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Robster's BC29


Robster

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Been a little hesitant to start the whole tank thread, but made some nice progress with heat issues and lighting and flow. So, This is a work in progress... in the middle of a bathroom remodel too, so progress is slooooww.

 

Anyway, here we go:

 

1st mod: COOLING & Noise:

 

Noise was one of my chief complaints when I first fired up the lights on the stock BC. so my quest began in the realm of cooling/quieting. though some first assumptions were rebuked by Chris over at NanoTuners, It was a good thing for me, as it forced me to dig up tech white papers and engineering specs on fluorescent lights. Many factors go into play when it comes to light output from FL lights. e.g. Lumen rating, ballast, ballast factor, ambiant temp around bulb, bulb orientation of installation etc... Thus cooling and light output are somewhat married.

 

here's link to the thread about the quieting of fans:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101942

 

So, end result... New intake vents at front, and fans turned to push air out of canopy enclosure. Result running a near perfect temp to achieve maximum light output from the FL bulbs. :D

 

post-23011-1163851454_thumb.jpg

 

Mod #2: Azis..LIGHT!!

 

Picked up 4.36 heat shield from NanoTuners, but it needed some modification... First off BC stock ballasts...who knows what they are, stat's etc..., therefore snip..snip cut the ballast out of the power lines connecting to the hood. thankfully those two thick wires with the fancy quick disconnects have 6 wires in each one....just perfect for my new Program Start Ballasts! After much research, settled on an Advance Ballast ICN-2S54 which is kinda like upgrading to the V-8 model. This ballast runs at a 1.20 ballast factor = 1.20 x lumen rating of bulb!! Pinch up about 20% performance.. extremely high efficiency of .98 (=almost all the power used goes directly to making light not waisted in excess heat from the ballast). very low THD at 10% but a little akward at 16 3/4" long (only about 1 3/4 wide and 1 1/2 tall) so I'll have to make an enclosure to house those. Got 1 pair...each will run 2 of the 36-watt bi-axial 2G11 socket bulbs!

 

Next.. fitting it all together-

 

Wanted to make custom reflector to maximize light reflecting down and into the water, but bulbs ended up so close together, just couldn't do it. so, I wrapped the heatshield in a layer of silver mirror mylar material which boosted the reflection of the top half of the bulb by quite a bit!!:

post-23011-1163852553_thumb.jpg

 

Attached 2 bulb clips per bulb to the shield and left the sockets loose. every thing is real tight in there! I was able to get two different clip heights which allowed me to get the bulbs right next to eachother:

 

post-23011-1163852779_thumb.jpg

 

Now for night-time lighting I decided to go for some CCFL's 4 tubes 12" long: 2 blue 2 UV. Bent up part of the stock reflector to get better dispersion of the CCFLS:

 

post-23011-1163853057_thumb.jpg

 

It was a tight fit to get it all together but heres how it looks:

 

post-23011-1163853168_thumb.jpg

 

flip the switch (well the new one, as the two in the hood are no longer useable)

and heres the bulbs:

 

post-23011-1163853361_thumb.jpg

 

what you are seeing here is two Full Spectrum bulbs: 5500K w/ 96CRI they are the nearest thing I've seen to balanced day light. They look amazing; clean white Noon day sunshine, whereas all spectrums are represented very near to equal (close to what the sun does at noon time) so it does not over saturate any one spectrum! Between the two white ones is the stock coralife 10k and on the end the stock coralife Actinic. the faint blue at the bottom is the CCFL it's pretty bright on its own, but next to these giants on the super-charged ballast...aint much comparing.

 

 

Preview of what's to come:

 

Flow - Tunze 6025 Nanostream

 

post-23011-1163853905_thumb.jpg

 

the usuals....more flow chamber 1 to 2; small fuge chamber 2 etc.. and some auotmation?! ;)

 

Cheers!

-R

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Very nice !

 

I must ask you to refrain from doing any additional work on the bathroom remodel and type faster as I am setting up my tank this weekend ! :P

 

Good people borrow ideas. Great people steal them.

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Rob, spectacular work! I'm awaiting arrival of my 14g and this brings up some interesting food for thought. I have a couple of questions. Is there any way you can describe how you created the new intake vents and also where you found the parts (ballasts, lights, clips and so on).

 

Thanks!

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(golf clap in the back ground)

 

Nery nice work Robster. And many thanks for posting your trials and tribulations.

Your the first(that I can think of) to bring up light fixture temps and there impact on effiicency. And then to test them and post your results. Way to go!!

 

Man I can't wait to see your tank when it's up and running.

 

Keep them coming

 

 

-B

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Scratch the vent details; saw your other post - also excellent. Am still wondering about the vendor sources, though. :)

 

Newtank, I must be great because I have every intention of stealing a whole bunch of ideas from this board. :P

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Im not really too impressed. ;)

 

Great work rob... im also in the middle of some major home repairs so my progress gets slowed down occasionally. Keep us updated on all the progress....

 

:)

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Your work is very inspiring! Looks marvelous! I've got an additional 10000k 18W bulb coming from nanotuners. I'm going to overdrive it with a 36W ballast. I'm doing this because to my knowledge there is no such thing as a 9.5" bulb rated >18W. Chris from nanotuners says it is definatley do-able, but I would probably be changing out the bulb every 4-5 months. I'm thinking about putting the new bulb in the very front (sitting directly above where my corals will be. Followed by the stock 18W actinic bulb then the stock 10000k bulb behind that.

 

OK, I've learned a lot here on the forum recently, but I'm going to sound like a total newb again...

 

The pic of the pump and the tunze 6025. They don't go together right? I'm not familiar with the Tunze 6025. I did a search. I can't find a good description of exactly what it does, but from what I gather this does not hook up to a pump. It goes in the main tank wall and just recirculates the water. Creating a broad/diffuse current. Do I got it? How many GPH? Think something like this is too much flow for an 8 gallon with a clown? I don't want to exhaust the little fella!

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Thanks everyone for the kind and gratious words. too much to do and not enough time for for the fun -....Mod'in Stuff :D

 

onto questions:

 

Scratch the vent details; saw your other post - also excellent. Am still wondering about the vendor sources, though. :)

 

Periette- The vendor used for the small clips and the 2G11 sockets is Nano Tuners (Chris and Nick Rock!!). For the taller clips I got those along with the full spectrum lights from Natural Lighting.com I initially tried a pair of their 2g11 sockets, but i didn't like them as much. ***special note, these I have not tested these full spectrums with the aquatic life!!! Though I thoroughly expect they will perform very well, it is not confirmed yet***

 

for the ballast: Advance Ballast had a dealer lookup on their website, so I looked for the ones in my area. They have pretty much nation wide distribution, and the ballast type I used is more used in commercial applications and the only people that carried that model line was Electric wholesale places (where electricians go to get their commercial parts...boxes, panels, etc... The one I used is over by LAX, most of these places (from my run-in's) are not web type folks so I don't know how they react to shipping things??! I'd check the dealer locater first for someone close, otherwise I could look to find their info for you.

 

 

 

OK, I've learned a lot here on the forum recently, but I'm going to sound like a total newb again...

 

The pic of the pump and the tunze 6025. They don't go together right? I'm not familiar with the Tunze 6025. I did a search. I can't find a good description of exactly what it does, but from what I gather this does not hook up to a pump. It goes in the main tank wall and just recirculates the water. Creating a broad/diffuse current. Do I got it? How many GPH? Think something like this is too much flow for an 8 gallon with a clown? I don't want to exhaust the little fella!

 

Stallen- Yes you are correct about the Tunze it is a prop driven circulator that is supposed to put out a gentle 650gal/hr...Not quite sure what's gentle about that, but my initial playing with it directly in front of it is like standing behind a jet engine. aiming it at an angle and shooting it across the tank from one back corner to the opposite front corner is seeming interesting... need more playing I'll try to upload some video ;) it also has a great really strong magnet that holds it in place on either side of the glass or plastic bulk-head wall.....just have to watch your fingers...ouch!! they are strong

 

-R

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650gal/hr with that tunze sounds cool, but I bet my little clown in an 8 gal. would look like he's circling the toilet in that kinda tornado. :lol:

 

That almost sounds like a lot for a 29 gal. Can you regulate flow?

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Damn you Rob, now im gonna have to go and get a 6025 for my tank... I hope youre happy. :D

 

Teal- Ooops did I do that?? :P But the fun is just starting...wait till you see what else is up my sleeve ;)

 

650gal/hr with that tunze sounds cool, but I bet my little clown in an 8 gal. would look like he's circling the toilet in that kinda tornado. :lol:

 

That almost sounds like a lot for a 29 gal. Can you regulate flow?

 

Stallen- Yes it is a lot of flow!! NO, you can't regulate the flow (the model 6055? I think is the number, not out yet, you can however price tag jumps from $68 to $200+ :angry: and the more pricey one can be used on their wavemakers. the less expensive model doesn't do well for wavemakers. on start up if it trys spinning the wrong way the prop slides up out of socket a little so it can drop back in and spin proper direction...makes a little clanking sound and can take a couple seconds to get rolling Tunze Rep said if using w/ 15min on 15min off cycle should last about 2 years for the prop assembly. If straight running, should go quite a bit longer than that.

 

If you were to aim it at a wall first, and place it contra flow to the main pump that might do the trick, though hard to say with an 8gal. at 650gal.hr/60min= 10.83 gal. per minute/ 8 gal= turn over of the entire voulume of your tank 1.3542 times per minute your little clown might get the feeling of being flushed!!! (hmm...that might be similar to the fear of being buried alive?! Though it is hard to resist since it only takes up 6watts....sweet!!! (that was an additional prodding for you Tealcobra :D )

 

edit: My first expectations for best useage and control of this little fire hydrant is to create baisically a contra current whereas the main pump output direction will be on somewhat of a collision course with the Tunze which should create some turbulance along with buffering some of the flow, which should in turn help decrease any toilet effect. initial running is looking good. I threw some ribbons tied to rocks into the tank to get a better visual understanding of the current motion and turbulance. It looks like I'll be able to avoid useing a hydroflo device, as I am not a big fan of those from the small tanks that I have seen. (the larger tanks seem to absorb the rotating flow from those without "showing" what I could only describe as a hose stream effect, all of this is IMO).

 

no progress today....darn bathroom....cheap made in China toilet, had to rebuild the entire guts :angry: what a pain

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Oh, so now youre just dangling it in front of my face.... Thats IT !!! Wheres my credit card. :D

 

As soon as I find one I will be ordering it... Where did you find yours at Rob ??? A local place or online ?

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Oh, so now youre just dangling it in front of my face.... Thats IT !!! Wheres my credit card. :D

 

As soon as I find one I will be ordering it... Where did you find yours at Rob ??? A local place or online ?

 

Teal- I got it from Premium Aquatics:

 

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

 

They are an authorized Tunze dealer. I am a little disappointed with the noise of it. It may just be cause I've got everything else running at a whisper, and comparatively its quite a bit louder. but significant flow. I'm going to try to shoot some video of the current motion along with the lighting effects tonight. Hopefully I can get it imported and coded for streaming in the next couple days.

 

-R

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Teal- I got it from Premium Aquatics:

 

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

 

They are an authorized Tunze dealer. I am a little disappointed with the noise of it. It may just be cause I've got everything else running at a whisper, and comparatively its quite a bit louder. but significant flow. I'm going to try to shoot some video of the current motion along with the lighting effects tonight. Hopefully I can get it imported and coded for streaming in the next couple days.

 

-R

 

 

Okay, im going to wait to see the video on it before making the purchase.. Basser bought one also and said it has way too much flow for the BC29, so It'll be nice to see your video. :)

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Okay, im going to wait to see the video on it before making the purchase.. Basser bought one also and said it has way too much flow for the BC29, so It'll be nice to see your video. :)

 

 

I wouldn't rule it out, I don't know what main pump Basser is using, but with the Rio 6HP that you and I are running, the reversing current buffers the flow of the Tunze pretty well. I'll get workin on the video so you can see first hand and have a better feel

 

-R

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Thanks as always Rob... im also running the hydor flo on my tank, maybe I will go back to the regular outlet and have the currents hit each other to try to diffuse each other....

 

Cant wait for the video... :)

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I just got one in today and slapped it in my 29g. It's the basic 30 incher. I'm no flow expert but I would think anything smaller than a 24" tank would be too small for this pump unless you had an all sps. I keep softies and lps. This thing is amazing though. Blew my mind when I plugged it in.

 

I wouldn't rule it out, I don't know what main pump Basser is using, but with the Rio 6HP that you and I are running, the reversing current buffers the flow of the Tunze pretty well. I'll get workin on the video so you can see first hand and have a better feel

 

-R

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Thanks as always Rob... im also running the hydor flo on my tank, maybe I will go back to the regular outlet and have the currents hit each other to try to diffuse each other....

 

Cant wait for the video... :)

 

 

The wait is over....Lights, Fans and Flow for your viewing pleasure :D !!!

 

 

test setup- used ribbons w/ a pecan tied to the top (the pecans seemed to want to float, which worked out great). camera lens at 21 3/4" from front of tank (using wide angle lens) and the audio suppression for wind noise turned off, to make sure the camera didn't interpret the fans/pump etc... as wind noise and delete it.

 

about 5 min. long; first 25 sec. have no movement, so NO, your feed is not broken! The fans are running the entire time

 

1. 2- 6500k's approx 7sec

2. 1-10k & 1-Actinic approx 7 sec

3. the combo. of all 4 bulbs approx 7 sec

4. The flow from main pump Rio 6HF approx 1 min

5. The flow from Tunze 6025 approx 1 min

6. Both Rio & Tunze running together approx 3 min

 

Hope you enjoy the flick (its in windows media version....sorry to any mac users I can try to get a quicktime encoding, if needed)

High quality feed:

 

http://ravenms.razorstream.com:80/mediaser...6Njtw%3D%3D.wmv

 

lower quality feed (if you are on that slow dsl stuff):

 

http://ravenms.razorstream.com:80/mediaser...6Njtw%3D%3D.wmv

 

 

The flow from the Tunze by itself seemed way too harsh, but with the reversing current it seems to slow it down a bit, and add turbulance, so in a way making some of that mixed current like the hydro-flo. I'm just a bit unhappy with the noise level I guess it's not terible, but it's louder than I desire. Any one else with one...how's the noise level on yours (countryhova, Basser, etc..)?

 

cheers

-R

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I think i will get one of the tunze streams as well. I plan on holding off unti l my tank matures a little to give the frags a chance to get established.

 

On a side note you should have one of those screaming faces jump out on the screen around the 3 minute mark. That would be funny!

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i can't hear the 6025 unless i put my ear right up to it. the fan in my pendant is louder so thats all i hear. it does make more noise than any other powerhead i've owned but you have to be pretty picky to let that stop you from the great flow it produces. from what i hear the sound goes away after a couple weeks

 

I think i will get one of the tunze streams as well. I plan on holding off unti l my tank matures a little to give the frags a chance to get established.

 

On a side note you should have one of those screaming faces jump out on the screen around the 3 minute mark. That would be funny!

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Robster, you're da man! Great video! That is a good repersentation of the kind of flow I'm getting. I did notice you have your nanostream mounted lower than I do. I have mine just a little lower than the stock output on the other side. I angled mine so that it points to the side of the tank, thinking this might slow down the flow somewhat. Right now I have it unplugged, but still in the tank. My main pump is a maxijet 1200 with the hydorflo attachment. I may do what TEALCOBRA suggested, and remove the hydorflo and put the regular outlet back on.

 

IMO, the 2 pumps running together creates too much turbulence, at least probably for what I need. Just not sure if the corals I have benefit form the higher output or not. :huh:

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Thanks Robster- It definately helps having people try different methods of flow.Seeing it in action is a bonus. Do you think it would be too much for oolitic sand? Did you mount it with the magnet? Also, does that create more flow through the vents or take away?

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