iReef

[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!

[bignose]

How do you access the top of the tank when it is inside the computer case?
Are you planning for a access panel on top?

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by bignose

How do you access the top of the tank when it is inside the computer case?
Are you planning for a access panel on top?

The entire top of the case will be removable. But the front bezel overlaps the top in front so I am engineering something for that.

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

Are you planning on adding a fan to cool the heatsinks?

Shouldn't be necessary as I am only driving the LEDs at 350mA (the blues are rated up to 700mA and the whites up to 1000mA). I lose a little in light output but they run far cooler. The loss in lumens is not a problem in this small tank. The heat sinks get warm to the touch but not hot. I will probably run one fan in the case just to draw warm air out when everything is closed up.

[BlueAbyss]

Ah, I see. I understand the Cree XR-Es are still quite bright at 350mA, you should have plenty of PAR yet. They will outlast the tank itself, too

[christyf5]

FTS due!!

[Ron99]

Slow progress but here it is.

Got the tank in it's cabinet now :-)





The back of the case and front bezel come off for access to the tank.



Here you can see the rear chambers with heater, ATO and Minijet 606 return pump.



And I cut and hinged the top of the front part of the frame for access into the tank itself.





I added a bit more rock and a couple of frags. one small piece of tree coral that came off a larger one I had and a few zoa frags. I had two snails but they died. I think maybe something was leaching out of the rock wall as the pH was a bit low and the frags all closed up but two 100% water changes later the corals seem happier. I want to get it stable and make sure the coral frags and snails are happy before I go with any other type of livestock.

Anyhow, here is a shot into the tank.