jpellica

AKA Fraghunter
Location
Staten Island
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Dream Tank 2.0 Part 2
This would probably be a good time to talk about the very important and controversial topic of lighting. I know many people have many different opinions on what is the best lighting. LED?s vs T5 or old school guys love their MH?s. For me I have had most of the different options available, some cheap some super expensive and always found myself saying something is missing. So I decided to go with 20 incandescent 3 Watt bulbs and a commercial HVAC system to keep them cool. See pics below.
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JUST KIDDING
I took cost, spectrum and coverage and resell value(in case I hate the look or don?t get the growth I want) all into consideration, and I?m sure I will hear everyone?s opinion on why I should or should not have went with my decision, but without further a dew. I decided to go with 2 AI Vegas with wireless controller and 1 ATI 36? 4bulb unit behind it. Now check out the pictures for real.
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So above are the AI Vega?s and controller I need the firmware upgrade right out of the box and so far I gotta say I pretty impressed. The only thing I don?t like so far is that to use the new hanging bar it will cost $50 bucks the down side is that even though I had a AI hanging kit I they suggested I get the new hanging kit for another 40 bucks because the old one doesn?t fit correctly any longer. Quick conversation with Richie and a visual look and we were able to mod the old hanging kit to work with a couple of screws from HD. Just in case anyone is interested is a 10MM X 32 X ? inch.
Also got the 36? ATI delivered and un packed Check it out
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OK so now I see what this fixture costs so much the aluminum housing is definitely German stainless steel and not the cheap Chinese crap, Fixture is very well built. What I don?t like about the unit is that the fan is on a different adapter which takes yet another outlet, but that?s not the worst part. The worst part is that you need a timer on the fan as well because the fan is not smart enough to shutdown when the lights go off. Bulbs I will use will be what IT shipped with 2 actinic blue and 2 Purple plus. I may eventually swap one or 2 out for coral plus and a 6500K we will see.
Anyway got the lights configured and set up above the tank, as usual with a little help from my friends, OK maybe a lot of help from my friends.LOL
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OK next step I think I will document the whole rock process and scape. Stay tuned coming soon.
 

turbotone

Experienced Reefer
Location
Manhattan
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this build is looking real good! just tagging along and doing as much research as possible..
your documentation is appreciated! lol no really it is though... planning on doing a 120 upgrade as we speak but the 200 gallon is a dream...
 

jpellica

AKA Fraghunter
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
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So when we were at the reef swap I saw they were raffling off 50lbs of Marco rock that I had to have. Bought some tickets and put it all in that bucket. Didn?t win missed by a few numbers, but wait turns out that my good buddy won and turned around and said here you go take the ticket and go get your rock. You know who you are, thanks and thanks again it was huge as you will see soon.
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Also while at the swap they had a seminar or aqua scaping and coral arrangements. It was an excellent seminar which gave me the great idea to build columns using PVC, so off I went.
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Got the rock home and put it all in a bucket with RO water brought the PH up to 8.0. I did this because from what I read the materials they use have a lot of calcium based material which will start to dissolve if soaked in Fresh RO water which would be 6.8 ? 7.2 or so. I added a couple of power heads and a heater. Let it run for a couple of days at which point I checked the phosphate levels. Lokkie Lookie .
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As suspected from reading millions of threads on people buying man made rocks and having huge issues with hair algae and other undesirable stuff. I hit the boards and found what I thought was the quickest, easiest and best for solution for ME. Maybe not for you but for ME. Also bought a bunch of extra and thinking about dosing it as well. I used Lanthanum Chloride.
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Within a few days Phosphates were undetectable and I went back to flush with fresh RO with PH adjusted to 8.0 for 3 more days.
Now it was time to build the column structure and get to drilling. If I had to do 1 thing over I don?t think I would have let the Marco Rock dry out or if I did I should have re-soaked them for a few hours. I just ran the house over the rock while drilling. I think the Marco Rock is too brittle to do this way. I cracked a few key pieces while doing it this way. But nothing I couldn?t fix.
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jpellica

AKA Fraghunter
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
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Mission accomplished. Time to get the rock in the tank, so the last tank I had I did my landscape every month or so I would rip it back apart and redo it, so this time it was time to enlist the help of someone who has a keen eye and actually willing to lend a hand. JonnyJ to the rescue he was more than willing to jump right in and get his hands dirty and wet. I also got Richie K. and Mark Lugo involved to give different prospective.
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This scape has changed at least another 5 times since taking these pictures just a couple of days ago. My phone went dead so I missed a few pictures hoping JohnnyJ or Richie K. have some.
 

turbotone

Experienced Reefer
Location
Manhattan
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nice!!!! as far as me upgrading im gonna have to live my dream off your setup for a while lol because i plan on moving in about a year and cant go much bigger then that.. i think im over doing it but hope its not that bad of a move when it comes down to it.. how many pounds of rock are you planning to use? how many inches of sand are you going in your DT? what kind of sand are you using?
 

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