djprofd's BC 14

[djprofd]

My tank has been set up for roughly six months. I started with cured/alive live rock and sand, so i didn't experience too serious a cycle.

Just finished my LED retro this week. Uber pimp.

 

Thanks big big, to Evilc, Waterproof, Chris, and all you other pioneers.

 

On to the tank.

Probably 10-13 lbs of live rock in there, and roughly 10 lbs of sand.

At present the livestock list includes:

 

Corals -

Frogspawn

Ricordia

Acans

Trumpet coral

Assorted mushrooms

Assorted Zoa's and Paly's (a couple kinda fancy ones)

? Horn Coral ?

Rodactis mushrooms

Candy cane frag

Maze brain

GSP

 

Fish -

Onyx Clown

Red Line Wrasse

 

Inverts -

Some hermits

Nassarius, turbos and some other snails i cannot name

Brittle Stars

Huge amphipods !!! i saw one just last night i would swear approached 1/2 an inch!

Xanthid Crab RIP mo fo

 

I used to have an awesome Bubble Coral (see avatar) but it started to look bad so i put it in my girl's tank where it continues to suck. My Coris Wrasse disappeared mysteriously one day, miss that dude.

Had a nice torch that died for no apparent reason. Maybe it fell over too many times.

 

Before I set up my cube (bought used), I cut the tab between chambers 1and 2, gutted both chambers, added some racks, built a cool fuge light, and switched from a mj 600 that came with the tank to an mj 900 utility. I tried an MJ 1200, but it gets warm sometimes in Tejas and that proved to be a bad idea.

Also has the ubiquitous Hydor flo doohicky.

 

I run chemi pure/elite and purigen, do roughly 30% water changes every 7 and sometimes up to 14 days. The fuge runs during the day along with the other lights b/c i'm a very light sleeper.

 

The moment I saw waterproof's LED thread, I knew I was in for a project.

Copped LEDs and Meanwell drivers (for my girl's tank) from his group buy, heatsink from heatsinkusa, buckpucks from LED Supply, and other stuff from a bunch of places.

Probably spent in the neighborhood of $300.

 

Totally worth it. My tanks looks amazing!, specially with just blues. Plus the ability to dial in any desired color intensity is fricken rad.

 

I know, i know ... pitures!!!

 

Before (about 3-4 months ago)

 

 

After (11/26/09) These pics in no way do the colors justice.

 

Probably at about 25% here.

 

100% power blues (just for this shot)

 

 

I wish I knew how to take better pictures. The color is pretty wild, the shimmer however might f you up if your an epileptic. WOwza

 

I'm running both channels (whites and blues) at roughly 25% right now. I'm planning on increasing that level just a touch every day or two until i reach 60 - 75%.

If there is a better way, please feel free to let me know.

[latteslave]

Your tank looks great! I really like the rockscape! You should post some pics of your LED upgrade.

[djprofd]

Here's a decent look at the guts. I soldered and shrinked wherever I could, and used wire nuts on soldered wires wherever i wanted to be able to remove a component(s) easily. Fried one of the stock moonlights messing around, however the other is mounted in the lower corner.

 

 

I used an 80 mm Silenex Fan, and a stock biocube one, wired in parallel to a 12 V power supply from the fans on a MH unit. I put the potentiometers right above the biocube switches and wired said switches to the power supplies for the LEDs. All remains cool to the touch.

 

I wanted to be able to unplug the hood quickly, so I added dc connectors to all power cords similar to the biocube moonlight wiring. In this pic, the jack closest to the hood is the fans, the next one is for the moonlight, and the other two are blues and whites, obviously.

 

 

Here's a shot of the top of the hood. You can see the fan through the holes, mounted blowing in as per recommendation. My old lady "cleaned up" the mounting hardware, so I puttied the corners then layed a tiny bead of silicone all around the fan.

The pot posts look mucho mas baller with the knobs on.

 

 

The LEDs in all their glory.

 

[asting]

solid wiring skills. I love to see a nicely done DIY.

[djprofd]

Here's my fuge light. I really like this 4 x 1watt LED one i saw at the Dome (an LFS), but i can't bring myself to scrap this one. Lot of effort in this little dude, and a $10 mini fan.

 

 

here's a current fts w/ flash. it shows the color a little better, but it's still pretty whacked out.

 

 

 

suggestions?

 

I found a couple more pics from the build, but they're just like ... shots my lady took of me drilling and tapping (lol)

nothing too interesting.

 

d.

 

Your tank looks great! I really like the rockscape! You should post some pics of your LED upgrade.

 

.

thanks holmes! my rockscape bugs me sometimes, other days i love it.

 

 

solid wiring skills. I love to see a nicely done DIY.

 

 

wow, thanks! a lot of those alleged skills were picked up in this project. a good iron was essential.

[djprofd]

new coral pics:

 

biggest acan colonies

 

 

rainbow acan ... if i lower my head a little when looking at my laptop, this pic gets the color pretty good, except with a little more green at the bottom of the polyp

 

 

some zoa's

 

 

upper right of tank, royal blues only

 

 

wish i could get good shots of the corals under the LEDs

[djprofd]

This morning I noticed that my coralline is bleached out on my hydorflo and a couple spots on my back wall. not sure if that's LED related or what. could it be a calcium defiency?

 

d.

[djprofd]

Lots of new coralline growth today. Wonder why it suddenly bleached like that.