LoJack's 144 Gallon Reef Build

lol I'm working on it!

 

Wow. I want one for my tank.

 

Thanks

 

Well I went out to the garage after LA thumped Phoenix in the opener of the West Conference Final.

I painted the inside of the canopy gloss white in order to reduce the amount of light that would be absorbed as opposed to reflected back down.

I put 2 coats of a water based mahogany, and 2 coats of a water based poly.

A touch on the time consuming side to say the least.









I haven't decided if I'm going to tackle the doors for the stand and canopy or start wiring up and hanging some of the LED's so that I have a bit of light over the tank. I guess I'll see if I'm in a router and stain kinda mood, or burning myself with a soldering iron kind of mood lol.

Hope you enjoy

 

Man, I frickin love this build. The bean animal and canopy work are top notch as usual!

 

wow thanks!

 

Great job on the canopy, very pro.

Have you started cycling? Whats the plan?

 

Yup, its been running for approx 2 weeks now while I finish the woodworking / lighting /Water Change station.

It looks as though the cycle is complete to be honest. Ammonia and nitrite are gone ... but I'm continuing to ghost feed the tank to keep the levels going. Skimmer is broken in and working like a workhorse, even though there is nothing in the water (kinda scary when you think about it)

my algae cycle won't begin until I get some light over the tank. I may tackle cabinet doors today, but I may tackle wiring up an LED unit ... we'll see.

I have the supplies to build (4) 24 LED units. I haven't decided if I'll put 3 over this tank and keep one for my frag tank, or put all 4 over this tank.

I'm sure 3 will be enough. They are 3W Cree LED's from RapidLED.com

 

Nice, you're on top of everything!

Id imagine 3x 24 LEDs would be enough. Cool white and royal blue only? or got something else as well?

 

50/50 ratio of Cool White and Royal Blue.

I'm a fan of the 14k look. I always went with the Ushio 14k's when I had halides.

When I talked to the guy at Rapid, he told me that this ratio would be a very close replica of that color spectrum.

I can always tweak it later if it becomes necessary ... once its all wired up, simply popping out a few of this or a few of that and firing it back up wouldn't be much work at all.