iReef

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by JDigital

I love it!! You've got my vote unless someone builds one inside a new iMac...

That I would like to see May be good for some Pipefish!

[sharuq1]

Very innovative, can't wait to see how this turns out.

[Ron99]

OKay, it's been a crazy busy month and a half but I am just squeaking in under the wire. Slight progress but still some sorting of the "cabinet" to do. Here's the update:

The tank was completed but I messed up my measurements/drawings a bit so the front panel did not fit properly. Had to kludge it a bit with some extra acrylic. it's not pretty on the side but it works and it won't be visible when all is said and done.









I also decided to make a rock wall for the back. it's made by siliconing rock to a sheet of that plastic mesh used for needlepoint:





Then the spaces are filled with insulating foam:



and finally the foam is coated with epoxy resin and covered with sand:



And here it is in the tank:

[Ron99]

Next up was working on my LED lighting. I am still waiting on my Cree emitters to arrive but I had some cheapo chinese white emitters so they will do temporarily. I'll build a second array and swap in the mix of blue and white Crees when they arrive. Here are the various parts and the little parts box heatsink I drilled and tapped:



And the completed array powered up:



And finally the tank filled with water, sand and some rock (which has been in my frag tank and was in my 10 gallon nano before that):



I will endeavor to keep the updates more frequent and regular from now on.

[lastlight]

Awesome work so far! Only trouble is you're going to get used to having such a sexy caninet. When the time comes to upgrade your next logical step up is to gut a cinema hd display and that's going to set you back some!

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Awesome work so far! Only trouble is you're going to get used to having such a sexy caninet. When the time comes to upgrade your next logical step up is to gut a cinema hd display and that's going to set you back some!

Thanks. I think maybe you mean the old Studio Display? I think the Cinema HD is an LCD monitor and that would mean a very thin tank

Here's a shot from this morning now that the sand dust has cleared. Man those LEDs shimmer alot. I'll have to see if I can get some video.

[Snaz]

Computer shell, custom LEDs, DIY back wall. This tank is going to be AWESOME!

[RCFA]

This is looking great! Can't wait to see more!

[icecool217]

oh wow Ron. That's awesome. Lots of creativity and DIY. I assume that powering on the MAC would turn on the lights of the aquarium?

[scherzo]

Good thing the tank is in a Mac.. if it was in a windows box you'd always have a

tank crash!