steve-s

Worst: Breaking down all of my tanks in Australia before moving and handing over my breeding pair of black ocellaris clowns to some friends to look after. Best: Getting my 30L Nano up & running, I really missed having a tank in the 6 months in between. Cheers, Steve

Sounds brilliant, what do you use for a temp controller or where do you get them? I was going to run the fans on the same timer as the lights but to be able to base it on the water temp would be perfect. Hopefully you can get a few more months out of it, 9 months isnt too bad, these PC fans cost $13 each, even if both had to be replaced, I'd spend much more than that on a new halide globe each year. I picked up the fans today along with a 12v DC transformer. Todays lesson was - Dont stand up your PC fans on the bench and then plug them in, the rush of air generated may cause the fan to whiz across the bench and shatter a couple of fan blades. :oops: Luckily I could glue them back on and the fan seems to work fine. I will mount them tommorow, I think I will go with them both blowing as I think the general concensus seems to be that blowing on the surface will cool slightly better and sucking will bugger the fan. Oh, hopefully I'll get around to adding some pics over the weekend. Cheers, Steve

In the mounting of 2 fans I plan on cutting holes in the side of the hood and mounting the fans flush in those holes so that the fan sits just below the halide. I have a few options: 1. Both fans running in the same direction, one blowing air into the hood and the other removing it from the other side. 2. Both fans running in opposite directions, both extracting air from the hood, airflow in would then come from the open back. 3. Both fans running in opposite directions, both blowing air into the hood, airflow out would then go through the open back. Which would be the most effective? Is Ira right, will the salt water erode the fan if it is extracting, how quickly can this happen? If so should I have both fans blowing inward (option3)? Option 1 seems logical to me but as the tank/hood is only 45cm wide it's quite possible that the cool air brought in by the first fan would be propelled across the hood and most of it would go straight back out the other fan which would be extracting. If this did happen then very little hot air would get removed. Anyone got any thoughts? Cheers, Steve

Mine is mounted inside the cabinet on the LHS, towards the top. The cabinet is of metal construction so I just screwed the ballast to it with a couple of self tappers. Sorry no pics but I'll try to remember to take some tonight. I have my light mounted about 20-25cm from the water, I wouldnt go any closer than this because of heat and it would also reduce the spread of light, I didnt want to go higher because of the size of the hood, it already looks very top-heavy because the hood is so large in proportion to the tank. Your tank has 8cm of additional height on mine, personally I'd look at mounting so that the light is about 30cm above the water level which is where I would have preferred to have mine if the hood didnt look so bloody stupid at that size. Cheers, Steve

Keep in mind that locating the ballast inside the hood will further compound the heat issue, those ballasts give off a fair bit of heat. Cheers, Steve

Thankyou, couldnt have done it without you That anemone is fantastic, the experimental acro didnt make it but the monti frag is going well, polyps are extended and are showing a tinge of green. My photography skills or lack thereof are preventing me from posting some macro shots. Cheers, Steve PS - I haven't forgotten that I still have your bucket. :oops:

My tank is in the garage on top of an old PC server cabinet, the ballast is fixed to the inside of the cabinet underneath the tank, this is not always possible because generally the cable which runs from the light to the ballast is notoriously short (esp if using a shopfitter halide like me), I was lucky however, the cable was long enough......just. You also need to think about ballast v water - I am confident that even if the tank overflowed or cracked that there is no way any water could make it to the ballast even though the ballast is underneath the tank. - It's kind of a common sense thing really but worth thinking about. Cheers, Steve PS: I would recomend you look at fans/cooling before adding the halide, I have been a bit slack in gettign around to doing it and my tank hit 30deg last night at about 8pm, as soon as I noticed I turned the lights off and the temp dropped back down to 28 within half an hour but I will probably be fitting a fan tonight. I dont think there will be any long term damage but another hour later could have been a different story.

Me too. I think remember they were going to be below $500. Aside from that I don't know but I would also be eager to get a specific price. Cheers, Steve

Do you have trouble getting it started on cold mornings? :lol: Cheers, Steve

The entire back of the hood is open and about 2 inches from the wall so there is a large area which air can circulate in and out of the hood if a fan was installed. I was thinking I could use 2 fans, one on either side. One sucking & one blowing to create a through-breeze. I just wasnt sure that if the fans werent running directly on the water the cooling effect may not be at its maximum? I really didnt pay attention in physics.......well what do you know, some of that learning would have come in handy :lol: Cheers, Steve

That prompts an interesting question. Is it better to have the fans: 1. extracting the hot air? 2. blowing air on the water surface therefore increasing the evaporation rate? or will both create the same level of airflow and have an equal effect? Cheers, Steve

Heat is going to be my main concern, it's already getting up to mid 28's (from 27) after 6 hrs of the lights being on. Not sure what it will do if we actually have a warm day (hasnt been a problem in Wellington so far ). I am going to fit a couple of PC fans into the sides of the hood for cooling, hopefully that may help. Cheers, Steve

Thanks guys for the comments, I absolutely love the anemone he is my favourite. Now I've added the 14000k bulb you can really see the colours. I am a bit concerned at my alk levels though, they are certainly too low. My pH seems a little high but always have trouble reading those bloody test kits (my pH pen is back in WA, picking it up along with my refractometer when I go back at xmas). I dont supplement ca at all at the moment but now I have added some coral I will probably need to, however I will not dose anything until I can test for it and I dont own a ca test, anyone in Wellington/Hutt area know of a pet shop which would sell ca kits, I have been to a couple but as they deal in freshwater they dont stock them? Cheers, Steve

Well, finally starting to come together. A few changes, firstly I have got rid of the power compacts and replaced them with a 150W 14000k halide, then I built a hood to accomodate the aforementioned halide. Also added some coral and a small anemone (thanks Pies ) Some pics: Front tank shot: Leather: Hood is bigger than tank. The light inside Need to add some cooling fans, probably a couple of PC fans. From the side The hood (or shroud) still needs some tidying up as you can see. Anemone, Phymanthus sp. I think. Need some nice colourful mushrooms and zoos now. Oh and a fish. Parameters: Spec Gravity: 1.026 pH: 8.4 (little high) Alk: 2.2 (little low) Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate all testing zero. I am going to add a skimmer after christmas, probably go for the new deltec mce300. Cheers, Steve

Im sorry Goby1, I dont mean to poke fun but surely even the warmest rock pool will be exposed to cold ocean water at high tide. :lol: Cheers, Steve