Planning stage - Input Appreciated

[VegasMike]

It's been over a year since I sold my 450 gallon tank and moved from Las Vegas to Charlotte. It's time to start thinking about getting back into the game. Looks like we will be out of the rental house and into something more permanent in a month or so.

One of the things that my wife suggested was a pair of tanks, yes, a pair. I think that was her way of convincing me to say "yes" to the house. There are spaces on either side of the fireplace for built-ins that have not been installed yet. She suggested that having tanks on either side might be really nice.

This set-up will not be as convenient as my in-wall in Las Vegas as I won't have a nice fish room behind the tanks. These tanks will have to have all of the equipment (or most of it) under the tanks. There is a crawl space under the house that will probably get me access to both water and a drain, but not sure I want to put much more down there. I have yet to crawl in there and see what's up.

The space on each side is roughly 72"x36", but I am thinking a 72"x30" tank footprint. I plan to run each unit independently. I want to go with minimum sump flow and control in-tank flow with Tunzes (since I have four 6200's in a box). I also have a BK 250 Internal that I will use, but will need to pick up another skimmer.

Any suggestions on lighting, tank height, etc would be welcome. I want to make one tank SPS and the other non-SPS. I am worried about heat, humidity, electrical bill, etc. I was thinking about using two 400watt Lumenarc's over each tank, not worried about spread to edges. Can the light be vented out the chimney? Just a thought as the chimney will be in between the tanks and could act as a good heat exhaust.

Anyway, just getting started on the mental masturbation for this project.

 

[Reefman29]

Is there a basement? You could plumb the tanks through the floor and put the sump in the basement. For the non- sps you could use T5s, less heat and less electric cost. Humidty shouldn't be a problem. Are you planning an open top or like plexi glass?

 

[VegasMike]

No basement, just a crawl space. I have not been under the house yet to see, but will probably see it tomorrow. I am pretty sure I can tap into a drain and a water source for RO/DI, but not sure if there is room for a sump. Supposedly, the crawl space is sealed. It will also be interesting to see what the temp is like down there. If there is enough space, I might try building out a little work room and then I would think about using a common sump.

 

[Reefman29]

What about under the built ins, right under the tanks? You could insulate it and that would keep it quiet.

 

[VegasMike]

There are no built in yet, just alcoves where the built-ins are meant to go. I had planned on making the built-ins custom aquarium cabinets.

 

[chimmike]

Do some DIY LED's and elminate the heat and power bill concerns.

As for height of the tank, I'd say 20-25", and no more. Shallow tanks have so much more appeal to me, IMO.

 

[skanderson]

you cannot vent the tanks through the flue of the fireplace. if there is just a vent pipe in the chimney then you may have room for run additional vents up in it. sounds like an interesting build keep us posted. and for my 2 cents the deeper the tank the better. dimensions of a tank are always a personal decision, noones opinion matters but you.

 

[VegasMike]

Leaning towards 72"x30"x30".

Might do T-5's.

Any idea on how many would be needed and if they would work on a 30" tall tank?

Trying to design this as energy/heat efficient as possible.

 

[chimmike]

Trying to design this as energy/heat efficient as possible.

then go with LED's!

 

[VegasMike]

Have not seen any real success stories with SPS and LED's.

 

[VegasMike]

Forget using the crawl space for anything other than access to water and a drain. There is barely 3' of clearance down there and they actually poured a concrete floor in the crawl space, never heard of that, but this builder is known for serious quality. Anyway, I don't want to have to go down there more than once or twice.

I will either have to set up each tank independently or run a couple of loops through the crawl space. A sump in the crawl space is out of the question.

 

[chimmike]

Have not seen any real success stories with SPS and LED's.

There are actually quite a few. There's no evidence to show that LED's aren't producing good wavelength for aquariums.

then there are the benefits:

• full dimmability
• extremely low energy consumption
• ability to add as much or as little blue
• ability to program via controller sunrise and sunset cycles
• no need to replace bulbs every 6-9 months!

further, you can add red LEDs to add red as desired, also dimmable.

I'm sure if you go to the DIY section there are guys there who'd be happy to guide you and give you more specific information regarding PAR, energy consumption, and coloration options.

I've seen people suggest taking your required SPS halide wattage and dividing by two to determine LED wattage required. That's a significant savings.

 

[Hal]

With the chimney so close I'd doublecheck that use of the fireplace won't cause any heating of your tanks.

 

[VegasMike]

The fireplace will have gas logs, is brand new and will not any heat to the sides per the builder. It is the new style with a steel tube going through the middle of the Chimney.


I will have to do a little more research on LED's. Any direction will be appreciated, but I am not a big DIY'er.

 

[chimmike]

The fireplace will have gas logs, is brand new and will not any heat to the sides per the builder. It is the new style with a steel tube going through the middle of the Chimney.


I will have to do a little more research on LED's. Any direction will be appreciated, but I am not a big DIY'er.

I'm not either Mike, but I'll tell ya. I have a couple DIY fixtures now. Only one of them is powered with dimmers, but the brightness of it (14 royal blues and 13 whites) is simply incredible.

Heatsink: heatsinkusa.com (I think that's the website)
LED's: Use Cree XP-G's for the whites, I think the R5 color bin, and Cree XR-E's for the royal blues. LEDsupply or rapidled.com
Meanwell drivers ELN60-48D will run 12-13 XP-G's and 13-14 royal blues.
I believe there are other drivers that may support more LED's than that, the guys in the DIY section can confirm.
as the "d" designated drivers are dimmable via a 0-10v signal, apex or RKE can control 'em, or you can use simple potentiometers hooked up to the driver to manually dim them. The potentiometers are super easy to hook up. About $10 worth of stuff from Radio Shack (two 10k potentiometers, project box). Seeing as how you can hook up the whites and blues on separate dimmers, you can have the look of a 20k bulb or 14k bulb, or 10k bulb (metal halide style) with a simple twist of the dimmer knob.

Check out the LED DIY thread in that section. Tons of awesome info there.