BDare's Upgrade from 70 to 120

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bdare

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It's that time again. About 18 months ago I upgraded from a 40B to my 70. Part of the upgrade process will include removing all the invasive corals in my tank. In particular I'm looking to get rid the Texas Trash Palys. They have almost taken over my tank. Here's a current picture under just atinics.
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Orders are trickiling in. My current sump is a 20H I built. The new sump will be a Trigger systems 36.
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I also got 75lbs of dry Pukani from BRS. Today I bought a 55 gallon tub to let the rock cure in. I've heard stories that this rock still has lots of organics which can pollute a tank. From the looks and the smell I'd say it's quite obvious. There are dead sponges all over the place.
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That's all for now...
 
Quick update... At first I was afraid it would be too hot to cure the rock in the garage so I setup my bin in the office where my tank is. I was quickly reminded how bad curing live rock can smell. Under threat of my life, from the wife, I have sacrificed a "cooler" cure and have moved the rock to the garage. Hopefully the heat wave is over and we won't have any more 100 degree days. Not sure if the wife will jump on board, but I will be parking my car outside the garage to hopefully ensure the smell does not take over the upholstery of my vehicle rendering it unusable. :D

Also, I had to confess to my wife how much I spent in the past week on all my upgrades. I'm heading out of town tomorrow for a few days. I have to admit I'm a bit scared of what my happen to newly arriving packages in my absence... All prayers are welcome.
 
I've been busy....

1) Attached new frame. The old one was broken.
2) Removed old black silicone from the 2 front corners. The person who had the tank before me apparently used a razor blade to clean the glass and kept removing chunks of silicone. I taped them off and applied a new coat.
3) Filled the tank for an initial leak test. Also added 8 gallons of vinegar to get off all the old coraline algae.
4) Ran as much of the plumbing as possible. I'll be using soft threaded hoses for everything under the tank.
5) Attached the new LED's the the heat sink and soldered all the connections.
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6) Cut holes in the top of the canopy for fans to blow down on the back of the LED heat sinks to keep them cool.
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7) Ordered 2x120mm fans with brackets for mounting to the top of the canopy. I really liked these because of the honeycomb grill
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8) The dry pukani rock from BRS has reportedly had issues leaching phosphates. I added some lanthanum chloride to my curing bins to absorb as much of the phosphate as possible. The cloudy water is the phosphate binding to the phosphate remover.
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9) Still testing the water and waiting for the rock to finish curing. Still TONS of nitrites.
 
Fresh water leak test today!! Finally got just about all the plumbing parts I need. I just need to redo the plumbing from the return pump. For the test I just used what was already attached on the 70.

Here you can see the return line split by an OM Squirt 2 Way. I've had that OM for 4 years. No problems except occasional replacing the drum.
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Left side:
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Right Side (yes... there is a small drip. Need to find something to tighten the bulkhead.)
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FTS:
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It's been a week since I moved everything over to the 120. Some of the SPS have lightened up, but for the most part everyone is doing well.

We have LIGHT!
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FTS
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Left:
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Right:
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Skimmer working!
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Can you go into more detail on the led fixture? Led count, color mixture, drivers/power supplys, etc.

Tank looks very nice, keep the pics coming.

Tapatalk
 
@bdare wrote:
[img]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j320/benandkatie1026/72c95cd5.jpg[/img] alt=""> said:
That is a great picture [smilie=smile.gif]

Tank is looking good.
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The heat sink is 54x10. I used the existing 30x10 that was over my 70 and simply added another 24 inches to make up for the additional 2 feet in length of the 120.
 
All the LED's are CREE

In terms of the colors...

When I ordered the first set of lights for the 70 the newer blue LEDs were not yet available. I ended up ordering the following:
30 XR-E Royal Blue
15 XP-G Cool white
3 XR-E Warm White

The latest order I placed came with the brighter, more effecient blues so I went with a different mix.
22 Royal Blue
7 Cool White
7 Neutral White

I've also seen what a few red LEDs can do for a setup so I added 3 of those. I think they stand out pretty clear in the image above.

I have a total of 7 Meanwell dimmable drivers. Because there are essentially 2 different lighting setups I wanted to make sure both sides looked the same. Thus each side has it's own set of blue and white dimmers. I also didn't want to take up 7 of the 8 plugs on my DC8 so I combined power cords for a total of 3. The blues come on one side and then the other. I get a dusk / dawn effect with the sun rising on the right side and setting on the left. The whites all come on together.
 
@Heathd wrote:
Thanks for going into detail. How do you like the reds? Tapatalk said:
Love the Reds. It's amazing how they bring out the red in some of the corals. I've also never seen my clown fish or flame angel glow like they do!
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