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440 gallon build with water-cooled lighting


Hydro

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I officially have tank envy.

me too wait till you see it in person!!!! pictures dont do it justice

thank you

your welcome dont worry you will get through the kinks and will be able to enjoy the ocean in your office :)

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That's a pretty thick bed too. It would have caused you trouble down the line anyway.

It was only about 1" to 1.5" deep when I first put it in but now the powerheads have created dunes making it 5" deep in a some place and down to the glass bottom in other places. I could have worse problems going on....

On a positive note I was able to dial in my calcium reactor on my first try, just got lucky. It has been days and I haven't added 2 part, my PH is around 8 and my KH is 11....I'm cool with that as long as its steady.

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That's a pretty thick bed too. It would have caused you trouble down the line anyway.

It was only about 1" to 1.5" deep when I first put it in but now the powerheads have created dunes making it 5" deep in a some place and down to the glass bottom in other places. I could have worse problems going on....

On a positive note I was able to dial in my calcium reactor on my first try, just got lucky. It has been days and I haven't added 2 part, my PH is around 8 and my KH is 11....I'm cool with that as long as its steady.

Until you know who messes with it!

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Stephan, I think you should let the sand bed run its course. Only a certain amount of sand can blow away. Eventually it will settle. If the bottom of the tank is exposed then put some sand in that spot then put a small piece of live rock on top of the sand. I personally like the look of the uneven sand bed. It looks more natural. I went through the same issues when I added my wave maker. Now my sand bed stays extremely clean. Even when i disturb my sand bed there is none of that brownish/tan dust cloud. I think when the power head blow the sand it cleans it. All of the bad stuff is separated from the sand and sucked up it my mechanical filters.

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That is a wicked setup. I'm really interested in knowing more about the chiller and the water cooled lights

Thank you

We are close, the chiller is almost finished. I'm ready for it, my office stays about 80 degrees during the day with the lights set back to 250 watts. Before I kept it at 72 degrees and the a/c ran about 1/2 the time now it runs all day just to keep 80. If I turn on the ballast up to 400 watts it will get over 82 within an hour or so.

With all the lighting on its 2,500 watts of MH and nearly 1000 watts of fluorescents, that's 10,000 BTU of bulb heat, 5000 BTU of ballast heat, and at least 2000 BTU of fluorescents (not sure on this figure, probably higher). So basically that is 1.5 tons of a/c being used to cool this tank taking away from the 5 ton a/c that we are using. But b/c of the inefficiency of a/c it only converts about 50-60% of the 5 ton rating (based in compressor size) in to cooling BTU's....so I'm using 1.5 tons of the 2.5 tons of cooling that my a/c actually outputs.

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I vacuumed up most of the sand and turned back the powerheads to 1/2. This seems to have fixed my problem with the sand blowing around.

I also replaced my marlin pump with a baraccuda pump which doubled my water flow and to be honest I should have even gone one size bigger. This new pump is 4000 gallons per hour and I really could have used a 5000 GPH pump. It doesn't push my water level up above the bottom of the plastis edge at the top of the tank. When you look at the tank you can see the top of the water. My canopy will cover it up I think so it may not be that big of a deal. I may have to use both pumps to get the GPH I need.

BTW My tangs no longer have ich!!! I turned on the sterilizer and fed them emerald entree with garlic and zoe mixed in (let set for 15 min). Everyday the spots got less and less and now they are gone....around a week or so. The colors on my fish are amazing right now! I think that it is from the food, they have never looked this good. We always feed frozen food but we never add the zoe and garlic on a regular basis. Disclaimer....I know there is still ich in my tank but my fish are healthy enough to fight it off, and that is why I say THEY no longer have ich. :blush:

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If you need a kalk reactor, I have a large Geo for sale. Can't wait to see that tank, it looks naughty! :)

I agree with Gabe, vertical stack, try and get a hydro-tornado going. If you keep burying that sugar fine, it will calm down at some point. Set your controller to the lagoon setting. Stagger the flow, although you could just run 2 and get the same effect. Or just trade me for some squirts! Just kiddin'!!!!!

Flow can be a pain, I have 3 K4s, and 4 K14s in my 200 and there are dead spots that I am always trying to correct for.

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I cant wait till u get he SOHAL, he is so BAD A__!!!im gettn close to knocking out the wall where my chiller and reactor is and going BIGGER tank size.6x2x2.. I hate wanting a new bigger tank.

haha! a true reef junkie.

LMK when you upgrade. I might want that 120G of yours.

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If you need a kalk reactor, I have a large Geo for sale. Can't wait to see that tank, it looks naughty! :D

I agree with Gabe, vertical stack, try and get a hydro-tornado going. If you keep burying that sugar fine, it will calm down at some point. Set your controller to the lagoon setting. Stagger the flow, although you could just run 2 and get the same effect. Or just trade me for some squirts! Just kiddin'!!!!!

Flow can be a pain, I have 3 K4s, and 4 K14s in my 200 and there are dead spots that I am always trying to correct for.

I think that I finally got it dialed in, but I ended up placing 3 on the back glass and one on each end. I tried stacking them but it just wouldn't push the water 12'.

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I cant wait till u get he SOHAL, he is so BAD A__!!!im gettn close to knocking out the wall where my chiller and reactor is and going BIGGER tank size.6x2x2.. I hate wanting a new bigger tank.

:D

I'm sure it will be awesome!

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when are you haveing people over?

Saturday around 11

If enough people were going we could have a frag swap and everyone could bring their used equipment to sell. I can setup a small tank for the corals with some MH lighting.

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Cool, I bet you have some great corals for sale too. I will setup a 30 gallon with frag racks with 400 watt light, I also have plenty of floor space for used equipment, we just need to figure out how to get the message out to everyone.

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Do you want me to put a post in the announcement forum? I will be going to Houston next weekend so I won't be able to make it unfortunately.

Sure that would be great, wish you could make.

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