Dr Frag's T5 lit 180

Unfortunately like I said before I only had 24.75" of clearance under my stand... Im not lucky enough to have my better half let me cut into our closet wall for the sump and fuge!
So needless to say there are NOT many skimmers geared up to the gallonage I have that are short enough to work. An ASM 4 is short enough but you need about an inch of clearance so that was scrapped. The only other one I could think of was the ATB cone line but I didn't feel I could afford a thousand $$ skimmer at the moment. So I thought about making my own when I stumbled upon the Octopus Extreme series. Not too costly, look decent and the 200 fits with room to SPARE!!
Its a big skimmer(diameter wise) but like I said there are a few things I would tweek but I suppose thats how everything is in life!!

I will try to post some pics of it today and if not tomorrow, I also need to take some initial shots of the 5 new acros I got.

Thanks for the compliments!!
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Heres a few pics of the skimmer... Haven't fired it up yet, but I'm chomping at the bit!!




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Are those lights on icecaps or regular?

 

what are the par values?

 

They are workhorse ballasts, didn't want, even with me ability to get things close to cost, to spend 3-4 times more for the Icecap. I am pretty confident these ballasts will do.

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I don't remember them off hand... Grimm Reefer on RC should me some values of a 24" deep tank with my bulb line up(almost identical) and the levels were great!!

I am going to be getting a PAR test on my tank done within the next week or so, I will post my values afterward

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does your workhorse ballast have similar specs to the icecap.. i.e. are your T5's overdriven?

 

No, they are not overdriven. To my knowledge Icecaps are the only available t5 ballast to overdrive. After Talking with Tom @Aquactinics and and Chris @ SLS I decided I would be able to keep what I want essentially to the sand bed WITH OUT overdriving. Ive seen 72" Constellations grow SPS to the sand bed and watt to watt I have more.

If I feel in the future I need to overdrive, I can always swap out the ballasts. Thanks for the questions

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Awesome looking tank man!

 

Thanks!!
I have to do another update soon as I have some new corals in there that I would like to add to the monthly growth chart..... a green slimer, a turquiose stag, a few blue millies, a tenuis, and a few others.

Plus the skimmer is starting to really pull it out!

Thanks for viewing!!