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Dual Personality Frag Tank


Reburn

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Mine were about 8-10" off the water. I'd get splashing on the bulb on occasion but never had one blow up on me in the 4 years I've been running them. That's not to say I haven't been stupid lucky up to this point. [emoji12]

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

So it's been a couple dog years since I've update this thread.

But I'm not ready to type a full update so here is a teaser.

I mounted the ballasts with nylon bolts, nuts and used the rubber feet and mounted to the plywood so they are completely isolated from the rest of the electrical system and can't ground to the stand just in case something goes bad.

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Man that regulator makes me drool. I love a nice SS regulator build. How much did that one set you back? I've really been looking into getting something like that but the $500 price tag scares me away every time. Also...on the glass shield comments. Necessary for mogul? No. All UV filtering is in the bulb. Hang them high enough and be careful about surface turbulence? probably fine too. Ever been working in the tank and brushed your knuckle or wrist on the glass shield of the halide pendant? I have, happens almost every time I go in the tank for anything. Pretty hot huh? Multiply that by about 1000x and that's the heat you'll feel if the glass shield wasnt there and you touched the bulb accidentally. Too many positives, not enough setbacks to running the glass shields. If you're worried about par, just lower them an inch or two

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Thanks for the compliment!!! I'll be honest the regulator was $360 shipped and insured. I got it from flowerfishs on planetedtank.net. He posts regulators in the for sale section sometimes.

I've decided to not run the glass shields because the weight and the design. Hamilton designed those reflectors where you unscrew a trim piece and slide the glass out the back. This makes removing the glass Impossible with the fixture in the air. I would rather not take down the ladder bar every 6-9 months to do lamp changes as its really a 2 person job. I will be flying 14" off the water to start and the ladder rack will be adjustable.

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Since I promised an update. I'll keep this simple. Since I know we're like yea blah blah words, great. SHOW ME PICTURES.

here ya go

Full shot. The lights will suspend by the light bars and shackles by adjustable cables.

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Ladder rack and light layout. Just need to weld it up. Working on the DIY led stunner strips. Once those are finished it will get welded up.

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Refugium area. Flow will be controlled by a spears gate valve. BRS reactor on left for carbon.

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Return area. Sicce 5.0 return pump, stand alone IM Minimax GFO reactor midsize version, Sicce 1.0 pump to bio pellets reactor then to reef octopus BR70 biopellets reactor and then over to avast marine CS1 recirculating skimmer with neck cleaner. The heater will also go in this return area as will the float control for the ATO and the backup emergency float.

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There is a Geos reef CR612 calcium reactor in the back there too. It will feed off the return pump and the BRS carbon reactor will too. You can also see the electronics compartment. The skimmer compartment will be fed by the main siphon on a bean animal external overflow controlled by a spears gate valve. The second bulkhead you see is for the unrestricted emergency drain. The ph, orp, temp and salinity probe will be in this compartment. The calcium reactor and ATO and dosers will dose into the bubble trap.

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Some general notes. I tried and tried to make the sump 16" deep. It's just not going to work. I have settled on 14" tall x 53" long x 30" wide. The width and the height on the inside compartment was the primary concern with going to 14". I needed to be able to get to the very back of the ultra wide sump with ease. At 16" it wasn't easy.

The stand has 3/4 ply tops on the top deck and bottom deck. They are both secured with some way oversized, countersunk, self tapping metal lags. There will also be 1" foam that goes on top of the tops.

The stand has adjustable leveling feet. The feet can hold 2k lbs each and have hard rubber on the bottom that oscillates and adjusts to sit flat.

No I know everyone is gonna say. But weren't you going to rhino coat your stand. Yes I still am. I am taking the time to mock everything up exactly before I take it back apart to coat the stand and marine grade epoxy paint the tops.

I still have a couple touches that I am working on that will take the sump area to a new level. Stay tuned!!!!

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It's the truth! Nice setup bud! Very jealous of your very steady and deliberate planning skills. You're like a, measure 5x, cut 1x kind of guy.

I'm more like a cut it now... then down the road, experiment with difference cut sizes to see if it improves function and aesthetics. Then preach to everyone that stability is the key and to not change anything...

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Ah that's such a nice way of saying good planning on the slowest build ever lol

But that is why I have built egg crate sumps. It's a lot easier to cut that egg crate then to figure out, crap I wish I had an extra inch or two to get my skimmer out.

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Thanks bud. I think I'll take engineers heaven as a compliment.

One thing that I'm working on is a couple DIY upflow algae scrubbers.

I don't really plan on or want to run the biopellets. But I have designed the sump to have a place for that equipment if I need it. Same with the GFO. That's why it's stand alone. So it can be removed or installed on a whim. This is why it was so important to me to get mocked up. So I can see/feel/touch the actual dimensions and actually pull equipment. I'm lazy like Ty so if it's hard to get equipment in and out I am likely not going to keep up with pump maintenance.

My very hopeful plan is to use the skimmer and algae scrubbers as nutrient removal. This will leave the whole fuge area filled with rock as a cryptic zone. I am still going to rail mount my kessil A150 Amazon Suns over the fuge compartment to grow macro algae in the case that the 2 algae scrubbers can't keep up with nutrient removal.

The drain lines will not have any filter sock holders or bubble traps. There will simply be a pipe that extends from the bulkhead under the water level to keep the full siphons and noise down. If I need to utilize socks for some reason I will use tie on socks as temporary items.

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