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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Sammy's 40B Build


sammy113

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Hi Guys! I'm in the process of building a new tank. I moved to a new apartment a few months back and one of the things I wanted was a bigger tank. Finally after buying all the apartment stuff I have started to buy new tank equipment. I wanted to build a bigger cube but now that I have my living room set like I want, I don't have space for a bigger cube. So my current tank is 17.5" x 17.5" footprint and the chiller is in the back. The tank is around 11" apart from the wall and I still have some room in the front that I could use without looking weird. A 40 breeder is 18" wide so is no big change and if I set it "peninsula" style I can use that lost space. I've never though of a 40 breeder to be use in this layout but that's what works for me right now. After all the short side will be facing were you stand now in front of my current tank so it will feel like looking the same but is long from the sides which is good cause at one side I have my loveseat and the other is open to the hall.

 

I started buying some stuff. Will use some equipment from the current tank. Enough talking lets go to the interesting part.

 

  • Equipment:
    AGA 40breeder tank
    DIY wooden stand (laminated)
    DIY Acrylic sump
    Super Reef Octopus XP1000 SSS Skimmer (already have)
    Vortech MP10 (already have)
    Biopellets reactor (already have)
    Water blaster pump 3000 (700GPH)
    JBJ Nano Arctica chiller (already have)
    36 LED lamp (upgrade from current)

 

  • Livestock:
    Mainly SPS. Will transfer everything from my tank, add more rock and obviously continue to fill up
    Zoas
    Acans
    Some frogspawn, torch or hammer here and there

 

Some diagrams of the proposed layout:

Livingroom

20110328174911_1m49s.jpg

 

20110328180255_1m44s.jpg

 

20110328175717_1m10s.jpg

 

The Tank

20110328223702_3m37s.jpg

 

20110328224456_47s.jpg

 

20110328225305_43s.jpg

 

In these drawings the door is removed. It will be a whole removable piece, not small doors. As you can see, the chiller is inside the stand since I can't afford to have more equipment out of that footprint. The stand has a false wall to separate and isolate heat produce by the chiller to affect the water. The short side that faces the wall will be open for ventilation and the hole you see in the back faces the side of the couch (it still leaves enough space for good ventilation) Will use some fans as well to remove air from the stand. The sump has 3 gallon water reservoir for ATO. What I still haven't figured out is how to hang the lamp. I bought a 24" heatsink that weight a ton. Don't know if a single EMT bent tube will hold from the back. I'd like to have a clean top so mounting legs will be the last option.

 

Comments, suggestions and thoughts are always welcome and very appreciated

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Here some changes in my lamp design. The other day I saw here in NR a guy (don't remember the name) who made an LED lamp kinda like a Aquailumination and I really loved how it turned out so it inspired me. I actually love how the AI lamps look. Very clean and simple. So I changed my design to be AI'sh look. Heres the design. I'm ready to start building my lamp. I already have a 24" heatsink, 36 LEDs 2:1 ratio and have the tank. Stand will be built anytime soon as I have a few other pending works that have priority:

 

lamp1.jpg

lamp2.jpg

lamp3.jpg

 

The LEDs will be now in a 3 group piece and will have a white acrylic cover with holes and a clear acrylic splash guard to protect the LEDs from the salty environment. The heatsink will be exposed and don't plan to run any fans as my current lamp runs very cool. Will test to make sure it really runs in the acceptable range but I hope I don't need them.

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Thanks Mitch! anyone have an idea how to either grind or remove a piece of a fin? I need to do this so I can make a hole for the hanging kit. Something like this:

lamp4.jpg

I know with a CNC or milling should be a breeze but I don't have access to one or want to pay a lot for that. Is it possible with a router??

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Just started my lamp! Some pics

7160ea0c.jpg

6de20663.jpg

 

 

The two LEDs in the middle are for moonlight. I bought a moonlight driver from rapidled. Run up to 4 LED's at 350mA

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Looking impressive as always Sammy....

Why dont you try using a dremel m/c with a little grinder wheel to cut/remove some of the fin - should be failry easy to do, and since it probably won't be in view (?), you don't have to do a perfect job.

 

Sent you some emails, haven't heard back yet....let me know.

 

 

Omar

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Another option might just be using a jigsaw, (if the blade can fit between the fins...??) ........if you look at my image- start from right to left though....use the blade in between the two fins to cut a vertical cut, as low as you can go---tip the blade as much as you can to make the cut easier...then have the blade perpendicular, to make a vertical cut - note the depth of the blade as you don't want to go too deep.

Finish off the cuts with a file to clean edges if required.

 

You've helped me with lots, hopefully I can return the favor a bit...with a few suggestions here..

 

lamp4.jpgpost-64436-1303965830_thumb.jpg

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Rabidgerbil38

Build is looking great. If you know any places with a regular old end mill (most machine shops got one) it would be simple to modify the heatsink.

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Thanks for the suggestion guys. I'm gonna check with a machine shop with a regular old mill like rabidgerbil said. I know one close to me and we'll see how it turns. I need to make this as clean as possible as the heatsink will be exposed. That's why I didn't used a dremel cause the grinding wheell will damage the other fins.

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Let there be light!

188eccb5.jpg

 

e2b8e162.jpg

 

Right now it looks messy but just wanted to test. Also the acrylic cover will hide everything. This thing is BRIGHT!!!!

 

I used a piece of black electrical tape to test temp with an IR thermometer the closest to the LEDs possible and it runs @ ~125F with no fans. That's with the LEDs @ 100% power. Does that sound too hot to go away without fans?

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So awesome. I love the light. I take it you are using NWs? Is the tank going to be rimless like in the mock-up or will it have the standard 40B rim?

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So awesome. I love the light. I take it you are using NWs? Is the tank going to be rimless like in the mock-up or will it have the standard 40B rim?

Thanks. Yeah its NW LEDs. I have a regular 40b that got it as an exchange for an LED work (cost me around ($50) but don't know if I'm using that one or build my own as I'd love to be rimless. Don't know how safe it is to remove the rim from it as it is 1/4" glass. Making my own will cost me around $200 worth of beveled and flat polished 3/8" glass

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Thanks. Yeah its NW LEDs. I have a regular 40b that got it as an exchange for an LED work (cost me around ($50) but don't know if I'm using that one or build my own as I'd love to be rimless. Don't know how safe it is to remove the rim from it as it is 1/4" glass. Making my own will cost me around $200 worth of beveled and flat polished 3/8" glass

 

That seems like it would be really risky. I don't have much experience (aside from de-rimming a 10g aga that I never got wet), but people start to get nervous when you are talking about de-rimming much more than a 15g. Dunno if a 40b has been done before, but that's a lot of water on the floor if something goes wrong. Maybe you could add a glass euro-brace or something to give it a bit more stability? Might look clunky at that size though.

 

Or just make some more fixtures for people and use that money. :D

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yeah seems very risky to me. I'd rather sleep relax. I've seen some de-rimmed 40b here on NR and the guy measured if there was some bending and there actually was. Enough to scare me though. I can handle acrylic bends but not glass. I actually have some other build going right now but I'm saving for a summer trip :P need more customers :lol:

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Sammy, quick question. I'm doing some scheming/planning and was wondering what the dimensions for one of the 3 star led clusters was?

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Dave got those from rapidled (65 degree). They actually snap just like XRE to the LED package. Some of them may not snap firmly because there is a bigger solder blob in some and it can fell off easily. In my case at least 80% of them didn't need any glue

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bensanders

Yo Sammy, looking good.

 

I'm going to help myself to your AI "puck" idea and do my LEDs in groups of 3, hope you don't mind. How wide is that 24" heatsink? Is it the 4.25" or 5.37"?

 

Also, is there any way you can snap a photo of the fixture above the tank? I'd love to get an idea of how the coverage looks.

 

Thank you!

 

edit: I'm now assuming it's larger than 4.25" based on the LED group spacing. I'm guessing it's the 8.46" wide heatsink?

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Hi. The heatsink is the 8.4 profile from heatsinkusa. Went with this one cause using 3 led clusters was not the innitial idea. I still need to do some more work on the lamp. Hope to finish on tuesday. I still dont have the tank with me. Hopefully this weekend im going to be able to work on the stand and bring the tank from my parents' house

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