greggydm's 50 gal zero edge design Sps-Lps tank

[randell]

beautiful!

[jackryan]

Very nice and good design planning to fit everything in the cab including your TECO chiller...

a couple of quick questions...

1) Is that another tank in the background (in one of the pics)?

2) Can you share more details about your lights?

Cheers!

[sid]

@sid: thanks for the links on fragging xenias! Will try it as soon as i set up the eggcrate for the frags.(maybe this weekend)

You're welcome brudah! I like the flexible hose route... minimize loss and such. How's your evaporation bro specially on hot summer day?


Cheers!

[greggydm]

Very nice and good design planning to fit everything in the cab including your TECO chiller...

a couple of quick questions...

1) Is that another tank in the background (in one of the pics)?

2) Can you share more details about your lights?

Cheers!

I planned the cabinet to have space for a chiller but can also be used for an ATO system since i did'nt have a chiller then. Teco chillers went on sale last March and so i bought one from Aquaria Tech at 35% off which i would say is a good deal. The chiller only went online end of April so the tank had been running for 4 months without any temp problems (i was using fans in the sump then and i guess the large area of overflowing water due to the zero-edge design helped in lowering the temp).

To answer your 2 quick questions will need 2 long answers so please let me explain:

1) Yes that is another tank in the background.It is a 200 gal 36inch deep in-wall tank that i've had for 5years now.



This tank developed a leak between the front glass and the base. That was around June of last year and that was how i discovered Reef Philippines by chance when i was searching the web for ways to fix a leaky aquarium. Luckily i was able to fix the leak but i had to empty the whole tank. I then started to restock this tank up to about November last year.
However i decided to make a smaller tank to accommodate the Sps corals i had since it was very hard to aquascape a very deep tank (i even used a mask and snorkel to reach into the sand)and converting this to an Sps tank would be very costly since i had to buy a some strong lighting, a big chiller, a lot of (imported)salt and a lot of supplements (i was using Seachem then). Now this big tank only houses softies that don't need strong lighting and not much supplements (and no chiller-just fans).

I only do water changes every 3months and i only use local saltmix (no kidding) as long as it is prepared a week in advance and properly aerated. I guess the big Ats i have and the sump i installed after fixing the leak helped a lot. I have snails and starfishes and they do just fine together with mushrooms, some zoas (i had a lot before but my blueface ate a lot of them) and some xenias. The nitrate level is about 5ppm only and it was in this tank that some of my first Sps started to thrive and this motivated me do the zero-edge.

2) Details of the lights:



The main light is a 150watt MH 14k with a rectangular(Lumenarc?) reflector that Pugo1 helped me convert to 250watts using a variable output electronic ballast and RO 250w 14kbulb. It is only about 5" from the water surface.


I wanted to minimize the size of the box housing the lights to have a better view of the tank from above (an advantage you get when the water surface is calm like in a zero-edge design tank) so i can't use T5s for supplemental lighting. Instead i discovered that Landlite(available at Home Depot) has this par 38 CEL blue light that has good actinic properties. I used 3 of those and 2 8watt blue Leds and 4 1watt blue leds for moonlights mounted on regular ceiling-type receptacles. These 4 small moolights can be spot-beamed to any part of the tank that you want highlighted.

From left to right: 1watt halogen type blue Led, the ceiling type receptacle, and the 8watt blue Leds

Cheers!

[jackryan]

nice bro! both tanks are great looking... can you also put some more pics of the big tank's sump and ATS systems?

[greggydm]

@sid: thanks for the links on fragging xenias! Will try it as soon as i set up the eggcrate for the frags.(maybe this weekend)

You're welcome brudah! I like the flexible hose route... minimize loss and such. How's your evaporation bro specially on hot summer day?


Cheers!

I guess that the amount of evaporation was a big surprise for me. I only top off 3.5liters/day max on hot days and now its down to 2liters/day. I expected it to be about 2 gallons or more a day!!

[egayb]

nice tank bro

[randiedonhito]

Very nice and good design planning to fit everything in the cab including your TECO chiller...

a couple of quick questions...

1) Is that another tank in the background (in one of the pics)?

2) Can you share more details about your lights?

Cheers!

I planned the cabinet to have space for a chiller but can also be used for an ATO system since i did'nt have a chiller then. Teco chillers went on sale last March and so i bought one from Aquaria Tech at 35% off which i would say is a good deal. The chiller only went online end of April so the tank had been running for 4 months without any temp problems (i was using fans in the sump then and i guess the large area of overflowing water due to the zero-edge design helped in lowering the temp).

To answer your 2 quick questions will need 2 long answers so please let me explain:

1) Yes that is another tank in the background.It is a 200 gal 36inch deep in-wall tank that i've had for 5years now.



This tank developed a leak between the front glass and the base. That was around June of last year and that was how i discovered Reef Philippines by chance when i was searching the web for ways to fix a leaky aquarium. Luckily i was able to fix the leak but i had to empty the whole tank. I then started to restock this tank up to about November last year.
However i decided to make a smaller tank to accommodate the Sps corals i had since it was very hard to aquascape a very deep tank (i even used a mask and snorkel to reach into the sand)and converting this to an Sps tank would be very costly since i had to buy a some strong lighting, a big chiller, a lot of (imported)salt and a lot of supplements (i was using Seachem then). Now this big tank only houses softies that don't need strong lighting and not much supplements (and no chiller-just fans).

I only do water changes every 3months and i only use local saltmix (no kidding) as long as it is prepared a week in advance and properly aerated. I guess the big Ats i have and the sump i installed after fixing the leak helped a lot. I have snails and starfishes and they do just fine together with mushrooms, some zoas (i had a lot before but my blueface ate a lot of them) and some xenias. The nitrate level is about 5ppm only and it was in this tank that some of my first Sps started to thrive and this motivated me do the zero-edge.

2) Details of the lights:



The main light is a 150watt MH 14k with a rectangular(Lumenarc?) reflector that Pugo1 helped me convert to 250watts using a variable output electronic ballast and RO 250w 14kbulb. It is only about 5" from the water surface.


I wanted to minimize the size of the box housing the lights to have a better view of the tank from above (an advantage you get when the water surface is calm like in a zero-edge design tank) so i can't use T5s for supplemental lighting. Instead i discovered that Landlite(available at Home Depot) has this par 38 CEL blue light that has good actinic properties. I used 3 of those and 2 8watt blue Leds and 4 1watt blue leds for moonlights mounted on regular ceiling-type receptacles. These 4 small moolights can be spot-beamed to any part of the tank that you want highlighted.

From left to right: 1watt halogen type blue Led, the ceiling type receptacle, and the 8watt blue Leds

Cheers!

bro, wer mo nabili yung 1 watt halogen type led, 220v na rin cya?
thanks

[greggydm]

randiedonhito wrote:

bro, wer mo nabili yung 1 watt halogen type led, 220v na rin cya?
thanks

Sa LIGHT OPTIONS, INC. store sa MC Home depot sa Ortigas Ave. katabi ng Metrowalk o sa Ikhea Lightings, Inc. sa MC Home depot sa Macapagal Avenue meron din. 220v sya @P230

[StargateXr]

sir Idol,

ganda ng tanks nyo

thanks for the updates.

keep them coming...

[greggydm]

sir Idol,

ganda ng tanks nyo

thanks for the updates.

keep them coming...

Here are some more pics and updates:

green bird's nest with pink polyps


my other nest


green crocea


pink pocillopora


and some brains:

i got this pink one 2 days ago



my first brain


left side tank shot

Now i have the blue tang in the tank to take care of my macroalgae.

Thanks for viewing!

[Mabisyo]

Wow! Those BN are amazingly doing great!...Nice how long have you had them?

[mosocoy1013]

galing astig napakaganda 2 thumbs up

[fishnet]

huwaaaaw! ganda tlga ng tank mo!!!

[randiedonhito]

randiedonhito wrote:

bro, wer mo nabili yung 1 watt halogen type led, 220v na rin cya?
thanks

Sa LIGHT OPTIONS, INC. store sa MC Home depot sa Ortigas Ave. katabi ng Metrowalk o sa Ikhea Lightings, Inc. sa MC Home depot sa Macapagal Avenue meron din. 220v sya @P230

ah ok, hanapin ko na lang,thanks