Dez' Tank Journal

[fishoholic]

The corals are saying "Yum magnesium" Your tank looks great and it was nice to meet you at the reef meet

[Dez]

Well, a slight update in terms of equipment. The 48" T5's always bothered me because of the shadows on the edges. Since my tank is 5', I wanted to switch to 60" T5 bulbs. I had an old PFO retro kit for 4 x 110 watt vho's, so I went to town and started making. I used standard sheet aluminum and bent it to my liking (I'm in the siding business so this is scrap material for window capping). Then I went to a custom lighting supplier and picked up some annalux (99.5% reflecivity aluminum that is used for reflectors). I got a cut off from them for $10 - this was enough to make 2 sets of lights. So now I have 4 x 80 watt T5 HO's. 2 on either side of my halides. I like it. It's super bright. Now you'll see in the pictures that I have an extra end cap in between the two 60" bulbs. I made room for a 48" bulb in between in case I want some extra bang or to tweak the colours a bit. I have an old workhorse 7 that I can wire up to those. But for now I'm super happy with the 60" bulbs.



I still have to bend another aluminum "cap" to cover the wires above for a cleaner look.


Anyway, thanks for looking. Kind of a boring update, but it's an update.

[lastlight]

You are one handy guy! Nice job and at a great price too.

What bulbs? And where did you buy them?

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

You are one handy guy! Nice job and at a great price too.

What bulbs? And where did you buy them?

I love the price too The endcaps cost me $21 total. The PFO ballast cost me $60 used a while back and the rest of the scrap aluminum is free. I like free. And my old lights are sold already to be picked up next week to cover some of the cost.

I have 2 KZ fiji purples, and 2 Giesman Aquablue +. I really like it. To be honest with you though, I still haven't seen them without the halides on. My halides kick off in about 45 mins, so we'll see. I have a feeling it'll be a bit on the pink side. But that's why I left the 48" option in the middle for tweaking the colours. I bought the bulbs at Marine Aquaria. Those are the only 2 kinds of 60" bulbs so that's why I went with that colour combo. I wanted lights today. I'll get them to order some other colours too down the road so I can play around with it.

[fooser]

Wow,
Looking real good Des. I didn't recognize the tank snce the last time I looked.. I think it has not even been 2 months and your tank looks like it has aged 2 years! Great job!
Probably won't be able to make it down for the Edmonton events but even if I did, I am sure I wouldn't do well. I haven't played foos since the last edmonton tourney in October. Every Monday I itch to go play but end up working on my basement, and every Thursday I wish I could skip work I hear your game has improved lots! Cant wait to play you one day!

[Dez]

Originally Posted by fooser

Wow,
Looking real good Des. I didn't recognize the tank snce the last time I looked.. I think it has not even been 2 months and your tank looks like it has aged 2 years! Great job!
Probably won't be able to make it down for the Edmonton events but even if I did, I am sure I wouldn't do well. I haven't played foos since the last edmonton tourney in October. Every Monday I itch to go play but end up working on my basement, and every Thursday I wish I could skip work I hear your game has improved lots! Cant wait to play you one day!

I'm coming to Calgary on the weekend of the 19th. Are you free that Sat the 20th? Maybe we can get some foosing in. Let me know. I was actually going to see if you were coming up for the tournament. But I guess not. Maybe we'll get some foosing in while I'm in town.

[Dez]

Well, I've been busy and don't have much to report except for a lighting upgrade tonight. I added 2 x 48" 54 watt T5's in between my 60" T5's. I had an old workhorse 7 kicking around and everything else so all it cost me were the bulbs. I went with the KZ coral light II bulb (about 14k I think). I really like it. Now I have the actinics come on first, then the fiji purples next, then the 14k's, and then the halides and then everything comes off in reverse order. Not that my tank wasn't bright enough before, but it does make it noticeably brighter. I like having more stages of lighting because I can enjoy my tank in different colours it seems.

Corals are growing like weeds so I've been doing lots of pruning. Colours are great, and the fish are happy.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

I still have to bend another

I see you have managed to reroute the dilithium through the EPS conduits. Great job! hehe.. looks great :-D

[Dez]

Kien, dude, I have no idea what you are talking about