75 Gal Rebuild Thread

[schneijt]

Originally Posted by Timmy

Your not to long winded in fact I would like a little more info from you. First are you happy with your AC jr? Or would you rather have bought a AC 3? Do you like your six bulb tek fixture? What kind of mod are you planning?

The AC Jr. does everything I need it to. I only have two complaints:

First, my clock runs slow, so I'm playing around with the "Leap Seconds" feature or whatever it's called, and it's taking me a while to get it 100% in-sync with my wristwatch down to the second. This is something I think they should do at the factory for you. I mean, a controller that can't keep time perfectly is frustrating. I'm glad they have a feature so you can add or remove seconds each day to get it to always be dead on, but I wish that they'd calibrate the clock at the factory for you instead of making you do it, since it's tedious and time-consuming to be tweaking it a few times a day and hoping I'll eventually get it right.

Secondly, the (old) temp probe is known to go bad. Either moisture eventually gets into it or whatever, but it's really frustrating. I just bought the new temp probe today, and supposedly it fixes the problems with the old ones. Still, though, it's $30 that I had to invest to correct a problem they knew about for quite a while. I don't want to play with fire by still using the old one, since I know eventually it would likely fail on me and either freeze or cook my tank. :-( I believe the units have been shipping with the new temp probes for a while, so buying a new AC Jr. will make my second "issue" with the AC Jr. a moot point.

The TEK is a decent fixture for the money, but it has its drawbacks. There is no active cooling (no fans), so you lose some bulb output if the bulbs get too warm. Also, it doesn't have a shield included (you have to pay $33 for it) and if you put the shield on, it makes the heat issue much worse. And, since the endcaps aren't waterproof, they can be damaged by salt spray over time. Oh, and of course salt spray really makes your reflectors look like crap and damages them no matter how often you clean them. (I do want to note that someone on RC ran tests and proved that reflectors with salt spray damage still performed the same as new reflectors when he measured the PAR.)

So, if you have the money, get a fixture that includes an acrylic splash shield and fans. That's what I'd do if I were buying a new T5 fixture.

As far as the mods I'm doing, I bought the acrylic shield for my TEK and I'm replacing the reflectors with better ones and adding fans. As far as the fan mod I'm doing, I'm using the same parts and general method as this guy from Reef Central: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hlight=TEK+fan

I'm using four fans instead of three, but I'm still trying to decide if I want to have all four blowing into the fixture of just having the two on the ends blowing in and having the other two pull air out of the fixture. I like the idea of having two pull air out, and I guess I could always change the orientation of a fan or two in the future if I need to.

I'm going to try to get the holes for the fans cut tomorrow, but the fans aren't here yet. Once I get the mods to the fixture done, I'll post pictures.

-Joe

[hansmatt]

TImmy...I also like the ACjr...though I'd also like the emailing capability of the acIII it wasn't worth the big $

[ReefLuvR]

Hi Joe. I love your "long-winded" explanations. There's actually not nearly enough info. I haven't spent nearly as much time researching so the info you have is quite valuable. May not seem so to you, but it is!

Can't wait to see your tank in say 4 months?!

[ZMattie]

Hey Joe, If I were you id do two fans blowing in towards the fixture/bulbs and have 2 drawing the air out on the other side. The guy I bought my tank and stand from did the same thing with his halide (same concept) and had 1 4" fan blowing into the canopy, and 1 drawing the heat out the other side. Granted he still had to use a chiller, he said that it helped quite a bit. I was actually thinking about doing the same for my NEP fixture, but i guess it really depends on if they're giving off alot of heat. IMO...

oh timmy, the NEP fixture comes with dual fans and a spash shield, and theyre roughly $350...

[schneijt]

Originally Posted by ZMattie

Hey Joe, If I were you id do two fans blowing in towards the fixture/bulbs and have 2 drawing the air out on the other side.

I'm leaning strongly toward having two fans on top blowing down into the fixture to cool the ends of the bulbs. The other two in the middle will pull warm air out of the fixture. So, there should be some circulation of air in/out of the fixture, and I'm hoping it'll keep the bulbs nice and cool while still allowing me to have the acrylic shield on there. Also, the Aquactinics reflectors are only 2" wide, meaning air should actually blow between the reflectors and help keep lots of air moving through the fixture.

On a side note, the fans didn't get here today. Grrr... And cutting the holes with an adjustable hole cutter I bought at Menards today didn't work. So in 1/2 hour, I'm going back there to return the one I bought and buy a "proper" 4" hole saw to hopefully get the job done tonight. Then hopefully my fans will arrive tomorrow so I can install them and then wait for Aqua Cave to get my new reflectors to me so I can install them, reassemble the fixture, and put it up on the tank.

Finally, I bought a 400w heater today so I can connect it to my AC Jr. and put it in my sump. 400w on 100+ gal of water in the basement during winter. Yeah, it's probably not going to be enough and I'll probably have to add a heater from the rock cooking bins to get it up to 81 degrees once the rock is done cooking in 6-8 weeks. But I refuse to buy any more heaters, since I now have four of the **** things. Cooking rock in the basement in winter means each tub needs a heater, so I put my two heaters in the tubs and ran out of heaters. Then I bought one for my Rubbermaid trash can for SW mixing. Then I bought #4 today for the tank... lol At least once the rock cooking is done and I put one in the sump, I'll have a "backup" in case I break one or one should malfunction in the future. Yay for redundancy.

-Joe

[Jrmass]

I'm with you on this one Joe... I would do a fan on each end blowing in and two on the top pulling air out. After keeping up with this I will more than likely be a copy-cat and do the same thing (hope you don't mind me stealing your idea lol) seeing it is a good idea.

Jas

[schneijt]

Jason, I actually put all four fans in the top of the fixture--two at the ends and two toward the middle. If I put fans on the side, they'd be taller than the fixture and not all the air would enter the fixture.

As it turns out, the fans arrived this evening while I was at Menards. So I cut the holes and installed the fans and then made sure the bulbs still fired, since the fixture got knocked around a lot during the drilling and such, and I wanted to make sure I didn't knock any wires loose anywhere. I've attached some pictures (only had one extension cord available, so only 4 of the 6 bulbs are on since I could only plug in one of the power cords. Also, no reflectors since Aqua Cave says those won't get here until Friday...

I'm an idiot, and forgot to switch the orientation of the two middle fans, so right now all four are blowing into the fixture. I'll try it that way for now, and I'll flip the two middle fans around later if I decide I want to.




I also put the heater in the sump and realized that I'm an idiot. I know, no shock there... :-) I had the DC8 mounted on the right side, where my super tall refugium is. When I went to shut the door to the stand, the heater's power cord hit the 'fuge and the door wouldn't close. lol So I had to move the AC Jr. below the Osmolator's control panel, and then put the DC8 on the top left of the left-side door. This way the power cords don't hit anything. Now my problem is that the bundle of cables is so big on the left that the left door is about 1/4" cracked open. So, I'm going to run the cables to the left of the sump inside the stand, which will allow the door to close. But, that's a chore for a later day.

Anyway, enjoy.
Joe

p.s. I didn't have my digital camera in the basement, so the photos aren't very good because they were taken with my phone.

[hansmatt]

nice Joe...now you'll need to paint the rest of the stand ferrari red...maybe some racing stripes too@
How goes the job hunt?

[ZMattie]

Wow, sweet! I didnt realize you were talking about putting the fans directly onto the fixture itself, i thought you meant you were attaching the fans to your canopy... lol looks good man!

[schneijt]

Originally Posted by hansmatt

How goes the job hunt?

Slow. lol With the economy right now, it's hard to find much out there. I'm trying to avoid taking a really crappy job, because once I get a job I'll have to stick with it for a little while, and I'm worried that if I took a crappy job, all of a sudden somebody would want to hire me for a good job. So, for now I'm still being a little picky about it. But, as long as a job has decent benefits, I may take a "less-than-desirable" job for a short while until the economy gets better and a better job presents itself.

As far as the fixture, it would be sweet if it was red like the fans. :-) And yeah, I actually cut circles out of the metal in the fixture and installed the fans inside the fixture. It looks pretty good, considering I drilled holes with a hole saw using a drill by hand. Now I just need to get my stuff from Reef Geek (some new bulbs to try out and the acrylic shield) and AquaCave (Aquactinics reflectors) so I can get the fixture on the tank with the bulb combo I want. Here's what I'm going to try first for my new bulb combo:

*Front*
Blue Plus
75/25
GE 6500K
Blue Plus
Pro Color
Blue Plus
*Back*

My goal is to really make the corals pop, while keeping the overall color blue somewhere between a 15K and 20K look. With the three Blue Plus bulbs, I don't think that keeping the overall blue look should be a problem, though I may need to move bulbs around to tweak the way the color looks from the front of the tank. The 75/25 should help pop reds and greens along with the Pro Color, and the 6500K should help the lower end of the spectrum and assist growth. The Pro Color is near the back because it's kind of a "harsh" bulb, as far as how it looks. I may get rid of the Pro Color entirely and replace it with an Aquablue Special later on, but first I want to see how the above bulb combo looks.

-Joe

[ZMattie]

Hey Joe, if you decide to get rid of the Pro Color, Id buy it, I was thinking about trying one out my mine. But I wont know if I like my bulbs that I have now until I get them on the tank, with coral in it.... But either way, Im pretty sure id buy it, if you decide to get rid of it!

[schneijt]

I'll let you know about the Pro Color. With the GE 6500 and the 75/25 that I'm getting, the Pro Color might be over the top, but I don't know yet. I'll try out some bulb combos and once I find the one I like, I'll let you know what bulbs I have left over that I won't be using.

-Joe

[hansmatt]

I like the procolor...I have it and a fiji purple in right now (and 3 blue + and a blue special) and I like it...I had another blue special, and two was too many...washed it out more than I like.

[schneijt]

Yeah, right now my fixture has two Blue Plus bulbs, one Pro Color, and three Blue Special. The Blue Specials have pretty good PAR, but they don't do much of anything for color in the tank. I agree that lots of blue specials can hurt your overall color; I think that three of them is wayyyyy to many for a six-bulb fixture. I'll either end up with three blue special bulbs left over, or two blue specials and a pro color, depending on which combo I finally go with.

-Joe

[Afish4u]

I have too been toying with the idea with the ac jr... well since TCMAS did that group buy back when.... what else do you use your controller for? Temp, lights, heater, fan,.... I've got just about everyting else on seperate timers so I'm trying to figure out if its still worth it or not. Does yours also have the serial port for the pc?


And Matt Congrats on 1,000+ posts