Smite's Stout CDA - 205g Acropora dominant system 50x38x25"

[Kershaw]

No plan for power heads on the sides that are up to the wall?
looks tight.

 

[Smite]

I’m beginning to think we had two different builders lol.

really? Does you're have the double pane and bottom bracing, reienforced seems and all that? Mine also has a ABS sheet adhered to the bottom. I'm pretty sure that's there to help with any imperfections also.

 

[Smite]

No plan for power heads on the sides that are up to the wall?
looks tight.

it is tight, that's for sure. Tighter than I planned in all honestly. My floor was so un-level towards the wall in that corner, by the time I leveled the tank it was getting closer to the fireplace mantel then I like, so I chose to push it closer to the wall.

I'm pretty confident I'll be fine on flow, treating it like a peninsula with all wavemakers off the right wall shooting the length of the tank. Plan is a wavebox, 1 6105 tunze stream on the overflow box, 1 6105 on the wall with the wavebox. I have one more if needed, Pending rock work that may go lower on the overflow and shoot up towards the front glass to break everything up a bit.

 

[Smite]

Got a little work done between painting my bathroom.

The tank didn't come with a plywood piece for the sump area. Luckily the pallet the tank came on had a decent piece under the tank that worked out great.

some quick cuts, 2 coats of kilz primer and flat white canned paint later

Fit the stand great. I added some felt pads on the steel between the plywood to reduce any vibration noise. I also bought some gym mat pieces and cut them to fit. Finally after 5 months I got to dust the sump off and see it under the tank.

Only other person in the house as excited as me...but that was because she was finally able to hop in the tank

 

[Smite]

I kept the plumbing very basic. If I add a fuge, cryptic fuge or frag tank later I plan to just add a secondary pump. That way I think I'll be fine withy my M2 vectra and it will cut down on the fiddling of keeping the drains quiet when I add or change flow to secondary items like I currently have to do with my manifold.

I have a few parts coming in to hang my halides and I've sourced the goosenecks locally for the kessils. I'll be rigging that up soon. Then that last major items on the check list are 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits and skin on the stand and canopy.

I plan to have a dedicated circuit for lights, and a dedicated circuit for the apex that will control everything else. I've tried to do a control cabinet, or electrical cabinets in the past and it always ends up being either a cluster or hard to service things. For this tank, I plan to mount a piece of half inch plywood across the back section fo the stand. I'll paint it black. I'm going to blank off that existing outlet with weather proof bell box cover. Then I just plan to mount everything directly to that. I'll use velcro straps for service loops and that'll be as clean as it gets.

 

[Kershaw]

I kept the plumbing very basic. If I add a fuge, cryptic fuge or frag tank later I plan to just add a secondary pump. That way I think I'll be fine withy my M2 vectra and it will cut down on the fiddling of keeping the drains quiet when I add or change flow to secondary items like I currently have to do with my manifold.

I have a few parts coming in to hang my halides and I've sourced the goosenecks locally for the kessils. I'll be rigging that up soon. Then that last major items on the check list are 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits and skin on the stand and canopy.

I plan to have a dedicated circuit for lights, and a dedicated circuit for the apex that will control everything else. I've tried to do a control cabinet, or electrical cabinets in the past and it always ends up being either a cluster or hard to service things. For this tank, I plan to mount a piece of half inch plywood across the back section fo the stand. I'll paint it black. I'm going to blank off that existing outlet with weather proof bell box cover. Then I just plan to mount everything directly to that. I'll use velcro straps for service loops and that'll be as clean as it gets.

Who made that sump?

 

[Smite]

Who made that sump?

That's Advanced Acrylics hybrid sump. PVC, with welded seams and acrylic viewing panels.

 

[fatboyt123]

Cant wait to see the halides up. To many leds as the main attraction lately lol

 

[Smite]

Cant wait to see the halides up. To many leds as the main attraction lately lol

I get the craze with the tech and all that but for me nothing beats the look of metal halides. Keeping sps it takes so much guess work out of troubleshooting and the fish look amazing. I don't need a filter or to adjust anything when taking pictures and my corals have never looked better health wise.
I do like tenuis/all blue still, but that's where the kessils come in. I'll turn those puppies on, throw on some orange shades and get laughed at by my family for 10-15 minutes a night while googling over the tank I've been 14k for a couple months now and there has been no loss in color, specially once I go all blue under xho so it's truly the best of both worlds for me.

I love 14k so much, I'm tempted to try 10k at some point.

 

[Smite]

Quick mock up of the reflectors. Spread is incredible, seems oposite of what I read about them. It was a tight fit to get both reflectors between the bracing. That dual bracing really ends up being pretty large!

This is with some 14k 400w Aquatech lamps a buddy gave me. They look nice, I'd say between 14k hammies and 20k radiums. Picture is pretty true to life.

The light in the tank looks very even to the eye. I bought a par app for my phone, but I don't think it's registering correctly. Says I'm about 200 in the middle. What it does show me is left to right front to back that's all about the same output.

I'm realizing that there will be no way around skinning this thing all the way to the tank with it being near the couch, blinding light. That would put the canopy the exact same height as the tank itself, may be strange looking?

I'm tempted to scratch this and see what the ReefBrite MH would cover that's currently running my 75. My hesitation, is the reflector being 9" wide. I know it will spready, but with growth I'm worried it will shade possibly front to back.

 

[Kershaw]

Quick mock up of the reflectors. Spread is incredible, seems oposite of what I read about them. It was a tight fit to get both reflectors between the bracing. That dual bracing really ends up being pretty large!

This is with some 14k 400w Aquatech lamps a buddy gave me. They look nice, I'd say between 14k hammies and 20k radiums. Picture is pretty true to life.

The light in the tank looks very even to the eye. I bought a par app for my phone, but I don't think it's registering correctly. Says I'm about 200 in the middle. What it does show me is left to right front to back that's all about the same output.

I'm realizing that there will be no way around skinning this thing all the way to the tank with it being near the couch, blinding light. That would put the canopy the exact same height as the tank itself, may be strange looking?

I'm tempted to scratch this and see what the ReefBrite MH would cover that's currently running my 75. My hesitation, is the reflector being 9" wide. I know it will spready, but with growth I'm worried it will shade possibly front to back.

Those make your tank look small lol.

 

[Staghorn]

Got a little work done between painting my bathroom.

The tank didn't come with a plywood piece for the sump area. Luckily the pallet the tank came on had a decent piece under the tank that worked out great.

some quick cuts, 2 coats of kilz primer and flat white canned paint later

Fit the stand great. I added some felt pads on the steel between the plywood to reduce any vibration noise. I also bought some gym mat pieces and cut them to fit. Finally after 5 months I got to dust the sump off and see it under the tank.

Only other person in the house as excited as me...but that was because she was finally able to hop in the tank

I’m sure she’s going to be a big help when something falls behind the rock work, she can just dive in!

 

[Smite]

Those make your tank look small lol.

Haha no joke, This thing does not look big to me, it’s a fat 120

 

[Smite]

I’m sure she’s going to be a big help when something falls behind the rock work, she can just dive in!

Ha, 78 degree mini pool? She’s in!

 

[Smite]

I messed around with different ideas for making the canopy easily accessible. The best solution I could come up with was a few brackets but that would involve screws, a step stool and then still removing the whole front skin of the canopy for access. Where I planned to have an open section, floating style canopy, wasn't panning out either. I'd have to go so low that i would just have a little more than feed access for the most part.

So, I'm scraping that plan altogether. Which sucks, I'll be saving the MH incase I ever get a chance or idea of how to better use them. I've pulled it all down and have started patching the walls. A reef buddy is bringing over an older power module, 10x54w that I'll be buying and using on this tank now. That fixture is 21" wide and will give me the coverage I want. Down the road I'll add some supplemental LED strips, XHO probably, front and back.

I ordered some bulbs to play around with.
4 blue plus ATI
2 True Actinic ATI
2 Tropic 6500k Giesemann
2 Giesemann Aquablue Azure 15000k

I want a whiter spectrum, I feel the Blue+ give off too much of a tint to the water, giving that windex look. If it's too white, I'll be swapping the azure for B+ or P+ lamps.

The order I think will work well front to back once I add LED supp:
XHO/oprhek
b+
true actinic
6500k
azure
b+
b+
azure
6500
true actinic
b+
XHO/orphek

I'll be hanging this light so I can move it up to get access to the tank. That will be my biggest challenge while working in this system and I want to make sure it's as easy as possible. I've ran t5 8x54w on a past 100g. While it isn't my preferred MH, I think it will still do very well for what I want with this tank.

 

[Smite]

Going to counter sink some magnets in the top of the panels so they line up to the top frame of the stand. Then it's paint and possibly formica on the inside. It would hide the magnets well and also potentially keep the plywood from warping over time. The outside will just be painted white.
662F2CBA-F90B-41D3-A60E-1A5643D396C6

4F10B2E8-F795-4D97-B023-69D53B04A9B6
5D185A66-1FDF-48E3-A663-4FA8A3D1F769

I added the strips of plywood inside to keep the panels level and also centered in their sections. That way the magnets are just holding the board to the stand. I'm going to router our sections on the backside for finger grips as it's very flush to the tank right now.

I used these magnets on my 180g and they worked great. Very strong and coated in some type of hard epoxy.

 

[Smite]

I got the magnets counter sunk today. I used a super heavy duty liquid nails adhesive so I didn’t need to worry about short screws. They are in there nice and tight.

So the bottom ledge rests on the plywood I cut for the sump floor. That keeps them all level with one another and also allows the magnets to just work to hold the panel agains the stand, not up. I also cut them to the length of the stand openings so they self center for the most part.
I plan to cover them with felt or possibly Formica to protect the stand from damage over time.

I’ll be keeping them low profile and basic. I feel like anything else short of matching my mantle exactly will look odd or hacked.
picture of the mock up pre magnets.

 

[Smite]

picked up a 10x54w t5 power module today. It came with brand new reflectors, the catch? The protective plastic sat on there far too long an made them impossible to pull off. Literally crumbs after minutes of work. I was ready to buy new reflectors but decided to try wd40. That actually helped some but still a pain and everything was slippery. So I sprayed a citrus based cleaner on top of the blue plastic. After sitting for a moment I went to start peeling, not hoping for much but it made all the difference. Still very difficult and left all the glue on the reflectors but I was able to get all the blue film off. 10 reflectors took me about 2 hours of solid work. I was left with what I thought were stains. WD didn’t pull them out, the spray didn’t pull it out. What did? My IPA soaked spit and those blue shop towels, a literal spit shin. I’ll be surprised if my fingers can pick me undies out me bum tomorrow but hell, she’s looking purdy!

Ready to grow some sticks!

this fixture is pretty heavy. I’m gonna weigh it tomorrow but it’s gotta be in the 40lb ball park.
One fan isn’t working so that’s on the to do but all ballasts fired right up. My new lamps arrive from premium aquatics tomorrow.

 

[VanDalsenReef]

picked up a 10x54w t5 power module today. It came with brand new reflectors, the catch? The protective plastic sat on there far too long an made them impossible to pull off. Literally crumbs after minutes of work. I was ready to buy new reflectors but decided to try wd40. That actually helped some but still a pain and everything was slippery. So I sprayed a citrus based cleaner on top of the blue plastic. After sitting for a moment I went to start peeling, not hoping for much but it made all the difference. Still very difficult and left all the glue on the reflectors but I was able to get all the blue film off. 10 reflectors took me about 2 hours of solid work. I was left with what I thought were stains. WD didn’t pull them out, the spray didn’t pull it out. What did? My IPA soaked spit and those blue shop towels, a literal spit shin. I’ll be surprised if my fingers can pick me undies out me bum tomorrow but hell, she’s looking purdy!

Ready to grow some sticks!

this fixture is pretty heavy. I’m gonna weigh it tomorrow but it’s gotta be in the 40lb ball park.
One fan isn’t working so that’s on the to do but all ballasts fired right up. My new lamps arrive from premium aquatics tomorrow.

Everything looks amazing.

 

[Smite]

Thank you