Ken's 215G Build

[sdreef]

Canopy frame is built. Will skin it tomorrow, trim Friday, paint and stain this weekend if I can keep up this pace.

Then just plumbing and aquascape left.

Looking forward to seeing this come together

 

[kenchilada]

Looking forward to seeing this come together

Thanks, yeah I’m really excited about it, haven’t had a big tank in a long time.

 

[kenchilada]

I have my copperband trained to eat out of a pipette. He only wants to eat live brine shrimp, so I started feeding him this way so I can slowly start mixing frozen food in with the live brine. After a couple days, he is now eating the frozen brine and I’m working on mixing in mysis shrimp. I got him some live black worms but he completely ignores them. He seems to only want food of a very particular size and shape.

 

[kenchilada]

My rock has been running in a 75G Rubbermaid tub since October and it’s really starting to get some nice coralline growth. It will be nice to skip the ugly dead rock phase.

 

[JGT]

Is your Rubbermaid lit? Are you dosing at all?

 

[kenchilada]

Is your Rubbermaid lit? Are you dosing at all?

Yes I’ve got a single Kessil A360x over it. No dosing, just water changes with instant ocean. This is Florida live rock... it crashed in shipping but has recovered.

 

[kenchilada]

More canopy building today. Taking longer than I wanted but the hard parts are over. Still need to build the removable lid, add crown molding, and put on the bottom edge. And build doors. Then lots of sanding, stain, poly. And paint inside. And install the light lift. Ok lots to do.

 

[JGT]

Interested to see how you do the light elevator. Looking to do something similar with my build but was looking at using linear actuators. But may rethink based on your results. No pressure.

 

[kenchilada]

Interested to see how you do the light elevator. Looking to do something similar with my build but was looking at using linear actuators. But may rethink based on your results. No pressure.

Yeah I was thinking of doing a separate thread about it after, because it took me forever to piece it together. I threw out half a dozen ideas before settling on the tubular motor. In the end I went with the simplest concept.

 

[kenchilada]

Things moving slow right now because work is super busy. Im building the canopy doors and need to cut fan holes and do a couple other minor things before sanding and staining.

Also have more fish in QT. Small naso tang, bluehead fairy wrasse, couple of chalk bass, a Lamarck angel, and a melanurus wrasse.

I really love the Lamarck and plan to get a few more genicanthus angels.

My copperband is a total hog now. Really excited. He chases food in the water and will eat out my hand already. The key is getting food of the right size. He will eat pizza if I cut it to the size he likes. He loves “mini mysis” but wouldn’t eat the full size mysis. I still feed him with a pipette because I want to carry that habit to the DT.

 

[kenchilada]

hmm... I think my thread is fully dead but I will keep posting anyway!

Today I spent a good two hours planning exactly how the lights will be mounted. I have to fit a 8x80W Sunpower fixture (17.5” deep) and have room for Kessil A360X in the front of it. If I mount the Sunpower so it’s over the back edge of the tank it leaves me 7.5” of clearance for the Kessil, which is plenty of room to still tilt them.

I’ll have a horizontal beam across the top to mount pulleys for the Sunpower. Then four small beams run front to back that I can clamp Kessil goosenecks to. This will let me pretty much mount a Kessil anywhere on the front or two sides of the T5 fixture.

So almost done with all that, which has been a huge hurdle.

Almost there.

 

[kenchilada]

 

[JGT]

C’mon hurry up with the pulley. I want to copy what you do. Only if it works well.

 

[kenchilada]

C’mon hurry up with the pulley. I want to copy what you do. Only if it works well.

you mean this???

 

[JGT]

Yes! So that is manual or electronic?

 

[kenchilada]

Yes! So that is manual or electronic?

It’s electric, with a remote control to raise/lower. I’ve been taking pictures, I’ll write a how-to on it after.

I’m trying to work out how to attach the cable to the rod and then I’ll take a video of it lifting on the pulleys.

 

[JGT]

Sweet! Love it. I assume the rod can be cut to length? What kind of rise are you expecting to get from it? Single cable or multiple? Any concerns about salt creep on the rod or cables? What are they made out of? Love the canopy btw.

 

[darinsmall86]

Looks awesome. I am in the planning mode on skinning my tank and possibly building a canopy so this is great to see. I wish I had the option to get a few pieces of real live rock but I haven’t had any luck finding a supply in Canada.

 

[kenchilada]

Sweet! Love it. I assume the rod can be cut to length? What kind of rise are you expecting to get from it? Single cable or multiple? Any concerns about salt creep on the rod or cables? What are they made out of? Love the canopy btw.

Yep the rod is aluminum, cut to length. I’m using stainless derailleur cable, it’s literally what is used for bicycle brake cables and the same cable ATI uses for their fixtures. Once you one what to use, it’s almost too easy! Took me forever to work it out though.

 

[kenchilada]

Looks awesome. I am in the planning mode on skinning my tank and possibly building a canopy so this is great to see. I wish I had the option to get a few pieces of real live rock but I haven’t had any luck finding a supply in Canada.

Nice! Post pics when you build your stand/canopy.

And yeah live rock is awesome. I guess it’s not in fashion at the moment, but I believe it makes a huge difference in a tank. Seems like a business opportunity for someone in Canada!