FINALLY!!! - My 90 is set up!!

[jgoal55]

FINALLY my 90 is set up. sort of. It still has FW in it and I haven't organized the cables yet but for the most part, it's ready to go. I also still need to wire the rest of my lights which come in next week.

Since I'm dumb I realized just today that I had completely forgotten to measure my sump to see if the skimmer I bought would fit. The thing is a monster. Well, I finally got it in (that's what she said; sorry, I had too) and while it did fit, it was ridiculously tight so I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I can tell it's going to be a beast of a skimmer so I kinda wanna keep. Problem is I really don't have any fuge room at all.

One nice thing was finding the absolutely perfect top off container. A trash can at Publix of all places. It fit perfectly and holds about 11 gallons so not too shabby given the space I had.

The DJ strip is great too have. And the Vortech is ridiculous! It's insane how much water that thing pushes.

Sorry for the boring pics but they make me happy so here they are:
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[glxtrix]

Booooooooring pics! lol. Looking great man. What are u planning to have in the tank?

 

[seedless reefer]

To give your rock a firm base to lay on.

Looking good Jorge remember not to flood the hardwoods this time!

 

[william1]

Looking really nice. Your right that skimmer is huge under there. I have a 90 and the cabnet is reallty small. Cant wait to see some more pics...

 

[derek_s]

Reef Octopus = SWEET. It looks exactly like my MSX.

You can play around with the mesh mod and really get that thing cooking.

 

[ksauerb322]

Looks like a Extreme 200 skimmer. Welcome to the club! mine skims like crazy w/high bioload (24 fish and a golden dwarf moray) you won't be disappointed!

 

[jgoal55]

Thanks Guys. yup, the octopus is the 200ex. i probably should have gotten the 160ex but I guess that means I can put more **** in the tank now right?? lol. Got the skimmer from Reef specialty and the they were awesome to deal with.

Loren, good call. But no hardwoods to flood this time; just carpet and people under me.

Not sure what's worse?!?!? Luckily, I am done with the HOB overflows and the sump I got has a a lot of overflow space which I guess is good and bad. It's actually not a very well designed sump imo, so I don't recommend them but since it came with the tank, it's what i'm using. The return pump chamber is just unnecessarily big.

Barb, the eggcrate is for a firm base for the rocks and it also helps distribute the weight evenly across the whole bottom of the tank. So if you have one extremely heavy rock it doesn't put as much stress on one point of the glass. Cheap safety measure is all but also when critters start messing around in your sand.

Lee, I'm putting sand in the tank. lol. Really though, I'm not sure. I was thinking of putting a ton of nano fish in there, but the wife really wants some ick magnet tangs and they are beautiful but I saw a 190 the other day just loaded with nano fish and it looked awesome. As for corals, mixed for sure but I would finally like to try my hand at some nice SPS pieces eventually. I am going to lay out the rocks island style, one on the left, one on the right and maybe do softies on one (maybe with a nem) and stony's on the other. Also, would love to get a clam! If I could put a small Naso i'd love too but i dont think i have the room.

and ksauerb, thanks for the welcome But I have been here a while, I'm just not actually "here" in atlanta anymore. :sad:

 

[ksauerb322]

I meant the skimmer club ;p

 

[jgoal55]

aha...gotcha. thanks, glad to be a part of it. lol

 

[corigan]

Looking Great. Please keep us updated on your progress.

Matt

 

[jgoal55]

received my bulk reef supply dual chamber reactor, the rest of my lights, and my RO/DI system yesterday....yeah, Im excited. gonna take the weekend to set it all up. My wife is going to love me this Valentines day! Ill keep you guys posted on the progress.

 

[jgoal55]

alright, although Im not completely finished and its way passed my bedtime here is a shot of the wiring I got done so far. the two strips in the middle are current powerbrite strips (white). I am actually going to place those more to the outside and place two moonlights closer to center.

Unfortunately one of my 660's wasnt firing up right so I am going to have to wait a while before all my lights work. I tried the fuse and that didnt fix the problem. Switching ballasts did. :sad:

The second shot is just of the BRS reactor. The thing is really well built and I cant wait to set it up. more shots to come this weekend.

On another note, the T5 endcaps were snapping into the standoffs very well. They snapped in fine before I drilled them to the canopy so Im guessing that I may just need to get some rubber washers/ spacers. Has anybody experienced that here? I loosened the standoffs as much as I could but still no good snap.
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[acroholic]

Jorge,
Have you thought about using some reflectors with those T5s? Or at the least, painting he inside of the canopy white? You are losing out on a good bit of light without them.
Dave

 

[jgoal55]

whoops, good call Dave. I forgot to mention that. I actually have all the reflectors ready to be clipped on, just hadnt done it yet because I have to finish the wiring and placement of the powerbrites and the moonlights. Once the reflectors are in, they are so close together you cant even see the canopy.

to that point, do you guys think its a good idea to use a protective acrylic or something to protect the bulbs and reflectors from salt splash?

 

[mockery]

How tall is your canopy? I would only if you have alot of surface movement.

 

[acroholic]

Mockery;289949 wrote: How tall is your canopy? I would only if you have alot of surface movement.

+1

 

[glxtrix]

I mean, if you're going to use acrylic....which can be a good idea because it keeps the reflectors clean thus helping the bulbs perform better/longer....you may also want to think about "active cooling" that will really help boost the performance of the bulbs and not need to worry about PAR reduction due to the cover. not necessary but a neat little DIY project. At any rate though, you wont need it, I think you have a good amount of power there. It's coming along nice man, cant wait to see more!

 

[jgoal55]

considering Im throwing two vortechs in, I think ill have a good bit of surface movement. I love it since it'll cause a good bit of shimmer with the powerbrites.

And lee as for the active cooling, I guess thats more work than just adding two canopy fans huh? That was my orginal intent. Any good links to DIY Active cooling? Also, will using an acrylic sheet give me heat issues?

 

[glxtrix]

definitely have fans in there....but active cooling is the technology used by ati. I dont think they systems are overdriven either...the cooling system really helps push the bulbs to top performance. there is basically fans on top of the canopy that draw air out of the fixture....but there is a fan for each bulb and the bulbs almost have their own "channel" and at the ends there are slits from where the air is drawn in through. That way the incoming air has to travel along each bulb effectively cooling them and exiting at the top middle section of the channel. Maybe hard to understand, but take a look at their site. It's a bit of DIY work to a regular canopy and most likely not needed, but it's amazing technology! I know a few people who have done the same type of cooling with their current canopy.

 

[jgoal55]

alright so after very briefly considering your suggestion Lee, I decided that its been way too long since I had a tank of my own and that whole little project would delay me even more so instead I went with this. Maybe not as efficient, but given the size of the fans and the fact that the adapter I used puts 12v into them the amount of air the blow is ridiculous! I am going to mount them so one blows in and the other sucks out.

picked up all the stuff at my local radio shack. got put together in about 30 minutes. oh yeah, and they are very quiet at 9.5v and just quiet at 12v.
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