Illumin-8's NEW Acrylic 26 (IM-8 upgrade)

[Illumin-8]

So starts the fun with this tank!

 

Everything is completely different than the IM-8. The cycle took a full 6 weeks this time around - it's like it went on forever compared to the IM-8. Having never started a tank from scratch it was interesting and frustrating all at the same time. Also, finding pumps and skimmers for this tank has been interesting. There are definitely benefits to the AIO setups. Then there's the differences between acrylic and glass. The clarity is unbelievable with the polished acrylic tank, but the anxiety about scratches is well....it's something.

 

Pictures from just after the cycle - probably not super smart to put a coco worm in a new tank but it was worth a shot. It lasted about 4 weeks before losing part of it's crown and being rehomed in the hub's 165-gallon reef where it made a full recovery.

 

Jan 19th, 2020

 

 

Feb 1st, 2020 - finally got some decent lighting on at least part of the tank

 

More to come

[Illumin-8]

Custom light canopy on it's way to completion! Thanks Glass Orchid! 

 

 

[Illumin-8]

Lights after hanging - the canopy houses 2 Radion XR15 Pro and a cooling fan and probably needs its own write up. It was such a gamble and turned out much better than anticipated.

 

Feb 29, 2020 (Happy Leap Day!)

 

 

Further away to see ceiling mounts:

 

 

Next up cord wrangling and an FTS with the tank lights on.

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, Illumin-8 said:

Lights after hanging - the canopy houses 2 Radion XR15 Pro and a cooling fan and probably needs its own write up. It was such a gamble and turned out much better than anticipated.

 

Feb 29, 2020 (Happy Leap Day!)

 

 

Further away to see ceiling mounts:

 

 

Next up cord wrangling and an FTS with the tank lights on.

That canopy is bad ass!

[Illumin-8]

Just now, WV Reefer said:

That canopy is bad ass!

Thank you so much!  The local artist that built it blew us away with how cool it is and well it turned out. Definitely worth the gamble and the wait.

[WV Reefer]

Just now, Illumin-8 said:

Thank you so much!  The local artist that built it blew us away with how cool it is and well it turned out. Definitely worth the gamble and the wait.

Please post more pics when you have it all together...... I want to see the inside. 

[Illumin-8]

After a few fiascos with this tank (immediate sand swap out, diamond goby wedging himself between the lid and the edge of the tank, ufo micromussa looking very terrestrial, bubble algae, flat worms, etc.), the lights and light canopy came together smoothly and turned out so much better than anticipated. It's almost better than the tank. Oh wait...no it's not.

 

Here the inside of the light canopy:

 

And a slightly easier to see picture:

 

The Radions are mounted using their OEM holes and Ectotech's ceiling mount kit. One thing I did have to modify from the out of the box hardware was to use slightly longer hex bolts than the ones supplied with the lights. The horizontal rails are angle aluminum from Home Depot (3/4" I think) cut to length and drilled with oblong shaped holes to allow for some "fitment" issues we had. No laughing at the extra holes. They're there for....ahem....weight savings? Yeesh. These are the consequences of not measuring twice. Even after re-drilling the holes they had to be oblonged to accommodate for some alignment issues. The bolts are from a local hardware store since our Home Depot was out of the right size bolts. That ended up working well since they are stainless and shouldn't rust. 

 

The light canopy basically sits on top of the aluminum rails, and the whole thing hangs from the Ecotech ceiling mount kit. The vertical rails in the picture are part of the light canopy structure. Originally the canopy was supposed to be hung and the lights were supposed to sit on these rails (hence why they line up with the bolt holes so well). That was super scary with $$$ lights just sitting there, and I am less than graceful when working on my tank. Even though the rails are coated in silicon to prevent the lights from sliding (the artists idea!), it was super sketchy so the whole thing got flipped over and now the canopy sits on the lights instead of the light sitting on the canopy.

 

I can report that the silicon coating is brilliant! The canopy doesn't slide around at all. (I've bumped this thing pretty hard with my elbow a few times, and it hasn't budged.) The light canopy did require some modification: I reinforced the vertical rails with JB weld since I managed to pop one off within minutes of getting the canopy home from the artist's shop. He explained that they were soldered in using traditional stained glass materials. Turns out solder is really good at holding glass together, but either the rail material wasn't cleaned/scuffed properly or I just got unlucky - the JB weld was his idea and it worked really well. 

 

The big question for me when putting this whole thing together was the weight suspended from the ceiling. I used alligator clips in the ceiling rated at 45 lbs. each for a total of 90 lbs, and the ceiling mount kit is rated somewhere in that neighborhood (don't quote me! Ecotech has is on their website somewhere). The two Radions weigh like 8 lbs total, and the canopy is less than 20, so the total weight is well within the 90 lb load limit. Truth be told, I was super nervous about it coming crashing down in the middle of the night, but after a few good (accidental) knocks with my elbow during glass scraping I got over the anxiety really fast. This thing is solid! It did swing a little during a recent earthquake, but no worries with it staying suspended.

 

The cords are routed up and out and then disguised with a cord keeper thingy from....Home Depot. It's got double sided tape on the back holding it up to the wall and then the cover comes off if I need to get the cords out. The cords exit from the bottom and run behind the tank to the side of the stand where they form a lovely rats nest of cables. (It pains me to admit that I haven't done any cord wrangling on this tank and it's been 5 months.) Another cool thing about this canopy is that I can keep the full length of hanging cable wrapped up and tucked between the lights and the canopy. That way if I ever need to remove canopy, I can lower the whole thing by see-sawing it down until it rests on the tank and then I can remove it completely! ALL. BY. MYSELF. I don't know when/if this will be necessary, but it's a really cool feature.

 

By far my favorite thing about this canopy is that there is room for my fan! It gets toasty in this part of San Diego and we don't have A/C so evaporative cooling is a must.

 

Here's the underside view - it sits about 13 inches off the water so perfect for air flow, heat escape, and light blending:

 

That amount of space between the lights and the tank is super new for me. With my IM8, I accidentally mounted the light like 4 inches from the water (and turned it down to 10% to compensate), so this has been really nice for top views after feeding. 

 

Here's a few of those top views. 

 

May 10, 2020  - Right side (Happy reef Mother's Day!):

 

May 10, 2020 - Left side:

 

More to come! Hope all the Mom's out there are having a happy Mother's Day! We all love you!