J's 120 Gallon "I can't believe it's not butter" Build

[Miah2bzy]

I can never turn down a good project so when flyfish pmed me with a 120 gallon project tank that he wanted to pass my way, I was hooked. This may be premature to post as I still don't have the tank yet but wanted to start planning it here so I can rock and role when the time comes - my wife isn't a good sounding board for this type of stuff.

 

[SynDen]

Bring it on! More build thread fun! Although werent you moving or something?

 

[Miah2bzy]

Bring it on! More build thread fun! Although werent you moving or something?

Yea, we already did. We r over on the western slope in new castle. I sold most of my 65 setup to help make the move easier and was going to setup a tank again when I could...then this came into my lap!

 

[Miah2bzy]

I will most likely be doing a metal halide/led combo, any suggestions on an LED for a 120?

 

[Miah2bzy]

Thinking of using aquaray led, any thoughts?
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/LEDLights.html#1500

 

[sethsolomon]

Just use 4 of these: http://www.amazon.com/GLW-Power-wat...424451081&sr=8-3&keywords=[10w+blue+led+flood

The halides should be perfect. Shoot for 2x 14k 250w phoenix HQI's with either lumenbright, Hamilton, or lumenmax elite reflectors.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Just use 4 of these: http://www.amazon.com/GLW-Power-wat...424451081&sr=8-3&keywords=[10w+blue+led+flood

The halides should be perfect. Shoot for 2x 14k 250w phoenix HQI's with either lumenbright, Hamilton, or lumenmax elite reflectors.

Thanks Seth! I was looking at it today some more and definitely going w the phoenix 14k's as I really liked those last time. I'll look at the link u gave.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Just use 4 of these: http://www.amazon.com/GLW-Power-wat...424451081&sr=8-3&keywords=[10w+blue+led+flood

The halides should be perfect. Shoot for 2x 14k 250w phoenix HQI's with either lumenbright, Hamilton, or lumenmax elite reflectors.

What ballasts? I've been reading multiple differne things, thinking I need M80s but haven't gotten a firm answer yet, I don't want to overdrive them.

 

[sethsolomon]

M80 will drive them the best. Hamelton has them fairly regularly for about $140 a pop.

 

[Miah2bzy]

J's 120 Gallon "I can't believe it's not butter" Build

Best locations?
1) the laundry room:

Pros: will hold the weight as its in the basement and it'll be out of the way so my boys won't get into it.
There is a switch on the wall nearest to where I would put the tank that is where the circuit board for all the internet wiring is and it has a dedicated breaker to it, only switch off this breaker. It's a 15 so is have to upgrade this but that's a huge plus to have a dedicated breaker already.
Cons:

The water heater, furnace, washer and dryer are across the room.
There is also a pipe for exhaust/heat to escape out and this lets in cold air during the winter, not much but it's enough to drop the temp some.
2) office:

Currently my desk and two bookshelves are against the wall that backs up to the garage. The struts do not run perpendicular to the wall but parallel so that's a concern if the floor could hold it. However, it would be easy to tap into the dedicated breaker from above as its right under the desk and it'd be easily accessible. Only window doesn't let enough sunlight in to matter.
3) living room:

There is space where I can fit a 120 in the living room. The wall here I think is load bearing along the banister as it has to support the living room floor. My concern is that it is the only spot the piano could fit and not sure if I want to have the floor supporting the piano and a 120.

Thoughts?

 

[Skrappy]

get a keyboard instead of the piano... i would think the laundry room would have constantly changing ambient temps, making your tank struggle to maintain consistant temps, and do you really want to go sit in the laundry room to look at your tank? i don't know anything about adding supports to a floor, so if i were going to use the office i would rearrange the furniture so that the tank can be supported properly(if possible). my 2 cents, if its even worth that

 

[Miah2bzy]

get a keyboard instead of the piano... i would think the laundry room would have constantly changing ambient temps, making your tank struggle to maintain consistant temps, and do you really want to go sit in the laundry room to look at your tank? i don't know anything about adding supports to a floor, so if i were going to use the office i would rearrange the furniture so that the tank can be supported properly(if possible). my 2 cents, if its even worth that

Would definitely be rearranging the furniture if in the office (downsizing two bookcases and moving the desk. Piano is antique from my great grandparents that bought it in late 1880's and it's been in tr family ever since - keyboard is nice but doesn't have the same sound. Ambient temp was something I was worried about to. Thanks for the input.

 

[SynDen]

which directions is the floor joists running in relation to how you want the tank to sit? If they are running perpendicular to the tank, then I would think you would be good, even parallel would likely do fine as long as it sits across 2 or more joists. Although I think that is about the max sized tank I would put on an upper floor without adding more support somehow.

 

[Miah2bzy]

which directions is the floor joists running in relation to how you want the tank to sit? If they are running perpendicular to the tank, then I would think you would be good, even parallel would likely do fine as long as it sits across 2 or more joists. Although I think that is about the max sized tank I would put on an upper floor without adding more support somehow.

The laundry room is directly under the office so that the office sits ontop of concrete along the walls. There are two spots I could put it in the office, one runs parallel w the joists the other runs perpendicular. Probably going to do perpendicular after talking to all here. It would sit middle of 3 joists, ends of joists run into concrete in one direction and the stairwell in the other - which would b supported different from the rest of the house and from what I understand are reinforced already.

 

[Miah2bzy]

J's 120 Gallon "I can't believe it's not butter" Build

Made a little trip to denver today:

Good start at least.

 

[Miah2bzy]

And clean...ish.

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

Nice Tank. I saw that you got a halide/PC fixture with the tank. Why not just retrofit LED's in place of the PCs? I just did this with a 24" Halide/T5 fixture and it works GREAT. This is what I used:


Solderless LED's (which eve you want, I used a mix of these)
http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-cree-xt-e-royal-blue-led/
http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-cree-xp-g2-cool-white-led/

Drilled and Tapped Heatsinks
http://www.rapidled.com/drilled-tapped-1-4-x-18-aluminum-heatsink/

LDD Drivers (I used these because they are very small and work with the light controller below)
http://www.rapidled.com/mean-well-ldd-1000hw-dimmable-driver/ - I did find that these will reliably run 9 LED's (Perfect for the 18" heatsinks), beyond that and they may not drive them properly.

Light Controller
http://www.rapidled.com/coralux-storm-x-led-controller/

This controller comes with a black case (extra $10) and will allow you to set up and control up to 16 different channels of LED's. It can also run fans for you via an optional temp probe. It is a pretty amazing little gadget. Of course, if you have a reef controller you don't need this.

I can get some pics and post them tonight if you would like. It really makes for a clean look and fits perfectly in the fixture, even with lenses on the LED's.

 

[ayaws]

Excellent! I have a 150XH (48X24X30) in our front room backed up to a wall which is attached to a beam which is 3' from a 10" flanged steel beam and is held on supports in the basement. It's across 3 2x10 (one double-stacked) floor joists. No deflection in the joists or in the wall that I can see thus far. (Tank has been in its spot for roughly 3 months.) When I bought this house last year I talked to a structural engineer about what I wanted to do to it (and my desire to replace asphalt shingles with concrete.)

If you're going to put it on a second floor (third including a basement) I would seriously consider dropping a couple hundred $ on a structural engineer. It's not cheap but could save you from a catastrophe. My house was fairly well constructed for a '93 model. When we were searching we saw some VERY scary stuff from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Better to be safe than sorry.

Enjoy your build!

 

[Miah2bzy]

J's 120 Gallon "I can't believe it's not butter" Build

It's going to go on the first floor above the laundry room. The concrete will extend to about 1 foot on one side with the laundry room door under the rest of it (pictured above). It will sit over 4 beams, on end runs to concrete, the other to stairs. The wall right behind the tank is load bearing.
Shouldn't be a problem, hopefully, as the house was built in 2012.
I'm also not using as much live rock, only 30-40 lbs with this build and most likely bare bottom. I still haven't decided on a sump yet but going to try my 20L and see how it fits once the stand is built.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Nice Tank. I saw that you got a halide/PC fixture with the tank. Why not just retrofit LED's in place of the PCs? I just did this with a 24" Halide/T5 fixture and it works GREAT. This is what I used:


Solderless LED's (which eve you want, I used a mix of these)
http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-cree-xt-e-royal-blue-led/
http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-cree-xp-g2-cool-white-led/

Drilled and Tapped Heatsinks
http://www.rapidled.com/drilled-tapped-1-4-x-18-aluminum-heatsink/

LDD Drivers (I used these because they are very small and work with the light controller below)
http://www.rapidled.com/mean-well-ldd-1000hw-dimmable-driver/ - I did find that these will reliably run 9 LED's (Perfect for the 18" heatsinks), beyond that and they may not drive them properly.

Light Controller
http://www.rapidled.com/coralux-storm-x-led-controller/

This controller comes with a black case (extra $10) and will allow you to set up and control up to 16 different channels of LED's. It can also run fans for you via an optional temp probe. It is a pretty amazing little gadget. Of course, if you have a reef controller you don't need this.

I can get some pics and post them tonight if you would like. It really makes for a clean look and fits perfectly in the fixture, even with lenses on the LED's.

That's great! Was thinking that or t-5s, had also considered cutting the end portions off where the pcs are and making it just a 2x250 halide fixture. Pics would be great, thanks!