Joe, thanks for your input!

I am using 2 Lumenarcs and one dish type reflector with no way to attach ducting to it. I can understand the idea of blowing air through the fixture, but I wonder if that keeps the water as cool as blowing the air under the fixture? Has there been any documentation of this that you kow of?

I am not sold on using this heat for the house without directing it through some sort of de-humidifier. As it stands right now, my house is at 45% humidity without the tank running. I have completely separated the tank room from the house, so it should have no affect on the house humidity, but the air in the room itself will definitely be much higher in moisture content and I don't want to add that to the house. Something to think about for the future though!

I have plenty of space to store the ballasts but coming up with a creative way to use the tank fans to cool the ballasts is another story. Maybe I just need to get a smaller fan dedicated to the ballasts.

About the light movers: If I was to not use the movers, then the light would be stationary and I would hope not burn the corals, so how does adding some movement change that? If the motor malfunctions, the lamp would just become stationary so I don't think that should harm the corals any more than without the rail. I do NOT plan on lowering the lamps and using the light mover to give the corals higher intensity light, because these are 1000W lamps. They will be intense enough. Fail-safe wiring is an option of course. My controller could probably handle that.

Sanjay,

I don't think the heat would affect the PVC as long as it isn't directly under the lights. I'm assuming that the PVC frame would be simply holding the edges of the fixture. You can even add spaces (small PVC blocks) to reduce direct contact and increase air flow between the fixture and the frame.

Alternatively, fiberglass angle would probably stand up better to heat. I've not used fiberglass angle so I'm only guessing here.

Greg

I'll tell you that the heat on the PVC is definitely an issue IMO. It took me 2 days to remove the heat damage to my tank's euro-bracing. I had to start at 60 grit on an angle grinder! That is another reason why I may not use a track that can swing. The damage done was with 400W and 250W lamps. It was so damaged that not much light at all could pass through it.

Acrylic and PVC have different properties, but I cannot imagine the PVC holding up well.

I have seen some very clever CHEAP light hanging methods and one that sticks out in my mind is using what amounts to a piece of wood th length of the tank front and back that has half-circles cut out much like a wooden wine rack.

Across the tank is a dowel for each lamp, with the lamp hung with cable, chain, etc that is adjustable. the dowel is positioned with each end on the "wine rack" wood giving the ability to angle the lamp and get it exactly where you want it.

For a tank as large as Sanjay's or mine, this could be modified by using a metal track with a pully to ficilitate moving the lamp out of the way.

What I am leaning toward is a stationary track monted on the ceiling, giving me the most verticle play I can get and hanging the lamps with "yo-yos". That way when the lamp is shifted out of the way, there are no other obstructions like dowels etc. I will have clean access to the tank, which I will need to get in with my wetsuit on.:D

For those unfamiliar with "yo-yos" I can only describe them as a simple spring loaded string coil mount. They are very popular in the hydroponics business. You can adjust height just be releasing a thumb screw and moving it up and down.

I did some searching at hydroponic sites... and these yoyo type hangers are kind of neat, and will allow for the vertical adjustmet of the lamp height.

I am now looking at light rails as my track to slide the lights along the lenght of the tank. i do not need the motor part... hopefully they make a non motorized version of the trolley so I can manually slide the lamps out of the way. I still need to figure out a way to make the light move along the breadth of the tank. This will give me full X, Y, Z motion to swing the lights out of the way.

I looked for some good swivel mounts that you suggested joe but did not find any good ones.

sanjay.

i've got the yo-yo's aka sunlifts.

they're a must have item if you're not using a canopy.

Something else to consider as I am, is using a sailboat track. It's of course a bit overkill, but I get them at wholesale. They are designed to allow adjustment of the reach of a sail and have a variety of attachments. The reason why I am considering them is that they DO NOT corode. They are built to use space very efficiently so that there is very little protrusion, giving a better range of verticle motion.

what about tracks for a garage door & rollers. You would of course degrease them. Two tracks front and back of tank. Each light has two tracks and four rollers. The two tracks for the lights, each have a roller on the end.

Also a good idea and I have heard many reefers do that. There is a little more engineering to contend with though to get your lamps level and get it to roll without snagging at an angle. I think those tracks work very well on rigid hood systems though.

Depending on the weight, even the tracks/rollers used for sliding doors should work.

My friend finished his basement and the back wall is a book case...or four bookcases. Upon further inspection they slide open to reveal a hidden storage room. The walls (shelves) are heavy and yet they slide like butter.

I have the Sunlight Supply "yo-yo" lifts and, IMO, they're worthless. I can never get them to function properly. It's much easier and less expensive to simply use plastic hooks and chains.

Greg

I forgot whos thread it was but it was a custom Cube and stand he had 4 lumenarcs on piston like devices. Kind of like the old car trunks. Does anyone know whos thread that was?

Actually Moonpod has the same setup:) But you knew that:)

If you're wanting to move light fixtures up and down, there is no better system than http://www.griplocksystems.com/

Call them and they can put together a custom package for whatever fixture you have.

Sanjay, are you going to put the lumenarcs in a canopy, or leave the tank open top?

wickerj, Thanks for the link ;)

The tank will be open top. My biggest headache is the limted head room. I am not particularly interested in the up and down motion, but in being able to move the lights out of the way when working in the tank.

Here is a picture showing some of my constraints. I would like to keep the 20" I currently have above the tank top edge to allow room for the Lumenarcs. So that means that the new tank which is 30" tall will reduce the space available for the stand to 34". I need to give my self about 30" of room under the stand. So this will also be a tough one with the current stand design.


The lumenarcs are about 9 inches tall.. so I will only have about 10 inches between the top of the tank and the fixture. This will most likely limit the spread. Have to play around and see what I get.


http://www.personal.psu.edu/sbj4/aqu...k/backroom.gif

sanjay.

Are you looking for something like this to move your lights?
http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/112/...e/1225ac1l.gif
You can Find them at master-carr.com

Yep that's the one.
Stanley also makes a similar sliding track thats a little bit heavier (and cheaper) that looks pretty nice. I don't have a link to that product, but I'm sure asnatlas will post one:lol:

Actually there are several ones that could be used from that site: Manual Trolleys

For less than $60 though I think that one is a good deal. I am going to use that for my center fixture which is a dish shape and only needs to be moved when I need access to the tank. I am using 2 Light rail 3.5 movers for the 2 lumenarc reflectors on each end of the tank. They will only move about 1-1/2 to 2' to get front to back coverage and then completely out of the way for tank access. I am installing them now and just ordered that trolley from Master-Carr. Thanks guys!

Why not just use the light rails and a trolley that would ride on the light rails ? Are the light rails cheaper than these.

Jnaroe, your link does not work. Can you post that one again.

Here is another alternative for a stand design I am considering. I am limited to having a 30"-32" tall stand, I want to maximize the room under it. If I go with the 6"tall I beam idea then the maximum opening I have will have a height of 24-26", whereas if I go with a welded steel stand of 2" square pipe I can get 28-30". Those extra 4" may make a difference. Just mulling the different options.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/sbj4/aqu...tand_assly.gif

sanjay.

Sanjay, here is one I just had built for my 225. It's 71"L x 31"D x 40"T made with 2 x 2 steal tubing. It's going to be sprayed with truck bed liner (Line-x) then wrapped in something. I haven't made up my mind as to what yet, but it can be changed anytime I want. Inside space when done will be 67"L, 27"D, and 36"T. The cutout in the top/middle is for the drain line. The large middle opening is so I can get my sump in and out without sliding it out the end.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/9086Stand.JPG

very nice stand, conadog.

Konadog, that is sweet, did you have that made locally, or did you make it yourself. How much weight do you think it will hold, was it very expensive? How well do you think that the truck liner will hold up? Is the tank a glass or acrylic tank?

Sanjay, I have no idea why that didn't work. I even checked it right after I posted it, so maybe it is some sort of "session" link. I cannot get any direct links because of the way the site is designed so I will tell you where to look. This site is very complex so it took me half an hour to find it in the first place!

Try this: From the home page search for "I-Beam Roller Track Sets for Doors" and then scroll down to the bottom where you will see the trolley pictured. If you search for trolleys, many pages of them will come up and you can check out a variety of them. I went through a lot of them and decided that the one pictured above is probably the best one for my application. I will use it for my center reflector.

Have a new problem...I have lumenarcs on the left and right thirds and a dish in the center, BUT the dish overhangs into the side thirds so I can potentially get contact. I had designed it to use a dish in the center for a wider spread as well as a bit less light for an open valley area so I hope I can get it to work. The pont about getting that trolley is that it is a lot cheaper than the Light Rail 3.5 drives that I am using on the outer thirds of the tank. It will allow me to easily move the dish out of the way for tank access and the dish doesn't have to be moved with a motor during regular operation. If I can't get it to all line up properly, I may have to move the dish to an outside third and redesign my aquascape.

I will answer questions on this thread My new tank is in (the garage) as I don't want to hijack Sanjay's thread. I posted the picture to give Sanjay another idea on stands.

sanjay....why not just use drawer slides? 100+lb rated slides can go out 20" for 19$!!!!! You can get them to extend further for more money, not much more, but it's clearly the cheapest/easiest solution...we can talk more later. Just thought I'd throw my .02 in.

sanjay you mentioned using sequence darts in eductors and some other guys on here raised questions about them not having high enough pressure, you could spring for the 3600 gph model in the sequence 1000 line, they are pressure rated to 20 ft head and use 213 watts

sanjay you mentioned using sequence darts in eductors and some other guys on here raised questions about them not having high enough pressure, you could spring for the 3600 gph model in the sequence 1000 line, they are pressure rated to 20 ft head and use 213 watts

.......i hate it when the reply box does that ....

Ok, after hearing about this I had come check the thread out. I must say I really like that stand idea!!! Once you figure out how to get that tank through the door let me know! ;)

Hope you had a good flight back, and the frag as well!

Sanjay, if you want a lead on the track I have my lights mounted on, let me know....

Sanjay,

A quick pic of my final lamp installation. Please note that there is a string of moon lamps mounted under the heating duct toward the front side of the tank. Check out the last page of my thread for more pics with the center dish lamp on with no water. I will update with more lamps lit and with water as I progress over the next week or so.

http://home.wavecable.com/~jrowe/final%20lamps.jpg

go with the powdercoated stand- its what i have and love it. solid as a durn rock.

go with the powdercoated stand- its what i have and love it. solid as a durn rock.

mf :bum:

Ok... now that my old tank is out of the house. I can start making some progress. Time to call Aquarium obsessed and find out the progress on my tank.

Since I am going to need a new skimmer... I decieded its time to build one. A friend and I are going to build a couple of these.

Just for fun, this time I thought I would go with a needle wheel skimmer and build myself a skimmer that eliminates some of the issues I have with other skimmers. Here is the current design.. with a 12" dia X24" tall skimmer body + neck and cup, driven by 3 recirculating needle wheels. Its deigned with a wet neck and with a washdown system using sprayers in the cup.


http://www.personal.psu.edu/sbj4/aqu...k/skimmer1.gif

sanjay.

Sanjay, what nw pumps are you going to use to run that beast? Nice 3D pic as well, that is hot!

Right now am thinking of using the ehiem needlewheel pumps.. They seem to have the best reviews.

sanjay.

Wow, that picture is great. Do you have a rendition of the wet neck and wash down for the cup? I'm interested in installing one on my ASM.

Progress looks great, btw.

Chris

Sanjay,
Can you tell me how far off the water you plan on having your Luminarc III's? Also, do you vary the distance off the surface of the water based on the wattage of your MH bulbs? I see you will be using 400Watters.

Rebecca

Sanjay, here's a picture of my aluminum light rack. I opted to go with the Stanley tracks that are made for barn doors. The tracks are 8' long and allow me to slide the 4'X4' rack into the fish room for easy maintenance. I can also adjust the height of the rack with the threaded bolts that come with the hardware.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...rack-1-med.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...41rail-med.jpg

really nice build! looks very solid.

cward,
Looks like your luminarcs are about 8" from the bottom of the reflector to the surface of the water. Is that about right? Are you happy with that height off the water?

Actually from the angle of the picture the reflectors look higher up than what they are. The reflectors just barely clear the 1 1/2" 90's at the back corners of the tank that are for my closed loop. I'd guess about 3"-4" at the most.

where did you get those Stanley tracks ?

sanjay.

Unfortunately I am going to be limited in height. I will have about 20" from the top of my tank to mount the reflectors and any associated hardware for suspending the reflectors. Given that I am going to use the Lumenarcs then i only have about 12" of headroom to play with. Assuming the light rails take up about 3" then I am down to 8-9" above the water. Which should be OK for what I want to do

sanjay.

The wet neck is basically going to be 2 concentric cylinders. The inner riser tube is 4.5".. the outer wet neck tube will be 6"dia. The cap will allow for a clearance of about 1/8" or less for the water to flow over. I need to figure out the details on how the cap will be attached to allow for cleaning.

The washdown will just be some spray nozzles.

sanjay.

I bought them from a local store (The Andersons) that carries farm equipment. I'll get you the part numbers that I used.

Here's the link for the hardware.
I used the following:
4pcs 411002 (rollers)
2pcs 415540 (box track)
6pcs 415400 (box track mounting brackets)

For the box track mounting brackets I replaced the bolts with 4" lag bolts.
I also replaced the short bolts that came with the rollers with 3/8"X8" carriage bolts so I could drop the light rack down enough.

That is a really nice lighing rack cward! More great ideas. How much did it cost to make the entire rack would you say?

Double post... sorry