Project 58!! (Image intense)

[Maxx]

The lightbox is suspended with 3/32" diameter vinyl wrapped cable which actually increases the outer diamter of the cable to 1/8". I bought it at Home Depot along with the aluminum cable ferrules and stops. Basically you run the cable through one side of the ferrule, make a loop, and run the other end through the other side of the ferrule. Then you use a swaging tool to crimp the ferrule down and secure the cable. After this is done, the cable will not move. Its important to beg, borrow, or buy a swaging tool to do this. I almost gave myself the world's first simultaneous hernia and brain aneurysm trying to crimp the ferrules and stops with a pair of pliers. As soon as my camera battery is charged up again, I will take pics of the swaging tool so people can see what it looks like.
The stops are exactly what they sound like. They stop the cable from pulling though whatever they are run through. I need to take a close up pic of the stops.....

Here is a general view of the cables connected to the lightbox and the dowel.

Here is a close up of the cables and the quick disconnect clips I'm using.

Starting at the top of the above pic....
You can see the cable looped through the ferrule, (after being swaged...much smaller beforehand) and connecting to the quick disconnect clamp. The top cable is running through the dowel. The quick disconnect clip is basically a D rig type clip...that uh, isnt shaped like a D....so I guess its really a snap clip. But its purpose is to allow me to be able to separate the lightbox from the dowel for any sort of reason.
The snap clip is connected to the second cable. This cable is connected to two larger eye screws connected directly to the lightbox frame. There are two locking links that connect the cable to the eye screws. Locking links is not the correct term for them, but I cant remember the right one...sorry.

You can see the cables from my Reef Optix 3 reflectors coiled on top of the lightbox in this photo. They will not be like that when this is all said and done.
They will run up and around the lightbox support arms when I finally get off the computer and stain and seal them.
Nick

 

[Maxx]

Here is a top down photo of the lightbox. This shows the spaces between the top braces. The middle brace has a 4 inch space, the two side spaces are 3 1/2 inches wide. This allows for alot of natural heat venting so I dont need fans to move air into the box. The back of the box is very open as well.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Here is a whole tank shot with the lightbox in a lowered position. The lightbox can actually rest on the top the tank. Here it is raised about 3 inches off the top of the tank. Please excuse the appearance of the lightbox....this is the crappy front panel for test purposes. The good one is finishing up the final coat of water seal, and trim will be put on the corners of the lightbox to match the stand.

Please excuse the box o plumbing parts in the right hand corner. Its sitting on my new chiller.

Here is a photo of the lightbox raised to its max height. This places the bottom of the lightbox at about 11.5 inches above the surface of the water, and puts the bottom of the reflectors at a little more 13 inches above the surface of the water.

Here is a photo of the lightbox as seen from a worms eye view. I actually had to lie on the floor under the dining room table, (dodging dogs who desperately wanted to lick my face and the camera...sigh....), to take this picture. I'm glad Rocio didnt see me doing that. She already thinks I'm a nutjob, no need to confirm it for her.

I only have the MH's in place right now. I still need to wire up the VHO's...

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Finally here are photo's of my new chiller. I bought it used from a reefer who was getting out of the hobby. Its a Pacific Coast CL-650 1/4 HP Inline Chiller. Its very quiet, and very capable for what I need. It was bought in May of this year, along with a Mag 950 which the guy threw in all for $400.00. The chiller has 5/8" ports and the same size heat exchanger coil inside, which really chokes down the Mag 9.5...down to about 350 gph. I'm thinking of using an Iwaki MD-40RLT I have lying around. I originally bought the Iwaki 40 MD-RLT to power the ETSS skimmer I bought and didnt use. I think the pressure pump would do better in this application.

Nick

 

[Elmo18]

Its progressing nicely Maxx! I bet you can't wait to put some rocks in 'er!!!

- Elmo

 

[Maxx]

I'm planning on trying to do that tomorrow. Right now my Pinpoint Salinity meter is calibrating....wanting to add salt tonight.
Nick

 

[wrightme43]

Looking good Maxx, Glad to see it all coming together. I have really enjoyed this thread. You are going to have a master piece. LOL. Thanks man and Merry Christmas. Steve

 

[Maxx]

Thanks Steve! I attempted to aquascape using 1/2 inch PVC and Zip ties the other day.......total and complete failure. This is the first time I've tried to aquascape a tank that did not have any substrate in it. Man, Its a whole new kind of difficult! The PVC I used was too visible for my taste and didnt really allow what I wanted to be able to happen. In order for this whole BB thing to be workable, I need to get the rock work off the floor of the tank, otherwise it restricts the flow and allows detritus to sit just about anywhere. I was talking with CurtSwearing the other day (I was at work....its really boring being stuck in a police car on Christmas eve......), and he did a quick google search for acrylic rods and found this place Regal Plastic Supply. which has a location here in St Louis. So.....Monday morning, I'm making some phone calls.
Hopefully, they'll have what I need in stock, and be willing to sell to me retail...I'm not sure if they are a wholesale only kind of place. I didnt see anything that would indicate they were only wholesale, but ya never know...

BTW Merry ChanaKwanzMas to everyone!! Happy Holidays!
NIck

 

[Maxx]

12-30-2004

The holidays have kept me pretty busy. I've still been trying to get things done though. Our local reef club, (SEASL www.seasl.org) is going to Inland Aquatics (www.inlandaquatics.com) on Jan 8th and I'd love to be able to buy something for the tank then. Its gonna be a few months before I can really put any corals or anemones in the tank, so I'm looking at fish. Inland breeds clowns so this would be a grerat time to pic some up....We'll see if they have anything I can bring home.

I did manage to finish the aquascaping though. I'm not real happy with the left side, but I LOVE the rock work on the right. The pics dont look too good IMO, but I definately got what I was looking for, open rockwork with lots of room for fish to swim.

Here is the right side. I took the pic with out flash since it really made the image tough to see properly through my crappy digi cam. The tower is actually 4 seperate rocks that were drilled and are held together with about 5 or 6 acrylic dowels (3/8" diameter). I just used a standard 3/8' wood drill bit, but it was 12 inches long. Cut the acrylic rod to fir and shoved it in the hole. works good. The little rock to the right of the tower is actually homemade by a guy from the reef club, Darren.

 

[Maxx]

Here are 3 pics of the left side. The main rock is a Lava rock I've had since I was 12 years old and keeping marine fish in Hawaii. It weighs about 35 lbs and has lots of crazy holes and caves. I tried drilling it.......friggin nightmare!
Drilling Lava Rock requires:
1....Patience, (It doesnt happen fast)
2....Time (see #1)
3... good masonry drill bits
4... a good drill, preferably not a cordless...sucks to change batteries out every 10 minutes, ( I was using a cordelss 18 volt dewalt. I had plenty of drill for the job, a corded drill would have been better

It actually didnt work very well and I wound up removing all but one dowel on top used to hold another Darren special homemmade rock on top.
I really dont like how this looks and will probably play with it some in the intervening months. As it is now, the rock is just balanced on top of the two legs....

this one shows the underhang...I have absolutely no idea how the camera flash made those crazy white squiggly squares in that pattern....obviously, the tank doesnt really have those in it.

different angle...shows that the arm from the tower doesnt actually reach over that far.

Here is the final one... I think it looks better than this in person, but I'm still not real wild about it.

 

[Maxx]

Finally a full tank shot of the aquascaping.

Things left to do:

Hook up calcium reactor
hook up chiller and new sump return. This will involve a whole new sump return manifold. I want to use Loc-Line on the return in order to alleviate some dead spots in front of the overflow box. I may just order some eductors for better flow....
Set up Liter Meter 3 for top off stability.
Nick

 

[Forestal]

Looking good Max...patience is vital but a tough thing to have with a great project

 

[dgasmd]

Maxx:

This is a reef set up right since we have talked about Ca reactors and such. So, with the current state of your aquascape, how do you plan to place corals there??? It seems all the rocks are very vertical and you have not left much of any horizontal areas to put them on. The aquascape does look very open, but besides also looking very delicate (like it would all come down with just a snail moving over it) it doesn't have a lot of "shelving" for things to be attached to.

 

[Maxx]

Alberto,
I can certainly see how that might seem to be the case with the crappy pics I posted up previously. Fortunately, I took some all new crappy pics to (hopefully) show how much horizontal space I really do have. The saguarro/tower looking rock structure on the right is actually 4 rocks connected together and has alot of horizontal space with several levels and ridges to place corals. I dont plan on stocking this incredibly full of corals anyway, as I want the reef to grow in as opposed to be crammed full of corals....(thats about all I can afford anyway so thats convienant).
I went pretty heavy on the acrylic rods holding the saguarro/tower, 6 in all. Anything that will cause that to fall apart will just about destroy the tank too. Its supported by a nice flat base. I used my power compound miter saw (not a fine wood 80 tooth finishing blade, just the regular old 40 tooth one that came with it) and cut the base of the rock smooth. No problems, no issues, it actually went ALOT easier than I thought it would after Mojoreef suggested it to me.
The lava rock structure on the left is balanced on top of those two rocks, but its really secure. An over zealous eel might pull that apart or an octo...but neither of those are going in here. I deliberately pushed, pulled, poked and messed with all of the rock to make sure it was stable and wouldnt come apart or fall easily. I even tried tipping both structures, and wasnt able to do it without using more force and strength than anything in the tank is going to possess.
I had a large turbo snail tear up my old 20 gallon because it was clumsy and some of my corals were just "stacked" on the rock as opposed to fixed. I made sure this wasnt going to happen this time.

Again these are just crappy pics the two "greenish" looking ones are when the MH's were kicking on....

Left side shot. This shows a side profile of the lava rock. I still dont like this side very much, but it does have room for at least two decent sized coral pieces on top.

Slightly angled down shot of the tower showing the different levels and platforms.

Side shot of right "arm" of the tower. The angle on this is kinda funny, cause it looks like its almost touching the front pane of glass on the tank when its really a good 2.5 inches away from it. But this shot does show the length of that arm...

Here is a top down shot of the tower with lightbox moved out of the way. Lots of room for frags and later decent sized corals there.

Finally, a top down shot of the lava rock again with the lightbox removed.

I was standing on a small step ladder when I took the top down shots....makes my 58 gallon look like a nano.... LOL
Again these are crappy shots, but the idea is to convey (a little better) the different shelves and platforms I have available for coral placement. I also plan on putting one or two LPS right down under the two "arms" of the tower. These are lower flow areas and the corals can expand to get more light or retract to get less if they desire. Thats just a tentative plan right now to be honest, I'll have to see how things develop later on.

I keep saying it, but its true....I'm just not wild about the lava rock side of the tank. I will be playing around with it abit, especially since I have some 50-60 lbs of live rock left over. I'm sure I can make something really cool out of that. But I do really like the tower side of the tank.

I do really appreciate the comments and constructive criticism from all, please continue. Your continued input and influence only help me improve my tank and make it a better environment for the critters I want to keep in it.

Nick

 

[mojoreef]

Right on Nick the second series of pics show it more. Looks good and lots of room to put corals. Remember corals can go anywhere, horizontal, vertical on the back wall what ever. Think of the power of crazy glue, lol'

Looking good boy!!!!!

MIke

 

[dgasmd]

Looks great. These pictures show the difference really.

 

[Maxx]

That means alot coming from the two of you. You guys are two of the "masters" of this hobby IMO.
Might be strong terms, but I've seen Alberto's previous tank, then the awesome thread on his new one, and Mike's tank....(Photo's of em anyway...since y'all are to selfish to fly me out to see 'em in person....sigh...) you guys definately know what your doing with this.
Unfortunately, I have to work in an hour. So while the rest of the US is recovering from a massive hangover....I'll be driving around doing the cop thing.

I'm gonna play around with the left side still I think. But it wont be until at least Tuesday (my next day off.)

Thanks for the comments guys, Once again I really do appreciate all the help you folks have given throughout the whole thing.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

1-19-2004,

Short update....no pics.
The tank looks like an algae farm right now. While drilling the rockwork, I must have killed off more stuff, because I had a short cycle. Combine that with all the plasticisers leaching out phosphates from my plumbing and you've got a great environment for algae. I hadnt expected the algae bloom since I had the rocks sitting in a 55 gallon tank with a protein skimmer for 6+ months...but all did was really cycle the rock. So basically this is a new tank.

Tank parameters currently are:
Temp 78-81 F
Ph 8.1 as per Sea-Test kit
Ammonia 0.0 as per Sea-Test kit
Nitrite 0.0 as per Sea-Test kit
Nitrate less than 10 ppm as per Sea Test kit
Salinity 1.026 as per refractometer

I need to get a Salifert Nitrate kit. I have their Calcium and Alkalinity test kits, but I'm really not worried about those levels just yet. These Sea Test kits are leftover from my FO days...where you dont need to be as precise. All of these parameters are good though, as long as I dont try and put anything too delicate in there for right now. The tank will be stable since Ive got a chiller holdiong down the temp, The Ph is right from my tapwater, (St Louis water is hard), and I have a Liter Meter taking care of the top off. My skimmer is running as wet as I can get it, (riser tube is extended as far as possible) and all I'm getting is dirty brown tea. Cause I really dont have anything in the tank...other than algae.

But, the tank was ready for fish and some hardy inverts, (clean up crew).
I bought two firefish, 5 turbo snails, and 4 scarlet hermits for the tank. The firefish pretty much got blown all over the tank, so I had to turn off the closed loop for a day or two until I could return them to the LFS where I bought them. They were healthy lil boogers...ate like pigs....didnt want to have to get rid of them. But, it was better for them in the long run.

I've been having to re-think my tank's stocking list, since I have so much flow going on through this tank. Ive always liked the Chevron tang, but they get to be a little big for my tank at a full grown size of about 12 inches. I dont like Kole tangs, but wanted to stay in the Ctenochaetus family of tang, (bristletooths) as they are really good at eating up detritus. I wound up deciding to go with the Tomini Tang:

Photo by RobZ

These are the smallest tangs, only reaching around 5 inches in the wild. They are kinda tough to find so I started looking around and called the Marine Center. I spoke with a very nice guy, who answered alot of questions, but said they didnt have any in stock. He told me they come in infrequently maybe one a month or so. Just looking around for any other vendors, I came across Liveaquaria.com. Generally I'm a little reluctant to order from online giants, as I wasnt sure of how they operated and what their feedback was. Doing some research I saw that live aquaria has a very good reputation and was given the thumbs up from almost everyone who bought from them, except for those few people who didnt follow the instructions on acclimating or signing for the shipment. Under those circumstances Live Aquaria wont guarantee the animals and your on your own...these folks got annoyed when they werent given a refund after being told they wouldnt.....read the website folks...
So anyway Live Aquaria said they were out of stock on the Tomini tangs, but I could put myself on the waiting list for them when they got them back in. So I did. Yesterday.
This morning, I got an email that they had Tomini tangs in stock ranging in size between 2.5-3.5 inches in size. So I ordered one. Its sposed to arrive Saturday, (Will be shipped on Friday) and will be shipped to a local Fed-Ex center where I will pick it up. I'm really looking forward to getting it...Ive always loved the look of this fish, ya just dont see it very often...and like I said I have an algae problem.

The Tomini will share the tank with a Royal Gramma, a Black Cap Basslet, a pair of clowns of some sort (Still trying to figure that one out...clowns are notoriously poor swimmers, but they are better than firefish), a flame angel, and a smaller wrasse, (most likely a 6 line for pest control). And that should do me just fine.

Thats about all thats going on right now in the tank. More updates will follow as things develop.

Nick

 

[dgasmd]

I've looking for one of these guys too. Do you mind it if I am tacky and nosey enough to ask how much they run for?

 

[Maxx]

I dont mind abit....Here is the link to the Bristletooth Tomini Tang.
The tang is still showing up for sale at the website. Priced at 78.99 with a cost of 24.99 for overnight shipping. Total cost is $103.98.

For your tank, I'd consider 3-4. Hell you could have a school of tangs in that beast!

Nick