Hop's 800 gallon rebirth

[Enderrea]

jonathan is a hoot! if you think he is funny in the thread, he's funnier in person....... thats not counting his looks ether BAAAHAAAHAAA

[Hop]

up until today the only pic I had seen of him was with the Reef Central thong on his head

Great guy, I could have spent days just shooting the proverbial fertilizer with him. On the plus side, I think that with his help, I finally decided on lighting for the tank Unfortunately he had to leave pretty early, but it was few hours well spent!

[Hop]

I finished up caulking the lower seams tonight. The room should now hold water But I'm hoping on not testing that theory! Still have a couple seems to caulk on the upper portion, but I'm using a different caulk for that. Then I'll place a adhesive seem. similar to weather stripping over each joint.

Spent tonight getting the RO/DI and cabinet mounted again. I also mounted a fire extinguisher, although I hope that I never need to use that either! I'll get the cabinet paint touched up tomorrow along with the wood I used to mount the RO/DI. After I get that done it will be time to start building the support structure and this room should start to take shape

[Cuby2k]

Nice work Hop, I love the wall panels. Great solution for a nasty problem. I'm keeping track from the background here and glad to see the progress.

[melev]

Looks nice and clean like a hospital room.

[maxxII]

Looks good Hop! Hope the leg is okay...

Nick

[Hop]

Cuby2k: Thanks. It's definitely going to go in surges, with long pauses of nothing. After this phase is complete, it will likely slow down. Next up will likely be the plumbing, then building of the sumps and holding vessels. Then there will likely be a long pause while the equipment is purchased. At some point I'll get the construction above the tank done.

melev: Yeah, but I'll tell you that I was planning supplemental lighting in the tank room, over the sink etc, but the light reflects so well I'm not certain I'm going to need any

maxxII: Thanks, we'll see on the knee. It's more of a stability issue and a place where in binds. So after I make it to the orthopedic surgeon, I'll know more.


I asked this question in the lighting thread, but so far I have yet to really get the question answered. I've been plugging bulb and ballast combos in Sanjay’s site, but what I have yet to find is; What is the minimum par recommendation to grow SPS at a depth of 30"? Any one have any ideas? Would 90, 100, 110 be a good range to shoot for? Obviously more is better, but what is the minimum.

I'm trying to shoot for having VHOs come on for about an hour, MH come on one at a time and the VHOs go off. The MH runs for 6-9 hours and then the VHO comes back on as the MH shut off. Then I would run the VHO for the remainder of the period until they shut off. So I've been trying to find a bulb/ballast combo I like that has the par and color for the low-lying SPS without supplemental lighting

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[maxxII]

Hop, I dont have a hard fast number for you....
Ive seen tanks that deep lit only by VHO's and they are growing SPS, clams, anemone's and lots of other stony corals...but he's using about 6 kabillion VHO's and they're mounted pretty much on the water's surface.

I've seen photo's of SPS that were grown using only NO flourescents, and they look healthy.

Personally, I like the look of the 10K bulbs. The 14K's are great too and if I were running De bulbs again, I would definately go with Phoenix 14K's. They are alleged by everyone who has used them to have close to the PAR value of AB10K's, and the look of the Hamilton 14K's.

You can acros with all kinds of lights, but the growth rate will be tied to how intense the light is...

Basically, what I'm saying is....you're gonna get growth no matter what MH bulbs you use. How much is tied to the PAR value you go with. For a baseline comparison, check out the PAR values on the XM10K and the Iwasaki 6500. Those two bulbs have the highest PAR values of any of the 250 watt bulb choices. Remember, Sanjay's site information is based on bulb only, w/o reflector, and w/o safety UV glass in the case of the DE's....(unless his site says other wise). So adding a reflector will increase PAR values, adding glass will decrease PAR values...

Nick

[Hop]

Thanks for the reply Max. You know before I was running XM 10K 175 watt MH. The color after about 2 months turned more yellow than I liked, even with actinic supplementation. In addition the par was only about 62 and even lower light corals didn't seem to like the lower portion of the tank.

I like the looks of the Pheonix 250 watt 14Ks, but with a par of about 88, I worry whether that would be enough for good or even moderate growth at 30ish inches. Then the 400 watt 14K Hammys running an Icecap ballast is even lower than that with a par of 80, but I can overdrive them with an HQI ballast and touch a par of about 140, but then the cost of replacing bulbs could really negate the idea of cost savings over the previous set up. Plus, the color of the 14Ks may only touch the spectrum I envision and might need the additional supplementation during the entire lighting period to give the corals the pop I envision.

Finally I leaned toward 20K bulbs, which I could run on an icecap ballast and hover in the 90-100 par range, or over drive them with an HQI ballast and hit the 110-130 range depending upon the bulb.

So this is why I have such a huge friggin headache I want decent growth at all levels, with the corals really popping

[melev]

Maybe you can figure out what my lighting equals, since my tank is 30" tall. I know I've never gone to the trouble you have.

[Hop]

Melev: Honestly I like the looks of your tank. Your lighting has been thought about a lot. So far the only other tank I like more is a 8' tank with 4 250 watt Pheonix 14Ks over it. The owner of that tank said he only wishes he could slap one more over the top

Even with that said, it's sometimes, or most of the time, hard to really depict the true color over the net. The other thing I keep asking myself is; If Melev, Weast and others could do it all over again, would they change anything? If Melev could get more par, would he? Maybe I'm being over critical, but this is one area I don't want to miss on

[Hop]

Figures I added one image too many to my post and lost the friggin novel I typed I'll try to remember everything I typed before...

Let's see what did I type...

The project for the day took way longer than I thought and only got the first level of the support structure built. To top it off, the flush cut or laminate trimming bit lost part of it's bearing while I was cutting and caused some cosmetic blemishes that I'll have to repair first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, the bearing still rolled smoothly and I didn't notice the malfunction until it was too late

Before I get on to the pics, when jnarowe was over yesterday the topic of the size of the wetroom came up. It is a small wetroom and when I began brainstorming for the new build, it was discussed with the wife and seriously considered to build or purchase a premade building to put on the side of the house, directly behind the tank to house all the equipment. The cost of the building aside, we elected not to for the simple reason of the added cost to heat, cool and vent a large amount of square footage. The current wetroom is small (10'X5" with a 9' ceiling), however, I have one of those "need to eat fatty foods and ice cream guys" to have a half way normal build So maneuvering around in the wetroom isn't all that bad. So far the only hangup on the size of the wetroom is getting a 4'X8" sheet of wood into it

So one with todays work. First up was to build the structure. This was a total pain due to the "step" created along the wall from the houses foundation. After a little tinkering (OK a lot of tinkering and thought) I got the framing done. Sorry this first pic is blurry, but it's the only one I took:


Next up was the subfloor:


Then I was able to get the laminate glued on and trimmed. This is where you can see the cosmetic blem from the router bit. First thing tomorrow I'll rip that sheet off and replace it with new stuff

[Hop]

You can see on the inside corner of the structure that there is no laminate. This is where the laminated support beam will be located when the second level is added:


Last up is just a view toward the sink. I still have some trimming to do here, but after the router bit took a dump, I decided to pack it up for the night. When the second level is completed, it will butt up and make a sort of "undermount sink" so any water spilled on the work bench section can just be squeegeed off into the sink:


So that's about it for tonight. I'm hoping on getting the second level completed tomorrow. I got permission to go dumpster diving at a new subdivision close to here. I'm pretty sure by the looks of what there throwing away, I won't have to buy any additional lumber for this build

[Toddrtrex]

Hey hop, not sure if you still have 175 watt ballasts laying around, but.
I really love my Iwasaki 14k 175s. They have more par than a lot of 250s. I know the exact #s are on Sanjay's site.

Granted my tank is WAY smaller, but here is a shot of my 58 with those
lights. I run two, but in this shot the right one had just shot off for the night. I am also running 2 96 watt PC -- one blue the other actinic.

[Hop]

Thanks for the suggestion Toddrtrex: Looks like the numbers are pretty consistent with the 175 watt 10K XMs I was running. I like the looks of your tank!

[Toddrtrex]

Thanks, it taken a while to get that tank right.

I had the XMs before, and in person there is a huge difference, and the color doesn't seem to shift as much.

[melev]

That is a very pretty tank, Toddrtrex.

Hop, I really don't have any plans for anything different lighting-wise, except maybe to buy the more expensive reflectors. For me, electricity consumption is something I think about a lot, and adding another light bulb over my 6' tank seems unnecessary.

[tony13]

Sorry to hijack. Toddrtrex where did you get the Iwasaki 14k's from? I'm looking for a new lamp for the frag tank and they sound perfect. Thanks.

[hypermikie]

Tony, Premium Aquatics carries them!

[Toddrtrex]

Originally posted by hypermikie
Tony, Premium Aquatics carries them!

Exactly. That is where I've always gotten them from.

[Hop]

Crap... I've been so busy over the past few days, I just woke up, plugged around for a while and found out about Weast's tank That really is terrible.

Trying to decide whether I'm going to work on the tank or laundry today

[JGross4]

Tank! Tank! Tank!

[Hop]

Well after going to the closet this morning, my decision was made for me Hopefully I'll have some time to work on the tank this afternoon. It will give me time to relax and focus after the router bit episode yesterday

[Hop]

I got the workbench level of the structure built in a few hours. I'm going to relax a little and maybe clean up the shop a bit, but I'm spent for now. I''ve got to get to the lumber store for some parts, so this is a good stopping point before I start wrapping everything in laminate. And no, not all the supports are in yet

[melev]

It's looking good so far. That corner outlet looks very close to being in the way of the (coming soon) counter top.