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130 x2 -my 260g upgrade build (how to put leds on an 8' tank (1 Viewer)

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coolname1

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Damn. That's alot of work done in a short period of time. Look like the tank is ready for water.
 

DonnieKim

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Wow Nice Work!
Really like the stand too!
My wife has the same misconception that that the Fish room is a formal dining room!?!?!?!

Your fermentation looks alot like Skimmate!?!?!?

LOL
Donnie
 

alexrex20

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nice work! thanks for sharing with the pics. i look forward to following this build.

btw, since you live down the street from Aquatic World... have they ever gotten back into saltwater? i think they lost everything after Ike, then sold the store a few months later. since then, they've never really tried setting up their saltwater tanks again. :/

if you need help setting up the tank, post up in here or make another thread. i live in spring and can probably lend a hand.
 

trb

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alexrex20 said:
btw, since you live down the street from Aquatic World... have they ever gotten back into saltwater? i think they lost everything after Ike, then sold the store a few months later. since then, they've never really tried setting up their saltwater tanks again. :/

I've been in there several times in the past couple of years, and it just seems to be worse every time I stop by. No SW at all. They used to have a SW display tank, but that was empty last time I stopped there about 3 weeks ago. The FW selection was pretty bare too. I'm surprised they still have the doors open.
 
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inigomontoya

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rehab said:
Wow man nice job cleaning that up! That tank looks brand new now. What is your equipment list looking like?
Thanks, yea made a big difference. The equipment list is being tweaked, but so far I have two Koralia 4's and am re-using the two I already have. The return pump is a Mag24 which should also give some good flow. Going to re-use my Reefkeeper as a controller as well as dual BRS reactor and a new single one for biopellets. Got a 15g trashcan for ato, but want to upgrade if anyone know some good looking sleek ones in the 30g range. Like bad_lsi's but that was the largest they carried.
Skimmer was the one being used by the old owner, EuroReef-oddly didn't have the model number nor did the pump. e had it from the old owner who had supposedly put a newer pump on it. Nice sized at 30", supposed to be rated for more than the 350-400 this system holds and he made a good price so I went for it.
Yes that is a gallon, not a quart
IMAG0526.jpg
 
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inigomontoya

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sump

Ok, got some sump questions. Attached is a pdf diagram of the sump and a picture of the sump from the back. It was originally plumbed as having the two corner overflows flow straight down, one into the fuge, the other into the far chamber into which the skimmer was located. the fuge then flowed into a frag chamber and then the middle which was the return splitting to both dt returns. The other side was straight down into the skimmer then into the middle chamber with the return. With this design one drain would never get to the skimmer coming in from both sides, but the skimmer being on one end.
My thought is to have both drains go to the far right chamber of the sump which would house the skimmer, flow right to left, with the middle chamber being used for a frag tank, then the far left chamber containing the return. That would split up to both returns=the one from the left would also have a t with gate valve that would flow into the fuge (which would then drain back into the far left chamber with the drain again).
a few questions 1) whatcha think?; 2) does the orientation of the sump portion matter if I run with this design? In other words one side of the sump is 11" before you hit the baffle with teeth that separates it from middle, the next section is separate by a bubble trap that is set at 8". Since the water would equalize at 11" overall does it matter which end houses the return and which has the skimmer? Was thinking that it would be better to keep the skimmer in the 11", but maybe wouldn't really matter in practice.

suggestions welcome, not wedded to anything right now but this seems like the most efficient run right now. It give me clean water to the fuge and the ability to put a lot of water in so I can get a burst of pods straight into the return then dt. Also means both drains run to the skimmer so everything that runs through gets skimmed.
IMAG0493.jpg
 
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inigomontoya

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I had a couple of question on what has happened on my build so here’s the update. Tank move day,
IMAG0552.jpg

couple of weeks after tank move day
??
IMAG0566.jpg
??
No, the wife didn’t finally win the fish room/dining room fight. Thanks again to everyone who helped with the move, I felt guilty about the “after.” I put a light up on the tank and suddenly noticed it being covered in scratches. We rationalized that it would be ok with water so I filled her up and realized I wouldn’t be able to live with it. My wife even came in and said we should get it worked on.
So… I had looked into this before on a different tank I was considering buying and got a quote from Ocean Aquatics to replace the front glass. Decided since I was doing it to go ahead and get it replaced with Starphire as well, in for a penny in for a pound. Surprisingly reasonable actually.
The tank will be back this weekend so looking forward to it.
 
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inigomontoya

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Update 2

(Update 2- how to light an 8 foot tank with a hanging LED fixture)
Lighting has been a consideration on this from before the purchase. I had been real impressed with the Modaquatics setup at FJW’s anniversary and had been looking for a tank with a canopy to be able to install that as a retrofit. When I decided on this tank, it did not come with a canopy and the owner was selling a 6’ Mh and PC fixture with it for a reasonable price. I called Robert and we discussed the ability to take his setup and integrate it into a fixture that would look professional and enhance not detract from the tank. After a good conversation I passed on the MH and decided to suck it up and go for it with the ModAquatics custom fixture.
That came in today :D
IMAG0577.jpg
(my kid the angel-with halo)
IMAG0581.jpg

This is an 8’ long (yes-96”) black acrylic fixture at 3” tall with two hoods on hinges, six connection points and two aluminum rails (and rods for support) also internal acrylic bracing to avoid bowing long term. There are 4 fans, two on each end with two pushing and two pulling air down the length of the fixture for cooling. After several hours at 100% the air is only 96 degrees-very efficient. At one end is an Arduino led with a permanent clock and adjustable brightness display. There is a push button that switches from program to manual where the blues can be infinitely adjusted (another knob) and the whites the same.
IMAG0585.jpg


There are a total of 6 boards, all fully populated for a total of 144 leds equally split white to blue. We talked about it and I am going to swap out a couple of reds in there this week as well. I have carclo optics on everything ranging from 80 degree to some 9 degree spots for clams (a few 27’s as well).
We spread them throughout to account for my planned coral placement. The nice part is I can take the boards out and swap out the lights to custom fit for which coral they are over, i.e. my 9’s on the clams and the 27’s over the sps. The 80’s can give overall coverage and areas I want to have brains on the sandbed.
We already updated the timing a little, planning on a nice slow ramp up and down of the blues for an hour and then ramping up the whites in 30 minutes, same at end of the day for sunset. After sunset the blues come on at 3% for 3 hours as a moonlight. One quick mod was to cut the fans off during this time as it is not hot and the noise is more obvious at that speed (bit of a whine). The fans adjust according to the led brightness.
Can’t wait to see it with corals. The royal blues are going to look awesome with my blastos and acans.
Already taking a day off on Friday to get everything in this weekend.
 

ModAquatics

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Here is a couple other details on the light.

It has two power supplies that are rated at 192w each. The lights are split between the two and the Arduino and fan circuit is on one of them. With the lights and fans running at 100% one PS is doing 136W and the other is doing 138w (because of the fans and Arduino) for a total max wattage of 274W. The power is distributed to the Light Engines via Molex Mini connectors for easy unplugging for maintenance, LED changes, etc. There is enough power to add two more boards. However, more board could be added with an extra power supply.

The fans are controlled by the Arduino via two PWM lines (for redundancy) utilizing TIP120 transister circuits. The Arduino is also interfaced with a Real Time Clock and the LCD. The PWM outputs are distributed via 4 channels (2 white and 2 blue) to the Light engines utilizing standard CAT5 wiring and RJ-11 Plugs. Although there are six connections, more can be added with snapping in additional RJ-11 jacks. The Arduino is the Mega version so there is a lot of flexability for more PWM lines and progam changes.

I am using the same Arduino Sketch at my house running seven LED boards that are on three aquariums and two plant racks (no, not those kind of plants :lol: ). I just have Cat5 cable running between them back to the Arduino. I will be adding other features later (as time permits) such as cloudy days, lightning and other cool effects.

The 660nm Red LEDs will be here in about a week.
 

RR-MAN

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Very impressive light fixture.

ModAquatics:
Robert, you got skills man.
 

ModAquatics

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Dropped by to deliver a few 660nm LEDs and some other things so I took a few pics. Just a couple of corals so far because it is a fresh setup but the rockwork is very nice. Lots of open places, ledges, raised sand areas, etc.

Click on the picks and zoom in for details.

Big Tank
Eye_Level.jpg


Center Rockwork.
Center_Rockwork.jpg


End View - The lights were beginning the dim cycle.
End.jpg


Left Rockwork - Lots of places for coral placement!
Left_Rockwork.jpg


Moonlight mode (1%RB) The picture came out much brighter than it actually is in person.
Moonlight.jpg


Zoas look awesome under the Royal Blue LEDs.
Royal_Blue_Zoas.jpg


Here Jeff made the rockwork keep sand in a split-level.
Split_Level.jpg


The business end of the fixture
Fixture_Controls.jpg


Fixture access lid
Lid.jpg


Innards
Innards.jpg


Jeff added these fillers between the light panels and it turned out great!
Light_Fillers.jpg
 

Mark L.

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Sooo cool! Jeff your tank is looking great. I'd love to stop by and see it again soon.

Robert. I may be needing an 8' fixture like this soon. I'll pm you for details. :D
 
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inigomontoya

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tank

Thanks guys, still got a lot of work to do. My poor RODI is pretty tired, had it going 5 days straight to get everything filled up. Got the tank back last Monday and then plumbed, did the electric and lined up the reefkeeper (had to order longer bus cables too), re-did the world's loudest pump with spaflex and rubber mat underneath, and just finished fixing a slow leak in the refugium patch. Still tuning everything, but getting closer.
I left some room in the rockwork on the right overflow to put some of my coral encrusted rocks. Tonight was the fifth day with no ammonia so I went ahead and put two of the larger coral rocks in the tank and we'll see how they are doing. If everything keeps doing well I am going to keep trickling in the rest of the corals and fish over the weekend.
Ya'll are always welcome to swing by and take a look. Should be more to seen in the next couple of weeks.
And Felix can bring a camera so he won't make fun of my phone pics.
 
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