MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 I spent a couple months looking at everyone's threads here and did a ton of research and came up with a plan and I would love to hear your input! First of all, I want a tank setup similiar to Brooklyn Johnny's. His tank looks awesome! I can't hang up cabinets for the fuge where I live so I decided to just go and find a cheap stand and then go from there. I went to the Goodwill and lo and behold I found an old but nice 27" floor model tv without the tv or backing for 5 bucks and decided to use that to put a 20 gallon tank inside. Of course that will need refinishing and I am going to build some cabinets that will sit on top of that to keep my fuge in. I think I'm going to use my Eclipse 12 for the fuge since I already have it and want to save $$. I won't need a ladder to get clearance to the fuge! (I'm 5'3 mind you) I will be buying two separate 96 watt bright kits from www.ahsupply.com so that I can run my actinics separately if I want to see my corals glow. Those lights will be screwed on underneath the top so I don't need to remove a light fixture to get inside my tank. What do you fellow reefers think of this idea? Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 I think it sounds like a great idea but I would love to see pictures as I think it would help to visualize the whole plan. The 12 gallon fuge is a great size and will help keep things stable. Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Here are some pics of the 27" floor model tv. That's all the pics I have for now. I will post pics of the process as soon as I start refinishing and getting the lights, etc..Sorry about the quality. My mom's digi sucks. Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 one more for now... Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 18, 2003 Author Share Posted August 18, 2003 EDIT---inside is 33" long. 96 watt bright kits won't fit! Those bulbs alone are 34.5 inches:blush: I'm going to have to go with 55 watt kits or MH Link to comment
Vincerama Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Why not try mounting the lights as a slight diagonal to fit in that space? It might look slightly odd, but I'm sure you won't see any difference and ditto for the clams/corals? V Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 18, 2003 Author Share Posted August 18, 2003 Vincerama..that won't work unless some of the reflector was hanging out in the back. Link to comment
going to see the oracle Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 hey if you are willin to do a little work aquadirect has a 4x 55w diy w/ bulbs for 169.00 here's the link http://aquadirect.com/catalog/lighting/aqu...diycompacts.htm hth, Reed Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 Thanks Oracle..I went there and they don't have 10,000k bulbs with that order? Link to comment
BillyBubBob Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 It would be really cool if you could stick a 29 gallon tank in there or a square tank to fill most of the front opening. Reef TV. Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 I am going for the 20 gallon long tank (30x12x12). The front opening of the stand is 30.5" L X 18.5" H. I want to be able to clean the glass and rearrange my live rock from the front so there will be double doors with hinges added above the tank and that will fill out the rest of the opening. Any other size tank will not give me room to add rocks, etc. Does that make sense? Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 PC's won't work since they need to be closer to the water. I have 7 1/2" height of space between where I will mount the lights to the top of the black trim on the tank. I'm trying to go hoodless and have an open tank. Anyone? Link to comment
skeletor Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 Hey MySTiCaLAnGeL, When I had 4 x 55w PC's over my 20 (regular) it was a tight fit, and I had the lights about 3" above the water. 6" is kind of high for PC's. Since you've got 6" under there, why not think about a 150W DE MH setup.... this would cost about $75 for a bulb (20K XM) and either $115 for an electronic or $71 for a magnetic ballast, plus some bucks for a reflector, glass shield and about $20 for a 150W HQI socket pair and then, for around $200, you could have a killer MH setup.. I am biased towards MH a little :-), I've had a 20 with 4 x 55w PC's for about 18 months, I just upgraded to a 175w MH (w/ 20K XM bulb).. the color is something else, something you just can't get with PC's. I like PC's and yes, you can keep almost anything under them, but the shimmer of MH is oh so nice :-) whichever way you go you are going to need some fans in there to keep everything cool, PC's or MH you are generating a lot of heat in there. -skeletor- Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 Thanks Skeletor, that really helps a lot:) I am leaning more towards the MH. My dad says that the top is solid wood but to me, it seems to have some particle board in it too. With a retrofit MH, I'm concerned about catching that wood on fire. Is there something you can place between the wood and the reflector? Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 With MH's being that close to the water, you would be well advised to have a UV shield between them and the water to make sure splashback didn't shatter your bulbs. That would be a very bad situation. With that said, a PFO pendant with some actinic supplementation might work, but you would definitely need to mount some fans (case fans for a PC come to mind) on the sides of your stand (they could easily be mounted in the sides and not be visible from the front by cutting holes in the sides of the cabinet and mounting them, similar to what you see today with custom PC case modding) to take care of heat issues. I presume there will be no back on your stand of any sort. If that sounds like overkill, PC bulbs/fixture would work fine. I am not so sure the 2X65 30" Coralife fixture wouldn't work fine for you, even if you used legs on all four corners. If you didn't want to use those legs, you could build a retaining frame around the corners of the fixture and slide it in from the back and you then have 130 watts over your 20 long. HTH! Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 20, 2003 Author Share Posted August 20, 2003 Jdsabin1 - what do you think about two 150W XDE 20,000 HQI double ended bulbs? I can't get the measurements for those. If I could find some retrofit kit that would be 3 1/2 " tall at the most, it would give me 4 1/2" open space between the tank and the light. Very scary if you ask me. Would the top of my stand feel hot if I had metal halides? With the reflector being mounted directly to wood, I assume it will. I want the eclipse 12 to sit on top of it inside some cabinets I will build and I also want to be on the safe side. Link to comment
going to see the oracle Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 if you get the electronic metal halide ballast the who;e setup will run alot cooler( about as much a normal PC's. ahsupply.com has the PC retrofits. and hellolights.com has the metal halide kits. if you get the electronic ballast kit for 175 watt and an XM bulb 10k you will have a pretty cheap setup and will only need the glass extra. or check out ebay for electronic ballast if you want to save alot of money. i just got my 70 watt metal halide electronic ballast of there for $59.00 shipped! Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 21, 2003 Author Share Posted August 21, 2003 The standard base moguls that holds the 175 watt has a reflector that is too big for my taste. 5" height? I like the DIY clam lighting retrofit that hellolights has but I don't want the PC combo or the 24" size reflector which only has one MH bulb. A bit too costly for my taste. I don't know where I can find a 30" reflector that is like 2 inches tall. I want to use two bulbs. Again, I'm concerned about the heating issue, especially with the reflector mounted on the wood. I've been searching for ideas for days and days..people are getting ####ed cuz they want to use the puter and they say I'm obsessed. You get the picture. I NEED HELP!!!!!! Link to comment
Graywolf57 Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Mystical - I have an electronic 70Watt MH ballasts someone requested and never claimed. You would still need to get the double ended bulb, reflector and glass of course. The ballast has not been used and would be less than half the amount mentioned above. (Oracle - probably a different brand). Send a PM if you are interested. Just keep the reflector mounted away from the wood by about a 1/8 " (with a metal washer or small section of aluminum tube). The wood will still get warm but nothing hot enough to be dangerous I wouldn't think. Anyway just an offer if you want to try it. Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 21, 2003 Author Share Posted August 21, 2003 Thanks Wolf! Sent you a PM:* Link to comment
AbSoluTc Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Here are a few things that you can think about. These are things I think you might also dislike later on down the road. Your stand (tv thing) may be a good idea to you right now, but it looks like 1 huge problem to me. Those stands are made of particle board. When they get wet, they will expand. As it ages and more water is soaked up, it becomes unstable and will eventually fail. Your stand sits too low. It would not be a good, enjoyable thing for you in the long run. Another thing, your stand doesn't allow for good air circulation. Im sure you can "add" things to help that, but why - when you can do it the right way and save money? There is barely enough room for you to work as it is now, but stack up boards to raise the tank and you will have even less room. Halides would also be a bad idea in that stand. Too much of an enclosed environment. My suggestion? Take a look at the setup in this thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=15699 Its a wire/wood setup that is very decently priced. I beleive it runs 50/100 bux depending on where and who you get it from. You can even order it online and save some money. Why would something like that be better? Its open, airy and you have loads of configuration options at your finger tips. It looks clean and it won't get messed up by the water! The coolest part of that setup, you can put your fuge up top and it would look sweet too! First things first - think about what stand you want and go from there. After you decide that, I would recommend halides over PC's anyday. For a 20L, 2x70w would be sufficient. If you don't mind spending some more money, do 2x150w if you want. Althought that would be alot and you can keep anything. Its totally up to you. Good luck and have fun! Link to comment
MySTiCaLAnGeL Posted August 22, 2003 Author Share Posted August 22, 2003 I want to thank everyone here for their help and input. You are Absolutc-ty right, I don't think I'll be happy with the stand in the long run. While I think that Korbin has a very nice, retro looking stand, it won't enable me to have an above the tank fuge unless the tank was on the bottom shelf. For now, I'm going to add doors to the front, refinish the stand and place the Eclipse 12 on top of it. I go through tanks like jdsabin1 goes though lights. The Eclipse 12 is my third setup. I went from a 40 gallon FOWLR to a 29 gallon with corals to a 12 gallon within a year. I like the looks of nano reefs better. It's less work and cheaper in terms of maintenance and stock. As for my new setup with MH, I better lay low for a while and just get my two month old Eclipse stable and give the rocks time to cover with coralline algae. It could be 6 months or more before I get my new setup, not because of financial reasons, but because I've been given an ultimatum. Who knows, I may be forced to leave the hobby. I'm 26 years old, a grown woman and I think it's so unfair. I may come across as being obsessed. I think everyone here does too, but it's temporary. Once you complete your setup, coral and fish collection, all you have to do is maintain your tank and feed it. It is sad when one is married, the couple can't get involved in their new reef tank together, and only one person is devoted to it's maintenance and it's success and the other is being antagonistic and doesn't want to even look at it much less hear what you have to say about it. You get a good feeling when a visitor regardless of age stands in front of your tank in awe and starts asking you a bunch of questions, taking the time to admire your pride and joy. Meanwhile, your spouse is sitting on the couch and you know that in the back of his mind, there's a lot of animosity when they see how excited you are that someone's taking an interest. I can't say what's going to happen because I don't know. I only hope that when the time is right, I'll be able to have the setup I want with MH. I just hope I don't have to wait too long :*( Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 As a sidenote, try Premium Aquatics and talk to Jeremy. Those guys may be able to help you find what you are looking for. They are very knowledgable in custom MH parts and pieces. If you haven't yet, ask over at Reef Central also. A lot of knowledgable people over there who can help as well. HTH! Link to comment
AbSoluTc Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 Let me tell you something coming from a male standpoint, if you boyfriend/husband can't amuse you and your hobby, even if he doesn't want a part of it, you need to kick his ass. Or find a new one. Im sure he gets what he wants right? The least his lazy bum can do is say, sure - buy whatever you need hun. Oh, that looks so cool. Again, even if he has no clue or doesn't care - MORAL SUPPORT! Rant off. Link to comment
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