Jay's 100g Reef

EDIT 2/1/2014

**** This setup is for sale. PM me for more info. I'm located in Pittsburg, CA and am asking $900 for the Tank, Cabinet, Canopy, and LED lighting you see below. ****




After almost a year without a reef tank =( we're finally all settled into our first home! But before we moved we had to regretfully tear down our beloved 75 g including all the livestock and equipment...




Given this is the first house we owned and it's a new construction, we decided to spare no expense! Our goal was for the "WOW!" factor.

I ended up picking up a pretty clean 100g plexi (60lx18dx20h) off craigslist and that's what I ended up sticking with for the build. I wanted a custom built wall unit that was functional for not only the fish tank and fish equipment but for storage and other things.

I found this design online on reef central and really liked it so I attempted to model my design after this one. We changed things here and there along the way to suit our needs.



THE LED BUILD

I ordered my LED's online from groupbuy about a year ago so I had planned on the upgrade originally for the 75 gallon but decided to just hold off for the new tank so I would only have to build it once. That didn't last too long. I ended up desiring more blue so I changed the ratio to a complete 2:1

Here's my LED stock list

(1) 48" heatsink from heatsink USA that i cut in half
(24) Cree XPE Cool Whites
(48 ) Cree XPG Royal Blues
(4) Cree XPG Reds
(4) Bridgelux Blues
(6) Meanwell 60-48d's
(2) Moonlight drivers from rapidled
(2) 80mm vantec stealth fans with speed controller
(60) 55 and 65 degree optics and 80 deg on 12 of the RBs spread out
(1) Reefkeeper ALC to control the dimming



after cutting the heatsinks in half, decided to lay the leds out simulating the AI Sol's, in groups of three, 2RB's to 1 CW in a circle with each circle layout interchanging to even out the coverage.



I then ended up spacing them 8" apart and reconnecting them with aluminum 90 degree channel technically making them two separate light fixtures.



I mounted the drivers on a piece of wood above the heatsink so I could keep everything in one piece making it easier to remove it and install when I had to.


all lit up for the first time minus the 4 bridgelux moonlights

above the tank when everything was finished.

I decided on going with one meanwell 60-48d per string of 12 leds so I can maximize the power to each led string and control them individually. I ran each string of XPE Cool Whites at 1200ma and each string of XPG Royal Blues at 900ma. I used the two moonlight controllers for the 4 blue moonlights and 4 cree reds which are being ran at 350ma each.

I am controlling the entire setup with the reefkeeper ALC module.

any questions? now on to the tank build itself.

 

THE TANK BUILD

Equipment List:
100g standard plexi 60lx18dx20h
30g Kritter sump 36x15x16
175lbs of live rock
120lbs of live sand
custom led build
Warner Marine MF161 Skimmer
Eheim 1262 return pump
Vortech mp40ws
Korallia evo 1400
Bubble Magus triple doser
Reef keeper lite
(2 pc4's, 1 alc, 1 sl1)
Toms aqualifter for ato
JBJ Fuge light
C breeze fan for auto cool off
Two little fishies phosban reactor

that's all i can think of for now....


My grandfather in law has a woodshop in his garage and this is where he did all the work. I basically handed him the plans and he called me every now and then when he had questions or concerns. I stopped by once in a while to take some pics of the progress. The entire build took about two months.


the design


base for everything. had to do it in once piece so we could shim the tank when necessary.


I picked out all of the crown molding to match the detail in my house trim.


Once the base was built, we started construction on the top which we also did in one piece. I selected a larger molding for the top.

and after two months of hard work and craftmanship...


all finished


with the doors open












the brain of the system!

Most recent FTS:
2/1/2012

 

Nice looking build! Thats stand looks fantastic!

 

Water Change Station

I have a drain hole in the display tank which is plumbed through the wall to the garage where i drain water for water changes. This tubing is also reversible to fill the display tank with fresh salt water for water changes so i don't have to carry any water into the house.

(1) Spectrapure CSPDI 90gpd with and extra max cap di stage making it a 5 stage ro/di



The station isn't finished yet. Still waiting on my plumber to install my wash sink in the garage and i'm thinking of doing an auto water change system to make things extra automated. =)



The top can is for ro/di water. there is a float valve inside to automatically shut off my ro/di when the can gets full. when i'm ready to make salt water i open the valve and the entire contents of the top bin dump into my salt water mixing bin below where salt mixes with a koralia and eheim 1260. when the salt water is ready, a couple valves turned and the eheim will pump the salt water back through the wall where the tank is located and fill up my display tank.

I'll update pics as this portion of my build is completed.

 

yeah. im working on it. i think it might be too pic heavy!

 

wow!!!!!!!!!

 

Sick! Sub'ed in for lighted tank shots.

 

Wow, love the tank! Nice setup. Very nice craftsmanship on the cabinet!

 

Wow nice setup and great DIY skills. Thanks for posting.

 

Nice. I had something similar except with barrels. I also had RODI tubing in the top freshwater barrel run to the sump for ATO.