Well Scooty, I guess I did, I used google sketchup, which is basically CAD for *******, but Jason gets credit for fine tuning it and correcting all of my design flaws, the folks who made it at TRS construction get some credit too, they do amazing work...
& here I was dogging out sketchup to fellow employees LOL, guess cause I use Auto-cad to design I'm spoiled. Regardless, I like it, nice work & well worth the wait, now take us a pic or two with the hood on!!!
Though I'd just post a few pics of some of my tank critters.... . . Just picked up a pair of yellow tangs last Friday from Jeff in Oak Harbor(Jeffandlinda), they only took a couple of days to put the purple tang in place, crummy photo though... . .
. . Here's a before and after of the Zoa colony I fragged up 5 weeks ago, decent growth rate I think... . .
. . .
. John Mann is moving to Arkansas and gave me a few corals a couple of months ago, I didn't really have room for them in my frag tanks, so I put the the ones that are less light demanding up on the rocks under the HQI's for a little test,, they seem to be doing OK so far, I'll be moving them around a bit when I get some more serious light in place in a week or two. . .
. . Here is a view of the above corals from the top looking down, I just thought it looked cool, you can get an idea of the surface current... . . .
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. Some Rics . .
. . The rock has been coloring up nicely, here's a view of some coraline, none was visible 2 months ago, sorry about the lousy focus... . .
Nice water ripples on the surface. I am sure that blasts the light nicely down into your tank. Surely your corals will love that. I personally found the shimmering look of my tank so enjoyable once I upgraded to MH.
Ok, so where are those guys to get this premium light hood up and running. Time to break out the whip and crack it Joe. Your ready for sps and lps aren't you?
They are on the way today Matt, hopefully it will be up and running this evening, if only my quality control supe could be here. I've got lot's of frags looking for a new home, my original plan to only have a dozen sps in there to have lot's of room to grow has gone out the window.. I've been following your thread, you've got something to be proud of there, if I can ever pry myself away from this rock I want to get down and see what a real reefer can do...
Great fun today, we got the hood wired and ready to go (As a matter of fact Jason & Eric, I do have a mouse in my pocket...). Here's a few photos of the progress: . . Here is the initial attachment of the Lumenarcs: . .
. This is a close look at the optional cooling ducts on the Luminarcs. this is designed for four inch ducting, I'm using the high temp aluminum flex hose normally used for driers. . .
. . Here we have a photo of Jason making a precision adjustment: . .
. . The owner of luminarc is a genius with his reflectors, but he is definitely lacking in other areas. The aluminum duct attachments he sent for four inch icecap fans had a flange that extended over 1/2 inch into the interior of the four inch pipe, in other words it was adapted to obscure the outer part of the fan, reducing the diameter over the fan to less than 3 inches, greatly reducing the efficiency and hence the air flow, basically turning a four inch icecap fan into a three inch fan. Jason called him and tried to explain the problem with this, that turned out to be a waste of time and an exercise in frustration. Fortunatly the folks at TRS Construction (my hood fabricators) came to our rescue and custom fabricated four duct attachments out of stainless, check out this beauty: . .
. . There are a total of six icecap fans, four individually ducted to the luminarcs and two on the outboard sides for additional air flow. Here is a photo of one interior side, one of the icecap 660 ballasts for the VHO actinics is seen at the bottom of the photo, the pvc fitting at the top will ensure that there will be no chafing of the wires on a stainless edge. The other side is a mirror image of this setup. . .
. . Here is an exterior photo of same: . .
. . And here is a photo with all lights in place: . .
. . And here is a pic of the extension arm which is designed to lift the hood via my Garage Gorilla cable winch, and I'll head off one question; The string pictured is not what will be lifting the hood, it is there to snake up the stainless cable.... . .
, , and here is a closeup of the arm: . .
. . One tragic occurence: Jason and Eric pointed out to my lovely wife Brenda that the extension arm winch system would be perfect to attach a hangman's noose to. Not cool guys, not cool..
Once I get a couple of winch issues worked out the hood will be on the tank, should happen real soon. Can't wait to fire up 2440 watts and watch that electric meter spin....
That's right Matt, I have been plotting my revenge over many sleepless nights ever since I found out you trumped me in the Bubble King department, ah, vengeance is mine!!!
I'm starting out with 14k Coral Vues, do you have any experience using 14k's with actinics? Can't wait to get my light starved frags under them and see what they look like...