Oh, the things we reef heads do [updated]

[eleyan]

Well, I was running out of places to put more tanks in the house. There was this prime real estate in front of the fire place that we never used, but the ledge in front of it was not large enough for anything more than the 46G BF I had there. So I did the only logical thing to do (at least in my mind it was logical) I KNOCKED IT OUT. It took me three days to finish the project, but now I can accomodate any tank up to a 8'x2.5' footprint. I'm thinking of a 175FB ( I wish they made larger bows) . Here are the pictures showing the whole project.

[::pete::]

I see its a good thing you you didnt put that other tank there!! ;)

[eleyan]

I reached the max attachment quota, so I had to replace one of the progress photos with the after photo. how do I delete old attachments to reduce quota?

[::pete::]

Click on your name and there will be an user attachmnet control panel there.

[eleyan]

thanks

[scuba_steveo]

what goes IN the fireplace? A fuge?

[eleyan]

the metal halid ballasts. or the top off water container

[eleyan]

Well. I finally broke down and bought a new 175 bowfront. I also got a 55G acrylic tank that I split up to 3 chambers: 2 fuge chambers and one sump. I drilled one 1" hole for the iwaki 30 I got (1200GPH). I'm still debating wether or not to hook up the second iwaki 20 ( about 700-800GPH). I don't know if the sump can handle that much flow, and I don't know how much heat it will give off. any suggestions?
I alos got three 250W MHs that will go there. That's my next project once I have the filtrations hooked up and the tank filled up with water.

[::pete::]

Where in the heck did you get that clown ... its huge!!

[Henry]

Good looking sump, trying to figure it out. and great looking clown, looks healthy.

[Henry]

Oh, I almost forgot. You shouldn't have a problem with heat with the two iwaki pumps, but i would put the 30 on a closed loop and the 20 on the return. I a have a 40rlxt on my tank a 180 with a 55gal sump and I am thinking of moving down to a 20.

[eleyan]

Hery, The sump/fuge has 2 returns, the one on the right goes directly into the filter pad, the one on the left is split into a 1" pipe that goes into the filter pad as well, and two 1/2" pipes with valves. One is for the fuge, and the other is for the UV sterilizer. That way I don't need extra pumps for them.

[JeffCo]

Congrats on the new tank! I would only hook up the one pump for now and monitor the flow. Then use the other for other equipment you may add such as kalk reactor etc, or a closed loop.

So, 1 pump you are using for the tank return and the UV? Is the UV line going back into the tank or back into the sump?

[eleyan]

The one pump is only for tank return. The UV sterelizer and fuge are tapped from the overflow retrun, so they will not effect the pump flow rate. I also ended up spliting each of the 2 returns inside the tank using PCV "T"s and having the main nozzels for each return at the surface level, and then having a deeper nozzel (about 24" deep in the tank" so I can have better water circulation behind the rocks). Here is a diagram of how it should look

[seamonkey2]

excellent idea, use the returning pressure for a gravity fed UV...hmmmm,, I wonder what else can I use in the same lines...

[eleyan]

I ended up using both Iwaki pumps. I used the 20 directly, but the 30 I split it and used part of it for the fuge and UV sterilizer. It turned out the gravity fed solution did not give enough flow.
I also put togather the frame for the metal halides. This will be covered by the canopie. I'm using 2 20k XMs and 1 10k Ushio in the center.

[NaCl_H2O]

Nice setup & interesting config to deal with lighting on a bowfront. Those fans are pretty close to the water surface, you might find yourself fighting saltcreep on the fans.

What type of ballasts are you using? The 10K Ushio might not work well if using standard magnetic ballasts.

I guess the large clown and that other odd looking fish didn't make it ;)

[eleyan]

I have 2 Ice caps 250 fiering the 20 xms and a hamilton magnetic 250 firing the Ushio. I might use one of the icecaps for the Ushio if it becomes a problem. The hamilton looks like its fiering it fine though, what should I be looking for to determine if the ballast is not working right for it?
the clown and other fish are all still in my 135G. I still wanted to give the water another week or so to clear up before I start moving things around.

[NaCl_H2O]

From my experience, as Ushio bulbs "break in" they will no longer start on probe type ballasts and need a pulse start ballast to fire. You will know cuz they just won't come on :( I am now using Hamilton 10Ks with my magnetic probe ballasts and they seem to be working fine.

I was talking about that big 2 foot long clown and funny looking two-legged creature in the pic above ;)

[eleyan]

Oh.. those two. I moved them to another room :)
Actually, this Ushio bulb is old (curtesy of Ed), and its fiering fine. I guess that means the ballast work fine with it.

[NaCl_H2O]

According to customer service folks at Premium Aquatics they are seeing more problems of late with newer Ushio mogul bulbs on probe start ballasts. They have worked for years with standard probe start magnetic ballasts, but now they are recomending Pulse start ballasts for the Ushios :angry

[mathias]

I love that blue hue on the 20xm's

[eleyan]

Well, the water is finally clearing up. Today I ran all pumps and lights for the heat test. The hottest it got was 78 deg with 3 x 250 MH running for 10 hours + 55W pc for the fuge + 2 Iwaki return pumps + 1 Mag5 for the skimmer. Even cooler than my 72G tank. I guess the Iwakis do run cool and the two big fans didn't hurt either :) I have some amonia because of stuff dieng off in the live sand I got from Greg (reef360). I had to keep it in a rubbermaid container with a power head for a couple of days as I was filling up the tank. By the time I put it in there, it stunk up the house really bad for a day or two. My skimmer was pulling out some really bad stuff. But its finally clearring up now, and I see some worms in the sand, so not all of it died off. I'll give it another week or two to stabalize before I start moving stuff from my 135G.

[gjuarez]

It looks like it is going to be a very nice setup. Congratulations. I like the blue hue of the lighting like mentioned before.

[brewercm]

I don't know which hamilton ballast you are using, but if it's the standard magnetic their site states they will work with any "non HQI" bulb. I had these ballasts before and was running radiums off of them just fine.

[eleyan]

Yeah, its the standard magnetic in the back metal box. It looks like its working fine. It flickers a couple of times when it first fires, but then runs with o problems for the rest of the day.

[eleyan]

Well, I finally have all my live stock and liverock moved from the two old tanks and the 175G is up and running. Here are some photos:
https://webspace.utexas.edu/eleyan/tank/index.html

[hobogato]

nice! 8)