Jestersix

Islandcreation's 120 starphire tank

islandcreation

islandcreation

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I'm part of North Coast Reefers so I live in Santa Rosa which is far and away from all of you :-( But I wanted to post a tank journal so people can give me their opinions on making the tank that much better.

So I have a 120 starphire which is plumbed to the garage. From there I have a 55 gallon sump and a 75 refugium/frag tank.

Lighting: I had lumebrights with SE 250 watt radiums and two 110 super acitinic VHOs. Until I make a hood to give atleast 16 inches of space between water surface and fixture I won't put them on. So right now I have ushio DE's and the VHO's.

Skimmer: G3 but need to upgrade

Water flow: Two seaswirls coming from my iwaki 40RXLT with 2 koralia 3's and 2 seio 650's. (Waiting for nano wavemaker from tunze coming in Dec).

Head unit: Reefkeeper 2

With the radiums

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With the DE ushio's

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What I'm obsessed with now are watermelon chalices and monti's :)
 
[quote author=saltwatersig link=topic=4292.msg51960#msg51960 date=1218508689]
looking real good
[/quote]

Thanks

[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=4292.msg51961#msg51961 date=1218509591]
Nice, looks like someone when LPS crazy :D

[/quote]

Ha,ha,ha I did and had these colonies for over a year to 2 years now. Since their exporting more and more I kind of got sick of seeing them every where. So I'm headed to watermelon chalices (echinos/chalices) and monti's now. I wished I could have posted frags of my acans and chalices before heading to the swap. We spent the night at a relatives so it was a no go, so I paid.
 
[quote author=Dyngoe link=topic=4292.msg51976#msg51976 date=1218511596]
I have a 55 gallon sump and a 75 refugium/frag tank.
Click to expand...

You combined your fuge and frag tank? Don't they require very different water flows?
[/quote]

Ha,ha,ha I knew someone would asked that. I only have palys/zoas/acans as frags plus I have my loc line nozzles pointed in diffrent directions to get the right flow. Its been doing great so far, never tried it before but so far so good (3 months so far). I would want to add a frag tank too but its a little too much with what I have already, atleast for me :)

[quote author=patchin link=topic=4292.msg51983#msg51983 date=1218511891]
Awesome Acans
[/quote]

Thanks, I plan on making more frags since more heads are developing for the next frag swap. So either the northcoastreefers swap or the BAR swap.
 
[quote author=bluenassarius link=topic=4292.msg51991#msg51991 date=1218513371]
looking good man. where did you get that center piece liverock? it's very nice
[/quote]

I got it from the previous owner of the tank. That same day I was at aquarium concepts and they had a similiar piece which I wanted to get. I was glad I didn't since this piece came with the tank. Usually when you hear live rock included I never picture a tabling live rock. I guess I got really lucky!
 
So I was bored and finally got the energy to create a hood for my lumenbrights. I had these on my tank sitting only 4 inches away from the water surface. Under the lumenbrights were Radiums which I have no experience with, so I burnt all my corals. I went away from that setup until I could create a new hood for them. So I went back to pendants running 250 watt phoenix's.

I began creating the specs of the hood based on this article.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-06/review/index.php

I was more than excitied seeing the efficacy of these reflectors. So I ended up creating the hood to have the reflectors sit 16 inches away from the waters surface. The hood was 24 inches high after everything was said and done! I wasn't too happy with the gigantic piece sitting on top of the tank. At the same time I had to create a new aluminum structure for the reflectors too.

If anyone's intersted in pendants with 250 watt 20k phoenix bulbs that are 6 months old email me.
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And here's the giant.

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I'm not really happy with the hood's size! If anyone can give suggestions please do. I was going to cut the hood in half and create a smaller fixture and suspend it with cables. But I'm not experience to hanging heavier objects from the ceiling nor am I comfortable doing it (atleast myself doing, if someone experieced can then I'd be more comfortable. Last thing I need is the whole fixture slaming in the tank.). My other option (but not very clean) is to create a metal structure just like they have on frag tanks that suspend the pendants. I'm all out of ideas now. Again, I want the reflectors sitting 16 inches above the water surface.

***I wanted to just create the structure to get a feel on how the hood would look. So I didn't really plan on the front panel nor trims just incase I scrapped this idea.***

Since I was in a creative mood I went down to tap plastic to get some plexi cut to make a sock holder for my sump. This is my helper Bailey who was happy steal any zip ties that fell and run off with them. Just waiting for my top diameter piece where the sock will fit in.

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I also found a custom made frag holder in the sample bin, $5.00 ha,ha,ha

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I can't stress the diffrence in how my corals look! I can't wait a week from now. There are colors poping out that I never saw before and better polyp extension.

Some corals pics.

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I see what you mean, that canopy is huge... but by looking at you tank, no one will notice it once they look inside that awsome tank!
 
[quote author=xinumaster link=topic=4292.msg53533#msg53533 date=1219600381]
Wowwww! :eek: Your tank is an acan heaven.
[/quote]

One of the first corals to be affected by the strong light (when the lumenbrights & radiums were 4 inches away from the water surface) were my acans. So I immediately switched to the phoenix, I wasn't trying to risk all those colonies. So I'm hoping with the extra 12 inches they like it much better. Thanks


[quote author=LeviT link=topic=4292.msg53545#msg53545 date=1219612093]
I see what you mean, that canopy is huge... but by looking at you tank, no one will notice it once they look inside that awsome tank!
[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words. The hood is a monster. So I'm hoping someone can give me a great solution. Otherwise I'll just stick this.
 
I like that metal frame for the lights.

How about getting a 4' long piece of sheetmetal and bending it into a curve to fit your lights? Make a couple holes for the lumenbrights. Suspend the whole thing with a couple inverted L pieces.

I'll probably do something like that when I set up my 120.
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=4292.msg53552#msg53552 date=1219615965]
I like that metal frame for the lights.

How about getting a 4' long piece of sheetmetal and bending it into a curve to fit your lights? Make a couple holes for the lumenbrights. Suspend the whole thing with a couple inverted L pieces.

I'll probably do something like that when I set up my 120.
[/quote]

Thats a great idea. If were on the same line of thinking how were you going to hold up the whole fixture? Meaning were the cables be hooked on to the sheet metal? If so how were the lumenbrights suppose to be fixed on to the sheet metal? I thought you were saying to cut holes in the sheet metal to allow the lumenbrights to be half exposed. This would allow the lumenbrights to be holding up the sheet metal and just hooking the cables up top of the lumenbrights.

If that were the case I'd have to get the metal shell that surounds these lumenbright cause its way to flimsy. Oh yeah, those shells run another $120-$135 per reflector :(

You got me thinking about the inverted L pieces. Is it hard to weld steel? Can anyone just do it? I think I'm pretty good at DIY for the most part. If I go that route I'd like to design a stand and just get it black powder coated. Thanks for the idea.
 
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