Nice work, it looks really good!

Darn good indeed!

I wish I could take credit for it. I've hardly done any of the work myself. However, by not actually doing the work myself, I'm getting a superior product. If the weather plays nicely, I'll have it stained and ready for the tank by Saturday.

I hope Reef Geek gets back to me on the question I sent them last night. I want to get a retrofit kit, but I wanted to know how they handled the inclusion of the bulbs I wanted. Hopefully they get back to me before the sale ends. Otherwise, I might not be getting another IceCap ballast anytime soon. Just for reference, this is the kit I'm considering: http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Flu ... _by_IceCap. I already have 2.5 pairs of endcaps and stand offs, so I could run eight bulbs by getting this kit.

I broke down and ordered the retrofit kit from ReefGeek. I'm getting a 54W Fiji Purple bulb and a 54W Super Actinic bulb. I may add two more later if I can fit eight in my new canopy. Speaking of the canopy, it has been stained and is drying as I type. Hopefully I can add it to the tank tomorrow.

Rychek wrote:I broke down and ordered the retrofit kit from ReefGeek. I'm getting a 54W Fiji Purple bulb and a 54W Super Actinic bulb. I may add two more later if I can fit eight in my new canopy. Speaking of the canopy, it has been stained and is drying as I type. Hopefully I can add it to the tank tomorrow.

Sounds good, keep us updated.

Ok, after a few hours of disassembling, swapping and reassembling, I've got my new canopy in place. I have to really hand it to my Father-in-law, he made the canopy look like it was meant to go with my stand. Here are a few pics (sorry they are all skewed, but I've been a little under the weather all week):

I left room for two more bulbs right in the middle because my retrofit kit will be here next week some time.


I've added a 120mm computer fan to the right hole. I can feel quite a bit of air flowing out of the left hand hole.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell ya'll about the sweet freebie I picked up last week! It looks terrible, but once I get the paint off, it'll look a lot better:



Tank and stand were left in an apartment in a less than high income part of town. The apartment complex owner is a member of my local reef club and he posted it as a first come takes all to get it out of the apartment. I beat the next guy by less than two hours.

Your father-in-law did an awesome job! Looks like a perfect match! Thumbs up!

What size is that other tank? 55g? Is it all glass or acrylic?

Nice find! wish I could find a freebie!

Very nice, he did an excellent job matching the stain. I have a question on the fans, what configuration are you going to run them?

Nereaga wrote:...What size is that other tank? 55g? Is it all glass or acrylic?

I haven't actually measured the dimensions, but I estimate it to be ~60"x18" at the base. I'm thinking ~125 gallons. It's a glass beast. Moving it is a royal pain.

reefbum wrote:Very nice, he did an excellent job matching the stain. I have a question on the fans, what configuration are you going to run them?

I was going to run 2 120mm fans in a push/pull config, but I've got one installed currently and it seems sufficient due to the mostly enclosed nature of the canopy. It's a Panasonic Panaflo FBA12G12M1A 120mm wich doesn't make too much noise (35.5 dBA) and moves a lot of air (86.5 CFM). It's currently mounted on the inside on the right so as to blow air through the canopy.