Chris gets a frag tank! (and Hannah gets a couch)

[hnnhflns]

As many people know, we have just too much aquarium volume for our little apartment. Tanks were taking precedence over absolutely everything, including furniture. We are talking BIG tanks too! We had two 8 foot long tanks (300 and 360 gallons), but no place for anyone to sit. We only have our kitchen table and my desk, which is not ideal for entertaining guests and friends.

With big tanks, comes big fish. Those of you who have been to our apartment know that we LOVE tangs, and a large majority of them are nearly full size. Now fish are not the brightest animals on the planet and they don't always know where their tails are, so many corals end up getting knocked off of the rock work in the tank. Unfortunately we also have many engineer gobies, a sand sifting goby, and a couple sea cucumbers to keep our sand bed clean. The downside is that any corals that fall and aren't seen immediately tend to get covered up in sand and they die (except for zoas, we've found zoas months later and they just spring right back).

So we needed a solution to both of these problems. We decided that we needed a designated SPS/Frag tank, but it had to look good as well and be of a size that we could fit a couch/futon next to it. We looked at many different tanks and set-ups before we found one that we liked. We ended up buying a CADlights 60-gal from beancounter04 because it was the right size, we could both reach the bottom of the tank, and the tank looks awesome!

We both had a lot of work to do getting ready for the swap, so the tank hung out at Chris' grandparents for a couple weeks while they were out of town. We finally got around to taking down one of the tanks on Wednesday and Thursday before Chris went to work. It was just live rock and a couple fish that were in there just for quarantine. The part that took the longest was draining all the water out.

We weren't able to move the tank out that night, so it sat empty for a couple days while Chris was at work. With the help of one of Chris' co-workers, we got it moved out and into Chris' truck this morning, A quick clean and a mop later and we were ready to move the new tank into place!


Getting Ready to take down the tank


Work in Progress


Empty Tank

Moving the new stand in was a piece of cake, but we both think that the new CADlights glass tank weighs almost half of what the acrylic tank weighed if not more!


OMG! There is actually room in this apartment!


New CADlights in place!

I will update this when we have the plumbing and sump installed, and when we actually fill the tank and start cycling. There will be very few fish in this new system. We only want to have fish and inverts that are going to serve a purpose in the tank (i.e. eating pests and algae, and keeping the corals healthy). We aren't sure if we want to run T-5's, LEDs, or a 250 W Metal Halide for growing the corals yet, but I am sure that we will sort that out soon. Hopefully this is our last tank build for a while...maybe...

[kenko]

Very nice. We are finishing taking down the 90. Have everything in the 150, but not totally set (frags are all still on egg crate in there), but we are excited to have space as well. New bar top counter and cabinets going in where the 90 was.

[79chopperdr]

Couches are overrated!

[BirmanReefGirl]

So excited for you guys! I know you've been dying for more room. Can't wait to see the new one up and running

[Saltwaternooby]

Yay!!!

[hnnhflns]

Worked stopped on it last night, Chris needs to get some plumbing parts so he can add a biopellet reactor and a UV-Ozone system to the tank (We aren't sure how it is going to fit in the stand though because it's so large!). We are seeding our Santa Monica in-tank algae turf scrubber in the sump of the 360 for now so that it will already have algae growing when we transfer it to the new tank. Chris is also trying to figure out how he is going to get a skimmer on the system as well.

We are waiting to fill it until we find a couch/futon that will fit next to it, so that we can move the tank a little if we need to. So for now it is just sitting empty until we get everything sorted out. But it REALLY opens up the space in the apartment and it doesn't feel so cramped anymore when you try to walk between the tanks. And we can actually reach all of our coral and tank supplies on their shelf mounted on the wall!

We have started on a fish list for the tank (trying to keep them all useful to reduce bioload on the tank), and we would love suggestions if anyone has them:
-Copperband Butterfly (Aptasia)- have one that is taking mysis as well
-2x Dragonface Pipe fish (prevent redbugs)
-6 line wrasse (prevent planaria and other flat worms)
-pocillapora/acropora crabs (keep corals healthy since it will be SPS tank)
-small tang (keep algae down) - possibly a species we do not have like a squaretail or two spot bristle tooth
-lots of snails and hermit crabs
-one of the tidepool gobies that we brought back from Hawaii (eats detritus)

In addition, we are going to be putting my 4 oldest (and possibly dumbest) clowns in the 60 with one of my small RBTAs, just to keep them away from the much bigger gold bar maroon clowns, as well as a red scooter dragonette (I had one in our very first tank that had the BEST personality, and I really miss having a tank that we could have one in.

[Borchers]

I have a nice Nano Skimmer. Brand new Bubble Magnus 3.5. Might trade for the scrubber if you don't have a skimmer.

[hnnhflns]

It's getting to be time to set this bad boy up!

So we finally have all the parts we need and the copious time to finally get this tank up and running!

Tank Hardware:
-Jebao DC or Sicce Main Pump
-CAD Lights biopellet reactor (from YR for a killer black friday deal)
-Aqua UV 57W Ozone and UV (from the used gear table at YR)
-Ordered a AVAST Marine Ozone Reactor
-AVAST Marine MR5 Carbon Reactor (from saltwaternooby)
-Still decidng between RW-8 or Rw-4 for powerheads
-Possibly a Reef Octopus DCS-150 or a Skimz Skimmer

Now we just need to figure out how to fit that all in the rather small sump. It's quite a bit smaller than we are used to working with!

But the exciting stuff is going on in the light canopy and fixture! Since this tank is going to be meant for growing SPS frags, we wanted to put in the proper lights. So here is what is going in:
-14K Metal Halide
-4 T5 bulbs (haven't decided the exact colors yet)
-48 LEDs (Royal Blue, Blue, and 3 types of UV)

All those will be in a custom hood that we are building with my father. It's going to match the stand when we are done.

[Apisto]

We have started on a fish list for the tank (trying to keep them all useful to reduce bioload on the tank), and we would love suggestions if anyone has them:
-Copperband Butterfly (Aptasia)- have one that is taking mysis as well
-2x Dragonface Pipe fish (prevent redbugs)
-6 line wrasse (prevent planaria and other flat worms)
-pocillapora/acropora crabs (keep corals healthy since it will be SPS tank)
-small tang (keep algae down) - possibly a species we do not have like a squaretail or two spot bristle tooth
-lots of snails and hermit crabs
-one of the tidepool gobies that we brought back from Hawaii (eats detritus)

Can't wait to see this new addition

The amount of flow that you'll use in an open, immature SPS tank might be pretty uncomfortable for pipefish.

I would weigh the selection on snails over hermits...maybe just start out with a few at first. Hermits are a little unpredictable and can really cause headaches in a garden of small acro frags.

Love your choice of lighting.

Good luck

[Saltwaternooby]

As Neil said that will be a killer light fixture.

[hnnhflns]

So we finally have some progress on this tank. It's taken a while to get any new work done because of the holiday, work for Chris and school for me.

The hood is currently underway. The box is completely finished, and the Metal Halide Reflector is ready to go in as soon as we get the wiring done.

The LEDs have been giving us problems. So late one night we decide that I should at least put all the LEDS on the heatsink so that we can get this shown on the road. Chris hands me all the LEDs and stuff and I get to work. I thought it was rather odd that the thermal epoxy I was using was taking so long to dry, but at 2 am I wasn't really thinking too much about it. I get all the LEDs on and the first ones that I put on still hadn't solidified. We went to bed thinking that it took overnight to cure. We woke up and they still hadn't stuck. That's when we realized it...

We used the thermal grease

We had grabbed the wrong adhesive because we were working so late.

We didn't have time until yesterday to fix the mistake, but after cleaning all the grease off of every LED star and the entire heatsink, we now have a wonderful new LED setup.



Now we just have to wire all the LED channels and get it set up. Then we just have to wire the hood for the T5 bulbs and Metal Halide!

...And now the LEDs are actually sticking...

[Saltwaternooby]

It looks great with the angled aluminium

[hnnhflns]

MORE PROGRESS!!

So I finally got a chance to sit down and work some more on this light. I figured that we needed to knock a lot of the work on this light out of the way before I really got into it with school.

Last night I sat down and soldered every single LED into their respective series circuit. We have 3 1000mA drivers and 1 700 mA driver for all the LEDs. The maximum number of LEDs that we can run per driver is 12, so we need 4 circuits to run all 48 LEDs. To make our lives easier, we set up the circuits like this:
-12 Royal Blue (covers 2 sides)
-12 Royal Blue (the other 2 sides)
-12 Blue (all the way around, 3 per side)
-12 UV (there are 3 different wavelengths of UV, each side gets 1 of each, all around)

Here are the schematics of the LED layout and wiring:



And me working on soldering each wire in place...


And the finished LED light!



Each color of light has its own color wire so we can fix any problems if they occur later on. The leads to the drivers are not yet attached to the initial and terminal LEDs yet, just to make moving it around less of a hassle. Eventually the driver board will be attached and housed away from the aquarium along with the ballasts for the Metal Halide and T5 bulbs.

Today is drilling the top of the hood for cooling fan holes and getting the T5 reflectors mounted. Maybe we will even have power to some of the light by late this evening!

Wish us luck!

[Saltwaternooby]

Looks great guys.

[Relientkiid]

Any updates on this tank guys?

[hnnhflns]

As a matter of fact, we do have an update!

We have finished the light!



It took a lot of work tonight figuring out and troubleshooting a couple issues with the LEDs, but we just finished it a few minutes ago!

For those who don't know, the light is a combination of a single Metal Halide, 4 T5 bulbs, 48 LEDs, and 8 moonlights. I will post more pictures of the inside of the hood later, but now it is time for some very well deserved sleep (I just wrapped up most of my midterms today as well). For now, enjoy these pictures of the light output from the hood.

Metal Halide getting warmed up:


12 Blue, 24 Royal Blue, and 12 UV LEDs:


4 T5 Bulbs

And go figure that the ONE time we actually need T5 bulbs is RIGHT after Chris FINALLY sold all the bulbs we had lying around, so right now one T5 bulb is missing

There are also 4 fans on the top and 8 moonlights.

Our initial PAR (with a used metal halide bulb that we will be replacing before it goes on the tank) at 2 ft from the light is ~1300, and 500 in the corners 2 ft away, and 200 at the center 4 ft away. It's not as high as we thought it would be, but we will check again after we put in a new Metal Halide and new T5 bulbs (these were just test bulbs that we didn't care too much about).

I don't think we will have any problems growing corals because of light...

Chris has made significant progress on the tank itself, but I will post all that later. Now we are both going to drag our tired selves to bed... at 2:30 am...

[simpleman98]

Holy cow that's a ton of PAR! Was that measured in the water? Good job on the light setup.

[hnnhflns]

Originally Posted by simpleman98

Holy cow that's a ton of PAR! Was that measured in the water? Good job on the light setup.

No, we weren't able to hang it at 2:30 am because we would upset our upstairs neighbors. Also the rock work is not done in the tank.

The PAR was measured just in the air, but it was with a really old metal halide and T5 bulbs that we are going to replace before we actually put corals in the tank.

[powderhound]

That's an awesome light setup. It's got a great combo of lights. Should yield super colorful corals

[Tweakes182]

Originally Posted by powderhound

That's an awesome light setup. It's got a great combo of lights. Should yield super colorful corals

Jason this is a direct result of the recommendations you and Neil made. Thank you for the input now I hope it works out really good. It was a lot of work.

[Apisto]

Wow, that is awesome. Okay, after you get a reasonable light-building break, you can start on one for me. I am putting my order in

[hnnhflns]

I think Chris would lose his mind! But you could ask

You aren't the first person to ask for a light. It wasn't the worst project we have ever done, but it was a lot of planning and the hood was a little tight to fit everything in. But now we know what to do and what not to do if we do ever make another light.

[Relientkiid]

Let's see that long awaited tank shot!!!

[hnnhflns]

Originally Posted by Relientkiid

Let's see that long awaited tank shot!!!

The rock work is finished but I can't lift it by myself to get it in the tank, so that has to wait until tomorrow. Then the light has to get hung.

A lot of the delay was waiting the 24 hours required for the cement to cure before putting it in the water. I have been busy with school, so it took me a while to get the rockscape done. And when I finally did get it done we realized it had to sit for 24 hours before putting it in, and Chris is at work....

... so maybe tomorrow?


There is a damsel in it though...

[Sleepy22]

Hannah if u want another damsel then u can have the almost full grown one that is in the jail/sump 4 being a bully