Fish building/man cave build!

[dantimdad]

Sorry I haven’t been posting. I have been so busy and not at all happy with my 45 AIO nano reef. I am thinking about going with a little bit larger tank and a sump again.


My freshwater planted tanks continue to amaze me. I sell a 5 gallon bucket of plants every three weeks and trim out about that much between the two tanks.


I have been doing a ton of cnc and laser engraving and 3d printing.


I finished the drywall work in my wife’s office and she started painting it

 

[sfin52]

Sorry I haven’t been posting. I have been so busy and not at all happy with my 45 AIO nano reef. I am thinking about going with a little bit larger tank and a sump again.


My freshwater planted tanks continue to amaze me. I sell a 5 gallon bucket of plants every three weeks and trim out about that much between the two tanks.


I have been doing a ton of cnc and laser engraving and 3d printing.


I finished the drywall work in my wife’s office and she started painting it

You know pics or it never happens

 

[dantimdad]

You know pics or it never happens

I’ll have pics of the office this week. Here’s. The 12 foot tank.

 

[dantimdad]

Here’s a stand im building for a buddy.

 

[dantimdad]

These are some laser projects.

 

[dantimdad]

If anyone within 100 miles of Hartselle has a 60 cube or a rsr 450 just the tank at a decent price let me know.

 

[dantimdad]

Well scratch the above request for tanks. I am picking up a Red Sea E 260 max for free!

The front glass has a big chip, however, I just happen to have a piece of half inch glass that's 48"x30" that I am trying to talk an unnamed aquarium manufacturer into cutting down to 90x55cm for me.

I will pick the tank up tomorrow and, of course start modifying the heck out of it. I am going to see about cutting out the internal sump to allow more room and drilling the tank for a fijicube 800gph overflow I have laying around. I think my buddy has an RS sump out of an older model that will fit nicely and I can put in my curve 9 elite. (no kill like overkill!)

This will be a fun, slow build. I think I am going to start completely over with dry rock because I just can't seem to get rid of aiptasia or bristle worms completely.

I will probably use the kessil a360we I have and build some light bars to go with it on a custom 2020 light rack like the other two tanks.

For the stand, I believe I will rebuild the doors to look like the 5 foot tank it will be next too.

 

[dantimdad]

So I am going Sunday to get the free tank. However I am going to have to buy a pice of glass. No one wants to cut 1/2” including me. lol

 

[dantimdad]

Btw I am debating my choice in lighting. I may go with two AI 16 or possibly two Red Sea 50.

Given the space I have this is about as big as I’ll ever be able to get so whatever I do I am going to do it once. That’s why I’m taking my time this time around.

 

[dantimdad]

So I got the tank and stand today the stand is not useable. It’s what cause the tank to leak to begin with then it got a big chip in it causing me to need to get a new front glass.

I am going to cut out the partition for the internal filter, remove the Red Sea bulkhead mess and close up the holes.

Then I will drill for a Fijicube overflow.

The stand will be 3030 (I have one almost done anyway I will adjust the size)

Still deciding on lighting, flow and sump.

I already have risers, ato and ato container that I built under @Lowell Lemon guidance almost 5 years ago.

I may build a custom sump. Haven’t decided. My cnc will cut 24”x 16” so that would actually work and allow room for the topoff container

Hers some nasty before pics

 

[dantimdad]

If you were running a 36" hybrid fixture with an a360we and 4 T5 36" bulbs. What combination T5s would you run? I like a slightly blue appearance but nothing that looks cartoonish. I used to run Gieseman Megachrome 12000K MH with a little actinic VHO thrown in and liked it a lot.

 

[sfin52]

I really like the coral plus with blue plus

 

[sfin52]

I may have a video for you. Brb

 

[sfin52]

If you were running a 36" hybrid fixture with an a360we and 4 T5 36" bulbs. What combination T5s would you run? I like a slightly blue appearance but nothing that looks cartoonish. I used to run Gieseman Megachrome 12000K MH with a little actinic VHO thrown in and liked it a lot.

This may help.

 

[dantimdad]

This may help.

Ok so actinic and and ab special seems to be a good starting point

 

[dantimdad]

Next question: skip the kessil and just use 3x39 watt t5 or not?

The tank is 36x22x21.5 roughly.

I will be keeping mainly lps and softies but I have to have a monti cap and slimer

 

[sfin52]

Next question: skip the kessil and just use 3x39 watt t5 or not?

The tank is 36x22x21.5 roughly.

I will be keeping mainly lps and softies but I have to have a monti cap and slimer

I really like the saturation and you grow sps with t5.
The led really provides shimmer.

 

[dantimdad]

I really like the saturation and you grow sps with t5.
The led really provides shimmer.

I would definitely miss the shimmer

 

[dantimdad]

Ordered some t5 bulbs to test the hybrid fixture I have. If it works, I will go with an a360we and 3 ATI special blue and one actinic or two and two. I will adjust the white with the kessil until I get the look I want. So the t5 will be doing the heavy lifting for coral growth and color. IF the fixture doesn't work ( it has an electronic dimming setup) I will just order new ballasts that are manually dimmable. Either way, it'll be T5/Kessil on this tank. Unless I can talk my buddy into selling me just one radion out of the three he's selling.

Going to start on the sump this week and building the extrustion frame for the stand. I will mock up the sump baffles with luan plywood on the CNC before I cut the more expensive acrylic parts.

I ordered some acrylic in the color I want for the baffles and some filament to match to change the accent color on the Curve 7 I am trading for this week. I also ordered color PVC and some other stuff to keep me going on the project. Gotta go to storage and get some stuff out too.

I will take pics along the way and post them.

 

[dantimdad]

Ugh, my acrylic order got cancelled. Apparently, it took 5 days to figure out they were out of it in the color I wanted.