need to finish getting thermal paste on everything then on to the fun part of soldering a million connections!

 

[Stolireef]

Can you throw up a picture of the wiring on the LED's. Looks like a really nice build.

 

[arthurdent510]

Still working on getting it wired up... but I will be sure to take some pictures and post them when it's all done!

 

[m-six hundred]

Who did you buy the heat sinks from ?

 

[arthurdent510]

I got them through led group buy, led supply also sells them.

 

[arthurdent510]

so this is as far as I've got with the wiring for tonight... Should be able to finish it off tomorrow...