Rockryno's Bookshelf SPS Nano

[rockryno]

FTS - 04/16/13

 

 

 

Equipment List:

AI SOL blue
36w homemade Cree LED fixture
2x 18w Ecoxotic Panorama Pro 12k white/ 445nm blue modules
Vortech MP10ES
AC70 modified with NanoGlo LED module
100w Rena Smartheater

Livestock:
Striped mandarin
Pom Pom crab

Corals:
Ponape birdsnest

green millipora

yellow/pink tip millipora

green slimer

tricolor valadia
blue millipora
orange montipora
green fuzzy mushroom
Eagle Eye zoas
green birdsnest
Eye of Ra zoas
ORA cali tort
Montipora setosa
rose millipora
Red Planet

and a half dozen other SPS I have no names for.


First 7gal, then 26, then 14, then 12, now 10!

yes its in a bookshelf, yes the bookshelf is supported!


originally planned on simple filtration with an AC70 fuge,but didnt want the entire tank water level to drop with evaporation, so made a corner overflow out of 4"PVC which the AC70 sucks from. also holds the 100w Rena smartheater for now.


now cycling: so boring...


while its cycling, located a used overflow and decided to utilize an old 5 gal tank i had laying around for a sump. nice and snug in the lower righ of the DT.




more to come, including LEDs in the mail!

[nanoreef11]

Sweet little setup you have going on there. I really like your creativity with the PVC overflow and the filter pulling water from there. I have a biocube and am glad that my display tank always stays the same height because of the back chambers.

 

What's your plans for the tank? Fish? Corals? Keep us updated.

 

Jon

[rockryno]

thanks! planning on a small mixed reef. hopefully the newly arrived LEDs will support the SPS, then lps and zoas. wanted to try sexy shrimp...well see

 

by the way, big thanks to LEDSUPPLY.com and RAPIDLED.com. easy ordering and super quick shipping! Just waiting on my ebay heatsink and the build shall begin

[nanoreef11]

Post details about your LED build because I am interested in maybe upgrading my tank later on down the road and do something with LED's. Seems to be the new best thing.

 

Jon

[rockryno]

LEDs are done! everything went together perfect, bright as hell. went with 8x 3w Cree royal blue, and 4x 3w Cree neutral whites.

 

Im not too happy with the finished product though...the problem is the tank is now a 70s disco club! all over the rocks and sand is white and blue flashes! its hard to look at up close. I actually spaced the LEDs closer that the recommended 2" and still get color shadows galore. Think height of the array above the water has something to do with it, but i cant go any higher...

 

Both colors are dimmable, and ive got it settled at around a 20k bulb look. noticed my heat sink gets pretty warm, so i might have to add a fan. The 8 blues are pretty overpowering. Ive got my whites up to maybe 25% and the blues to maybe 15% and its still pretty purple. thinking of adding a string of cool white right down the center...

 

ebay heat sink. wanted the mounting holes at the top. 9.5" x 5.5"x 1.25". sand blasted and drilled and tapped 24 holes (didnt even break a tap!)

 

LEDs mounted. Liked the heatsink cuz its got a groove, which ill slide a glass plate into to protect everything.

 

 

mounted at the top of the bookshelf. camera makes em look super purple for some reason. Its not that purple in person.

 

excuse the temporary wiring mess

 

Ill finalize the install in the next few days and clean everything up and see how i like it.

[d9hp]

This is loaded with awesome. Great job with that overflow to hide the heater. That's really brilliant! Super impressed. Also, way to go drilling and mounting those LEDs. I think I broke like 2 taps in the process so more power to you!

 

Following along...

[rockryno]

hah thanks! i can see how so many people were breaking them, a tap that small is pretty flimsy!

 

got a vid of the tank. notice the discoball effect.\

LEDs Dance Party!

[nanoreef11]

Install seemed to turn out extremely well. Good job. I see what you mean with the disco ball effect. Kinda hurts your eyes just looking at it. Hopefully you are able to adjust them to your liking. I'm not up to par on LED's so interested on what you do here. Good luck.

 

Jon

[rockryno]

Got a piece of glass cut to protect from the water. Been messing with the thing all day.

 

It did work extremely well in the tight space!

[rockryno]

corals have begun!

snagged this frogspawn from Oceans Apart:

 

Thanks to SPStimie for the green birdnest:

 

Got a bunch of snails and crabs from Elite Reef, now my rocks are nice and clean!

 

also, thought the heat sink for the LEDs was getting too hot, so grabbed this blower fan from MicroCenter. $10, took it apart and mounted it to the bookshelf directly behind the heatsink, and wired it to the LED power supply. Took the heatsink off, drilled holes through all the fins for airflow and mounted it back up. Heatsink is cool to the touch after hours of operation. Only prob is the fan is pretty loud... says 25db, not sure if thats loud or not, but its pretty loud to me.

[mbarton2010]

awesome!!!!!!

[rockryno]

thanks! got a few more corals. tiny little green candy cane, from Todds, super bright!

 

 

 

 

nice size Duncan from Mike at Custom Aquaria

 

 

 

 

couple acans from Mike too

 

 

[rockryno]

ok got a ton of new corals! and some sexy shrimp. little disappointed in the shrimp, theyre always hiding in my duncan. any tips to get them to come out more?

 

new corals - red monti, idaho grape monti, orange(i think fire and ice) zoas, dragon eye zoas, armor of god zoas, some yellow centered zoas with long skirts, "bird of paradise birdsnest" (what i was told, has pink polyps with yellowish branches)

 

also meteor shower and smurf village monti

[andru24]

Looks pretty cool. Is the tank that blue/purple IRL?

[jbannick18]

Awesome scape, how is that corner overflow doing? Does it surface skim pretty well? I never thought of that but it would be cool to have in my 20l for the surface skimming and to hide my pump for the cpr aquafuge

[rockryno]

its not quite that purple in real life. overflow works perfect! you can see debris flowing up and into it all the time. it hides my heater too

[jbannick18]

Pm'd, just had another question, dont want to flood your topic

[pismo_reefer]

I like ur setup!

[cameraman_2]

Very nice setup and start. The system looks very nice and I love the LEDs.

[Dustin11]

Nice tank!

Did you ever resolve your disco party effect? I'm in the process of determining the ration of LED's for my build and I'm undecided. Now that you've done the 2:1 RB/NW, what have you learned? How would you do it different next time?

[rockryno]

thanks guys! the disco effect is still there, but ive gotten used to it. if i ever get around to building this fuge, the return will be under the surface of the display tank, so that should cut down on the surface agitation. What ive learned from the led build, is cluster the leds together as much as you can. i think over a bigger tank with more height off the water, it wouldnt be a big deal, but with my setup about 6" off the water, the effect is amplified. as far as the colors go, i think my setup did turn out pretty purple. i might suggest going with an even ratio of the RB to NW. Im still thinkin of adding a few cool whites on a third buck puck to help it out.

 

But the corals love it! SPSs are growing like mad.

[rockryno]

March FTS - lots of new SPS growing well under the LEDs

 

 

[DrReefer]

That's a very sweet setup you got!!!

[dhraakoxr]

Man that's a badass setup!

 

Good luck!

[sekkeee]

Awesome setup!! I'm starting a diy led setup based on your build, but with cool whites instead of neutral whites and spreading them. Good luck with the tank!!!