Pete's 110 build
- Thread starter psteeleb
- Start date
psteeleb
Team RC
thanks Brett
haha :spin2:
thanks
thanks - they came in on live rock, I had them in my 300g from a few years ago and they survived the live rock storage ordeal for about 9 months. The live rock was in a big tub with pumps and a skimmer but no heat so they must be fairly sturdy to certain conditions.Pete,
You're setting the bar high. Did you purposely populate the first brittle stars or did they appear via hitchhiking?
Great video as always ....
psteeleb
Team RC
I've been doing quite a bit of work on my lights, had a Po4 event (guess my GFO expired), busted up the huge birdsnest again, and my flame angel is getting to be a real pain (he/she is tearing into some sps - thinking about moving it to my 29), other then that not much to update
end tank video - hope you enjoy
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end tank video - hope you enjoy
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Liltree1723
New member
Best pics. Best thread. Best tank.
I found my new reefer role model. I just stated a life goals list. The first entry on it is to someday have an aquarium as great as yours.
I found my new reefer role model. I just stated a life goals list. The first entry on it is to someday have an aquarium as great as yours.
psteeleb
Team RC
Beautiful. Thanks for the update video.
thanks Sahin
thanks
couple pics from tonight
drummereef
Team RC
Despite the minor issues the tank is looking as amazing as ever. You mentioned you had been working on your lights, what are you doing?
psteeleb
Team RC
thanks Brett
Not a large change but I'm still working on it
Where the ^ is a LED bar and the * is a T5 I had:
^^****^^
but wanted to get a better spread (less zone) so I change it to
^*^**^*^
Additionally I changed the T5 bulbs from 2 cool white a blue and a purple to 4 coral+, this was also to help even out the lighting
In pulling the LED bars I clean up the bars and areas I had corrosion, replaced the steel screws with nylon, added a LED coating to the surface area to protect any exposed electrical wires and added splash shields.
The outside LED bars are still just Royal Blues but I will be adding more LED's to them to provide more spectrum and PAR to the rock faces. I'll be adding:
6) 5w 7500k whites to each side (total 12), and
6) 3w violets to each side (total 12)
I was considering adding more regular blues but after checking out SERVOs now LEDs I was convinced I wanted toe violet. I get plenty of blue spectrum, as well as a blend of others from the 4 ATI Coral+, I find them to be an excellent all around bulb and a perfect supplement to fill in for the missing spectrums my LEDs lack.
psteeleb
Team RC
Thanks Brett, there's not a large change but I'm still working on it. Basically, I rearranged the T5 and LED bars to get a more consistent blend, cleaned things up, and rewired the T5's for a future installation of dimmable ballast.
As for the rearrangement, where the ^ is a LED bar and the * is a T5 I had:
^^****^^
but wanted to get a better spread (less zone) so I change it to:
^*^**^*^
Additionally I changed the T5 bulbs from 2 cool white a blue and a purple to 4 coral+, this was also to help even out the lighting
In pulling the LED bars I clean up the bars and areas I had corrosion, replaced the steel screws with nylon, added a LED coating to the surface area to protect any exposed electrical wires and added splash shields.
The outside LED bars are still just Royal Blues but I will be adding more LED's to them to provide more spectrum and PAR to the rock faces. I'll be adding:
6) 5w 7500k whites to each side (total 12), and
6) 3w violets to each side (total 12)
I was considering adding more regular blues but after checking out SERVOs new LED module I was convinced I wanted to add some violet. I get plenty of blue spectrum, as well as a blend of others, from the 4 ATI Coral+, I find them to be an excellent all around bulb and a perfect supplement to fill in for the missing spectrums my LEDs lack
Last edited:
psteeleb
Team RC
Thanks Brett, there's not a large change but I'm still working on it. Basically, I rearranged the T5 and LED bars to get a more consistent blend, cleaned things up, and rewired the T5's for a future installation of dimmable ballast.
As for the rearrangement, where the ^ is a LED bar and the * is a T5 I had:
^^****^^
but wanted to get a better spread (less zone) so I change it to:
^*^**^*^
Additionally I changed the T5 bulbs from 2 cool white a blue and a purple to 4 coral+, this was also to help even out the lighting
In pulling the LED bars I clean up the bars and areas I had corrosion, replaced the steel screws with nylon, added a LED coating to the surface area to protect any exposed electrical wires and added splash shields.
The outside LED bars are still just Royal Blues but I will be adding more LED's to them to provide more spectrum and PAR to the rock faces. I'll be adding:
6) 5w 7500k whites to each side (total 12), and
6) 3w violets to each side (total 12)
I was considering adding more regular blues but after checking out SERVOs new LED module I was convinced I wanted to add some violet. I get plenty of blue spectrum, as well as a blend of others, from the 4 ATI Coral+, I find them to be an excellent all around bulb and a perfect supplement to fill in for the missing spectrums my LEDs lack
drummereef
Team RC
Thanks for the explanation, looking forward to hearing the results from you lighting updates. That is a gorgeous new anemone!! :thumbsup:
psteeleb
Team RC
Thanks Brett
I got most of the parts in for the additional light mods but decided last night to add another feature so placed an order for additional parts.
I decided to build a manual over ride switch / dimmer box. Basically what it will do is once a switch is turned on the closed circuit will tell the APEX to turn on all lights at 100%. The dimming controls wires from the APEX all be rerouted to the control box to individual manual dimmers (potentiometers) then to the light ballasts. That way if I want to play with my lights, show off the dimming etc, all I have to do is flip the switch and control them from the local box. I think I'll also add a door switch to my hood with an APEX control feature to dim the lights when open.
Currently I have only the 4 dimming ports and was thinking about using them as follows:
Royal Blues (48-3w)
Whites (22-3w 6500, and 12-5w 7500)
UV's (12 - 3w)
T5's (4 Coral+)
But may bite the bullet and get another expansion module to set them up as follows:
Royal Blues mid tank (24-3w)
Royal Blues rock face (24-3w)
Whites mid tank (22-3w 6500)
Whites rock face (12-5w 7500)
UV's rock face (12 - 3w)
T5's mid tank (2 Coral+)
T5's center tank (2 Coral+)
Future "“ moonlights or other T5 spectrum fill (but currently happy with the ATI coral +)
I got most of the parts in for the additional light mods but decided last night to add another feature so placed an order for additional parts.
I decided to build a manual over ride switch / dimmer box. Basically what it will do is once a switch is turned on the closed circuit will tell the APEX to turn on all lights at 100%. The dimming controls wires from the APEX all be rerouted to the control box to individual manual dimmers (potentiometers) then to the light ballasts. That way if I want to play with my lights, show off the dimming etc, all I have to do is flip the switch and control them from the local box. I think I'll also add a door switch to my hood with an APEX control feature to dim the lights when open.
Currently I have only the 4 dimming ports and was thinking about using them as follows:
Royal Blues (48-3w)
Whites (22-3w 6500, and 12-5w 7500)
UV's (12 - 3w)
T5's (4 Coral+)
But may bite the bullet and get another expansion module to set them up as follows:
Royal Blues mid tank (24-3w)
Royal Blues rock face (24-3w)
Whites mid tank (22-3w 6500)
Whites rock face (12-5w 7500)
UV's rock face (12 - 3w)
T5's mid tank (2 Coral+)
T5's center tank (2 Coral+)
Future "“ moonlights or other T5 spectrum fill (but currently happy with the ATI coral +)
drummereef
Team RC
Good plan! That's a cool idea, to have them set up on potentiometers. The Apex is a robust tool but when it comes to dimming it's not exactly "instant" gratification. Can't tell you how many hours I sat in front of my lights trying to test short-run dimming programs to get the settings right for the full blown program. :lol: That should be a great way to fiddle with color blends to get a baseline for programming the Apex. Besides just being a cool feature for when friends come over.
psteeleb
Team RC
Good plan! That's a cool idea, to have them set up on potentiometers. The Apex is a robust tool but when it comes to dimming it's not exactly "instant" gratification. Can't tell you how many hours I sat in front of my lights trying to test short-run dimming programs to get the settings right for the full blown program. :lol: That should be a great way to fiddle with color blends to get a baseline for programming the Apex. Besides just being a cool feature for when friends come over.
I like the APEX for if functionality but light dimming clearly was an after thought. It's an ad hoc approach using what was originally designed for DC power head control. It would be nice if they had a module or program that provided a more user friendly way of making adjustments. A stand alone PC program that could do real time over rides and write back to the APEX settings would be a great add on feature.
I go back to the other night when I was at SERVO's house when he hooked his LED module up to his lap top and was able to drag the different light spectrums around with a mouse and see real time results. He could even bring up specific MH bulb spectrums, then replicate and tweak them to his liking. The laptop screen would also generate a light spectrum graph with the distribution and intensity based on the specific LEDs in play. Maybe I could convince Neptune to consider something like this to be part of one of their future software releases.
What the heck does SERVO got going, that sounds insane!
Problem with doing this is each person would modify the settings/wiring and what you have as blue.. would actually be the red...
I am doing mine from steveleds and I will have to do the long tedious chore of playing too, until I get it set right.
This would be a good thing.. even if we could plug in to a computer and play with the settings then be able to reproduce them to the VDM settings.
Hummm...
