Looks awesome A, i like the water change setup. Cant wait to see fish in this thing.
That is a neat set up with the water change compartment. Do you anticipate any problem with micro bubbles without a bubble trap, or will you just keep the water level high enough in the return pump compartment? The end of the video it looked like a big drop from #3 to #4. Are you using an ATO?
It looks like a good, simple plumbing plan A. and i guess the waste water goes straight to drain. so your water changes should be painless. Nice job.
[quote=“BigCase, post:41, topic:5327”]
Looks awesome A, i like the water change setup. Cant wait to see fish in this thing.[/quote]
Thanks Casey, I can’t wait to see fish and corals in the tank either.
[quote=“Scottman81, post:42, topic:5327”]
That is a neat set up with the water change compartment. Do you anticipate any problem with micro bubbles without a bubble trap, or will you just keep the water level high enough in the return pump compartment? The end of the video it looked like a big drop from #3 to #4. Are you using an ATO?[/quote]
Scott, I was just showing how the sump works but, you’re right. The water level in the compartment 4 will be little higher then what you see in the video due to bubbles. If the water level in the compartment 4 higher there’s no bubbles at all. Yes, I will be using ATO as well, it will be connected to my kalk reactor.
[quote=“kaptken, post:43, topic:5327”]
It looks like a good, simple plumbing plan A. and i guess the waste water goes straight to drain. so your water changes should be painless. Nice job.[/quote]
Thanks Ken. Yes it will go stright to the drain and the new salt water will come stright from the mixing tank. I’m trying to make this set up as painless and simple as possible
Finally got some hole drilling done today. It took a while since it was a half an inch thick glass and it came out really nice and clean. Thanks to Frank (Hudzon) GolfC with his ingenious idea by using a pump to continuous pumping the water up to the bit and I use the plumber putty to direct the water back down to the container, works like a charm!
I think it was easier to drill horizontally then vertically, at least on the thicker glass any way. You can feel how much pressure you can push while drilling and vertically you rely on the weight of the drill and the bit.
Here’s some pics:
Great tank build thread A. keep the pics coming!! YahoO
Thanks John, I will.
professional looking. great job!
Lookin nice there A
Thanks Paul and Bill. It’s coming along nicely. Two more major hurdle to go, LED lights and building the stand.
It’s just another update. I finished installing the internal over flow box day before yesterday and now it’s drying. I decided to do the over flow on the left side like peninsula style just because I don’t like the look of the Calfo C2C style. Even though it may be a good thing to do; to be able to have high surface skimming, but to me it look like it takes so much room in the tank and it also uses so much glass. I didn’t realize that a simple 1/4 “glass would cost so much. I bought a 5x22 7/8 and 6x22 7/8 from Mr. Go Glass for $35 and that’s just a plain white glass. Imagine if it’s even a longer glass piece, probably triple the price.
Here’s some pics
Looking good. Lots of work. you know, since you made the overflow box out of a glass plate, with no slots, you will need to do a much better job of leveling to get an even flow over the glass top. Kind of like a vanishing edge tank. those smaller tanks have leveling adjustments built into the stand legs. on the big one, i guess you will just have to shim it at the floor or something. will it sit on a concrete floor or wooden framed floor? the wood floor may sag a little when the big tank is full, messing up the level.
Thanks Ken, I never thought of that, but I did make sure that the box was level each way. As for the location of where the tank will be is the next decision. Lo and behold my wife came up with an ingenious idea to turn our garage into another room and for me to put my fish tank there. I was about to drop and pass out! So i play it safe and went along with it. Will see how it will turn out. And if it happens, it will be on a frame stand on the concrete. Fingers cross she don’t change her mind!
Let the DIY LEDs begin. I’m excited to get my first set of LEDs for the tank today YahoO. Went to Lowes and got some c-channel aluminum and ready to start the build this weekend. Can’t wait to see how it will turn out.
Here the spectrum combo:
15= royal blue
3= 420 nm
1= pink
1= green
1=cyan
6x 10k
6x 65k
3x 45k
With 80 degree optics. This will give more color spectrum and 14000-16000K look.
Why knot, more 420’s and fewer whites , with perhaps a few extra 660nm reds? the 420 and 660 feed chlorophyl A from both ends. the royal blues and the various whites all have blue peaks at around 450 which feeds Chlorophyl B with plenty of energy.
The 3 420s you propose will only highlight florescence at that spectrum , but not provide much photsynthetic energy there. chlorophyl A will suffer, and decline in the zooxanthalae. I suppose.
as i have been observing with my LED light strip , a lack of 420 does cause color and health decline in greens and reds. blues seem to like mostly 450. just my observations so far. we probably dont need as many white LEDs as we think, as the vital parts of their spectrums are mostly at 450 nm.
I was thinking the same Ken. However, this spectrum was suggested to me and it suppose to be in the 14-16K range which is suppose to be for growth and coloration. Other wise it would be in the 20K range with more 420nm and RB. I’m gonna see once I get it hook up and what it will look like, I may add more 420nm. Also, between the 65K and the 45K should produce enough 660nm in the red range. Let me know if I’m wrong.
what is this for your 225 ? if so you are very under powered there, the amount you have there would be for a 30 or 40 gal. remember even with a 80º lens your single emiters are only going to give about 10" spread, and you will want some way to control each color. How do you plan on wiring the Pink, Cyan, Green and 420’s if all on the same driver you will be limited as you may find he pink and Cyan very over powering, also what drivers and leds are you using ?
Frank, yes it is for my 225. It’s the first set of 3. This one has 36 LED and it will sit where the over flow box is. I was planning on having 3 set of 48 LEDs on each opening but, where the overflow sits I don’t want or need the light over it so, I’m building a rack that is 20"x24" to sit just where the light will shine down without the over flow box will be in the way. By the way this will only go down 25" since it will have 5-6" DSB.
Since I just got it, I haven’t really bust my brain yet as to where or how the chips will be arranged or how it will be wired yet. The people at aquastyleonline.com where I got the LEDs from suggests that I go with 2 strings of 9 LEDs in parallel on each driver. It uses Maxwellen driver on the 36 LEDs and on the 48 LEDs set it uses Meanwell driver with Bridgelux LEDs. Do you have any suggestions as to how to wire this setup? your advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Where I like the spectum of the bridgelux emiters a lot, they are a little weaker in PAR and Lumuns per volt,
look into Mean Well HLG-185-42B one for all your blues and one for all your whites and then a couple of ELN-60-27D to do your color emiters and put all your UVs on small constant current driver.
Are there any other drivers beside the Mean Well HLG-185-42B to drive the 2 set of LEDs you mentioned? that particular one is little bit out of my price range. I can possibly get the other drivers. How about the constant current driver, where do I get those? thanks