Our 1st Reef Tank build ever - 70 gal AGA tall

[eww]

We've been playing again... We added blue and white LED's tonight for night effects. The blues are the 36" Icecap retro moonlights and the whites are some simple 9w units from eBay. Our lights with reflectors are really cramped so we had to get creative on the mounting. Here are some pics to show off what we came up with.

We made a bracket for the white LED's out of some scrap acrylic that was laying around

Another shot of the bracket

The bracket mounted in place with the LED's on it. There are two of them total. We might add more later.

A stand-off kit that we built for mounting the Icecap tube. We have a whole box of these little acrylic tubes we picked up one day from a scrap bin at a plastic shop.

Just the whites on

Whites and blues together

A peek a boo under the hood

Finally a FTS with both whites and blues on. We turn the whites off after a couple of hours and will be leaving the blues on all night. The whites will kick back on to join the blues about an hour before the first stage of T5's come on.

Our first attempt at some actinic photography. We still need to figure this world out. Amazing colors though.

 

[TJL]

Thats awsome Eric, but how come you didn't make an extra set of standoffs for my white LED's...JK... but thanks for the very detailed pics to copy. You'll love the night time transistion utilizing the white LED's, the corals go into night mode and pods start to come out. My Bangai Cardinals & Target Mandarin hover under LED's and hunt the pods as they swim through the light beams very cool to watch.

See you two at the BBQ, Todd

 

[eww]

Thanks Todd. If you tell me how long you want the stand offs to be I can make some up and bring them to the BBQ for you. I have plenty of materials.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

You did an excellent job scaping that tall bugger! Also i'm impressed by how bright the LEDs are!

 

[eww]

You did an excellent job scaping that tall bugger! Also i'm impressed by how bright the LEDs are!

Thanks Shawn. It was a bugger too. Still is actually with all the little pieces we have to place. I am surprised at how bright the LED's area. I am actually a little concerned that they may be too bright and not giving the inhabitants a nights rest with them always on. I am considering changing the light schedule to have the blues kick off for 3-4 hours in the middle of the night and only leave the whites running for a very small amount of light. We do really like the way it looks though. The fluorescence really pops.

 

[eww]

Here are some updated shots after all the work that Becca did over the weekend getting everything up off the sand bed and glued down. Unfortunately I'm still a few weeks away from getting my right hand wet again .

Full tank shot form 6/20/10

A few shots of our new buddy

Added a Dendro. It's working on a second head now.

The new smaller Fire Shrimp. He is already cleaning the tang.

Anyone ever seen a Tail Spot Blenny host a coral? He sits on this Candy Cane all the time.

 

[TJL]

Well what do expect when they're colored up like a clown Heres mine in his favorite perch

Woops an old pic when he was just a wee one, now he has bright blue lipstick and much fatter

Tanks looking real good, nice work Becca

Todd

 

[eww]

Here's a new FTS wshowing some of our recent additions. We will take some more detailed pics soon. Everything is doing really well and showing full polyp extension on everything. No complaints. We also built and hooked up a fan system on the back under the hood to help with cooling the water. We were already having some heat build up on some of those warm days and getting to 84 degrees. Since installing the fans we had to put the heater in the sump for the first time to keep it at 78-79 degrees. This first morning after the fans went in we woke up to the tank being 74 degrees. Whoops. Now the side effect of the fans is about 2 gallons a day to top the tank off. We just picked up an ATO so guess what my next project is?

FTS as of 6/27/10

 

[mal1099]

Hey love the scape you went with. Your fish selection is nice also. Barrier has a huge citrine goby there. I have never seen one that big and its very friendly. Would go perfect in your tank. If i wasnt fighting a small case of ich atm i would snatch it up. go go garlic enriched food and cleaner shrimps go go go...

 

[TJL]

Hey Eric & Becca, looks awsome and it really is starting to come together now. Your reef should be ready for the Leopard Wrasse or Flasher/Fairy Wrasse pretty soon now. How is the fuge algaes doing now with a little bio-load to support them. If you need more let me know and can also load you up with some pods. I may even have to update pics on my build thread if my buddy Eric shows up with his nice camera to get some good shots

Todd

 

[eww]

Thanks Todd. The fuge algae isn't looking great yet so we might just take you up on your offer of more. Things just aren't growing down there yet. I was wondering if we are cleaning the water too much between the skimmer 24/7, and the phosphate reactor with GFO and GAC running in it. None of the corals or fish seem to be complaining though. We've seen a few critters crawling around down there as well but not too many yet.

We will definitely bring the camera next time we come up to document the one that got us started which will probably be this weekend since we seem to be making the trek every week so far for so deal we can't pass up . You have a room for rent?

 

[eww]

Hey love the scape you went with. Your fish selection is nice also. Barrier has a huge citrine goby there. I have never seen one that big and its very friendly. Would go perfect in your tank. If i wasnt fighting a small case of ich atm i would snatch it up. go go garlic enriched food and cleaner shrimps go go go...

I've been searching the net for a Citrine Goby and nothing comes up. You have any pics of one?

 

[eww]

Here are some pics from last weekends project. We picked up four quiet computer fans and some wiring components, a used 12v power supply from the swap meet and some aluminum angle from HD. A little work with a dremel and wha-la. The fans are individually switched for three different speeds and we have two blowing in and two blowing out. Enough flow that we have them set in the middle for speed and it cools plenty and they are virtually silent. I also notched the aluminum so we cold add two more fans if we so inclined. All total we have between $50.00 - $60.00 and one afternoon into the whole setup. We are going to add a larger fan from the same maker into the back wall of the lower cabinet to ventilate the sump and get some of the heat from the power strips and light timers out of there.

From inside the hood. Boy they barely fit between the hood and the tank.

Center shot showing where two more fans could go.

A shot down the back just because...

 

[mal1099]

heres a link to one. also known as a clown goby.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+161&pcatid=161

 

[eww]

We went over to see Adam and Crystal tonight to see their setup and get some camera lessons. This is the showcase of what the student learned from the teacher tonight...

Thanks a bunch to both of you. I don't think our photography will ever be the same, like that's a bad thing

Gavin sure loved your son and your dog. He was so worn out .

Let's see how these came out.

 

[eww]

Then the lights went out...

Hey isn't this the 18th hole? Where's the bar?

 

[jrgilles]

very nice pics. Your camera or theirs?

 

[eww]

Our. They just taught us how to use it.

 

[Myteemouse]

WOW good job.. looks great!!! keep on shooting they get better as you go!!

 

[jrgilles]

hmm, what kind of camera is it? We might have to come over for lessons....