Hello all,
As some of you are aware I have recently moved into a bigger place, which means, bigger tank! Currently my 125 has been at the shop for the last couple of months. During this time I have been making preparations for the new build, so here it is! The tank should be here in the next couple of weeks, in the meantime the stand and canopy have been built and I am in the process of getting things put together. My 125 was truly a mixed reef, however this build will definitely be SPS dominant. I also ran my 125 with solely LED's and was far from impressed with the results after 2 years, so this will be lit by a halide/t5 combo. I will update the details as I get it put together but here is what I got so far:
Tank
72"x27"x27" - Glass - built by Deep Sea Aquatics
Stand
34" tall - built by Premier's custom carpenter
Canopy
18" tall - built by Premier's custom carpenter
Still need to do some touch up paint, other than that its pretty much ready to go.
The doors to the stand actually remove to make working in the area much easier and is also "childproof" so my daughter can't open them. The basically slide up, pull the bottom out then the door down to remove.
The canopy will house 3 radium 250's and 8 36" T5's 10"AWL. The ballasts are switchable from 250-400 so If I decide to go 400watters I can easily switch out the bulbs. More on this later. A issue I have is that we have a ceiling fan right above the tank which gives 0 clearance to remove the front panel of the canopy. To solve this we had to design a panel that would remove out instead of up. The front panel is held in by magnets recessed into the wood.
One thing I really hated about my old build was after a while it became a rats nest of cords. To solve this I took a idea from my old car installation days...
A false wall was built to mount all my electronics on and my brother and I will be finishing this up tonight, drilling holes for the grommets. My MP40's are at the shop but they will be placed above my battery backup. Also above that will be a fan controller, more to come on that.
The false wall will sit about 3" from the side wall so there is room for wires to run behind it. Giving everything a nice, clean look. In front of the false wall a piece of clear acrylic will be placed in front to keep splash off the electronics.
More info to come as its built!
As some of you are aware I have recently moved into a bigger place, which means, bigger tank! Currently my 125 has been at the shop for the last couple of months. During this time I have been making preparations for the new build, so here it is! The tank should be here in the next couple of weeks, in the meantime the stand and canopy have been built and I am in the process of getting things put together. My 125 was truly a mixed reef, however this build will definitely be SPS dominant. I also ran my 125 with solely LED's and was far from impressed with the results after 2 years, so this will be lit by a halide/t5 combo. I will update the details as I get it put together but here is what I got so far:
Tank
72"x27"x27" - Glass - built by Deep Sea Aquatics
Stand
34" tall - built by Premier's custom carpenter
Canopy
18" tall - built by Premier's custom carpenter
Still need to do some touch up paint, other than that its pretty much ready to go.
The doors to the stand actually remove to make working in the area much easier and is also "childproof" so my daughter can't open them. The basically slide up, pull the bottom out then the door down to remove.
The canopy will house 3 radium 250's and 8 36" T5's 10"AWL. The ballasts are switchable from 250-400 so If I decide to go 400watters I can easily switch out the bulbs. More on this later. A issue I have is that we have a ceiling fan right above the tank which gives 0 clearance to remove the front panel of the canopy. To solve this we had to design a panel that would remove out instead of up. The front panel is held in by magnets recessed into the wood.
One thing I really hated about my old build was after a while it became a rats nest of cords. To solve this I took a idea from my old car installation days...
A false wall was built to mount all my electronics on and my brother and I will be finishing this up tonight, drilling holes for the grommets. My MP40's are at the shop but they will be placed above my battery backup. Also above that will be a fan controller, more to come on that.
The false wall will sit about 3" from the side wall so there is room for wires to run behind it. Giving everything a nice, clean look. In front of the false wall a piece of clear acrylic will be placed in front to keep splash off the electronics.
More info to come as its built!
.
