Hop's downgrade to 300 gallons: A simple build thread

[Hop]

I don't blame you But once you cross the 300 barrier you need a lot of big friends to help move glass tanks, or small friends with fork lifts Plus if you have kids you cringe everytime you have to leave them in the house unsupervised. I just know a game of shoot you sister in the butt with the BB gun will go amis and come home to a flooded house

[thekid55]

now thats funny. you better drink a couple extra beers or cokes so he has a couple more cans to shoot

[Hop]

Mountain dew I quit drinking a while back. Turns out I had anger issues that seemed to come out with beer

[thekid55]

Originally Posted by Hop

Mountain dew I quit drinking a while back. Turns out I had anger issues that seemed to come out with beer

good he'll have nice green cans to shoot. kinda like this guys face

[Hop]

It's Friday night and your here posting? Your getting to be an old reefer

[motorslave]

Okay Hop, youre off for a few days now so what are you going to do to the tank?

[Wiskey]

Ya,.. I updated! What have you been up to?

Whiskey

[motorslave]

So what did YOU do today Hop?

[Hop]

Um... I couch surfed, watched 300 and brushed up on what I missed on TRT over the weekend

I did do some thinking on how to set the tank up now with what I have

I thought maybe slapping the 200PS on the closed loop for now and using a Gen-X 6000 for the return and a sedra 700 for the skimmer and 40 feed I also thought about how I could use the lighting I have to work on the tank...

So basically I didn't do anything.

[motorslave]

Man after my own heart! i did talk to my Father in law and we are going to get the light rack done in a day or two along with the actuator to raise it up! Ill post a video clip when I get that one done!

[Hop]

Excellent! I'll likely still be kicking lighting around long after the tank is up... I hate lighting!

[motorslave]

I'm going to start with two 110 watt actinic VHOs and two 250 watt 10k halides. then Ill play with 14k halides. Also want to do red LEDs for night viewing without disturbing the critters.

[Hop]

Originally Posted by motorslave

I'm going to start with two 110 watt actinic VHOs and two 250 watt 10k halides. then Ill play with 14k halides. Also want to do red LEDs for night viewing without disturbing the critters.

Cool! For now I'm thinking 4 36" vhos all act and a 175 and a 400 watt halide for now. I'm seriously leaning toward phoenix 14ks for the halides, but I'm still not sure





A quick update is that I found out my tank won't be shipped until the 25th at the earliest. Not a big deal though as I'm pretty busy to begin with and the builder recomends three weeks cure time as a minimum for the tank.. So a little set back, but not the end of the world

[Wiskey]

That's an intresting setup,.. why 175 and 400W?

Why 4 36" VHO not 2 6 foot ones?

Whiskey

[Hop]

Cause that's what I have sitting around I have some 250 ballasts, but they have 6,500 bulbs.

I'm trying to do something different with this tank in that the hallides will be used to accent or highlight the areas where the corals will be placed, rather than light the whole tank evenly. I keep bouncing back and forth on this build, so I don't want people thinking I'm nuts in reading different posts.

Eventually I'm leaning toward running 2 rows of act(VHO as I love the pop from the act) and a row or 2 of t5 for daylight and then accenting the rock structures with probably 2 250 watt 14k phoenix with good relectors on a mover that moves the lights about 10" over the highlighted area.

But it's just an idea that may completely change soon