Dogbert4pres

I saw you tank years ago, I think you bought that large water vessel from the LFS near year that day and I followed you back to look at the IBC. You had not put in your sun room yet but looked like you had most of the backend ready. I am thinking of using that polyisocyanurate (albeit at 1/2") to make my frag runs. I bought the stuff to make tanks for dart frogs but figured that it should work considering the water depth would only be say 12". Thanks

I made a bunch of plywood tanks (110g) for my fish room and have a ton of chopped mat cloth and gallons and gallons of resin left. Has anyone made a tank using a styrofoam core and many layers of cloth/resin? I ask this as those 110g tanks a heavy.... very heavy. It would seem to me to be very doable as sailboats have a foam core.

Can I assume then that the consences is that a 5ppm nitrate level going in with the WC is OK provided the area for the chaeto is large enough? The LFS uses a different macro algae, but I can not really take their advice much since we both have divergent paths, their's is to not hold inventory for long, mine is to actually grow it out. I learned from a biologist (who breeds discus) to put driveway heat in the main FW system to help with certain issues I was having with the larger fry before that hit the pea-sized state.

Thanks for the quick reply Coral, I do have another RO, a modest 150gpd one that I could do that with. I have 50psi going into the 1000gpd RO unit (had to use a booster pump) but was unaware that I could stack RO units. Will have to get that plumbed with a gauge to see if the pressure is enough on the "good" side of the 1000gpd to power the 150gpd unit. As for the well, it is all the wells in this area so it is not just me. My whole aquafer is farms and from what others have told me, just live with it. There is a LFS maybe 2 miles as the crow flies that actually sells RO water at 10ppm nitrate to people that live in the area with reef tanks. As for the fish room, nothing really special there, but it does have a 275g moving bed I buried in the floor and the plywood tanks that I will never ever make again. I think the tanks I make for the frag table will be a foam core like a sailboat. they HAVE to weigh less than those plywood ones lol. the next major project though is a RO solar water heater as the well water is 54 degrees and I have to heat it to 83 for the angels and swapping out that much water costs propane evenin summer.

I built a 540 sqft fish room and have it about 75% occupied with freshwater angels and soon discus, 2200g in all so far. I would like to finish out the rest of the room with my 150g and 185g display tanks and around 45sqft of frag tables. I have a 1000gpd RO which I am using to do the large water changes on the freshwater side since the fish are breeding like crazy. My problem is... the well water is 140ppm tds of which 100+ppm is nitrate. I had to get the RO not to make the water softer, rather get the fertilizer out. The RO knocks this down to 5ppm nitrate but I am told it will never go lower. I read thread after thread of RDSB filters removing nitrates and this might be all well and good, but if they worked, why is my well water 50ft from the surface so full of nitrate. I can vouch that there is no O2 there and the water has a ton of dissolved CO2 as the ph from well is 5 but at the mere sight of an angry airstone it goes to 6.8. Do my options come down to having to go DI for the new water to the salt system or is 5ppm with a RDSB acceptable? (maybe I should do freshwater plants... high nitrate high CO2, whats not to love lol) Thanks

I bought a table saw last month to cut acrylic for my DIY frag raceways. I have yet get the correct blade for it since it needs something called a "triple chipgrind" blade that I think has 60-80 teeth on it. Home Depot/Lowes do not sell a blade like this so I have to get it off the internet... again. I live in Urbana MD so it is maybe too far from you. Let me know if you want to come by. I do need to buy the blade and some acrylic for my needs and making cuts should be quite easy

Now why did I not think of that, doh! That actually make a ton of sense since instead of making the lights with a 20" gap between them, it could be increased to something a bit longer and even out the intensity. Actually something could be quickly framed up once the 2 lights are built , set at the height desired PAR at depth, then moved so the levels are more consistent. The heat sinks themselves at the 18"x8.46" ones from reefledlights.com which can hold 72 LEDs, he gets them from heatsinksusa. I have an Apogee QM-200 on order so after I do an initial 24 XP-E RB and 12 XP-G CW from the group buy and add another 12 XP-E CWs the web on each of the fixtures, will check the PAR and can adjust up or down accordingly, height above water and distance between the two. I think the timers are set for the RBs to be up 14 hours, the GB CWs up 12 hours, and the XP-E CWs on for 6. I went with his gear since he was most helpful and has kits for newbies like me. Predrilled and tapped heatsinks, solderless connections.... stuff to make it easy for a first timer.

I believe the length rules out a simple extension, but am probably wrong. I do not think one fixture would cover the entire length requiring 2 fixtures.

I freely admit being a noob, tiger can't change his stripes overnight. Near as I can peice together from everyone confusing me I drew up these plans. Can someone give me a sanity check on this because I am not understanding what is being told to me. This is intended to light a 4ftx8ft raceway for coral, water to be 18" total depth but with the eggcrate at 12". It was highly suggested to use a motorized track system in the ceiling to move the LED fixture back and forth (I think it is running at 1ft per minute) Thanks img001.pdf

I am in Urbana Md, just a short hop across the river from you. My soldering skills would at best be comical, never having done this so I am not too keen on piecing one together. On the other hand though, I would not be limited to the sizes, both wattage and dimensions, that are in current production. I contacted some manufactorers in China and they can make a 180w hood with cree and 2:1, 6700:460 for $205US and another 60 for shipping making these pretty economical. They don't have a dimmer at that price so that is something to be concerned with. Really the bigger concern goes back to the original posting, what is needed both wattage and length for a 8'x4' raceway. Does anyone in the group have something akin to this? Thanks

Here is the same book, but in a PDF format you can save and print ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/003/w3732e/w3732e00.pdf

Thanks for the reply, I just signed up, pretty slick operation... must be some fellow geeks in the group. Justin got a hold of me and suggested making this raceway 12" which is easily enough done. How difficult is it to put a light fixture together? Seems I have a parts list from the response, at least the LED part and I am sure there is stuff not mention in the group buy. Thanks

I have read... and re-read... then read some more and I am not able to get a grasp on lighting something not standard configuration like a "55g with LPS and leathers". The web has been of little use and the "Book of Coral Propagation" by Anthony Calfo allows me to spout off on 6500k vs 10k on types coral at 18"-24" and 24"-30" or PAR value requirements for SPS (and the tools needed to find the PAR value) but I have yet find a place that will actually tell me how many watts would be needed to light a 4'x8' runway using CREE LEDs 460nm and 6.5k or 10k much less what the spread would be if hung 12 above the water. Would a 48" wide light be needed, a 40, a 36 or perhaps 2 20s? Granted the spread would be a function of the hoods construction, but I would have thought a watts guesstimate could be at least documented. What I do get is a MH bulb for x gallons needs to be y. 3 watts MH = 1 Watt LED. So this process starts with a guesstimate then divides the result by 3 (a factor that is also a guess) and comes up with an answer which has to be as accurate as Shaq's free throw shooting ability. I am pretty sure a nice 30" hood with the correct Kelvin but at say 1200 watts would have me applying SPF 120 on the coral, something I am sure they (and the skimmer) would not like. Enough of me spouting, too much reading made my eyes hurt. I guess it comes down to does anyone have some advice for a middle aged IT professional who is used to getting solid answers to problems quickly to what would be needed for a 48" x 96" raceway 24" deep. I had planned on starting off with the leather and LPS since they appear to be more attuned for beginners. Thanks