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Patrick's 81G - the last dance

PjFish said:
Nice build! Welcome back to the reefers! Following along from what your older 200 and other tank looked like wow this one will be more epic! Wonder if you got any DBTC corals floating around anymore that would be cool. Oh nice wrapping the brick fireplace looks great I used to be a stone mason contractor but after three back surgeries had to escape! Plus that flooring looks super easy to clean up splashes and spills!. With lights out watching movies you got ambient cinema lighting complements of Neptune!
Thanks for sharing your build!
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Thank you for the kind words and the warm welcome back..looking back at my previous builds, it's been one heck of a journey...I wish reef central and reefs.org were still around so I could look back on how excited I was for getting a Skilter on a 10 gallon truvu and setting up an IV drip of kalk..glad BAR keeps the older archives around for us to look back on.

I'm pretty sure some of my old DBTC is floating around somewhere..hopefully thriving in others tanks by now..it wasn't as trackable and organized back then...plus we always spreader out our frags amongst fellow reefers for the community aspect, so many went undocumented..

I have the utmost respect for anyone who can lay stone...the contractor who did our fireplace cut the pieces from some leftover 4'x4' tiles we had from our bathroom build and lifted those like nothing when it took me 2 hours, a bathroom break, and lunch to just get them out of my car lol..hats off to you guys...you gotta be built like a rock to do that on the daily..
 
One step closer to getting water in..Came home to this and couldn't wait to check it out.
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The shipment came in 2 boxes..one with the Fixture and the other with the driver, hanging kit, and power cord..all very well packed.
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As thin as it is, I was caught off guard with how heavy the fixture was...although flat, this thing is solid. The finish and build quality is crazy..with all the gear I've opened as of late, this, by far, has impressed me the most.
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Sadly, install is going to have to wait a week..gotta find a drill press to get some holes in the aluminum extrusion I'll be hanging it on and prepare to move my daughter in to college.

More to come once I get this thing strung up!
 
finalphaze987 said:
Got impatient and started working on it at 2am...ill do the wiring later, but looking good so far..
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They are such cool lights - I had 3x of the original Stratons over my tank for a while. Unbelievable spread, awesome design, quiet, classy looking. My issue was that the spectrum was so uniform the tank looked kind of sterile (like T5s) and for me, lacked coral pop.

I am excited to see what the spectrum of this new version looks like and how you like it. When are you adding water?!
 
derek_SR said:
They are such cool lights - I had 3x of the original Stratons over my tank for a while. Unbelievable spread, awesome design, quiet, classy looking. My issue was that the spectrum was so uniform the tank looked kind of sterile (like T5s) and for me, lacked coral pop.

I am excited to see what the spectrum of this new version looks like and how you like it. When are you adding water?!
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That was my fear with this light since I'm a big fan of shimmer..I always liked the halide look but T5 coverage..im hoping that since these don't have a diffuser like the originals it won't be as much of an issue. Worst case, I'll throw in a kessil or two to supplement.

Spectrum wise, It seems whiter than most fixtures out now..more of what I was shooting for since I'm having a hard time with getting on board with the heavy actinic look..but that's all TBD

I'm shooting to get this thing filled I'm the next month..cold and flu season is the busiest time of the year work wise for me, so spare time will dwindle and I wanna make sure that I set everything up to be as easy as possible to prevent any reason for me to put things off like water changes..

Still gotta run the wet lines and do a little more wire management. Right now it's not bad since it's on casters and i can wheel it back and fourth, but once it's filled I don't plan on moving it around and running anything will be a PITA
 
derek_SR said:
They are such cool lights - I had 3x of the original Stratons over my tank for a while. Unbelievable spread, awesome design, quiet, classy looking. My issue was that the spectrum was so uniform the tank looked kind of sterile (like T5s) and for me, lacked coral pop.

I am excited to see what the spectrum of this new version looks like and how you like it. When are you adding water?!
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When you ran the OG stratons, did you use the ATI app to control the light schedule or have them on a controller? I'm thinking about getting it wired this weekend but debating if I need it plugged into one of the EB8 outlets vs standard one on the ADJ strip.
 
finalphaze987 said:
When you ran the OG stratons, did you use the ATI app to control the light schedule or have them on a controller? I'm thinking about getting it wired this weekend but debating if I need it plugged into one of the EB8 outlets vs standard one on the ADJ strip.
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I had them plugged into a dumb outlet and used the ATI app (it was actually web based via AP IIRC). It wasn’t great but none of them are…
 
I had a chance to get some work in during this heat and was able to get my dosing lines ran. I wanted to keep them out of the wire channels to separate them from all of the wires. The neat aquatics brackets make bends look way better than the zip tie trick to space the lines out.
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What I anticipated to be a couple hours of work turned out to be an all day thing...the baby couldn't nap in this heat, so 2 hour breaks in between 20 minutes of work had me end at this time.

I figured I might as well wire up the light ballast and see how it looks.
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For being a German light, it gets much bluer than I anticipated. Best of all, there's no annoying glare when I sit on the couch to watch TV. Spread is pretty awesome. Hopefully that doesn't change once filled with water.

Half of the precanned settings are mostly whiter 10K - 12K like spectrums. Two are reminiscent of a 14K Phoenix, then there's one with all the blue channels ramped up.

While I'm too tired to tinker with all the settings, I found some cool feature in the app that estimates PAR at different depths depending on the settings you input. How accurate? We'll see. Once I get it filled I'll pick up a PAR meter and test it out.
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Overall, pretty happy with it.
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Coming up to 2 years working on a dry build, I gotta say I was pretty tempted to fire up the RO and get it filled already. Still got a few things on order, so I didn't set up my water mixing station up yet to prevent me from doing so. Hopefully everything comes in by next month and I can start cycling.
 
Those tubing brackets look great…I aways try to toss my rocks & structures well ahead in a tank no light or covered bin with a power head and bacteria or existing live rock to jump start! Cooking the longer the better getting that slime coat bringing them alive!! Then you pretty much bypass the ugly stage in the main tank!
Awesome build!
 
PjFish said:
Those tubing brackets look great…I aways try to toss my rocks & structures well ahead in a tank no light or covered bin with a power head and bacteria or existing live rock to jump start! Cooking the longer the better getting that slime coat bringing them alive!! Then you pretty much bypass the ugly stage in the main tank!
Awesome build!
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I tried...even bought the bin on sale at costco...then got the death stare from the misses when I told her what it was for...it ended up housing xmas decorations and me having to deal with a longer cycle.

With my previous tanks, I would buy boxes of live rock...totoka, fiji, Vanuatu, pukani, etc. And cure them in a bin held in the garage..the smell always irritated her..I tried to tell her this time around its different, because it's not live rock..but I gotta accept the loss this time lol
 
Added an ATO container from Advanced Acrylics. Colorway went perfect with the rest of the equipment without being overbearing. I gotta say, the quality of their work is damn good and it got me trying to think up what else I can have made to match.
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I originally planned on housing the container in the expansion box, but decided to keep it all electrical equipment and get a larger container. Only worry I had was the TV. We put it on an an actuator to lower it to eye level when watching from the couch, luckily everything clears. The video shows it lowering and how much clearance I have when it bottoms out.

The tunze ato tubing will have to stick out from the lid, but the kalk line can be routed to the JG fitting I had installed on the top.
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SupraSaltyReefer said:
Sooooo clean bro! If there was an award for cleanest tank before it got wet you would win lol. Smart idea and design to have two full lids on top for easier access.

Not too late for an acrylic tank too ;)
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I spent the past few nights measuring and envisioning a 26" high tank with the same footprint...almost hit up John to give him the specs..still on the fence, as the tank isn't one of those things I could tell her "I got it for $50 on the forums, I swear!" LOL

If I do change it out now I'll be the frontrunner for longest dry build ever..haha
 
finalphaze987 said:
I spent the past few nights measuring and envisioning a 26" high tank with the same footprint...almost hit up John to give him the specs..still on the fence, as the tank isn't one of those things I could tell her "I got it for $50 on the forums, I swear!" LOL

If I do change it out now I'll be the frontrunner for longest dry build ever..haha
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It’s funny because months before I got my low boy, I had hit up John for a quote but he never replied lol. So I just got the low boy because I got tired waiting. It was always in the back of my head that I should’ve figured out how to get that acrylic tank. Then @SupraSaltyReefer came along and I ended up with the tank. It kinda sucks because I have to start over again essentially lol but I know in the end I’ll be happier. Just food for thought… still got time for that 25% off ;)
 
finalphaze987 said:
I spent the past few nights measuring and envisioning a 26" high tank with the same footprint...almost hit up John to give him the specs..still on the fence, as the tank isn't one of those things I could tell her "I got it for $50 on the forums, I swear!" LOL

If I do change it out now I'll be the frontrunner for longest dry build ever..haha
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Hey I sold it to you for coughs $40.
 
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