waterat4 Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Well here goes, here is my biorb life 60 marine tank, its taken a while to get to this stage and more money then I was expecting here are a few picture of what i've done so far Let it begin! Lighting track Lighting tracks in place Extra LED's rigged up! Baffles Sign writers vinyl for the black background, washing up liquid a blade and a scraper everything ready Equipment in At this stage I had a major problem with the extra LED's they melted the housing, I was over driving them and it was just too hot for the polyurethane housing, lucky I caught it in time but extra LED's mark one went in the trash! I will add extra lighting in later, one step at a time I think! Live Rock drilled and mounted all in place This is where im at now, not looking too bad. The rock was only partly cycled so im in the midst of the maturation process took my first set of readings today: Temp: 76.5 F Salinity: 1.025 Ammonia: 6.5 mg/l Nitrite: 1.0 mg/l Nitrate: 50 mg/l PH: 8.2 Calcium: 400 mg/l Phosphate: 2.5 mg/l KH: 250 mg/l Iron: 0.0 mg/l Im not sure why my KH is so off the charts but the was a lot of live rock sediment from milling the rock, maybe this has something to do with it, I will be keeping a close eye on it to make sure it comes down to normal tolerances. Other than that im stilling back and watching all my little hitchhikers! let me know what you all think, im sure I will have missed something very obvious cheers! Link to comment
DBTReefer Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 oooh, i love the shape of the tank! Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share Posted February 15, 2009 Cheers, the biggest problem has been getting my misses to agree to it! Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 This looks cool, I like some of your DIY ideas. Link to comment
egloskerry Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 That's an excellent job right there. It's trippy. Link to comment
disaster999 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 are those 5mm LED gonna be enough? Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Share Posted February 16, 2009 I had to take out the extra 5mm led's, over driving them made them just too hot and they melted the casings, so it was back to the drawing board! I've been doing some research on here and I think im going with some heat sinks and 4 x 600lm leds + 4 blue 80lm led's that should be bright enough for anything, Im going to get it set up and tested first though before I mount them onto the rails this time! I thought I was going to have a problem with the PH fluctuating too much between the day and night cycle but Ive taken a reading at the end of the night cycle and its still at 8.2, going to take a reading at the end of the day cycle to make sure its consistent. Link to comment
jeremai Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 That's pretty fantastic, imo. Different for sure. Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Share Posted February 16, 2009 Using a standard tank would definitely have been easier, access in through the top is some what limited, I think when it comes time to add corals I'll have to use frags so they are easier to handle. Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Share Posted February 16, 2009 Going to be taking cycle readings tonight just to confirm what I got yesterday, then will leave it till the weekend, now I have just got to work on the extra lighting and sit back and let the tank cycle. How often should I take readings for the cycle? Lalani any ideas? Link to comment
Lalani Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 During the cycle, I usually check once a day. Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Share Posted February 16, 2009 Im checking temp, Salinity, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and PH every day then, cheers lalani Link to comment
Lalani Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Oh geez, let me clarify. During the cycle, I check ammonia until it's zero, nitrite until it's zero, and then nitrate a couple of times. Other than that, I don't do any testing, lol. Link to comment
Alicia Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Looks good! Definitely interesting... I noticed that you kept the air tube in...did you skip the filter part though? I just wasn't sure if you kept the filter in...how in the world you were gonna change it with the LR stacked around the tube? This was a pain for me when I had my orb set up marine...and freshwater for that matter. I ended up taking everything off the filter housing (rocks, plants, etc.) so it was easier to unscrew it and get the filter parts out for cleanings, etc. What are your stocking ideas? And any new ideas for lights? I kept some GSP, mushrooms and zoas with a modded light set-up like Lani had...but it was kinda short term before I upgraded to my RSM. Oh yeah...and one more thing I thought of (just trying to be helpful) is...remember the orbs are acrylic and scratch very easily...so be careful when you are cleaning...especially with sand getting caught in your cloth or trying to get coralline off...OH and don't use a magnet cleaner! Even the ones for acrylic...I used one and it scratched the hell out of my orb. If you ever get a sratch, Novus makes an amazing scratch remover kit for acrylic...you can find them on eBay! Goodluck! I'll be following this one! Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Hi Alicia, I removed the filter section completely, im relying on the eddy currents to carry large particulate mater into the two side sections where the deep mud beds are, I have a cunning trick up my sleeve for changing out the air stone but I may do away with that to keeping the tube and air flow stops any dead spots in the living rock rubble under the column, nice and aerobic and and anaerobic in the mud sides, stocking as I have read from this site needs to be very light maybe a couple of clown gobies, fancied a neon goby but need to do more homework on them, my lighting ideas will be coming soon and will include what im doing on this thread, now I know the LED elitists will be up in arms when I carry out my LED refit but i'll live with it! Im using 4 x 600lm LED's http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-1PCS-High-power-...A1%7C240%3A1318 for the white part when 4 x 1W blues http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-Star-Bright-5W-Ful...A1%7C240%3A1318, im sure the way im going to do it isnt the best or most efficient but lifes a learning experience, im using 4 heats sinks for xboxes form the gpu chipset, if anyone out there is looking for some small low profile heat sinks going very cheap look on ebay, since the read ring of death and the subsequent upgrades carried out be microsoft those things can be picked up for a couple of £, some thermal paste and a power supply unit from a cctv system. as for scratching the glass, I have no sand and im using the biorb cleaner they they make for the acrylic tanks.............its crap mind you so I am going to have to find an alternative for anything tougher to remove than dust!! Cheers for the heads up on the scratch removing kit im doing a search as we speak! Link to comment
stuhow Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Looking really good! I can imagine the rock being problematic to get in. At least you won't get distortion like I do in my Biorb. I have just stocked my Biorb now and will post photos shortly. Got 2 Green Chromis in it and a cleaner shrimp as well as a couple of hermits and turbo snails. My CBS died unfortunatly. Looks really clean, now comes the big test for me as my levels have been spot on so lets see how things go hey! Keep me up to date with how you get on, can imagine with corals this is goping to look really really nice! Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Hi Stuhow, you are right the rock was a pain in the arse to get in but its nothing a lump hammer and a bolster didn't fix, the rock was half was through the cycle from the dealer when I get it so I am dealing with the tail end of his cycle and the start of my own from the transit to my tank plus milling out 1" holes through the rock opens up a Pandora's box of ammonia and nitrites, judging by tonight's readings I should be able to put the first of my CUC in there, then go through a mini cycle and they do their business. Temp: 77F Salinity 1.026 Ammonia: 1.2 mg/l Nitrite: 3.3 mg/l Nitrate: 110 mg/l PH: 8.3 The ammonia look as though it has spiked and now is on its was down, from experience the nitrite will follow suit in a couple of days, leaving me with several small water changes to do 5% at a time, to deal with the Nitrates. I should be getting the PSU for my led's tomorrow so I shall be rigging them up soon, hopefully there will be enough light for SPS but will have to see! Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Hi Stuhow, you are right the rock was a pain in the arse to get in but its nothing a lump hammer and a bolster didn't fix, the rock was half was through the cycle from the dealer when I get it so I am dealing with the tail end of his cycle and the start of my own from the transit to my tank plus milling out 1" holes through the rock opens up a Pandora's box of ammonia and nitrites, judging by tonight's readings I should be able to put the first of my CUC in there, then go through a mini cycle and they do their business. Temp: 77F Salinity 1.026 Ammonia: 1.2 mg/l Nitrite: 3.3 mg/l Nitrate: 110 mg/l PH: 8.3 The ammonia look as though it has spiked and now is on its was down, from experience the nitrite will follow suit in a couple of days, leaving me with several small water changes to do 5% at a time, to deal with the Nitrates. I should be getting the PSU for my led's tomorrow so I shall be rigging them up soon, hopefully there will be enough light for SPS but will have to see! i would not add any inverts whatsoever until your ammonia and nitrite are 0 and you've done a few water changes to get those nitrates to a sane level. Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 Funnily enough.........thats exactly what I was going to do! But cheers for the advice! Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 Tonight conditions: Temp: 77F Salinity: 1.025 Ammonia: 0.0 mg/l Nitrite: 3.5 mg/l Nitrate: 110 mg/l PH: 8.4 cheers Link to comment
clownfish617 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 i like the look of the scape Link to comment
waterat4 Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 Cheers, hopefully the nitrite will start taking a dip in the next day or so, it looks like its peaking! then Ive got some steady water changes to do to get the nitrates under control! Link to comment
JBM Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 i would like to see more pictures Link to comment
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