Dez' Tank Journal

[Dez]

Pokerstar Monti


Monti of some sort, whatever it is I like it


Red Milli


Living room FTS, actinics only


Den side FTS, this is the side with the fiji purple, I like it (sorry, left the canopy up when I took the picture)


FTS Living room with halides


FTS Den side with halides


Thanks for looking everybody

[mark]

looks great, like it's been established for years.

[Carmen]

Looking incredible Dez! I love all the big colonies! Beautiful colors! And some great growth pics!

[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!

[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