Rcpilot - 29g Frag Tank

Neat! I've always wanted to do a big black rubbermaid tank for a sump - Biff did a nice one.

Rc that's one great job of plumbing work. Good job. :bowdown:

Yikes!! :yikesu:

I went back and looked at my pics from the last few posts and realized my heater was sticking up out of the water.

If I may quote the puppet "Walter" from the Jeff Dunham (ventriloquist) show.........

Dumbass :shock:

Hope it ain't broke. The plumbing is nice.............. but that pipe that runs from the fuge all the way across the front of the sump ........... it's a pain in the ass to get my arm around it to remove the pump sponge or do anything in there. But I couldn't run it behind because the overflow line drops in there.

Hoping I still have enough room in the skimmer compartment for a skimmer. Never had an in-sump skimmer and not sure of the foot print size. I don't need a huge skimmer for this system - but I DO need one. If it came down to it - I guess I could use a HOB skimmer on the fuge. But that would piss me off. I want an in-sump skimmer. Gotta sell some corals first though.......... :grumble:

So...... what's for sale?? :mrgreen: I need some more Zoas.

yea man, wheres all the for sale stuff?!?!? hehehehe oh god you better hope walter dosent cut a gasser or we're all gonna look like achmed! hehehehe

my octo 110 has about a 7x10 footprint if my memory serves me... course, i do have a brain like swiss cheese, so.......

Shameless update. Added the clean up crew today.

10 astrea snails, 2 nessarius snails, 10 blue leg hermits, 3 red leg hermits, 1 mexican turbo snail. I put the nessarius snails in the DSB in the 20H fuge. Also about 5 hermits, 2 margarites and 2 astrea snails. The rest of them went into the 29g tank.

Current pics:

Looking really good Rc.

I need to get off my butt and build a canopy or some kind of contraption to hold my lights up.

I have a retrofit 175w MH (14K bulb) and a retrofit (2) PC 65w. I'm not sure how to do it. I don't really have much of an option to hang it from the ceiling on ropes or pulleys. It's just not an option. So I need to build some kind of canopy to hold these lights.

But it doesn't have to be your traditional canopy that sits on top of the tank. I kinda don't like that idea. This is a frag tank and I'm mucking around in it every single day. I don't want a big huge canopy in my way and I don't want to deal with lifting it up and taking it off all the time. I got a bad back.

I'm trying to come up with a way to attach some big 4x4 posts or legs to the back of the stand and support an overhung canopy thats fully supported, but no front legs to get in the way. It needs to raise up or tilt up as if the rear was on a giant hinge. If I can tilt it up and out of the way and pin or lock it in place while to do my maintenance - that would be the best.

I need help guys and gals. I need help with the design.

How far would you put the 175w MH? How high off the water? I'm going to put the 65w PC bulbs as close to the water as I can get. Hopefully less than 6" away. But those are just PC actinics so I don't expect a heat issue.

1st pic on the left is a frontal view.

2nd pic on the right is a top view. Red line in the middle is the return line. Red line on the left is the drain line.

I'm offsetting all the lights to the right. I just want to cover the right side of the tank. The last 20 inches on the left is irrelevant to me.

Would I get better light spread if I turned the MH light 90 degrees and ran the cord out the back of the canopy? 3rd pic.

I aint no carpenter,so I wont even try to give advice on how to set up something to hold the lights.
But 12 to 13" above the water should be good.Even for your actinics.

Thanks Yote.

Which way should I turn the MH light?

Turn it so the length of the bulb runs the length of the tank.That way it puts more light where its needed.

Frag tank is looking good!
Hard to tell what you're growing in there, tho - any good specimens?

Nothing special. I'm having trouble selling anything right now. It's too cold to ship and locals want to pay $5 for 2 frags. :grumble: Most of it is just beginner zoas, mushrooms and palys. A few trumpets and a few purple death. One acan I've been trying to get rid of forever.

I'm tempted to just have a fire sale and sell all the zoas and mushrooms for $5 a frag. I also might start selling whole rocks and mother colonies of zoas, mushrooms and palys out of my display tank. I'm over the beginner corals and want something more colorful.

Sucks having a frag tank with nothing in it but beginner corals. I'm hoping the new lights will perk up the corals a bit and help with color. They are under 10k PC right now and starting to really lose a lot of color.

I think I'm going to build a regular canopy, but it will be open in the back. I'm going to mount all my lights on one big board inside the canopy and then put drawer slides in the canopy. When I open the front door to access the tank, I can slide the lights out the back of the canopy on the drawer slides.

:bounce:put an AI LED over them, hehe

Can't afford it. I've already got all the lights here. Bulbs, ballasts, cords, wiring harness etc..

You got a reflector yet Chris? Ive got a mogul socket and spider reflector I could send you if you don't already have them.

Hey Rc...send Eli a msg...he's good at those types of designs.

Thanks Ryan. Thats really cool of you to offer. I think I have all the parts I need though.

I bought a 2x PC 65w retrofit kit from Catalina. Bulbs, individual reflectors, ballasts etc.. I also have a 175w MH ballast, bulb and mogul but no reflector. And I've got about 3 square feet of polished aluminum in a box. I'm going to try and use pop rivets and a small sheet metal brake to make my own reflector.

I just need some wood for the canopy and a set of drawer slides. I probably need miscellaneous wiring junk, but that's easy to get. I'm also working on my electronic auto top off thingy with my RO unit and sump. I might just buy a 12v power supply that's big enough to run all the relays and switches for the auto top off AND the cooling fans that I'm installing in the canopy. They all run on 12v DC so why not power them all with one power supply? Just need to add up the watts and do the math to make sure I buy a big enough power supply. 2 amps is probably more than enough. I'd rather do it all in one big project box if possible.