gooyferret
New member
Looks great Reid, when you planning on getting it setup cant wait to see it! I seen the 120gal tank at the fish store and that tank is AWESOME!! I really like the demenisions on it.
Reid's 120g Oceanic Tech Build
- Thread starter reidcrandall
- Start date
reidcrandall
New member
Woo hoo! Happy birthday to me!
reidcrandall
New member
I hope to be giving myself that present very, very soon.
I am having a little bit of trouble picking out a light fixture for my frag tank. Can some of you guys take a look and let me know what you think?
I am looking at these two:
Sunlight Tek
Sunlight SunBlaze
I am leaning toward the SunBlaze, because A) I don't know that I have $400 to spend once you get the hanging kit and the bulbs, and B) because I don't know that the better reflectors are going to be needed for the frag tank. It is only about 11 1/2" deep, and will only have about 9" of water in it., so it isn't like it will have to penetrate to the bottom of a 18" or 24" tank.
Here is another pic of the frag tank:
These are the bulbs I am looking at as well:
Giesemann Actinic Plus
1 Giesemann Aquablue Plus
Korallenzucht Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
Comments and suggestions?
I am having a little bit of trouble picking out a light fixture for my frag tank. Can some of you guys take a look and let me know what you think?
I am looking at these two:
Sunlight Tek
Sunlight SunBlaze
I am leaning toward the SunBlaze, because A) I don't know that I have $400 to spend once you get the hanging kit and the bulbs, and B) because I don't know that the better reflectors are going to be needed for the frag tank. It is only about 11 1/2" deep, and will only have about 9" of water in it., so it isn't like it will have to penetrate to the bottom of a 18" or 24" tank.
Here is another pic of the frag tank:
These are the bulbs I am looking at as well:
Giesemann Actinic Plus
1 Giesemann Aquablue Plus
Korallenzucht Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
Comments and suggestions?
Taqpol
New member
I know one of the things that makes T5 lighting special is the ability to use high quality reflectors, but I wouldn't let that influence you too much. It would be cool if you could get the frag tank producing the same light intensity as your main tank, that way you wouldn't have to acclimate every time you transfer something.
reidcrandall
New member
That would be good, but I am wondering if I can do that with the 'lesser' reflectors, since the water is so shallow. I don't think any corals will be much further than 4" from the surface once I set up a rack in there.
reidcrandall
New member
There we have it. One vote for the cheaper one! Anyone else?
reidcrandall
New member
Who would have thought making a plastic box would be such a pain... Pics later today.
I ended up going with the less expensive fixture for the frag tank. They had one set up at Premium Aquatics, and I think it will be fine. If that isn't quite enough, I will probably put an Ice Cap ballast in there to overdrive the bulbs.
If all goes well, we will have water next weekend or the week after. I need to speed up my water collection process!
I ended up going with the less expensive fixture for the frag tank. They had one set up at Premium Aquatics, and I think it will be fine. If that isn't quite enough, I will probably put an Ice Cap ballast in there to overdrive the bulbs.
If all goes well, we will have water next weekend or the week after. I need to speed up my water collection process!
reidcrandall
New member
You should have warned me Chris!
Oh well... It's done. Just have to let it cure and get the brace routed in the top. I am wondering if it is really worth buying something to polish out the imperfections caused by the glue though. That's $20 I could spend on something that someone more than myself would see.
Oh well... It's done. Just have to let it cure and get the brace routed in the top. I am wondering if it is really worth buying something to polish out the imperfections caused by the glue though. That's $20 I could spend on something that someone more than myself would see.
reidcrandall
New member
Well, Ignore the last post. We are going to get the bit tomorrow and route off the edges. That should make it easier to route out the top flange.
Here are some pics of the progress. We decided to put the sump together inside, because the granite countertop is perfectly flat.
Our supervisor:
The fuge baffle going in:
We sanded the edged after routing as we put them together. I'm not sure if it helped or hurt. Everything went together pretty well, but it wasn't EXACT, and I am picky.
Here is the back, with the baffles glued to the front panel:
Curing with weight on top:
Overall I think we did ok. There are a few bubbles in the seams, which I am not too excited about, but I think it will be alright. We will see when we water test...
Here are some pics of the progress. We decided to put the sump together inside, because the granite countertop is perfectly flat.
Our supervisor:
The fuge baffle going in:
We sanded the edged after routing as we put them together. I'm not sure if it helped or hurt. Everything went together pretty well, but it wasn't EXACT, and I am picky.
Here is the back, with the baffles glued to the front panel:
Curing with weight on top:
Overall I think we did ok. There are a few bubbles in the seams, which I am not too excited about, but I think it will be alright. We will see when we water test...
reidcrandall
New member
I have 2 x 250w 12k Reeflux SE with Lumen Max Elite Reflectors, and 4 x 24w T5s for supplementation.
reidcrandall
New member
No problem at all. I used 2 4 x 8 sheets of acrylic to build the sump and the frag tank. They are both probably bigger than they need to be, but I tend to go crazy big on stuff. You could definately design a sump to come out of 1 sheet. I believe I got my sheets at a place here in Indy called Auburn Plastics for about $97 a sheet.
Auburn didn't have needle applicators or Weld-On 4, so I had to order that stuff from tapplastics.com. The Weld-On quart, 3 needle applicators and shipping ran about $20.
Other than that, you need a router, and a laminate cutting blade. Luckily I didn't have to buy those things, because my dad already had them. I went over to his house and used all of his tools. Oh, and bar clamps, C clamps and tension clamps are a huge help.
Overall for both the sump and the frag tank, I have about $220 - $230ish in it.
reidcrandall
New member
It was 1/4" Plexiglass of some sort. I am not sure exactly what. I definately would go 3/8" if I didn't have the baffles in there to reinforce. I am almost regretting it anyway. There are some bubbles in he seams here and there, and a couple of places where there was an overlap of maybe a 32nd of an inch or so that I am not happy with. I have my fingers crossed though.
