Some of Mike's Tank Pics from the beginning (Dial Up Painful)

[MC Lighting]

I thought I would put some pics up of my tanks although nothing special or nearly as fantastic as most of the members here its what I have been working towards. First several pics were the tank when brand new and then some along the way shots...


Blue LED Lighting when tank was first set up...

White LED Lighting when tank was first setup...

Red LED Lighting when tank was first set up...

Actinics with new tank set up....

14k HAmilton MH's New Tank Setup...

A couple of months into the addiction....

 

[MC Lighting]

Picked up a 26 Gallon Bow front on Craigs List...

Jumping forward a year and a half and a 900 mile move many losses and here is the tank today (sorry for the micro bubbles still got a leak somewhere)

 

[MC Lighting]

26 Gallon Bow front work in progress...

The 50g Tall tank going to be converted to a Seahorse tank at some point...

The new Nano...

OK thats enough for now but just thought I would show everyone what I have been working towards it has been a long road over the past 16 months and there has been a few times I have almost given up but I continue to try and learn to improve...

 

[MC Lighting]

Oh here are some recent LED Lighted Tank Pics these were quickies I need to spend some time to learn how to use my camera better....

 

[Krish]

Great photos!!!

 

[MC Lighting]

Thanks one of these days I will have the time to really play with the camera and get some of the setting more dialed in....

 

[mtuttle02]

Mike those are some pretty sweet tanks you got there! I especially like the thought of the different color led's- man those are bright!

 

[MC Lighting]

Thanks a lot, yes they are bright in fact much brighter in person at night than the photos show. The reason I aded the red was I was having a mantis shrimp issue when I first set up the tank and needed to be able to see in the tank at night without distrubing the nocturnal activities. I have gotten some odd questions from neighbors why my living room is bright red once in a while (I think they suspect I am growing weed lol)

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

wow, things look really good, that fox face looks very happy. Keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming.

 

[MC Lighting]

Thanks Dave the Fox face is doing great he eats like a pig and gets along very well with his tank mates... Here are a few pics of my power system to keep all of this running...

I have this system tied in so that the Circulation/Return pump has its own dedicated 20a circuit (non GFI) the Lights on all of the tanks have thier own 20A (Non Inverter) Circuit, then the A/C unit and Chiller in the front room (where the tanks are) has its own non inverter 20A circuit the rest is all a shared 20A inverter circuit. This way I have the most use of power available and can maximize battery time for the essentials when I am not home. My office is also fed by this system excluding the laser printer and small fridge. With the transfer switch on the left I can also choose to power the main fridge, Hot Water Circulation and fan blowers (hydronic heat) and most importantly the microwave The orange cord you see on the floor is a generator input for the inverter and can be set to use as much power as the particular generator can handle. Anyone has any questions feel free to ask...

 

[mtuttle02]

Thanks a lot, yes they are bright in fact much brighter in person at night than the photos show. The reason I aded the red was I was having a mantis shrimp issue when I first set up the tank and needed to be able to see in the tank at night without distrubing the nocturnal activities. I have gotten some odd questions from neighbors why my living room is bright red once in a while (I think they suspect I am growing weed lol)

I was at BS today and watched a mantis eat for the first time in person- WOW- I think I want one

HAHAHA! As far as the neighbors- you gotta keep em guessing

 

[edwing206]

Great looking tank you have there. Looks like you have a great electrical setup. Probably best I've ever seen. Just drop me a line when you wanna come over to get the tang. I'm free for the rest of the evening

 

[trido]

Can I ask why you use the inverter for your tanks? They do look great BTW.

 

[MC Lighting]

Thanks everyone for the compliments. Luis nice to see you again your tank is going to be really cool once everything grows up more you have a great start; mine are just starting to mature a little bit so hopefully in a few years ours will look like so many of the other in the forum...

Why do I use the inverter for the tank? Well pretty simple actually there have been so many people who have lost thousands of dollars in livestock because they were too cheap or hard headed to have some form of backup power plan. I understand that I have gone a bit overboard nor do I dismiss anyones attempt at a plan even if its battery air pumps its SOMETHING. But I cannot deal with the people who argue about spending a few hundred bucks on a used generator or a deap cycle battery and cheap inverter to save thier multi-thousand dollar investment. I have even argued with some that battery air pumps at the minimum are a must and they won't even do that as they say oh well it never goes out here bla bla bla... Ok off my soap box now... Anyhow its something I felt was a good investment for my investment and I had some of the stuff from when I lived in my 5th wheel so it was a merger of all of my equipment.

 

[tallguy64]

I love the battery back up, though personally I don’t know it I would leave the batteries on the carpet? But ye I think once I finally get my tank up and running I think I will pick up one of those battery back up units that are used for computers.

If you don’t mind my asking how much did that backup system run you?

 

[MC Lighting]

well the reason the batteries are on the carpet is they are a completly sealed AGM batter there is no liquid electrolyte within the battery even if the case split open you would not have a spil... The batteries are going on 7 years old and are just starting to show some decline in thier life I will be replacing them this year with anothe batch of the same and the best of these will move onto a life of my other lighting and fan system on the 180. You probably don't want to know how much this costs you ready here goes $5k obviously there are much cheaper alternatives but at the time I was selling power back to the utility so I NEEDED a grid interactive inverter if I were to buy one today it would just be a good quality Sine wave inverter which can be had for less than half the cost of this one. The batteries are also way expensive because they are sealed if I had a garage I would be buying tojan golf cart style batteries as you get much more power/dollar and they live a very long life in this application.

 

[tallguy64]

Heh right on, ye I think I will be sticking to the computer backup sort =) have one that runs my cable modem and what not if the power goes out... probably would step up to the higher end ones, but you are totally right, to spend all that money and not have a form of insurance... just plain stupid if you ask me. Do you buy a Ferrari and drive it with out automotive insurance, you maybe the best driver in the world but if someone else hits you, well you get the point =P

My motto is be prepared for anything so you’re prepared for everything so you don’t have to worry.

 

[MC Lighting]

yup so true so true sadly though its the people who drive without insurance that are most likly the same people we are talking about here who argue against a backup plan... The APC Smart UPS series as well as the Tripp Lite brands have been pretty good I used to not back Tripp Lite but I recently got some rack mount high end ones and they have been great so far. You may want to check though it might be roughly a little more to do a deep cycle battery and smaller inverter for the price of some of the higher end UPS's and will give you longer run time... I really like Xantrex Inverters but there are so many on the market now to choose from just make sure its since wave not modified sine...

 

[tallguy64]

I will have to look into that ye I mean to extend run time that way just add another battery in parallel. Stupid question but most of the inverters work both ways charge and invert? I guess that’s more based on the inverter hu? The only reason I ask that is that I know they sell the cheap inverters for cars and what not but those are only to power something not to charge the battery obviously that’s for the car's alternator to do =)

But Ye I will have to look into that, Since I am doing all of my lights, fans and possibly a few power heads off of a relay board controlled by a old laptop via USB.

 

[MC Lighting]

sounds like a fun project I was going to build my own controller but the more I think about doing it the more the Aqua Controller 3 looks good L-) You are correct not all inverters have a charger built in only your higher end ones do plus those generally have a transfer swutch built in as well so you do not need to add anything external for power transfer. I had seriously considered building them as kits but I don't think they would sell since most people as I stated don't even want to buy battery air pumps or cheap generators... If you want hit me up offline and we can talk about some of the inverters out there that will do both for you if you should decide to go that route....