DIY Rimless Starphire and Stainless Kiddy Pool (PICS!)

[hebygb]

Beautiful build, thanks for thinking of taking build pictures.

As for aquascaping, with this footprint, I'd like to see a horseshoe island creating a front facing tidal pool. That way you can have tons of flow around and over, but a nice nook for things like stars and crabs to congregate.

Outstanding build.

[Elliott]

wow, this is a little beyond my DIY skills but I'd like to try. there is so much food for thought in this thread I don't know where to begin, "paralysis by analysis" I guess. I appreciate your ingenuity and willingness to share. you're a great asset to RC. thanks.

[Walter Costa]

Great thread! congratulations! again.

[liveforphysics]

I really appreciate all the kind words guys!

I'm very glad to finally be able to say that the new-tank-syndrome phase is over. No more algae blooms, the few corals that survived are growing well again and having good colors finally. I think the most important stage of the tank progress has been the macrofauna fauna population. With the substrate having oxygenated water flowing through it, the entire crushed coral sandbed is a macrofauna habitat. When the lights turn off, it gets pretty crazy with hundreds of thousands of little animals comming out of the sandbed. I observe them fighting for every scrap of detritus available. I really enjoy watching as they stray too close to the sweeper tenticles of corals and get grabbed, pulled in and consumed. It's neat to see how the natural coral food capture methods work. Always amazes me at how large of prey they can make dissapear into the mouths.


I've made some changes to the lighting design and cooling design of the tank. I'm using LEDs, MH, and T5 lighting now. The MH and LED's are to provide the actinic supliment while the T5's provide the bulk of the lighting for coral growth. The lighting changes are really just there to play around and experiment, I think functionally I've gained nothing over the T5's alone.

Just playing around, I removed the buffer stage of my calcium reactor, and now dump the effulent tube right into the center of a ball of chaetomorpha in the fuge. I suppose the growth result could be called explosive. I'm pretty confident nutrient concentrations are lower now than I've ever had with any of my reefkeeping methods.

No waterchanges yet, but I did throw some carbon in a fluidized reactor. I've been switching between using ozone, stopping ozone, using ozone etc. When the tank was still young I think it had adverse effects, but now I think the tank can handle it a little better, though I'm not fully decided either way. Oddly, sometimes the ORP levels reach 350+mV with no Ozone added for weeks.

I'm just rambleing now... Thanks again for the kind words!

-Luke

[kmacartney]

This project is profound! Great work!

[andbigdaddy2]

Do you have a build thread for the light? I like the fact that you dont have a canopy im looking to do soemthing similar with MH (farther away fromthe water of course) if you dotn have a buildthread show us what pics you have of the light construction

[just dave]

One of the most interesting build threads I've seen.

Very nice and very unique.

Two things.

First is you should have made the tank the size you wanted and told her it was smaller.

Second , who has the link to the 510 build thread?

[jnarowe]

Originally posted by just dave
First is you should have made the tank the size you wanted and told her it was smaller.

That's good stuff.

[liveforphysics]

andbigdaddy2- No need to get the MH up high off the water if you design things correctly. My current version sits the 4x MH bulbs just a few inches above the water.

They are 70w DE 20k bulbs driven by electronic ballasts. A 70w bulb a few inches off the surface of the water a whole lot more light actaully make it into the tank than a higher power bulb at a higher distance above the tank. The fixtues and reflectors are made from buying 4 quality reflector design 500w incan flood light fixtures, modding the sockets, harvesting the reflectors and mounting the bottom side of the T5 reflectors. I will try to dig up a picture for you. There are also 120W of blue LEDs thermal epoxyed to the bottom of the T5 reflectors. They don't really do much when the other lights are on, but they make a very nice actinic light for just relaxing at night watching the tank. The LED's make neat actinic shimmer lines, and the very high surface intensity enables very good penatration.

Just Dave- You are absolutely correct. I should have made it 6'x4', or even 7'x5' and just told her it was the size we agreed on. She never would have measured it.

Thank you for asking about the 510. Here is the link to the gallery of the datsun of terror build. Far more work went into this car than I put into the tank. It eats Evo's and craps Sti's.
http://www.ejlin.com/gallery/view_al...umName=album16

[liveforphysics]

Ok, here is a picture to the new tank lighting.

12x 54w T5HO
4x 70w 20k MH (actinic supliment)
460nm 53lumen CREE XR-E LED's for fun lights. (not on in the photo).

The MH's are totally splash proof, and the front sealed UV absorbing glass sits about 2" off the water.



Sorry the photo is so crappy. My cell phone does the best it can with an image sensor the size of a pinhead.

Best Wishes,
-Luke

[liveforphysics]

Also, the floppy wires you see there have been all mounted. I snapped that picture when I had just made them light for the first time and hadn't finished yet.

I will be changing the LED lighting around on the tank, and getting my hands on a 100 pack of the new CREE Q5 LED's. Each CREE Q5 is able to produce aproximately 5 times the light of the LED's used in the solaris... It is the first white LED to exceed 100lumens/watt. You could actually use them to make your own solaris unit that was just a single hanging strip rather than a 5 wide thing. They would draw about 1/3rd of the power of the solaris to make the same amout of light.

The downside is that high power white LED's make light in nearly entirely useless spectrum to corals (this is why most everything slowly withers and dies under the solaris) and plants. There are LED's made which can produce light around 420nm and 670nm (the light that chloroA needs), but they are so poor at making light that you are much better off to stick with T5HO.

I'm going to be mounting some very high power 670nm LEDs under the tank to use for night viewing of animals, as most all marine animals are entirely blind to this spectrum, yet our eyes can still see things OK under it.

[drauka99]

nice build dude.
I love it that your MH have been moved over to acentic rather than main lighting

[jnarowe]

Love that design Luke. Perfect for a tank like yours.

[kodyboy]

very nice The plumbing job just frightens me by looking at it
The IR pics are cool, makes me feel like a "Predator"......
Nice job.

[MrWizardno2]

Luke, you are a DIY master. I love the VFD pump idea. Now for some new pics of the lights actually ON the tank :-)

[wmfsoll2]

Great Set-up! Some cool innovative ideas. Looking forward to following your progress. Keep it up.

Bill.

[juliovideo]

Originally posted by liveforphysics


I had played with eductor nozzles before, and found them to be an absolute no brainer requirement for any large reef. This actually isn’t even all of them… I think 4 were still sitting in the tank when I took this shot…
[/B]

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Hi ...........where did you buy your eductor ?




thanks !!!!!!




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[liveforphysics]

I appreciate all the kind words.

I have so many things to update, I think I should make a new thread.

Juliovideo- I bought them from DT's aquarium online store. I think I paid $24-25/eductor. Money well spent.

Best Wishes,
-Luke

[melev]

Luke, we're already subscribed to this one. Update away.

[JCTewks]

agreed with marc...keep it in this thread so we don't have to find the new thread and subscribe to it

[juliovideo]

Originally posted by liveforphysics
I appreciate all the kind words.

I have so many things to update, I think I should make a new thread.

Juliovideo- I bought them from DT's aquarium online store. I think I paid $24-25/eductor. Money well spent.

Best Wishes,
-Luke

Thank you !!!!!




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[Discustopia]

I've just bought a VFD with ramping ability but I'd like to know about the Timer you run on it. This is the only problem bothering me.

Where is is from? - if it's DIY can you post plans?

Also:
Noise, does it squeal or whine?
is your VFD PWM based ?

My controller is a Eurodrive/WEG Easydrive 10. Made in 2006
• (V/F) Control• IP20 safe enclosure• Single-phase 200-240 input voltage• 150% current overload capacity• DSP controlled PWM output• 2.5 - 15 kHz adjustable switching frequency• Four isolated programmable digital inputs• Programmable relay output
• One isolated programmable analog input
• Control features: Linear and “S” ramp acceleration and
deceleration, local/remote control, DC braking, torque
boost, motor slip compensation, electronic pot, preset speeds, maximum and minimum adjustable frequency
limits, adjustable output current limit, JOG.

Great price too only $51+12ship on ebay for the drive and $39+$35ship for baldor 3 phase. All in: $325 including a refurb Baldor Dart pump.

[liveforphysics]

I haven't made any DIY plans for it. I will take a couple pics of the little digital timer I use and post them online for you.

Amazing prices on your stuff! You know, you can actually just buy the pump heads bare directly from sequence. I bought 3 spare baracuda pump heads just to have extras around to experiment, but the first attempt works so well I haven't seen the need to change anything around yet.

If you just buy a bare pump head, it only costs something like $45 for houseing, impeller, seals, and bolts. This would have cut your costs for a VFD controlled pump down LOWER than just buying a regular sequence pump! Outstanding!!! Please share the link where you sourced the motor and VFD for such great prices!

Best Wishes,
-Luke

[Discustopia]

Thanks,
Actually,
I already owned 3 Dart pumps. Ordering direct from Sequence cost me $100 in UPS charges. Next time I'll get a friend in the US to order.

Pump motors do not come in 1/8HP and 3 phase at the same time. So what I have to do is pull the core from my Dart and rebuild it into the 3 phase housing. Easier solution would be stick with the barracuda.

VFD was from Ebay - search for VFD and then look at the listings within the VFD catagory. Be carefull not to buy an old unit just to get a cheap price. Mine was Ebay Item number: 330172592658
3 phase motor was: 110137990171

I love a great deal, but I hate junk. I am always on the lookout for quality

[Raynman]

Incredible build! I have been lurking for years,........ this thread drove me to register just to say, fine job!. I am so driven by your DIY, and intuitive ideas. I only wonder about the longterm strength of glass against bowing, I know you have done your homework, will it withstand the test of time? I am looking to replicate what you have done when our new house is built, plus adding a fish room. very nice............ Raynman