Tylers Tank Build

[spit.fire]

Going kind of fancy for my fixture

its going to be 24" x 18", and lit up by 64x3w leds in clusters of 4 on 4 channels powered by ldd drivers controlled by my apex and 4x 24" t5 HO


The controller part of the setup is completed and the leds are all soldered onto the pcb boards, all i have left to do is far as the leds goes is buy or build a heatsink


as for the t5's, ive ordered sockets but i still havent decided on ballasts, im thinking i want to run 2x 2bulb ballasts so i can run 2 or 4 t5's at a time

so thats all the easy stuff


The fun begins now with building the housing

so far ive only gotten as far as drawing the housing on cad, im going with steel housing that will be painted white (i was thinking polished stainless but its a pita to form with a small brake)

heres the fixture so far

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a171/tyty_220/Light_zpscba39815.jpg

there will be 4x small fans blowing in from the ends and 2 vents at the top, the whole center section will be 1 large heat sink and the sides will have reflectors for the t5's made out of stainless steel

[WarDog]

Interesting! Looking forward to the progression on this fixture build. I wish I had a brake press :0(

[spit.fire]

Interesting! Looking forward to the progression on this fixture build. I wish I had a brake press :0(


I just bought a cheap 24" from kms just to build this light

[spit.fire]

Well, I broke the brake.... Doing what the manual said it can handle.... So now I'll have to send it out to my buddies shop for forming

[Trevor W]

Really looking forward to how the light turns out!
What size tank did you go with, sorry if I missed it somewhere.

[spit.fire]

Really looking forward to how the light turns out!
What size tank did you go with, sorry if I missed it somewhere.

36x24x16 rimless, external overflow

[spit.fire]

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a171/tyty_220/Untitled_zps63b9d2a5.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a171/tyty_220/Stand_zps6d859dee.png

[Trevor W]

Very nice!
I also currently have a tank being built that is very close to your dimensions.
36 x 24 x 18H rimless with external c2c overflow on the Left side pane.
Tank and sump should be finished at the end of the week/early next week.
That stand looks interesting will the tank be centered on it or off to one side?

[canadianbudz604]

I've got the same tank built with 3/8 glass. Actually needing some help with drilling/external overflow. Maybe u can help me spit.fire or trevor

[spit.fire]

Tank on the right side, my terrarium goes on the left

[spit.fire]

so just so everyone knows the stand will likely never get finished, ill put the top bottom and right sheet of plywood on, set up the tank, and procrastinate on doing the rest forever


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a171/tyty_220/Stand_zps2921aeb4.jpg

[spit.fire]

Got my tank today. Now all I need is to build my stand...

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/03/uzyry2y2.jpg

[daplatapus]

so just so everyone knows the stand will likely never get finished, ill put the top bottom and right sheet of plywood on, set up the tank, and procrastinate on doing the rest forever



Lol, isn't that always the way. I'm forcing myself to get my stand done first, before I hook up the plumbing. Thankfully I have a tank going while in the process to keep my enthusiasm at bay, haha.

Looking good man, keep the pics and updates coming.

[spit.fire]

Made some design changes to the stand. Went taller and longer because of how shallow my tank is

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/25/azu7eqan.jpg

[duncangweller]

What would you charge for knocking up a metal stand like that? Say with the dimensions of 30x30x36?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[spit.fire]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/31/avyqa4ub.jpg


Laminated to top, wife's tank is ready for plumbing after a bit of sump modification

Sump is holding a few corals and a fish until the tanks are ready

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/31/yga7ute9.jpg

Sophia checkin out the sump

[straightrazorguy]

:popcorn:

[kien]

Tagging along i guess....

[spit.fire]

Plumbed the wife's tank and she aquascaped it
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/01/une8ume2.jpg

My tank is almost ready to go on the stand

No water going from tank to sump yet as I need to remove all the corals from the sump to a random tank and sterilize the sump

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have my media reactors up and running as I'm not using liverock to cycle, just zeobak as I have a fear of bryopsis and bubble algae

[spit.fire]

Tanks full and skimmer is hooked up, now it sits until next weekend when I plumb my tank

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/02/u6amyve4.jpg

[spit.fire]

Got lazy, bought a brand new light, started modifying it...


http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/10/gy9azara.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/10/2eraba7u.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/10/5aba9etu.jpg

[Slyguy00]

Thats a cool idea

[spit.fire]

Ya it was cheaper to buy a whole fixture than it was to buy ballasts

[spit.fire]

Quick video of drilling glass

http://youtu.be/gl4k9g6INRs



http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/15/ave5eve6.jpg

[spit.fire]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/15/nahebe6a.jpg


My tank plumbed

[spit.fire]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/10/06/a7y2umym.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/10/06/8ehavete.jpg


More progress on the light

[Skimmerking]

looks good man

[spit.fire]

Spent a good chunk of my weekend drilling and tapping holes and breaking taps....

[Slyguy00]

Sweet light Tyler. Excited to see how it works.

[mike31154]

Spent a good chunk of my weekend drilling and tapping holes and breaking taps....

Are you using any kind of lubrication? I broke a few taps as well on aluminum work until I started using a bit of diesel fuel as lube. Kerosene or Mineral spirits might work as well, don't recall what the recommended lube for tapping alu is, but if you do a search I'm sure you'll hit the jackpot.

[spit.fire]

Are you using any kind of lubrication? I broke a few taps as well on aluminum work until I started using a bit of diesel fuel as lube. Kerosene or Mineral spirits might work as well, don't recall what the recommended lube for tapping alu is, but if you do a search I'm sure you'll hit the jackpot.


I used wd40, they were breaking because of the fins on the heatsinks

[spit.fire]

Got some new corals

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/25/216a3e090b37ae4c9443f2986bf16f72.jpg

Anything Albert says is a lie

[spit.fire]

Version 3 of the hybrid

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/27/e47dcc75e44211bafa92b3306ac50c3c.jpg

[spit.fire]

T5's all mounted and wired, leds mounted but not wired (misplaced a driver) http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/28/788b8b9be155f549ca6ca38ac51f993c.jpg

[spit.fire]

Wife's side

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/30/9e4335cc35cedcb52b8a33961c2f4a3a.jpg

[spit.fire]

Hybrid hung, might just put non dimmable drivers in it

Only 1 channel on in pic and old t5 bulbs


http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/01/5e0ab064e4248791d37a0aa1a8b74d0e.jpg
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/01/70b548559c8dd87d1f0e2ff40eead2c5.jpg

[spit.fire]

Few shots of the wife's side
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/11/5411fe3c15b56c366cd55bca3aac2391.jpghttp://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/11/eec8ddd3c81c637be7457b401717f4b6.jpghttp://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/11/0e6357a7c041809e3f6d50486bc78269.jpg