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Thread: Phurst's acrylic/LED madness

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    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    Phurst's acrylic/LED madness

    Upon starting my new job back in January, one of the first things I did was ask if I could set up a small tank in my office. After getting the 'thumbs up' from the boss-man, I set to work. While I was laid off, one of my local club members was selling off this nice little 10g acrylic tank for a song. I just couldn't pass it up, even though I didn't have anywhere to put it. I figured I'd land a job eventually, and knew it would be a great office tank. Here it is after I got it.



    I had the idea that I wanted a nice BTA and a pair of clowns to be the focus of the tank, but needed to figure out lighting that would be intense enough, but not generate much in the way of heat. That pretty much left me with T5s or LEDs. I've never been overly fond of T5s, and I couldn't find a fixture I liked, so i started looking more at LEDs. I finally settled on a 12 LED kit from Rapid LED. The kit included 6 three watt Cree cool white diodes and 6 three watt Cree royal blue LEDs. I knew this would be PLENTY of light over a 10. Assembly was completed in an evening. That left me with the need to mount the array somehow. Again, I turned to my talented local reefers for ideas. One of them does a little acrylic fabrication on the side, and after describing what I had in mind, I turned the tank and LED array over to him to work his magic. And work magic is what he did. he returned the tank to me a couple of weeks later with a REALLY slick custom enclosure.





    The enclosure incorporates a fan to keep the heat sink cool, a knob on the back to dim the LEDs, and an articulating arm in the back so i can move the light out of the way to work on the tank. He really went above and beyond, and I couldn't have been happier.



    I spent the time it took Richard to build my light enclosure to gather all the other things I would need to run this tank successfully. I grabbed a MJ 1200 to use for the return pump and a 25w heater, an ATO float switch, aqualifter pump, and 5 gallon bucket for ATO, a used AC Jr. controller with DC8, temp and pH probes, power strips, a Ref octopus nano skimmer and various odds and ends. I had plenty of rock and sand in the sump of my tank at home to use, so I grabbed some of that, mixed up 10 gallons of fresh saltwater and headed off to work one weekend to set up. Everything went fairly smoothly, and a few hours later, everything was up and running. I've never been any good at aquascaping, and this tank is no exception. I've come to terms with the fact that I suck at it, and have moved on



    Part 2 will be coming along shortly.
    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

  2. #2
    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    Despite the fact that I used well established sand and rock that was all transported underwater, I opted to let the tank sit empty for about 3 weeks. I never detected any signs of a cycle, but I wanted t make sure things were good and stable before I started adding anything. This is a small volume of water, and I was going to be breaking one of my own rules by adding an anemone to an 'unestablished' tank, so I wanted things to be as stable as they could be. While I was waiting things out, I picked up what was to be the tank centerpiece. A very unusual purple with green tips BTA. Here it is right after I got it home. it had to stay in a specimen container in my tank at home so I could easily remove it when the time came.



    Finally, after 3 weeks of waiting, the nem made the move to it's new home.



    The anemone wandered for a full 24 hours before finding it's happy spot, which is not the spot it's in in the above picture. After a few days, I picked up a pair of percs from a fellow club member, and in they went, along with a modest cleanup crew of 1 nassarius, 1 trochus and 1 margherita snail and 3 blue leg hermits, as well as a cleaner shrimp picked up from yet another fellow club member who was breaking down his tank.

    Depending on how you look at it, and what your opinion of them is, my new office is about 1/2 a mile from a PetCo. This particular PetCo isn't too bad, and in fact, the aquatics section is managed by a good friend of mine, and a fellow reef club member. I pop over there every once in a while at lunch to see what they have. I was there one day and they had managed to get a nice mini-maxi carpet. it was clearly unhappy under their single T12 lighting, so I picked it up.



    It took it well over a week to begin fully expanding again due to the massive light increase over the conditions at the store.
    As things seemed to be going well, I decided to start picking stuff up from fellow reefers at meets, and bringing in a few things from home as well. Some of it is just extra stuff i had in the tank at home, and some of it is particularly nice, like this really nice pair of pink ricordea.



    And this poor, tiny maxima that was suffering in a fellow members tank, where it was being picked to death by his trigger.



    The maxima is still slowly recovering. It stayed tightly shut for over a week once I got it. Above, it's just starting to open up, and is looking much better now.

    Part 3 coming soon.
    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

  3. #3
    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    Amongst some of the stuff I brought in to try under the LEDs were some SPS frags I had as a result of getting a little overzealous cleaning the big tank at home. While there was plenty of flow in the tank, it was static, and routed through some Loc-Line which is great stuff, but looks huge in a nano. So, to create more turbulent flow, I installed a Hydor-Flo rotating outlet. I've used these before, and I know they need regular cleaning to keep working as intended. They're also a little bulky, but it mostly gets viewed straight on in this tank, so it's not so bad, and I don't mind cleaning it every once in a while.



    The water parameters have been very good in this tank so far. Mostly, I imagine, as a result of using well seeded rock and sand, feeding very carefully, the skimmer, and the 2 gallons of water I change weekly. Never satisfied though, I decided the empty middle chamber in the rear of the tank would make a nice fuge. Now, what to light it with. Space is limited, and heat is, of course always a concern. Why, more LEDs sounded like a good answer! The cool white and royal blue LEDs of the main light are good for growing coral, but much too cool to be really great for algae (in fact, not a speck grows in the display portion of the nano). I contacted the great folks at Rapid LED and asked their advice. They suggested using either neutral white or warm white diodes for growing macro algae. Whit this information in mind, I picked up a 1" x 12" heat sink, 2 neutral white LEDs, 2 warm white LEDs and one cool white LED just to round out the white spectrum.



    I also opted to use 40* optics on these LEDs to really punch the light down into a fairly narrow space. So far, it's working great. Nitrates and phosphates remain at zero, and the cheato is growing pretty well. A lot better than I thought it would, in fact. One neat side effect of the fuge light is, that it's strong enough to bleed a little light through the blue false rear wall. Freeby moonlights! it also allows me to take cool pics, like this one



    Things are obviously growing, and doing well in the tank so far. It's been pretty easy to maintain, as long as I'm diligent about it. Seeing as I'm in front of it 40+ hours a week, it's easy to do a little work here and there so that it's not at all a burden. Not to mention the fact that the tank is VERY popular at work. People stop by all the time to check it out. I even sneak in a little education every once in a while.

    Anyway, here is the tank as of this afternoon.



    I hope y'all enjoyed reading about it half as much as I enjoy maintaining it. I'll continue to update as things progress.
    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

  4. #4
    Insightful Reefer Mostly Rock's Avatar
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    I hope you have better luck with that Mini-Maxi Nem and your clowns than Salty did. ...then there was 1. Looks like he likes the nems more than the clowns though It really is a beautiful tank! You've done a great job, and your aquascaping seems to be improving . How's your big reef recovering?

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    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    I never could get my old 150 back in balance. I ended up tearing it down and selling off the tank. I bleached and then re-cured the rock and set up a 90 in it's place.
    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Sweet looking tank. I do love the little nems. I gave my other clown to a buddy to take care of for me but he may be moving in June so I'll probably get it back. I have the chance to get a purple martini also. The guy wants $50 for it. My tank is a little crowded right now but we'll see.

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    Insightful Reefer Mostly Rock's Avatar
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    Hell, that's a great reason to get a bigger tank! I have 7 because of that philosophy... and now I need a BIGGER one! I wish I was around when Phurst offloaded his 150. Really, a couple of 300's would suit me just fine. ...then I'd be pining after a couple 400's, then on to the 500's... I should just move into the basement at the Atlanta Aquarium.

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    your little office tank is looking great phurst congrats.

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    Our Brotha Down Unda
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    awesome project bud



    Vquilibrium Productions

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    wow awesome job on this 10! high five!

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    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    Added a few more small frags from home, and the last of the intended livestock,





    Latest FTS:
    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Sweeeeeet!

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    Grand Master Reefer Pat's Avatar
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    very nice!!
    how did you figure out how many leds you will need to light your lil tank?
    in anticipation for my Miami trip this is my song of the week!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDp5IP76PeY

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    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    I didn't do any sort of complex formula. The 12 LED kit from Rapid LED fit the opening in the eurobracing very nicely, and I knew 12 diodes would be more than enough light to keep whatever I wanted.
    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

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    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    Beautiful nano!
    Carmie


    Only disasters happen fast!





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    Crispy Reef Monkey **MOD** Phurst's Avatar
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    My birdsnest that had been growing so well took a tumble after I left for the day yesterday. It was on my brain when I came in this morning. I'm not sure if it was the brain or the anemone, but I ended up having to cut back a lot of dead this morning

    **KEEP ME AWAY FROM SUPER GLUE ... i tend to glue my lips shut !!**

  17. #17
    Insightful Reefer Mostly Rock's Avatar
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    Sorry about your Birdsnest! I had a Frogspawn fall on my Elegance once, it melted half of the Elegance before I found it in the am. Everything grew back over time, but it was very disturbing.

  18. #18
    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    That stinks!
    Carmie


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