80gallon bowfront

[UseSkaForEvil]

well, since my tank has to be drilled again and i need to re-do the baffles in my sump i might as well enter in. i'll post pictures when i have somethign to post pictures of. my uv sterilzer and light ballasts are already mounted to the tankstand, but everything that's plumbed is going to have to be disconnected, ugh so thats my starting point

80gallon bowfront, 17gallon sump (30 gallon tank)
solaris 20k 48in lights
scwd wavemaker
aqua medic 18watt sterilizer
asm g2 protein skimmer
via aqua 4900 return pump

[Loverotties]

Good Luck!

[dobejazz]

Welcome to the Build off!

[UseSkaForEvil]

ok, i havent updated in awhile so this will be a big one. ok, i dotn have too many pictures up from when i was working on just building the tank peices, but i do have some of it empty. heres a picture of my sump (ive fixed the baffles since)
here's a picture of it open and empty (since this picture i went back to the glass shop and had two more large return holes drilled)
heres one of it closed


these next few pictures are not the greatest of quality, i had just added the frags and gotten salt on the front of the tank (haha and i geuess 2.3 MP is outdated...)

heres the major rock work
a frag of a coral similar to capnella but starts with an L
a pink pulsing xenia

some flower leathers
my two clowns and their anenome (might be gettign rid of the anenome soon, worried about it killing the coral)
heres a picture of the sump and autotop off next to it
i refill the auto top of from the top using this funnel. usually the hole is covered by my thermometer.
and theres a vary bad overall shot. but i had too many images in this post. so i'll wait till i get a god one

tada, lots of pcitures still in the camera, i'll post more soon, hopefully ill get the ones from my girlfriend, they're of much btter quality.

[Wiskey]

Very cool! Looks like you got allot of work done!!!

Could you give us a rundown on the sump, filtration equiptment, and Lighting?

I really like how you made that Autotopoff match the stand.

Could you also please tell me what movie or book your Sig is from? I remember laughing so hard when I read or saw that, but for the life of me can't figure out where it's from

Thanks!
Whiskey

[UseSkaForEvil]

the sump is a 30 gallon aga with acrylic baffles, probably 20-22 gallons filled. ive got a asmg2 skimmer, a aquamedic 18watt uv sterilizer, no mechanical filtration right now (might put something in before the uv) but if things get too cloudy i toss in a powerhead with a big filter in the return section which cleans thigns up fairly quickly. the lighting is a solaris 48in 300watt LED system. and the tank gets about 4 hours of sunlight every day im around to open the windows. the drain lines are 2 3/4inch and 2 1inch lines but the 1inch are only in case the tank starts to overflow. the return is one 3/4 line split into two with a SCWD.

i got lucky with the auto topoff matching, i just found it in walmart as a $20 tv stand and noticed a 10gallon tank would fit in perfectly. so i jsut took out the shelf and turned it into a door with a couple hinges.

thanks wiskey, and heh i just noticed i spelled the line in my sig wrong... its from mother night by Kurt Vonnegut.

[Wiskey]

Your using the solaris LED system over this tank?!?!?!? How do you like that? Do you think it was worth the price? How do you think it compairs to hilides?

You have my attention!

Thanks for details!
Whiskey

[Chris86]

nice set up

[crvz]

I agree with Whiskey, I'm tuned in to hear about the solaris. This is the first tank I've noticed using LED for lighting. Do you mind sharing how long you've had it and your impressions so far?

[UseSkaForEvil]

The solaris lights are pretty awesome; the best part has got to be the fact that it changes the length of days and the cycle of the moon on its own. they make the tank shimmer like metal halides, but if I look at the LED's it doesn’t hurt instantly, so that’s kind of nice, of course i've never looked head on and these are pretty directional. I haven’t tried anything that's too demanding light wise, so the only test i’ve got there is the coral frags I just bought looked as happy under halides at the store as they do under the solaris in my tank. It’s also nice because i'm pretty sure the circuit in that room can only handle 15amps, since i’ve tripped it running a microwave and a space heater, and I haven’t tripped the breaker with the solaris and the heater yet.

My camera really makes the tank look ultra blue; I’ll try to get better pictures later. But even if you think the lights are too blue you can modify the blue LED's on a scale from 1-100 and still keeps everything automatic.

The real reason I got these though is that I hate changing bulbs and worrying about the quality of the light without seeing any difference. With these all I do is plug it in and let them go. Even if they last 5 years instead of 10 it’s worth it to me. I hate the heat issues (my solaris runs at 88 +-3degrees) the worry of a fire, and changing bulbs that comes with halides, so I went with this, plus, its a gimmick and I can be fairly easily sold on that if it seems to be worth it.

The one thing I would say is that these lights do not look incredibly powerful. They look brighter than my PCs, but are not super bright like halides. But, i’ve seen pictures of one guy who bleached a nice size piece of SPS because he placed it too close to the top, thinking the solaris was too weak. So i’m guessing its not.

Last thing, I got the 48inch for 2100 including shipping. If you look around enough you can find it for way less than most sites have it listed (this one I usually listed at 2500-2200 + shipping)

[UseSkaForEvil]

ive only had it about a month or so. the BTA has been under it the entire time, but it was fine under PC's. the coral ive only had about 2 weeks.

[UseSkaForEvil]

several new pics,
heres one of the base and sump after the baffles were fixed up.


heres a good shot of my tank with the sump and most of the equipment.


and heres a bad shot of my tank with the rockwork as of now. ill post soemthign later if ive got time before work.

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by UseSkaForEvil

The solaris lights are pretty awesome; the best part has got to be the fact that it changes the length of days and the cycle of the moon on its own. they make the tank shimmer like metal halides, but if I look at the LED's it doesn’t hurt instantly, so that’s kind of nice, of course i've never looked head on and these are pretty directional. I haven’t tried anything that's too demanding light wise, so the only test i’ve got there is the coral frags I just bought looked as happy under halides at the store as they do under the solaris in my tank. It’s also nice because i'm pretty sure the circuit in that room can only handle 15amps, since i’ve tripped it running a microwave and a space heater, and I haven’t tripped the breaker with the solaris and the heater yet.

My camera really makes the tank look ultra blue; I’ll try to get better pictures later. But even if you think the lights are too blue you can modify the blue LED's on a scale from 1-100 and still keeps everything automatic.

The real reason I got these though is that I hate changing bulbs and worrying about the quality of the light without seeing any difference. With these all I do is plug it in and let them go. Even if they last 5 years instead of 10 it’s worth it to me. I hate the heat issues (my solaris runs at 88 +-3degrees) the worry of a fire, and changing bulbs that comes with halides, so I went with this, plus, its a gimmick and I can be fairly easily sold on that if it seems to be worth it.

The one thing I would say is that these lights do not look incredibly powerful. They look brighter than my PCs, but are not super bright like halides. But, i’ve seen pictures of one guy who bleached a nice size piece of SPS because he placed it too close to the top, thinking the solaris was too weak. So i’m guessing its not.

Last thing, I got the 48inch for 2100 including shipping. If you look around enough you can find it for way less than most sites have it listed (this one I usually listed at 2500-2200 + shipping)

Thanks for the rundown! Your not in a club that has a par meter so you can get some readings are you?

I'll be interested to see how you like these in the long run,.. they look really good, though pricey at the moment.

Whiskey

[UseSkaForEvil]

no, im not in a club. i'd thought about joining one but the cleveland area one seems a little half assed and thats the only one ive even heard of around here. i was considerign gettign a light meter anyway in case the lights start to fail early i can call and yell at PFO.

[UseSkaForEvil]

a couple FTS
first with flash, then with none