Wow....Im suffering from some serious light envy here. Looks wicked man!

How on earth did I miss this thread?! That is by far the nicest stand I have ever seen. In-fricken-credible.

Tagging along

Your tank build is coming along very nicely. I'm sure you will be very impressed with that fixture once you get some bulbs in it. Have you found a source for the 5ft T5 bulbs yet?

Thanks for all the nice comments...

I'm still a complete noob as far as tank husbandry goes so I'm hoping this tank will be a massive improvement in that respect. I was very sloppy the last time around but I'm going into this one armed with a mountain more reading under my belt.

Last tank was softies and LPS and I had casualties even with these. I'm not surprised as I'd sorta just dump calc and alk into the tank and test every now and then. This tank will be primarily SPS if all goes well so I'm planning on being more diligent and prepared.

The old tank I think also was a little light on the hardware side of things.

I think the ASM G1-X I was sold was really under-sized. I also never got around to saving up for a second 250w mh so i only had one inside a spider reflector to span a 3.5 x 18 x 18 area. Hardware isn't everything but I believe it will help me out a great deal.

It appears that I can get the ATI bulbs I want from Proline (through Golds) or through Aquarium Obsessed. Have only gotten a price from AO and it was really good. My light arrived in-tact and quickly so I'm not adverse to giving Will some more of my business.

Red Coral can get in KZ, Giesemann and Aquascience bulbs for me but ATI are what I'm really after (based solely on reading the T5 thread on RC).

There is always reefgeek for the ATI bulbs as a backup too tho in the end that would likely cost me more.

Question for T5 users...I understand that a whole bank of lights goes out if one bulb burns out. Is this true? If so I think in the case of hard-to-get bulbs I may want to order a couple extras of each kind...

I think the Canreef sponsor "progressive reef" also has ATI bulbs...you might want to check them too.

Not 80w unfortunately. I did ask but thanks though...

That is strange as proline doesn't carry ATI and that is where I would order the 80w KZ and Aquascience from. HMMM as you said you do have other options for the ATI bulbs. BTW nice setup.
Kevin

Nothing's set in stone Kevin. If you could please PM me a price per bulb for the different brands perhaps I can be tempted =)

I did quite a bit of research into T5 lighting before I switched over from my old metal halide setup. Like you, I also was planning on going with all ATI bulbs despite how hard they were to come by at the time. Then I stumbled across this article:

http://translate.google.ca/translate...F_enCA273CA273

Seeing as aquascience bulbs are carried by most of our Canadian vendors, I thought I'd give them a try based on the results of the above experiement. So far I'm very happy with the 22K and 15K bulbs however I haven't tried any of the 17.5K duos yet. The 15K bulbs are more like a 10K bulb though as they emit a much more yellow colour than my Kz 14K New gen bulbs.

Interesting article which I had indeed come across myself. The corals under the AS certainly look better. Wish they had measured PAR and not LUX as the par is what matters I believe.

Regardless of what brand I go with it seems that a few places will order in 80w but none appear to regularily stock them which is too bad.

Any updates? :D

Lol I'm living through you right now didn't I tell you?

I have finalized my purchase list. I need to survive taxes, my wife's upcoming unpaid maternity and hopefully hold onto my job. After that we'll see. So no updates here until at least june or july I think.

Ha! And here I am going slow to try to pick up a few more tricks from your build :) I really wish I had caught your stand leveling method sooner.

I also have to think about my job right now and hope I can find a new one after my contract ends in July. Ugh...taxes...I forgot its that time of year :neutral:

:boink:









:noidea:

Lol!

I'm currently clinging to my job and stockpiling every extra penny I have. Trust me you'll know when I'm through with this phase. My tank won't see another cent until markets turn around.

:puppydog:

ReefGeek came through for me! 6 ATI Blue+, 3 ATI Aquablue Special, 2 ATI Pro Color, 1 GE 6500K.

I really need to learn how to shoot what my eye sees it's crazy hard! The first 3 pics show the overall color/look pretty acurately but not nearly as intense and bright as it is. The last pic displays the rocks and interior of the tank very close to how bright it is.

Anyone have tips for me? I used my rock to set my white balance but my eyes see the tank lit very bright and also the distinct colors of the tubes. My camera can't see it all at once under my control...

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/t51.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/t53.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/t54.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/t52.jpg

mmmmmmm lights.

Looks gooot!

Disco!!!

If you guys play the reflections JUST RIGHT you can make out what I was wearing :wink:

??? Girl Underwear??? aaaand, I think I see the outline of a black lace bra in there too....

What's left on the list for the rest of your build?

I'm waiting on a pair of drilled 33 gallon tanks to wrap up my water-change station in the adjacent office. Will post pics once they're plumbed in.

Remaining items:

- ro/di
- 2 x tunze 6105
- profilux with doser (doing 2-part or balling)
- heaters
- test kits
- salt
- 2-part supplies

I figure I could use my old seio 620s and dose manually for a while so the ro/di and heaters would get me started with water I guess. I've waited quite a while now so I may just leave it empty until I have everything on my list.

Awesome build. I love the stand. Very well thought out build.

Few more updates on my build. I've been working on adding my water-change station to the office that shares the wall behind the display tank. I bought the modular units for home entertainment at ikea. We used these upstairs in the tv room and really liked them. I beefed up the cabinets a ton with plywood, metal brackets and 2x4s then mounted the entire thing to a few wall studs.

This shows the tank in the livingroom and the water-change station on the other side.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc1.jpg

Looking into the office...

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc2.jpg

Doors open.

A 33 gallon will sit in each cabinet on the right. Each tank will have an emergency drain plumbed to the basement. The top tank will have a float valve and hold freshwater. A valve will empty to the bottom mixing tank. To add the mixed water to the display the eheim will be on a switch.

On the left will sit the Profilux, dosing jugs, test kits etc. A small fridge I have kicking around is tucked beside the desk on the other wall for frozen food.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc3.jpg

The pvc is the drain to the basement. The drain in the display tank stand also connects to this line in the wall. The flex hose will connect the eheim to the 20 gallon tank sitting under the display tank.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc4.jpg

I ran 3 dedicated 15A circuits up to here. I need to mount receptacles in here somehow. I left the wall socket accessible as well. You can see one of the metal brackets here. What I did since the ikea stuff is half cardboard is I placed a 2x4 inside the other cabinets and attached the bracket to it through the shared cabinet walls. I re-enforced other areas like this as well as attached a horizontal 2x4 to the back of the stand (it mounts into the other 2x4 re-enforcements) and pinned this to the wall studs.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc5.jpg

The 10 gallon i picked up from canreefer outtafocus tonight.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/crusty.jpg

After I gave it a little love. I wanted to replace his bulkheads since I wanted them 1" all the way to my sump and they reduced to hose/ less than 1". Not until after I sawed the pvc off the bulkheads did I notice these were siliconed in from gasket and nut side. I had to drill the plastic and pry like crazy to remove them!

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc6.jpg

This shows the area where the fuge will sit or should i say float. I'm building a shelf so it sits above my return piping. It will be fed off that manifold (that also currently feeds into my 20 gallon waterchange reservoir under there). Two drains into the sump gives me peace of mind when running this in-line like I intend to.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc7.jpg

Other side of the stand. Hard to see but I plumbed a mag3 i had kicking around in. To do a waterchange i isolate this 20g reservoir by shutting it's manifold feed off (it normally is always in circulation with the sump). Then I flip a switch and the mag3 empties 20g into my basement. I attached some type of threaded nipple i found in the irrigation section of HD to the intake and then trimmed it to leave maybe 1mm of space between the tank bottom. It empties NEARLY all of the tank before catching air. The topoff comes from my mixed water in the office. The tie-wraps you see on that pipe are directing the clear flex tubing from the water-change cabinet into the tank.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc8.jpg

Stand drain heading to basement. Hard to see clear flex hose connecting water-change station to display.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc9.jpg

Under the floor in the downstairs bathroom. So glad I chose t-bar ceiling for down there!

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc10.jpg

Here's where I got REALLY LAZY. I had a drain put in the floor for what I thought was going to be a fishroom. It happens to lie beneath a benchpress I barely ever use. I managed to snake it in somehow! The junk I tossed in the window to keep the neighbors from gawking at me when I run is sorta permanent now unless I cut the pipe lol. GHETTO I know...but Tony told me to do it this way.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wc11.jpg

sick man, i cant wait till you start to fill it.

Wow, I was all set to say I wasn't worthy to even be reading this build thread ... until that last photo. :p

looks fantastic

This is a very nice build, everything looks so neat and classy. In the last pic did I spot a roll of toilet paper for just in case when you go a little too heavy on the weights ? :laluot_26: Can't wait to see water in it.

Yep it needs water.:wink:

Lol how on earth did you spot the TP? I had to look for a few seconds before I found it! I had a cold for a while and running with a stuffed nose is fun so I had some nose cleaner on hand =)

Thanks guys. This thing WILL see water one day!

:faint:

Damn!! Really really nice setup so far.. Giving me a few ideas actually for my big tank.. :mrgreen:

Can't wait to see this with water.

That basement shot is quite a contrast from the rest of the house LOL

+1 I'm waiting to see pictures of the well and the room where he's raising moths LOL

Just kidding.

Can't wait to see this full in another couple months...(years?)

Really great looking build! Looking forward to seeing the grand finale.