Haden's 48x24x24

[haden]

I started keeping marines 6 years ago and this is my 3rd tank.
I built the cabinet myself from 3x2 with 18mm marine ply top and bottom

Sump in position

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/IMG_6548.jpg

Tank with 2x250 halide over

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/IMG_6549.jpg

Total system

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/IMG_6547.jpg

Tank full shot with cladding on cabinet

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/IMG_6567.jpg

Cabinet with doors on and fish in tank

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/IMG_6572.jpg

Being on a pension, I decided that 2x250 halides with 4x54w T5's was a bit to much to for my wallet, so I put a single 250w halide (giessman) over the tank. This was hanging about in my garage from my last tank.

This gave quite a good spread over both ends of the tank.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/IMG_6613.jpg

However, I decided that I wanted a bit more control over the lights, dimming, moonlights, so I looked around for what I wanted in the shape of LED's.
Hopefully, I have got something that fits the bill, but with LED's, I guess no one has a lot of experience with them over a period of time, but so far, they look and act great.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/marine/LED%20lights/IMG_6697.jpg

Stocking details will come later.

Dennis

[Cookie]

very nice :)

[r60sgr]

Welcome to RC Dennis and great handywork in the cabinet and landscaping. Well done. Stewart

[ShyTalk]

That looks really smart there Haden, where did you get the cladding by the way?
I want to smarten up a 4 footer here and that stuff looks great!

Gav

[Marine Life Uk]

looks good mate well done

[ROB]

Good job on the cabinet getting Ideas now,

[Tangman]

That looks well Dennis you certainly have good DIY skills which can save a fortune in this hobby, keep posting the pics as your tank matures which will give the newbs some thing to aspire to. Twiggy

[haden]

That looks really smart there Haden, where did you get the cladding by the way?
I want to smarten up a 4 footer here and that stuff looks great!

Gav

Hi.
For the cladding, I used 18mm conti. The front is 1 piece 4ft wide and and it was cut just high enough to cover the sand level in the tank. The 2 'holes' in the front were cut out slightly smaller than the doors (B&Q kitchen doors). The ends were done the same and screwed to the front. The beading down each front and side covers the screws. The whole lot can be removed as one piece by unscrewing 2 brackets inside the side pieces. This was done so that I could remove it for painting and not let any fumes into the tank water.
Hope that all makes sense. It does to me anyway.
Dennis

[haden]

One thing I forgot to mention in the origional post.
Before I could set up my tank, I decided to take up the floorboards to strengthen the floor. I virtually built another stand about 15" high under the floorboards. When I worked out the weight of everything, , tank, sump, rockwork, water, it came to about 3/4 ton so I decided better safe than sorry.

Dennis

[ShyTalk]

Hi.
For the cladding, I used 18mm conti. The front is 1 piece 4ft wide and and it was cut just high enough to cover the sand level in the tank. The 2 'holes' in the front were cut out slightly smaller than the doors (B&Q kitchen doors). The ends were done the same and screwed to the front. The beading down each front and side covers the screws. The whole lot can be removed as one piece by unscrewing 2 brackets inside the side pieces. This was done so that I could remove it for painting and not let any fumes into the tank water.
Hope that all makes sense. It does to me anyway.
Dennis

That does look excellent Dennis, i have a very similar tank/stand here, the stand is home made, not by me, and looks very similar to yours before the cladding...I think I'm going to give it a spruce up like yours though...a vast improvement mate & many thanks for the info.

12877

[haden]

Since upgrading my tank, I have not had much success with corals, SPS, LPS but softies ok. I think this is due to 2 factors;
1/. I introduced 2 blue cheek gobies and they drop sand all over the place which upsets many of the corals.
2/. My Nitrate and Phos were way to high. Nitrate varied from 50 to 25 and my Phos was 0.13 to 0.18
I put some chaeto in the sump with 2 x 15w LED spots. The chaeto grew like mad but the Nitrate remained the same.
I have now removed the reactor which was running bio pearls, renewed the Rowa and after 1 week, my Nitrate is 2 and my Phos is .05. Whilst I am glad to see them down, my next question is, has the drop been to quick? I have not noticed any deteriation in the fish or any of the corals I do have.
If the levels stay at this or even lower (especially the phos) then I may restock my corals.
Dennis

[the hermit]

well done dennis you want to be very proud of yourself that is a very nice set up. I think you can take more pride in it as you built it from scratch the scaping is nice like i say well done

[haden]

Cheers mate. The scaping has altered a little since the last pics and I will be putting some new ones up tomorrow.

Dennis

[ray]

Cheers mate. The scaping has altered a little since the last pics and I will be putting some new ones up tomorrow.

Dennis

How did i miss this one ?? this is very very nice dennis i look farward to seeing this when we come to vist hopfully soon :)

[Tangman]

Hi Dennis SPS and LPS dont like phosphates so they need to be undetectable nitrates also need to be low as possible softies are a bit more forgiving and can stand a bit of Phos and nitrate. Also when your keeping SPS they use up a load of calcium and your params need to be spot on otherwise it will throw your calcium all over and cause the corals to suffer. HTH Twiggy

[BernieNUFC]

Thats a nice looking job on the cabinet looks the biz

[haden]

As promised, a FTS shot taken today. As you can see, I have added a couple of pieces of LR to the centre and these have some nice Rics on them which are growing despite the high Phos

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/030.jpg

This next one shows the new LR complete with the Rics, Finger leather and a nice saffron Toadstool

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae17/haden869/upgrade%204x2x2/032.jpg

I have also tested my Phos today and it is 0.1. Bit of a bummer but I will keep working on it.

Dennis

[BernieNUFC]

Plenty of space around those rocks, should be some nice flow there :-)

[ray]

really nice dennis keep up the good work :)