A 750g SPS system is born

[dgasmd]

What would you change?

I thought about this a bit more. There is one thing I would do differently. Well, maybe I would do no closed loops and would have gone with all tunze streams. Hear me out on this one. I can't stand the looks of the tunzes to save my life. They are big, intrussive, and just plain ugly in the middle of the tank. However, they do move a ton of water for hardly any electricity. What I would do is the following:
On both short ends of the tank (the sides), I would have the tank builder make me false panels with holes in them just big enough to fit the discharge of the tunzes. Those panels would be in very dark acrylic or glass and would be about 1.5" from the bottom of the tank and all the way to the top of the tank. You would not be able to see the tunzes or cables behind them and all you would see is the discharge tips. I would put 5 of the 6200 on each end of the tank and crank them up at 100%. Out of sight, no heat production, no electrical consumption, and good flow. It would be 3-4 times the cost of the close loops, but you would break even at about 2-3 years from the electrical consumption of the close loops. The harder part would be to come up with a way of holding the tunzes in place int he false spaces. They have by far the crappiest of holding systems for their cost and reputation.

If you don't mind looking at the tunzes in your tank, that is the way to go in my opinion.

As far as the humidity, I have had no problems so far. When the AC is on, all year except for 3-5 weeks in winter, the humidity in the house is OK. If it gets too cold outside and we close the windows for more than 3 days, you start to see condensation in the windows big time. Open the windows again for about 15 min. and it is all over. The tank is so far open to the house as the canopy and covering has not been built. When that is finished, I will have 2x 4" fans blowing from above the tank across the wall into the garage. During the day, the garage stays open. At night, it is closed but I leave the doors about 6"-8" from the floor so air can circulate in. I would still like at some point to relocate the chiller to the outside, but that is going to be a task in itself. Maybe later towards the end of the year. I will also place a fan blowing out from the garage, so we can close the doors completely and still turn over the garage's air volume about once every 6 minutes.

 

[AquariumObsesse]

The tunzes are not for me...but it is a new trend. i am currently building a 500 Gallon tank with hidden tunzes for a customer in OHIO...it is an ingenious idea he has come up with overflow in the middle, 2 tunze compartments off to the side..I will post pics when its done.

Will

 

[Scooterman]

I sorta got use to mine, coralline grows well on it, I was looking into the magnetic holders they sure are expensive but has to be better than the stupid clip. I guess in a smaller tank you can get away with less, also if you just buy the streams without the controllers, it is much cheaper, I also have a cl but it will raise heat.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Great looking set-up Alberto, very nice work!

 

[dgasmd]

UPDATE

Well, I realize it has been a while. One too many things happening lately, so I haven't either have the time or the energy to update this thread. So, here are a few things:

*Lighting:

Still using the radiums. Getting close to swap them out for new ones as they are hitting that 5.5 month mark. I did replace all of my electronic ballasts fr the PFO HQI. In comparision, the PFO ballasts are gargantuous.

Here are the new ones:

I am still debating whether I will get an aquacontroller in the future, but if I do I will be able to control my lights with it givent he PFO ballasts don't have the interferance the electronic ballasts have with the X-10 stuff.

I will also be adding 740 watt of actinics to the tank likely this weekend and will alter the lighting cycles to cut down on electricity some.

*Close loops:

For those of you that have not seen it in RC, here is a link to the thread in RC that discusses it. My pumps had been leaking at the seals and at the outflow port and intake port. Sequence has sent me all the replacement parts free of charge and I ahve already converted 3 out of 5 pumps to the new black volute/wet ends. I have to make some time to change the other 2. You can see them in previous pictures.

 

[dgasmd]

*Livestock:

Tank's glass is too dirty to take pictures now. Plus, they are painting my house and the tank is sorrounded by plastic. Stuff is growing and coloring well. I had this very weird algae growing , but it is begining to go away. Some of the corals have lighten up considerably to the point of looking like they are almost bleaching. I suspect it is the effect of the red bugs as I have them once again. I will be treating the tank maybe tomorrow for the first of 3 treatments. You have t love this crap though.

*Cabinetry

I am in the process of suing the first cabinetry company that was supposed to build my stuff. After 6 months of waiting, talking, and a boat load of excuses, no show. We are going to court in a couple of weeks now. The second guy I found is the same guy that built my stand He is half way done and it is looking great so far. Here is a teaser. More when it is all done.

More when I clean the tank and learn how to do correct white balances LOL...............

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Wow Alberto, very nice job and esthetically pleasing to the eye! More pics of the tank please!

 

[Travis]

Looking great Alberto. I absolutely love the cabinetry work. It looks amazing. BTW, is your tank BB now? It kind of looks like it in the pics but hard to tell. I know you were originally going with a sandbed but don't know if things have changed.

I just installed a couple 160w actinic VHO's yesterday. I can't believe I planned to run my tank on Radiums alone without supplementation. As soon as I fired up the actinics I immediatley realized what has been missing all along. The radiums do what they are supposed to but wow do the actinics ever make a difference. I installed the VHO's for pretty much the same reason. First, to cut down on electricity and heat. Second, in hopes that I can get more rich colors out of my sps by running my MH for less hours per day, but only time will tell. Either way, I'm happy I have actinic VHO's again. I'm sure you will be too.

 

[dgasmd]

The tank has been bare bottom from day one. It is hard to tell now that the panel bottom covers the low end of the glass though.

Actinics are going up this week. We'll see what they do. I'll take some pictures before and after because sometimes the changes are so subtle you can't see it very well. The radiums are running whiter though with the PFO HQI and even my wife has noticed it. Which begs the question a little of why continue to use the radiums that have to be replaced every 6 months instead of going with 10000K and the actinics. Something else to consider. I already have the next set of bulbs here, so we'll see in Dec when they need to be changed.

 

[AquariumObsesse]

Alberto hows the heat from the LA3's? You dont like the A/C option with ducting ports on top?

thanks

 

[Travis]

I agree, the radiums burn whiter than I prefer on the PFO HQI's. I like a more subtle blue look. It still does have a nice bluish tone to it with no yellow. I have toyed with the idea of going with E-ballasts to burn them more blue but I'm not for sure yet. You can still use E-ballasts with the Aquacontroller, you just need to buy the direct connect. What I really missed about the actinics was viewing the tank with just the actinics on at dawn and dusk. However, my buddy is running an XM 20k on a magnetic ballast and it looks pretty close to what actinics alone look like. I had toyed with the idea of changing to mag ballasts and XM 20k's but I just don't care much for XM's reputation.

I'm not sure if I buy into the whole 20k's need to be changed at 6 months thing. My radiums are going on 7 months now and I haven't noticed any spectrum shift or decrease in growth rates. Of course, the changes could be so subtle that I'm not noticing them and I will change my mind when I replace the bulbs and will possibly notice an increase in growth. I do plan on going at least up to the 8 month mark before changing them out.

 

[Illusion]

Alberto... I have just recently switched from 10k XMs over to 20k Helios bulbs... The seem to be very cheap... Can run on a standard M59 ballast and should last well into a year if not overdriven... From Sanjays Chart the Specs look so extremely close to the Radiums It makes me thing we have almost the same bulb...

Here are a couple of the Graphs... One is with the Radiums on HQIs and the Helios on M59s and the other is with them both being on M59s

From Sanjays page..

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/select2lamp.php

James

 

[AquariumObsesse]

Updates?

We want more!!!

 

[dgasmd]

IS THIS EVER GOING TO END????

So I swapped the pump's wet ends to the black ones and replace the seals. No more leaks and air drawing from the leaky seals. Well, not really

I plugged in all the pumps as they were before and ran them. I noticed one of the power strips was tripping every so often. I went to see if I could find anything unusual just to find that the cord where 2 of the sequence pumps were connected was incredibly hot Let me remind you nothing has changed since the system was started. I unplugged one pump and put it in another circuit, but the strip kept tripping. After a day or so, I started to her this very very loud air sucking noise. I swear I wanted to kill something or someone It was coming from one of the close loop sequence pumps again I unplugged it and went to take it out and almost burned my hand completely. This pump was hotter thana torch!!!!! I let it cool off for a couple of hours and then took it out thinking maybe there was a snail or something else caught there, but that would ahve been nearly impossible as all my intakes had screens. I took the pump off and to my amazement the silicone I used to seat the seal in place had completely melted fromt he heat!! There was nothing else there. I put more silicone and closed it. I will let it dry out for a couple of days before turning it back on.

My patience is at its very last straw. I am calling MDM on monday to have them send me a loaner while they tinker with this one.

The saga continues..............................

MORE

Now this morning there was another pump making a very loud grinding noise turned it off. I have to take out again to find out what the heck is wrong with it now.

I am going to price out the tunze streams for this right as I am done typing here :shock: :shock:

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Hang in thee Alberto! That is a real bummer, trouble shooting problems is a pain for sure!

 

[AquariumObsesse]

What tunzes you thinking? How many? Controller? Where will you mount them?

 

[dgasmd]

I have no idea yet. That was a harsh moment of anger. I did go and priced out 8 tunze streams 6200 with their ghetto looking magnets and it came to about $4K. I am just about to take out the loud pump and see what the heck was the problem. And as always, it is the one on the very back with the worst access :lol: :lol:

 

[AquariumObsesse]

Ouch $4k....would you go with the controller?

 

[Forestal]

Man, i hope things settle down for you.. the cabinet looks great.
i am poor, saved up for a tunze, and love it, except that i have to tie it with airline tubing from above to keep it from falling down and destroying everything.

positive vibes your way

 

[AquariumObsesse]

Ya that is frustrating to say the least. Such a nice setup and you have had nothing but headaches with the closed loop. You are making even me (i hate stuff in the tank) think of tunzes. I need to design some way to hide them...hmmm