XSiVE's 120 in-wall

[XSiVE]

I just thought I would throw some basic info / pics of what I've got since I'm still new here.

The tank is a 4x2x2 120gallon
sump is 55g
"fuge" is a 29gal

Display is lit by 2x250W 14k MH's and 2x UVL t5HO actinics
Current is provided by a mag12 return pump, a mag9 on an oceans motions 2-way, and two Koralia #4's

As you can see in the pics I have a rock wall covering the back so you cant see through into the fish room, I don't have a ton of livestock, as a lot of my stuff died off in a Kalk disaster I had awhile back.


I really like SPS corals, but Im also into many different types of LPS.

After 2 years of having the display in the wall with a hole cut and a year of having the materials to frame it in, I finally decided to do it this week.. hehe



"whole" fish room area.



north wall, you can see here my RO reservoir on top, and my mixing tub on the bottom with the ball valve for quick refill on water changes... Fuge has a couple of koralia's creating a swirling current to keep the cheato tumbling.. the T5's above it were over my frag tank, but they arent used right now.



the backside of the display:
Middle drill spot is the inlet to the closed loop, bottom is one of the outlets, the other outlet is the pipe running up to the top of the tank.
oh the right are just some shelves for organizing, with my MH ballast ontop




Im working on putting together a DIY LED fixture, I'll put the updates to that in this thread too.

[MizTanks]

Does cheato have to tumble?

[Mike]

I like it esp the fish room

[XSiVE]

Does cheato have to tumble?

No, but it does extremely well when it tumbles, and it also keeps itself a lot more contained in a tight ball when it does.

[Sir Patrick]

Wow!! Very nice!

That looks like a very mature display- how long has it been running? Awsome fish room!

[XSiVE]

This system has been up for 2 years, but all the rock, the monti's, frogspawn(got it from Tal) and the green favia came out of my 55g which was up for a good 3 years before I made the move to the 120.

I'll have to figure out how to get a good FTS.. not sure if I can cram it all into frame though.

[XSiVE]

Well, I took a lot of my free time this weekend in an attempt to get my new LED system operational.

I got one of the two planned pendants complete other than fans and a db9 (serial port) connection wired in. I plan to have just a single "wire" running to each pendant so I've gotta wait till that last shipment comes in.

I have pics of the entire build start to finish but I don't want to go through the hassle of converting from RAW at the moment. I'll be sure to upload them tomorrow when I've got a little time.

[XSiVE]

okay so I was just making sure since the reformat of my laptop I have all the tools needed to actually upload tomorrow.. so

here's a teaser. Im a little concerned about how the shadows are formed with these, but I think the refractive nature of water will mute it quite a bit.

[iyachtuxivm]

No that is normal. That is what will give you your shimmer in the water.

[XSiVE]

As promised - here's the build for one of my two LED pendants. I started with an idea of approximately what I wanted... drew it up in google sketchup:


LEDs - x36 CREE XR-E Q5 & x36 CREE XR-E RB mounted on star PCB from rapidLED.com
Drivers - x6 MeanWell ELN-60-48D also from rapidLED.com


Got my two 8.46"x16" heat sinks from Heatsinksusa.com these things are deceptively heavy.


Some 1/20"x96" Aluminum L-stock from Lowes/Home Depot, relatively cheap and very useful if you're doing some light structural stuff.


Line things up and mark them for drilling


Drill your pilot holes


Make sure you clamp everything together once you get to the second heat sink if you're putting two together like I was. I also found on my second pendant that it was easier to drill from the other side of the heat sink so I could get a nice centered hole between the fins.


Bolt it all up.


Clean the heat sink off with rubbing alcohol to remove any machining lubricant that may be left on then measure out and draw your grid on with a sharpie, don't worry about how exact it is, it's just gotta be pretty even / close.