Tank Journal Archive

[Joshwaaaa]

I'm bored at work so i figured I'd make one of these even though I have not that much to show.

Introduction:
This will probably be a slow moving journal, I'm really new to the marine thing so I seem to be spending more time reading up on it then actually doing anything with the stuff I have accumulated. And in between renovating a whole house (in fact where the tank is to be placed currently looks like a construction zone) and having my first little one on it's way the budget is wearing thin, so a majority of this will be DIY/ home made stuff

Reefing Since: this is a first

System Objectives: Satisfy the want have a reef tank I have had for as long as I can remember, and to have nice looking display in my dinning area done on somewhat of a budget

Type of reef: mixed

Initial Fill Date: ???

Display Tank Dimensions: 1200x600x450 bought second hand fingers crossed it doesnt leak

Display Lighting: LED, unsure wether to go DIY or pre built

Stand: Metal stand I'm going to weld up at work, yet to be made

Hood or Rimless: no hood

Sump Design: 900x360x500 tank purchased, baffles need to be installed

NSW or ASW: will be NSW, I live about 5 mins from a decent sheltered boat ramp

Display Water circulation: 2x JVP 12000LPH

Return Pump: Devil D4000

Skimmer: Bubble Magus BM150pro

Evaporation Top Up: RO water but will probably be manual to begin with

Display Tank as it sits now all sad and dirty looking, sorry for the poor quality photos I only have my phone to take pictures with, I think I have proper camera round somewhere I will try and find it

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Some of my other stuff I have laying around waiting to be put to use
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and the tank still in it's box, ready to be turned into the sump
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Havent got anything at all done on this the past couple of weeks as I have been spending my time reading up on weir and sump designs, there are a lot of different options out there and a lot to wrap my head around.

This is certainly one confusing hobby with a million different trains of thought on the subject

 

[Joshwaaaa]

I also have a relatively skinny 5ft tank I have some how accumulated in the process, would this be too big to use for fish quarantine since none of the species I will be looking towards will be all that big? Can it be too large? especially if you need to medicate

 

[MagicJ]

I also have a relatively skinny 5ft tank I have some how accumulated in the process, would this be too big to use for fish quarantine since none of the species I will be looking towards will be all that big? Can it be too large? especially if you need to medicate

Can you silicon in a piece of glass across the middle to make two sections?

 

[jashay]

if you want to use it as a quarantine it is pretty large, you would have to use a fair amount of meds if you do get a sick fish.thats if you use it as a med QT. otherwise if it is just a tank to make sure your fish are fine then I wouldnt be to concerned bout the size, just need to allow for the extra equipment.

look forward to seeing this setup, if you have time and are concerned about it leaking do a test fill, if it leaks empty it and seal it with the proper silicon. then re test ;)

 

[Joshwaaaa]

I might do away with the 5ft and throw it up on ebay or the likes, get a 2-2.5 that way it will be easier to pack away in the shed when not in use and I can just set it up on a desk when need be.

Yea I think a wet run outside will probably be a good idea, i think I might just wait till I have done the weir and sump and try it all in one hit make sure it all flows the way I think it should and isn't leaking. The tank will be going in a freshly carpeted room and I dont really like the idea of it dumping it's guts on the floor

 

[jashay]

absolutely mate, dont get the shagpile wet! Im pretty lucky in that sense with timber floors throughout. just incase it does leak when you start setting up etc. get some towels and push them up against the stand to form a roll of towel, and also put some towels down flat up to the sides, if you do get some spillage down the stand it will be caught by the scrunched up towel. if you drip all over the joint the flat towels will sort that out!

 

[Joshwaaaa]

Decided I'm going to try and do a full bean Animal overflow, ordered all my plumbing from http://www.wetearth.com.au/ not the cheapest thing to do ever but atleast they are lot cheaper then my local hardware store,

Now I just need to wait, hrmm maybe I can get all my glass for sump and weir cut up in the mean time

 

[MTG]

what design are you making the sump?

 

[Joshwaaaa]

I'm still not 100% but I have plenty of room to play with. Thinking just the standard inlet/skimmer-> fuge -> return with a basic bubble trap inbetween, but then I'm not to sure about flow through the fuge, pretty sure it would be a bit too much if I do it that way.

Simple and straight forward is what I want, I just want a basic setup that once running and matured will have minimal maintenance

 

[Joshwaaaa]

been doing a bit more pondering while at work bored again, thinking towards my lighting. Will definently be going the DIY LED route it's just more thinking about placement and how many.

As my budget is stretching as it is I think the rapid LED 48 Ultra Premium LED DIY Kit with Dimmable Drivers is going to be my starting point mounted on 1" alloy sqaure hollow bar with provisions of adding more when/if necessary at a later date. Now for lay out I have been thinking something like this.

Forgive the dodgy drawings as it was done my CNC milling program not a drawing program as such. Will be interchanging between white and RB, avoiding the center braced area with 80 degree lenses

critiques?

 

[MagicJ]

Hi Josh
This is similar to how I built mine :D. A couple of things to think about:

• I would be a bit concerned that the 1" square hollow bar will retain the heat in the centre void rather than dissipate. I have seen this used before but with a fan on the end blowing air down the length of the tube. I used a 50x25x3 aluminium channel and this does nor require any active cooling with a sensible current through the LED's.
• 48 LED's is not a lot for a 4x2 footprint but I think it could work. I would not necessarily have even numbers of LED's on each bar - where is you weir located? What is your proposed aquascape? Can you concentrate the LED's where you corals are going to be?
• Your LED's will be fairly widely spaced and I suspect you might get some spotlighting with 80 degree lenses - with a 450mm deep tank I would not use lenses which will give you a greater spread of light.
  

This is how mine turned out - 60 LED's with a centre brace. Very few LED's across the back (9), 12 across the front, and 19 and 20 for the middle two rows.

Just my thoughts.:D

 

[MTG]

looks like its all coming to plan. for a 450 deep tank i would definetly ditch the optics to :D

 

[Joshwaaaa]

Hi Josh
This is similar to how I built mine :D. A couple of things to think about:

• I would be a bit concerned that the 1" square hollow bar will retain the heat in the centre void rather than dissipate. I have seen this used before but with a fan on the end blowing air down the length of the tube. I used a 50x25x3 aluminium channel and this does nor require any active cooling with a sensible current through the LED's.
• 48 LED's is not a lot for a 4x2 footprint but I think it could work. I would not necessarily have even numbers of LED's on each bar - where is you weir located? What is your proposed aquascape? Can you concentrate the LED's where you corals are going to be?
• Your LED's will be fairly widely spaced and I suspect you might get some spotlighting with 80 degree lenses - with a 450mm deep tank I would not use lenses which will give you a greater spread of light.

That does give me a lot more to think about, so the verdict is ditch the lenses to decrease spotting (they come in the kit so I'll keep them for if I ever want to use them down the track)

So in other words say maybe think towards having a couple of bommies on either side where all the corals will be placed, then congregate the majority of LED's in those areas for growth purposes with the remainder spread them throughout for just general lighting duties?

I'm hoping that making it in the separate bars would make it relatively easier to add another 12+ down the track. After reading around a bit more they recommend 1 LED per 20 inches square minimum which would put my tank at around the 60 mark so I am a little under at 48 but as i said I'm stretching it money wise as it is.

 

[MagicJ]

Thats what I would do ;)

As I said Josh, I think you can make the 48 LED's work you just need to be smart about where they are located.

What did you think about my comments regarding the heat sink?

 

[Joshwaaaa]

I see what you mean about the hollow bar retaining heat. I had actually thought about running air down the guts of it, saw it done on an LED build on RC, but would rather not have fans running to keep the noise down as much as possible I know some fans can be a bit noisey, plus a bit of heat isn't really too bad is it?

I think I might have to do a run past capral Aluminium to see what the keep in stock that could be of use maybe with a little more surface area to boot.

 

[MagicJ]

That is where I got my aluminium channel from - about $50 for 6 meters and they cut it to the lengths I wanted :D

 

[Joshwaaaa]

Was playing with my tank friday night figuring out where to put bulk heads when I spotted a huge chip in the back pane at the bottom, devo. Not sure if it was there when I bought it or I did it during transporting it. probably about 1.5" wide
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So pondering it over a few beers that night I came up with a plan of attack, and the next morning I pulled down a crappy 5ft x 1.5ft deep tank I have sitting here which looks like it has been resealed 20 times over

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Now I have a replacement panel for my display tank and enough glass for all my baffles and my weir. Should also have enough left over to make up a 2ft quarantine tank using the chipped panel cut in half and flipped so the chip is at the top along with the cut down base of the 5ft and the 5fter's ends . Just created more work for myself but oh well

 

[Joshwaaaa]

Recieved a box of goodies today

Unfortunately I'm not going to have a chance to play with all till my bathroom is back to being a bathroom and it currently looks like this :(tiler is due in, in around 3 weeks time and I have a whole heap of work ahead of me
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[Joshwaaaa]

Took a night of working on the bathroom, it's absolutely doing my head in. Started cutting up and sticking together a few pieces of glass. Have a few baffles in my sump, just going to wait for these to dry before doing the rest. Also made up a weir that I can silicone onto my tank once its ready, reckon it should be big enough it's 500x100 which shoulg give plenty of surface skimming area.

Back to the bathroom tomorrow nigh:(

 

[Jonny Glover]

Should be a ripper josh, have fun block busting...