The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[Pulp Fishin]

Hey Misled I love the ride!
It reminds me of the car I learned to drive on.

Besides the sport cars look great but where do you fit a spare tank or a sheet of plywood in one of those?

[reefscape15]

Boret, I have my 250watt MH about 4" off the surface. SPS are doing great! LPS will bleach out big time if they are placed up high in the tank, or if they aren't started in a semi-shaded area.

[Misled]

When I got the reflector I was warned about placing the light too close to the water. I originally was going with the height boret has.

Thanks Pulp!!!!

[boret]

Originally posted by reefscape15
Boret, I have my 250watt MH about 4" off the surface. SPS are doing great! LPS will bleach out big time if they are placed up high in the tank, or if they aren't started in a semi-shaded area.

4" might be a bit too close. I still get a bit of water splash on the reflector, at 4" you are going to have to clean it very often.

Lately I am getting bright green as the predominant color. Even my blue tort has some green hue to it. So I raise the reflector 1" to 10" from water surface.

BTW, I am still waiting for your Lighting setup post

[McLovit]

Sump corner question!

I am fabricating a corner sump and need some suggestions.

As you can see from the photos i have a CPR sump (20" long x 19" tall x12" wide) and a regular two chamber wet/dry sump (20" long x 16" tall x 10" wide) that i have modified. My Skimmer likes 8-10" of water, which i will worry about with an under(existing divider)/over/under/over bubble trap set up.

I need to modify the height of the skimmer section to allow for the water to run into the WET/DRY sump. Any suggestions as to how high I should have that water flowing into the skimmer section?

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[boret]

I think the chamber from the CPR192 that connect to the skimmer part gets fed from bellow... I am not sure if the water will go in first in the right side or it will go in first on the left side where the white plastic support is.... either way, I had (still have somewhere in the garage) the CPR192 (I didn't know better ) skimmer/fuge/sump and the biggest issue (besides being a poor skimmer) was water noise. This is going underneath you tank so I will try to limit the water fall effect... it gets pretty noisy. You have to take into account power failure and having ample space in the sump for overflow, other than that I would try to limit the height from chamber to chamber to 1" at most.

Maybe if you add a few text labels it will be easier to identify the water flow. I am still trying to figure out where water is going in and where it is being returned....

Great work on the corner indentation.

[McLovit]

Originally posted by boret
I think the chamber from the CPR192 that connect to the skimmer part gets fed from bellow... I am not sure if the water will go in first in the right side or it will go in first on the left side where the white plastic support is.... either way, I had (still have somewhere in the garage) the CPR192 (I didn't know better ) skimmer/fuge/sump and the biggest issue (besides being a poor skimmer) was water noise. This is going underneath you tank so I will try to limit the water fall effect... it gets pretty noisy. You have to take into account power failure and having ample space in the sump for overflow, other than that I would try to limit the height from chamber to chamber to 1" at most.

Maybe if you add a few text labels it will be easier to identify the water flow. I am still trying to figure out where water is going in and where it is being returned....

Great work on the corner indentation.

Boret, i am not handy with adding text to pictures yet, so i will try and describe it to you.

the far left will be the entry chamber and then will flow over the adjustable height lever, which i will turn around to limit the noise. That space (front left) will be for live rock/fug/frag (?).

It then will go under a built in wall that will meet up to the wet/dry sump which is 16" tall. That is the sump for which i will cut out a section to allow water to flow into the skimmer area. That small remaining area in the CPR is about 5" wide and i will cut a 5" section out of the skimmer section. I just need to know how deep to cut this 5" section from the top down.

Return will be right of skimmer with under/over/under bubble trap.

I have noticed noise coming from the adjustable bevel, but it seemed to be b/c the lip was making a 'water fall' like noise. I can alway make a teethed separation to quiet it down.

hope that helped.

thanx

[reefscape15]

Originally posted by boret
4" might be a bit too close. I still get a bit of water splash on the reflector, at 4" you are going to have to clean it very often.

Lately I am getting bright green as the predominant color. Even my blue tort has some green hue to it. So I raise the reflector 1" to 10" from water surface.

BTW, I am still waiting for your Lighting setup post

I don't have a ton of surface agitation, so I've only had to clean off the bulb and reflector once so far. It does raise the tank temp about 4-5 degrees throughout the day, which I'm hoping will be resolved, or reduced when I build my canopy.

Anyways, are you asking about my lighting setup? I have a XM 250watt SE running off of a GE Magnetic Ballast on 120volts. The ballast was free, or I would've gone with an Electronic ballast if I had to buy one. The reflector is a DIY that is just only about 1.5" longer than the bulb, and the socket sits outside the reflector. It's pretty much just a flat top with the 2 sides along the bulb going down at a 45ish degree angle. I also have a Nova Extreme 24" fixture over the tank. It has 1-ATI Reef Blue, 1-Current 12k, 1-UVL 460nm, and 1-UVL 420nm. The only other lighting that I have now are 4 Current Lunar Light/Links in 460 Blue.

I have plans for the DIY Lumenbrite III mini that I mentioned earlier to run the XM bulb in. I have 2 more GE Magnetic Ballasts in 400 and 175watt options. I was thinking of pairing up my 250watt with an additional 175watt MH, and splitting up my Current Nova fixture along the back sides of the tank. I'm not sure if I'll be doing this, or just keeping the 250 and splitting the Current fixture without the addition of the 175watt MH. I will most likely be adding 2 more Current Lunar Link modules as well.

[eon]

just updating on my progress here's a couple picks

[boret]

Eon it looks great!! Excellent workmanship. What is the purpose of that extra wood on the side. The rectangle to the right of the skimmer on the third to last picture?

Jim I wouldn't do 2 bulbs. You are doubling your bulb replacement cost! Might as well do a single 400w and be done with it. Yours is a 54g so the single 250 should be enough. I know you are still set on building your own reflector but keep an eye for sales of used ones. Any of the reflectors that we discussed a few pages back will do great.

I would be a bit concerned about a 4-5 degree up swing in temperature. With the canopy it will go even higher, regardless of fans. If you manage to get cooler air in and exhaust the heat out, you will still get a raise in temperature. I keep my tank at a low of 77.5 without lights, and it climbs all the way up to 79.1 with the MH on. If it goes any higher the chiller kicks in.

Keep in mind that I have two sumps, one in the furnace room behind the tank and another larger one (70g) underneath the stairs, I also have a 20g fuge and a 20g frag tank. I have a lot of combine water surface, which helps dissipating heat. You don't have a sump, and when you do it will probably be inside the stand, where it won't get cooled, so you should seriously consider heat as a possible issue.

A single Lumenarc III Mini or a Lumenbrite Mini reflector would be ideal for your size tank. You can find them used for $50 and it is totally worth it. I would place it at 10" above the water.

As far a water agitation.... you need that CO2/oxygen exchange, otherwise the water column gets depleted of oxygen and livestock suffers. Also, lack of surface water agitation will lower your pH, so maintaining it between 8.0 - 8.4 could be a struggle. Another thing to consider with surface water agitation is that a film of "oils" tends to build on the surface (from foods, fish poop, etc) unless you are actively moving the water, or breaking the tension with an overflow, this film with impede the exchange of CO2/O and will also reduce the penetration of light.

You can probably sell the NOVA fixture and get a couple of 24" VHO. The Super Actinics are fantastic. All you need is a ARO220 ballast, end caps, and a couple of bulbs. ($75 for Ballast kit and $40 for bulbs)

That will reduce your lighting equipment to 1 MH Ballast, 1 MH bulb, 1 VHO ballast and 2 VHO bulbs. Your yearly bulb replacement cost would be around $100 with good brands lightbulbs. If you keep 2 MH bulbs and 4 T5s you are talking about $200.

You can probably get $80 or $100 for the T5 fixture, or you can keep it to light up a frag tank down the road, your call. T5s need active cooling to perform decently, otherwise the bulbs go bad in 6 months or less. That is why ATI T5 fixtures are expensive, because they are the best at keeping the bulbs cool, maintaining the PAR output, and increasing longevity.

Think about it. I really wish I could show you my tank in person. I did a lot of research about the lighting and I am extremely satisfied with the end result.

[eon]

boret - thats a division for the electrical cabinet the hole is where the dj 8 switch panel is going to go. im still rewiring the dj8 so it hasnt gone in yet

[boret]

Originally posted by McLovit
Boret, i am not handy with adding text to pictures yet, so i will try and describe it to you.

the far left will be the entry chamber and then will flow over the adjustable height lever, which i will turn around to limit the noise. That space (front left) will be for live rock/fug/frag (?).

It then will go under a built in wall that will meet up to the wet/dry sump which is 16" tall. That is the sump for which i will cut out a section to allow water to flow into the skimmer area. That small remaining area in the CPR is about 5" wide and i will cut a 5" section out of the skimmer section. I just need to know how deep to cut this 5" section from the top down.

Return will be right of skimmer with under/over/under bubble trap.

I have noticed noise coming from the adjustable bevel, but it seemed to be b/c the lip was making a 'water fall' like noise. I can alway make a teethed separation to quiet it down.

hope that helped.

thanx

All you need to do is to open the image with PAINT (simple picture editing program inside Accessories in XP) or better yet download PAINT.net, a free application that it is a fairly powerful pic/photo editing software.

Anyway, here is your pic with a couple of areas highlighted and some text:



Purple area:

This is that annoying water level gate from the CPR skimmer. It is effective at controlling the water level in the first (water entry) section, but you removed the CPR skimmer from there and will not use it for that so it is a totally useless part that you would be better off removing. The inverted L shaped lip on that movable gate creates a water cascade and tons of noise. Originally it is design to have bioballs (media) in there, limiting, somehow, the noise from the water.... when I had it I end up putting a flat piece of plastic so the water will get diverted to the sides. I would completely remove the gate (all you need to do is unscrew it) and let the water fall a bit more naturally into that second chamber. You can "plug" the slit between the chambers with a flat piece of acrylic silicone in placed. I would put it facing the first chamber (A) so the water will push it against the plastic.

Yellow Area:

This is where you will connect chamber C to D.

You want to keep a constant water level in the skimmer section (section D), so ideally you will cut the plastic between section C and D and between section D and E the same height (marked with the Yellow Arrows). You should probably make it 10" high as you can always raise the skimmer to place it at 8" which is probably the ideal. If you know exactly where your skimmer works best (i.e 9.5") then you can make it that height but then your sump will only be good for that skimmer!

If water is coming only from the top of the 10" (bottom yellow arrow) that will be the min height of water that you will have/need in sections B and C in order to get water into the skimmer section (D). That will not leave a lot of room for overflow.... but might be enough. You will have to test it to find out exactly how much water will go back into the sump when you turn off the return pump. Remember that you will get water in the sump from both the overflow and the return pipe that will back siphon.

The other option would be to drill big holes in the area marked with the Yellow Box, big enough to feed enough water into the skimmer section at the same rate that water is returning into the display tank. This will also make the water in sections B and C the same height as section D where the skimmer sits.

There is one semi flaw in the whole design.... the skimmer is pretty much the last section of the sump, so the live rock and macro algae will be in sections A, B and/or C, so any pods that travel from the macro algae/fuge section into the tank, will have to survive the skimmer. Second flaw, you have so many sections that you will have a lot of crevices for detritus to build up, and will make cleaning the whole thing a tough job.
Last complaint, , you are "gluing" a bunch of parts... watch out for leaks, it will be a challenge to make it completely leak free with so many different cuts and unions.

I hope this helps, at least to work through the design. I can only make suggestions from the pictures so my apologies in advance if I got any part wrong.

Good luck.

OT: Tomorrow I'm going on a business trip for a week so I will have limited access to the board and might take a while to respond.

[boret]

Originally posted by eon
boret - thats a division for the electrical cabinet the hole is where the dj 8 switch panel is going to go. im still rewiring the dj8 so it hasnt gone in yet

Very nice!!! I thought it might be something like that, but I didn't see the dj8 so it made me wonder!!! One suggestion before you fill it up with water.... how about building a rectangle to increase the height of the stand? With your skills you can probably build a platform to raise the whole thing 15"-20" making viewing and accessing the stand compartment very easy. I wish I would have done that on mine. 10 inches higher would have been great.... unless, you want to look at it from the top down when you are standing....

[McLovit]

boret

Thanx a ton! I thought about that skimmer problem and was hoping some critters would make it past the skimmer. Do you have any suggestions about changing the water flow? Section D and E are only 16" tall and the CPR is 19".

This is so confusing for a noob! Thanx for all the help!

[eon]

actually the stand is about 36 inches tall i changed my mind while i was building it so the tank already sits at eye level

[boret]

Let me think about it.... all I can advise right now is for a coat of paint in your deck!!

[boret]

Originally posted by eon
actually the stand is about 36 inches tall i changed my mind while i was building it so the tank already sits at eye level

oh, ok, I was just taking the 26" as the reference.

[McLovit]

Originally posted by boret
Let me think about it.... all I can advise right now is for a coat of paint in your deck!!

Don't remind me! I finished remodeling the interior about a year ago, and i would of finished painting the outside, but this effin saltwater tank obsession has stolen all my free time! :P

boret, i might of figured how to make the sump work. Setting up skimmer in compartment E by splitting the drain hose to enter both A and E. That would allow for me to put the return in D. Kinda similar to a sump by Melevsreef.

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/f/sump_f.html

Or i might just make a completely new section. Working with acrylic is a piece of cake.

[Husky_1]

Anyone using powerbrites to supplement. It sounds like these things really add an extra bit to the lighting.

[damac20]

I am I have 3 of the blues over my 54

[Husky_1]

Did you notice a big improvement in coral color afterwords?

[damac20]

I think corals look the best when you use a combo of mh t5 actinic and powerbrites. the powerbrites really add that extra pop when used with actinics

[bzuber]

I had a quick question about lighting as well.

I have a 150w double ended MH 14,000k bulb. I was looking at this LED setup for supplemental lighting:

http://www.marinedepot.com/Current_U...FILDLK-vi.html

I kind of like these because they are 12 inches so they fit in my canopy and have low heat output. I would like to turn these on a few hours before and after my MH cycle.

Thoughts? And what color? (10,000k Daylight, 460nm Actinic, or a 10,000k/Actinic combination)

[reefscape15]

bzuber - Those are the Powerbrites that they were talking about. I would go with the all actinic ones. Maybe you could do 2 or 3 of them. They get kinda pricey, but definately give off a very nice color and some extra shimmer.

[damac20]

here is how I have my powerbrites mounted in my canopy
[IMG]
Shot with SCH-i910 at 2009-08-29[/IMG]
The two on the sides pivot so I can move them to target the light on certain corals if I want to.