Rebirth of the 65

[trido]

As some of you know, I've been planning on upgrading from my current 29 up to my 65 that's been set up as a FW tank for the last couple years. Well, when I make a decision, I usually move quickly.
Earlier this month I built my new 60 light LED fixture.

Today, I painted a stand I built for someone last summer that turned out horribly. I must have had old varnish and my top coat didnt stick to the undercoating. I dedided to just sand it back down and shoot it black.
Its hard to tell from the pic, but it turned out well.

Tomorrow, I'll break down the 29

And put the 65 in its place with 60 pounds of new sand and another 30 pounds of rock structure I have curing.

I'll post pics after the process is done.

 

[DolphinLVR]

Sweet! Looking forward to seeing this come together

 

[TJL]

Lookin good, now quit making Alex and I look bad. We would like to see you take slow-n-easy, a cup of sand a week and you'll have LR in there by Christmas and maybe Fish by Easter 2013. Seriously though Duane gonna be so nice for you to have extra volume/real estate tp play with.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Krish]

Should be a nice build!! Tagging along!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scooterman]

That 65 looks like a nice size to have, once set up it should turn out really nice! keep up the good work and bad staining! :help:

 

[user 2204]

Sweet. Looks like you might just beat me to the water fill. :lol: I will have to swing by sometime soon and check things out.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[Peppie]

I am glad you decided to switch the FW to SW.
Planes for a sump? Skimmer? Reactor? ATO? Controller?

 

[trido]

I am glad you decided to switch the FW to SW.
Planes for a sump? Skimmer? Reactor? ATO? Controller?

For the sump, I've decided to use the 29. It was either that or buy a 40 breeder (or 20 long) and cut out the whole back of the stand. The reason Im using the 29 is its height. Ive decided to use the eshopps HOB PSK-75 (it requires about 14" min, height) that i just bought and utilize a DSB with feather calerpa as opposed to using a euroreef RS-180 I could pick up for cheap. I figure since I've been skimmerless for a year now I should be fine. For the reactor, I'm just going to keep at it with the kalk as long as I can. I may end up using a two part if I cant keep up. I have over 40 lbs. of part A and Part B is as easy as buying arm&hammer baking soda from Costo. Seems most reefers either don't remember that or just don't know it nowadays. I could build a Ca. reactor, but then I would have to steal my milwaukee controller, selenoid and CO2 tank off the planted Discus tank and I'm sure my wife would kill me.
For the controller, I'll keep using my AC Jr. I was very sure I was going to buy and Neptune APEX but then I read up and found the arduino DIY builds.
The first parts of my lighting controller came in yesterday. Im going to build a four channel light controller and use the AC Jr for heating and a wave maker.

The new tank is in, aquascaped and the corals are mounted. Im too tired after eleven hours of tank changing to take pics. I'll get some up tomorrow if I have time before the cubscouts pinewood derby that I'm pretty much in charge of.

For my ATO, right now I have a single stage float switch. In the next few months, I'll upgrade it to a double switch.

 

[trido]

Here are the pics I promised so long ago.

FTS with stand

Refugium

And now four pics of the different lighting settings. They are all the same setting on the camera and the blue ones suck because Im new to Blue LED picture taking.
Single string of twelve with one red and two greens

24 more royal blues for a total of 36 LED's (no whites)

Then we add twelve 10k whites (48 total)

and finally I have the twelve 4500k whites ( these only come on for two hours a day for now)

 

[user 2204]

Very nice Duane. I may just have to swing by while I have the time this week and take a closer looksy.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[Darthv247]

nice work man. now i remember why i started coming to this website. I stumbled on you and clowns tank builds back in the day when u helped him plan it out.

love the placement. always nice to be able to see it from the computer chair.

 

[trido]

Thanks guys.
Alex, you know my number. I'm giving you the formal invite right now. So come on over.
Darth, glad your still sticking around. Funny you mention it. I had to refrain from, teasing Class Clown's wife on FB about starting a new tank just yesterday. His twins are three now. Maybe its time he gets back into the hobby.

 

[Darthv247]

yah would be pretty sweet to see him build another system. loved reading his last build.

 

[Raamiah]

Nice looking tank! I'm looking at getting LED's for my 20H that I plan on setting up at home and the colors you got there are convincing me that's the right thing to do. Great work on the whole setup.

 

[dtd87]

looks great!

 

[Peppie]

trido,
Very nice work. I always like to see a tank transfer from an established tank. The corals are bigger and every thing is so clean looking. Even your sump looks new!!
Dont wait too long to hook up another switch for your ATO.. Its like walking on glass with one switch. LOL

I am sure you will like your new lighting set up. Havent heard bad words about the DIY leds yet....

 

[JJMoneyman]

Very nice looking setup!

 

[iroll253]

That scape is sweet man. Nice work.

 

[trido]

Thanks for the kind words

Yesterday I changed six of my optic lens's on the 10K whites (near each end of the fixture) from 60 to 80 degrees in order to spread the light further to the ends of the tank. I also swapped out six of my Royal Blues to Blue and put 80 degree optics on them too. I'm really surprised at how focused the light spread is using 60 degree optics with the fixture at a foot above the water line. With a 24" heat sink over a 36" tank (leaving only six inches on each end with no direct light) both ends of the tank were very dark. The 80 degree optics on the 10K whites helped immensely.

Now, my 60 LED fixture has;
24) 80 degree optics
33) 60 degree optics

12) 4500K white w/ 80s
12) 10K white w/ a mix of 50/50 60s and 80s
1) red w/ no optics
2) cyan w/ no optics
6) blue w/ 80's
27) royal blue w/ 60s
it has four separate dimmable channels hooked to an arduino controller

My corals are currently growing like weeds.

 

[user 2204]

I really need to make my way over soon. Nice work Duane.

Cheers,
Alex