+Hydro Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 I got the special stainless steel gliders for my lighting rack, all I needed was the rack that my cabinet maker was to have ready for me on Friday. He let me down so I decided to just build it myself out of steel instead of marine plywood. The rack is the length of the tank which is 130" and is 12" wide, it is attached to the canopy with the gliders. Attached to the rack is 820 watts of actinic fluorescents and 2000 watts of MH. The MH lighting is pushed all the way to the front of the tank canopy and is then angled back to shine light more on the front of the corals instead of just on top. The actinics are centered over the middle of the tank. With one hand I can push all of the lighting back 8" to get inside when I need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 820 watts of actinics is alot! If its too much much I'm going to change some of the bulbs to another color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 awesome looking good!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrienne Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 With one hand I can push all of the lighting back 8" to get inside when I need to. GENIUS!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 14, 2010 Author Share Posted June 14, 2010 Maybe creative but not genius, thank you though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 it will defntly make the colors POP...anything with flourescent will glow....what and c!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 15, 2010 Author Share Posted June 15, 2010 Lighting is installed!!!! The idea to bring the lights forward and angle them back works GERAT. The front of my rocks aren't shaded like they are in my 175, so the corals shoudn't have any shadows either. I only turned 2 of the 5 lamps on today, don't want to fry the fish just yet. The lights are being air-cooled right now but the water-cooling hasn't been hooked up yet b/c my chiller isn't ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 Im sooo jealous!! looks AWESOME... if I win the lottery (wishful thinking) you willing to come help hahaha... great job man and love the idea of the turned lights on runners!!! you may not think Genius but I will say Brilliant!! glad it worked out!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lamont Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 That's tight man! I want to see all five lit up! You may not have to run your office lights.Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crendon2003 Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 That looks so awesome talk about a saltwater tank, I'm jealous!!. Great job. Keep the pics coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 17, 2010 Author Share Posted June 17, 2010 Thanks everyone! Also I want to thank Lumatek for the digital ballasts! They even sent me the dimmable ballasts, I wasn't expecting that. I love the idea because if I'm trying to acclimate a new coral I can dial back the light over it and slowly turn it up. They even have an overdrive option, on the 400 watt says "super lumens" but on the 250 watt ballast the overdrive is marked "HQI". I'm going to call tomorrow and talk with them more about this feature. I installed (5) 400's and (2) 250's in the stand. The lighting fixture for the frag tank is on backorder and I have no idea when I will get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 18, 2010 Author Share Posted June 18, 2010 The pic on the left is with the ballasts turned back to 250 watts and on the right 400 watts. I have to admit with all 400's on its a little overkill, as soon as they were all turned on my fish dissapeared. I may run it 400, 250, 400, 250, 400 for a week and then switch them. The switchable ballast is awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crendon2003 Posted June 18, 2010 Share Posted June 18, 2010 the 250 watts looks nice and u can tell the difference between the 250 and 400. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 I received the frag light yesterday which is great timing, its a dual 250 watt with 2x85 watt of actinics. Very nice fixture from Sunlight Supply, the model is Maristar. It has a fan in the top center that draws fresh air from both ends and then blows it out the top....finally. Many similar light fixtures that I have seen the fans are on one end and pull air through the fixture so the top is usually hot. This is a good idea for mounting it in a canopy especially, a discreet hole can be cut or drilled in the top above where the fan would be. This way the fixture would draw air from inside the canopy and blow the heat out the top, instead of the side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 I was PM'd with some questions about the dimmable ballast so I thought I would post a link for more info http://www.aquacave.com/lumatek-dimmable-br-250w--400w--metal-br-halide-electronic-ballast-2792.html# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 what kind of paint did you use to pain the back of it black? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 Black oil based from Lowes. It's not a color that you pick from the swatches they have, its a black base paint that is usually tinted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 awesome thanks... I will have to stop by there and get some to paint my 90gal because I dont want to fight with a background... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 I started moving over some of my corals, live rock, and fish today. I noticed that right away the corals that I had just taken from my display tank looked even better in the new tank. What is interesting is that I'm using the same bulbs on both tanks but one set of bulbs is 6 months old and the others are new. Knowing this I will always change my bulbs every 6 months. I think that I might take a picture of a coral in my display tank and move it straight over to the new tank for another photo. I will post them to show the difference. BTW I did not have the actinics turned on for these pics. Here are some iphone pics from this afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted June 22, 2010 Author Share Posted June 22, 2010 Well Sunday was the big day. We started breaking down my original tank and moving everything over to the new tank. There was about 500 lbs of live rock, all of my corals and frags, and all of my big fish. I wasn't intimidated by anything that I had to do with this tank until it came to the aquascaping, I'm a builder not an artist. I called Mark Callahan for some help and he recruited Jeremy (offroaddodge) and those guys ROCK! I loaded up rock and brought it to them and they placed every piece and it looks awesome. Within a few minutes they had their shirts off and had dove in, these guys are dialed in! Mark and Jeremy thanks again for your help, we really appreciate it. Here are some cell phone pics, I will get some better pics soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 Wow..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+achen Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 Very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 Wow! That looks good! (and that piece would look better over there, and this piece could fit in right here, which would let me move that coral there...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisfowler99 Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 looks amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 very nice!!!! way to Go I bet it sure feels nice to see your hard work almost finished!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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