Sean's 56g starphire

reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Picked up a used tank on craigslist yesterday. This is going to be a rather slow build as I'd like this tank to go in the same place where the RSM 130D is currently - but after I replace the carpet. In order to replace the carpet under the RSM 130D I needed a tank to move the corals and fish into temporarily so it became an excuse to get another tank.

The tank measures 36x18x20 and is made from 3/8" starphire glass. There's a big overflow box on the left side measuring 4"x6" and the return is plumbed back up through the overflow box out to a spraybar. Oak cabinet is in fair condition and will be re-finished, the canopy unfortunately wasn't part of the deal as it had been broken previously. Included with the tank is a 20g Euro-fil sump, two Little-Giant external pumps, 300w heater and an unused Jebo skimmer all for $300.

The sump, pumps, heater and skimmer were all extra's that I don't really need to use, I can use the existing sump/skimmer/pump setup from the RSM 130D. The two Vortech MP10's will definitely be going on this tank, measuring the glass thickness no thicker than 3/8" was mandatory so I could use the MP10's. Also as part of this build I'll be adding a UV sterilizer and a controller. I notice there's no place to run filtration media like carbon or Purigen so might try some kind of DIY rack later on if it proves to be necessary.

Sand from my current tank will be dumped and replaced with 3" of carib-sea dry aragonite and then I plan to use the live rock from the 130D. Lighting will be by Kessil, possibly two of the A150W's unless their new light comes out soon and probably another strip of actinic supplement LED's. So anyone know where I can find plans to build a canopy? :goofy:

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sk8rdn

sk8rdn

Has been struck by the ban stick
Score! Good job...

....Broadcast in High Fidelity Stereo Sound where available....
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
This project was put on hold for a couple reasons, mostly I was waiting until the Kessil A350's came out so I could decide which direction I was going with lighting. The deciding factors really came down to my tank size. At 36 inches it will take two A350's to light it the way I want, if the tank had been 48 inches I still could have just used two A350's at the same cost. But for the $800-900 cost of 2 Kessils I knew I could build something pretty nice.

So here we are with my second DIY LED lighting project. Parts are sourced from rapidled and heatsinkusa again and I used a massive 32 x 8 1/2 inch heatsink that would give Sigmund Freud something to talk about.

Here's the selection of LED's:

8 Cree 5-watt Neutral White LED's
24 Cree 3-watt Royal Blue LED's
12 Ultraviolet LED's

I thought a lot about mixing regular blues and royal blues as well as the cyan, green and the red LED's on the market. The selection of the neutral whites is an experiment and the idea was to use a white LED that included a more full spectrum. Using 5-watt LED's allows me to use 1 driver instead of two if I used 3-watt and I'm semi-hopeful there could be a more intense shimmer from the more intense point source of light. The 24 royal blue LED's give approximately a 2:1 ratio of blue to whites.

If for some reason I don't like the neutral whites it wouldn't take more than an hour to replace them later on. All wiring for the 4 LED channels and the cooling fans is snaked inside one wire sleeve and there's fully insulated connectors on each end to the cable harness can be disconnected.

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It would have cost more than $800 to light this tank with Kessil's, more than $1500 to light it with Ecotech Radion's. The DIY project including heatsink and dimmable drivers was about $500. Money saved paid for the aquarium controller and keeping with the DIY spirit of this build I chose the Reef Angel. I wanted the tangled mess of wires hidden so the LED drivers and controller is mounted inside an old night stand (another craigslist find).

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And here's a pic of the lights mounted inside the canopy. The canopy was another custom build since this tank didn't have one when I bought it. The canopy couldn't be built until I knew what kind of lights I wanted to use.

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More to come. The sump area is just about complete and the tank is being filled with water from the RSM 130 tank gradually.
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Here's the completed sump area looking as clean as it ever will. The return pump is an Eheim 1262 plumbed externally with a chiller and 8-watt UV sterilizer in line up to the spray bar.

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I added a second wier in the sump and a media shelf to hold a couple bags of CPE. The 6-inch fan is for cooling and increased evaporation. I've filled the PM kalk reactor and tested it out with the Tom's aqualifter but the aqualifter had a variety of issues so it's being replaced by a dosing pump from Reef Angel.

All rocks, corals and have fish were moved over from the RSM 130D a few days ago and are adjusting well. More pics to come!
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Here's a shot of the entire aquarium. The tank had a short cycle period of about 3 weeks with a few pieces of LR from the RSM tank on top of a new sandbed. All live rock, corals and fish were moved from the RSM 130D tank this past weekend and everything seems to be doing fine. The shy fish are still getting used to the environment but the big longfin fairy wrasse is loving it. The wrasse was really cramped in the RSM tank for a short while after the RBTA moved to the center and expanded but it's got plenty of room now.

The oak cabinet had some faded reddish stain on it like cherry or mahogany. I stripped it down and put an oak stain and finish on it. The canopy I made from red oak and then stained and finished to match.


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dmatt88

dmatt88

Has been struck by the ban stick
Wow. Its in hi def. Sweet build dude

..........tequilla is not my friend anymore
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Thanks! the sump took 2 coats of primer and two coats of paint. Nothing special, I think it was some Glidden semi-gloss paint I had left over from painting the door frames etc in the house.
 
BLADEYAMAHA

BLADEYAMAHA

Well-Known Member
Sean, I have to say it again, AWESOME SET UP MAN! :) Hope the Elegance Coral does Great for you, it looks awesome too!:D
 
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